I am starting to wonder if the cavalier isnt about the worst GM vehicle i ever bought,
if i spend 500 bucks to fix my cracked head, or 1000 plus to do an engine swap to an ecotech or 3400 v6, whats gonna give out next.
im thinking cut my loss fix the engine and get out of te j-body game. and concentrate on my good reliable old buick

its an economy car to get you from point a to point b using minimal gas, wat'd u expect?

i sure didnt expect the ABS to fail , the half haft to blow grease evrywhere, cracked head, broken emergency brake cable, failed wheel bearings, door hinges, i admit the clutch and brakes are wear items, is this acceptable to toyota and honda,
so by what you said you also admit theese cars are crap, its no wonder the toyota cavalier failed in japan.

oh my god my wheel bearing went out. I am in tears how could this happen to a car. I'm gonna throw the whole car away I just can't belive it. newsflash cars need maintence.

MMM I guess paying $350 for a strut for a toyota or $175 for a whole set for a Cavalier is good!!! I can buy 2 rotors,pads,drums,shoes & kits for $100 try that on your import!!
Guess what,I have seen many J-Bodies with a lot of problems and I have seen plenty with none,same goes for imports just the import repair bill is many times higher.Maintenance is key,also how you drive.The J is not a sports car remember if you beat the heck out of it,it will bite you!!
Now how about doing timing belts on a Ferrari v-12,hows about $8-10 g's and needs doing about every 30-50k klms. Nice eh!!!

hey mr maken waves, the gtz looks nice, i had one once great car better han a j body

hey where can i get the whole set of struts for 175, thats an awesome price, i cant get them for under 75 a piece here in wyoming, so 350 for the whole car

So how many miles does your 10 year old J Body have on it?

oh yeah ac went out too. so i paid 2000 for a 98 with a 2200 engine and have spent that much on it since i have owned it , guess i would have been better off riding a bike

i just passed 112,000 miles it needed a clutch and brakes when i got it, since then it just continues to fall apart, i have seen gm cars go 200,000 or more with minor issues, the previous owner got it new she was a 60 year old lady that drove it from out of town to work every day so lots of highway miles.

well the z24 is like a sports car you have to drive it nice. It's not a muscle car that you can just beat on everyday.

Cars break???? wow i never knew that.





booo hooo my head cracked, i have to put money into it. STFU go to the junkyard find OHV cavy OR sunfire pull the head and put it on yours. wow less than a $100 repair.

I know 2 junkyards right now that i can go and pull a complete ECOTEC for $250. Hell i bought 2 Pontiac v-8 heads for $50 from the yard.

But really you bought a car for $2000 and expected not to have to put money into it at sometime? @!#$ wears out and @!#$ breaks that a fact of life. deal with it.

your just a bunch of kids, cavalier is my first car god bless my car it is the best car ever made, you guys have alot to learn about what to expect from a car

have you considered that maybe you got a lemon? I mean my car hs been great given i had to replace the motor but that was due to human error.

you may be right , which brings on what i said fix it and sell it.

My 03' isnt my first car, or even the 96'. My first car was a 89' GP that the engine went on. And guess what? I put a new engine in it. Your 36/37 I would hope that you have realized now that cars break and wear out, that not everything lasts forever. Is a j-body the best car ever made? No. @!#$ does break and we fix it. But i guess when your buick breaks its a POS then.

herculesinwyoming wrote:i just passed 112,000 miles it needed a clutch and brakes when i got it, since then it just continues to fall apart, i have seen gm cars go 200,000 or more with minor issues, the previous owner got it new she was a 60 year old lady that drove it from out of town to work every day so lots of highway miles.

better check the timing chain tensioner soon too if it hasn't been done
mine FAILED at like 130,000 ish....but i didn't junk my horrible gm vehicle...





Burning To Rise And Disprove All Who Would Take Comfort In My Demise -Divine Heresy

so your mad because a 10 year old 110,000+ mile car that bought for $2000 has problems

LOL

You dont know what a lemon is. How about a ford tempo/ topaz, a dodge omni, a chrysler lebarron, plymoth K car , man I could go on, mid 80's-90's caravan, plymoth laser, daytona, bunches of chrysler crap... . those cars were buckets of bolts at 50K miles. there was a time that every day of the week I would have a ford tempo to work on. sometimes the car wouldnt leave and someting else would break. I remember one customer that had a 90 lebarron, she was always getting something fixed. at least 2-3 times a month. well the day came when she asked me for my advice on buying a used car , i told her to buy a cavalier. After she bought one, I only saw her for oil changes. Sholdnt have told her that. No buisness for me.
So your saying that all you paid for it was 2 grand.. and you have had it since 98. I dont think you have anything to complain about. A 2 thousand dollar car is normally lucky to last 2 -3 years if you dont take care of it.
It just sounds like you need to have a car payment so your can appreciate a car that you dont owe on. Just fix it and drive it.
Not exactly the place to cut on cavs, by the way.


01 cav w/01 3400 gam gt 4t45e

Darkstars wrote:so your mad because a 10 year old 110,000+ mile car that bought for $2000 has problems

LOL

X10000

And we have a lot to learn from a 37 year-old 98 cavalier owner about cars.....

irishbred . wrote:have you considered that maybe you got a lemon? I mean my car hs been great given i had to replace the motor but that was due to human error.

I'm sorry that you are 36 and stuck with a 10 year old Cavalier...The cheaper model btw. That you spent a whopping $2,000 on!!! Isn't it about time for you to trade that Cavalier in for a Buick? Zing!!!

LOLz

Oh yeah my wheel bearing went out on my '00 Z24 around 100k miles. Water Pump started to weap around 50k, Fixed that when I threw the #3 rod around 70k. LMAO Bought a whole 2.4 with 30k on it for $500 (junk yard in PA) and put a new water pump in it before I installed it.

My Koni Yellows I got for $400btw

I got rid of my '00Z24 in October and bought my '05 Envoy to go with my '06 Trailblazer. I am thinking of trading in my Trailblazer when the Traverse comes out though. hmmmm

Oh yea that reminds me, the water pump crapped out on my 96' LN2 on the way to class. Guess what? 1 hour parts run(city traffic) and 1 1/2 hours in the parking lot and it was fixed. What a POS. I should have gotten a ford or chrylser.

By all means go ahead and get a now vehicle. I recommend a 6.0L Power@!#$ in a Ford F-250. You'll spend the value of the truck in repairs and thats from the factory. But a cracked head on an LN2(which they are known for) and A/C doesnt work, definably get ride of that 10yr old, $2000 POS. If you were in PA i could toss a good used head on it and find your A/C(maybe even fix if i have the right tools) problem for $250 and i would still feel like im over charging you.

ive had my cav since 54k and its not at 154k. ive owned it for 6 1/2 years and the only major thing that went was the tranny. other than that, ive replaced the starter twice, the water pump, a sensor here and there along with some bulbs and just last night my headlight switch. for 6 1/2 years i think my total maintance bill was only like 3k and that included having a shop doing the tranny for me. not bad if you ask me. thats an average of 460 a year so far

wow, this thread is rediculous. wether your cavalier is reliable or not may depend on your luck, I've heard lots of stories, but for me its one of the most reliable. 2 years ago I junked my 1990 cavalier VL with 425,000 miles on it. Just this week my brother junked his VL with 475,000 on it. and let me tell you I never did any suspension work on that car. My '94 on the other hand has 178,000 on it, and though it still runs nice, I've replaced every chassis part, probably becuase I drive aggressively, and the car is old and somewhat rusty. But I do know that the cavalier is one of the least expensive cars to fix when it does break. Now I've blown all 4 wheel bearings, both cv axles, struts, end links, rear slave cylinders, and broke 2 out of 3 motor mounts, and all of these parts were dirt cheap. And considering my previous experience, I'm confident that now that I've "worked the kinks out" so to speak, I will enjoy this car for at least a few more years.

probalby bought a lemon. it happens just because one car is a lemon doesnt mean they all are. i was at 100,000 miles on my sunfire before i did the motorswap and nock on wood, ive never had an issue with the car. cant think of one thing ive had to replace that failed.


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