Thanks for another great review Zack! At 4:05 that button on the shifter is actually for the electronic stability control, which doesn't work since it won't click in lol
Zack, thank you so much for reviewing the Sunfire. This car was purchased new by my great uncle. About a year later, it was passed on to my parents and mostly driven by my mom. I took possession of it in late 2011 and then a few years later James took ownership. A one family car and it's special because these Sunfire sedans hardly exist at all anymore, let alone in such good condition.
These were the first steps transitioning from the smoking culture back then. It was just an ashtray that would sit in the cup holder. A few years later is when they started banning indoor smoking (thank god)
These cars were everywhere in Canada...a great car for the money...that 2.2 was bulletproof. My friend drove his over 400,00km with no issues. I think we need some basic cars these days.
You still see a bunch of Pontiac's on the roads today, and to think this brand died in 2009. But I see them way more than I see Oldsmobiles, Saturns, Mercury, Plymouth, and Daewoo combined, which are other companies gone now. 🤣
I actually thought I was getting a sunfire as my first car from my grandfather, but it was a Sundance. I do miss that car. I gotta call my grandfather. Haven’t spoken to him since July.
My 97 was teal. It was good little car. I bought it used in 2001 and kept it until 2007 and traded it for a Jeep Patriot. The AC went out in 2005 and evacuating from Hurricane Katrina was brutal for 10 hours in bumper to bumper traffic.
@@user-tb7rn1il3qthe cavaliers and sunfires are actually pretty high off the ground. I had a 2000 cavalier, and the only thing I ever scraped on was some obnoxiously high speed bumps that were two inches too high.
The 2.2 pushrod engine was a great engine. Given its relatively low level of technology, the power and the fuel economy that it was able to deliver for that time period was really good. And it was a very reliable and very easy engine to work on.
I knew a cute BBW back in the day that drove a SunFire! Those seats & upholstery look pristine compared to the engine bay. I miss basic simple reliable.
'enhanced traction system' jammed into the 4speed auto option was quite a missed marketing oportunity to tell everyone that GM had an economy car with ESP in 1997. Also, as a non US citizen, I love to know more about these regular domestic cars GM made pretty much only for US market
I used to work at a steel mill where we scrapped cars and I managed to save a couple of mint condition cigarette lighter inserts for the 12v adapters lol love your videos Zack!
A college classmate bought a new Sunfire when we graduated in '97, while I bought a '97 Saturn SL2. I think mine won in the longevity contest - I put 220,000 miles on that Saturn and I still miss those dent resistant plastic body panels! The Sunfire...ok but standard GM, much as Saturn would become in its later years.
You never see these any more and even Cavaliers are rare. These got hooptified really quickly. It's a nostalgic design and decently reliable. When I think of one of these J-bodies, it's in this tan.
Being in high school from 2001-2005, so many of my classmates and fellow students had these or their Cavalier twins. Never appreciated them as much as I should have back then. Great cars, and great video!
Best one was watching Saabkyle04 start an ecotec cavalier and seeing the steering wheel and gage cluster vibrate at startup. Then again I remembered driving an 05 cavalier as my drivers ed car.
I like these cars because the 2.2L engine has decent torque (130 to 150 lb ft, depending on year) for a small economy car. It makes for a nicer drive on the highway than one would expect, and is superior in this way compared to some of the Japanese and Korean competition of the time.
That little cubby hole in the console came in handy back in the day for house keys or wallet near you or change for the pay phone that was 1997 good times 19 at that time
4:05 it’s been a long time since I’ve encountered one of these. But as someone who’s cleaned out a lot of those cup holders I think there’s a rubber lining in it that you can pull out. Not sure if it’d make or break the Big Friggin Bottle test but in a pinch it can make it bigger
Zack, Gosh cars were expensive back then!!! $15,000 in 1997 = $ 29,467 in 2024. That would get you a 225 hp, 50 mpg Camry LE Hybrid today. To be fair to the Sunfire, it does offer superior headroom compared to the current Camry. 😉
i've had two cavaliers. Great reliability and easy to work on, and they've got everything you've ever need from a car and nothing more. They're slick looking cars, especially the coupe. I've always liked the sunfire front end more (before 2003.. worst facelift of all time) but the interior has held me back from getting a sunfire (only one cupholder and the center console is half the size of a cavalier's) 4 speed auto became standard in 98 or 99, I had no idea the 4 speed was available as an option before that!
@@doug6191 Yeah man it’s incredibly long. It’s really hard to make it around corners, but it’s good for passenger carrying when I put wings on it and fly it around.
Had a really nice 02 5sp coupe back in the day in red. Got me all through college. My dad called it the baby trans am because it's absolutely what it looked like next to his. 😅
I have a visceral hatred for this car. My fiancé was killed when he was 23 when driving a final gen Cavalier as a rental for his first business trip out of college. This, being a tarted up Cavalier somehow draws my ire even more. Had he been in any other car with more modern safety equipment, he'd have survived. This car had only modestly upgraded impact resistance than its early 80's forebearer and it showed. I went into auto insurance and gained an expertise on such things out of sheer anger towards this thing.
@@anthonyrowland9072 It's the same reason why their designs were so arcane: the bean counters ran the engineering ethos. Ford, used in credibly cheap steels. GM ran the same designs forever and Chrysler cheaped out on expensive components (gearboxes and electronics). Never mind all pertain to safety at some point. Toyotas may be bland. But, they're well thought out with entertainment value being the price paid. The Corolla that same model year (2004) had an advanced safety cage that kept the driver's side footwell from becoming a mid collision death trap. Total cost per car: $45.
Can we acknowledge that if GM started reproducing these. Exactly like this and retailed for 16k they'd outsell every car in America by a measure never seen before. All the complaints. Any issues would be overlooked and forgotten if average people could just afford a new car in 2024.
I agree that the Big 3 should make an affordable no frills compact sedan again. In these times it might sell. The price would probably have to be about $23k US before discounts.
Deregulation. I'll save the economy. The auto industry and solve unemployment with one move. If it wasn't on the books in 1970 it can't be now and the speed limit is returned to the 55 max. America brimming with cars that can pull 30+ mpg sub 20k. The hundreds of thousands of jobs building them to keep up with the demand would create. One move. Just one and it fixes everything.
@@SecretlySeven 55MPH is too slow. Modern cars are perfectly capable of cruising at 80MPH all day long and most states are too big to restrict drivers to 55. Interstate highways were designed for cars of the 1950s with single-circuit drum brakes and non-overdrive transmissions.
Cars can cruise at 80. That's not the issue. The issue is today's irresponsible poorly skilled drivers. You fill the roads with cars that have 30 year old safety with these drivers at these speeds you're going to have an entirely new problem. If the cars are only as safe as they were in the 70's the speeds need to be also or we see an increase in vehicular deaths. Which is already absurdly too high.
My first driving car was a 2001 pontiac sunfire coupe. The only thing power on it was the sunroof and door locks but I loved having the sunroof. It was gutless but fun to rip on it on back roads. Me and my Dad put a good stereo system in it. Sadly I rolled it about 10 times and totalled it.
There has always been something oddly charming about these, to me. But as a short guy (5'3") I find that the windshield is right in my face when I pull the seat forward. Normally I like small cars, but the windshield issue made me feel claustrophobic.
Had a choice between buying the Cavalier version of this car or the Geo Prizm of the same year sold at the same dealer back in the day. Chose the Geo. The interior quality was like night and day.
Usually called the Sunturd, because of the lack of power new, that got worse as they aged. I had one from Florida with no rust, but sold it when it got too slow for going up the hill near our house, worse than a fully loaded big rig 18 wheeler truck.
The problem at the time was there were other cars for sale that had far better build quality for roughly the same $$$$.........and held their value better.
I used to work with a hot blonde whose semi-rich parents bought her a 1991 Sunbird convertible. The Sunbird was this cars' predecessor. And she looked GOOD in it!😍I'll Never understand why GM didn't keep the name Sunbird. They had to redesign it to meet federal safety standards, I get that. But the Sunbird, and Pontiac as a whole, was a success in ChicagoLand.😎
Sunfires and Cavaliers filled their mandate for the many folks that bought them - affordable to buy, cheap to operate and reliable. Sadly there are no more budget new cars available anymore.
The official car of middle America. These were built for the generation that refused to buy Japanese imports, which i can respect but there were no good American compact cars past 1992. How many 1000s of gallons of Mtn Dew do you think have been drank in these third gen J-Bodies
Yeah, those look like the same seats in my base model Cavalier and my back would be killing me after a 2 hour drive. And that was with a teenaged back, too! The fabric material was reminiscent of a burlap sack.
Looks more interesting than 96-01 Opel/ Vauxhall Vectra (the car that replaced Cavalier/Ascona), but the interior is simply horrible. And, well, Vectra had better steering ang suspension tuning.
Back in 2014 I bought a black 2002 model after my younger brother wrecked my 2005 Grand Am when I loaned it to him for the day. It was dependable for my needs but everyone I knew said this was the wrong car for you I'm guessing because it was such a downgrade from the Grand Am but I still drove it daily until around August 2016 and gave it to my son as his first car. The car I bought to use as my daily to replace the Sunfire was way worse. When my son got it he rode it hard and things just went downhill for the Sunfire which my brother and his friends nicknamed it "Sunkist" like the soda. Then one night while driving home the Sunfire met its demise because my son ran it into a parked car and completely wrecked it thankfully he was ok but I was pissed off at him. Me and my brother ended up towing it to the scrap yard and I got $110 for what was left of it.
I owned the cavalier z24 and the engine block always leaked oil took it back to the dealer like 5 times then just gave up and left oil spots everywhere I parked, they said my aluminum block was warped.
I remember having one of these as a rental back in the day when my Civic was in for repair from a collision(not my fault, someone hit me). What a POS it was compared to my Civic, especially in just overall refinement in steering feel and handling. It confirmed why I had avoided GM cars.
Reminds me of turkey hot dogs vs. Oscar mayer. At 5 cents a turkey hot dog, if that’s all you can afford, and don’t get nauseous easy, this turd car is for you!
I owned a 2005 caviler the only thing i liked about that car was the gas mileage it got. Other than that I would never buy another it tweaked my lower back getting tboned in a parking lot at 10mph and totaled it. Crumpled like a aluminum can
Thanks for another great review Zack! At 4:05 that button on the shifter is actually for the electronic stability control, which doesn't work since it won't click in lol
Nice handle lol
Zack, thank you so much for reviewing the Sunfire. This car was purchased new by my great uncle. About a year later, it was passed on to my parents and mostly driven by my mom. I took possession of it in late 2011 and then a few years later James took ownership. A one family car and it's special because these Sunfire sedans hardly exist at all anymore, let alone in such good condition.
"Smokers package" is such a weird thing to see looking at things with 2024 eyes lol
🤣🤣 I just can't believe that was a package
Before that, the little lighter and ash tray were just standard
The Pontiac sun fire itself is a smokers package
These were the first steps transitioning from the smoking culture back then. It was just an ashtray that would sit in the cup holder. A few years later is when they started banning indoor smoking (thank god)
@@sneakerfreak2002 The founding fathers wanted me to smoke indoors, they also really like it when you eat lead paint and huff lead gas
At last! A non-judgmental review of a good basic car that has no respect. You really deserve my deepest respect for this video.
This Sunfire is in incredibly nice condition
These cars weren't expensive in the first place and got really cheap really quickly. These ended up as hoopties quickly.
These cars were everywhere in Canada...a great car for the money...that 2.2 was bulletproof. My friend drove his over 400,00km with no issues. I think we need some basic cars these days.
You still see a bunch of Pontiac's on the roads today, and to think this brand died in 2009. But I see them way more than I see Oldsmobiles, Saturns, Mercury, Plymouth, and Daewoo combined, which are other companies gone now. 🤣
Cope harder.
It didn’t die. It was murdered.
I still occasionally see Saturns and Mercuries.
I actually thought I was getting a sunfire as my first car from my grandfather, but it was a Sundance. I do miss that car. I gotta call my grandfather. Haven’t spoken to him since July.
My 97 was teal. It was good little car. I bought it used in 2001 and kept it until 2007 and traded it for a Jeep Patriot. The AC went out in 2005 and evacuating from Hurricane Katrina was brutal for 10 hours in bumper to bumper traffic.
GM went from this to all-SUV all the time.
Things change, and seldom for the better
All SUV is better than low unibody sedans. Bring back the real body on frame sedans that didn’t bottom out on a pebble.
@@user-tb7rn1il3qthe cavaliers and sunfires are actually pretty high off the ground. I had a 2000 cavalier, and the only thing I ever scraped on was some obnoxiously high speed bumps that were two inches too high.
Cars like these were first cars for a lot of high school/college kids in the 2000s lol. Now they're rare to spot.
The 2.2 pushrod engine was a great engine. Given its relatively low level of technology, the power and the fuel economy that it was able to deliver for that time period was really good. And it was a very reliable and very easy engine to work on.
My friend bought one brand new in 2002 for $9,999. It was the stripped down manual transmission version and he called it the Sunflower.
I called mine Sunflower too 😭
This is a great example of Sunfire sedan from 94-99, Thank you so much for sharing, Zach.
Someone owned a Blue one on my block back in the day.
I knew a cute BBW back in the day that drove a SunFire! Those seats & upholstery look pristine compared to the engine bay. I miss basic simple reliable.
My parents had a green 99 2-door, never quit on them until it was totaled in a hail storm
'enhanced traction system' jammed into the 4speed auto option was quite a missed marketing oportunity to tell everyone that GM had an economy car with ESP in 1997. Also, as a non US citizen, I love to know more about these regular domestic cars GM made pretty much only for US market
Man I miss cars like this back in the day they were unique and they had different characteristics and now pretty much every car is the same.
I absolutely love that style sunfire. It always looked so happy in the front lol it has a smile
Pontiac’s Dodge Neon. And honestly, for what it is, it’s not too bad.
I hardly see any of these, even in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Yet I can barely go a week without seeing a G6
Truly one of the automobiles of all time
My wife had one in 1999 when we started dating. Got tboned in 2006. Still kinda miss it. It was basic and got decent mileage. It was the 3 speed.
I used to work at a steel mill where we scrapped cars and I managed to save a couple of mint condition cigarette lighter inserts for the 12v adapters lol love your videos Zack!
A college classmate bought a new Sunfire when we graduated in '97, while I bought a '97 Saturn SL2. I think mine won in the longevity contest - I put 220,000 miles on that Saturn and I still miss those dent resistant plastic body panels! The Sunfire...ok but standard GM, much as Saturn would become in its later years.
Wow its weird how ancient that thing seems. I remember when they were new. Bery nostalgic to see these rounded interior gm cars
You never see these any more and even Cavaliers are rare. These got hooptified really quickly. It's a nostalgic design and decently reliable. When I think of one of these J-bodies, it's in this tan.
Cash4Clunkers killed many cars like this.
Being in high school from 2001-2005, so many of my classmates and fellow students had these or their Cavalier twins. Never appreciated them as much as I should have back then. Great cars, and great video!
Accounting for 5% inflation Per Annum the current pricing would be 225% of its original price or about 30k USD
Indeed.
The interior rattle in GM cars was just as legendary
Truly. I owned a 2002 Cavalier that I bought in 03' with 20k miles on it. Thing already rattled like a can full of bolts.
@@rustyshackleford1687 And GM wonders why they suck at this segment.
Best one was watching Saabkyle04 start an ecotec cavalier and seeing the steering wheel and gage cluster vibrate at startup. Then again I remembered driving an 05 cavalier as my drivers ed car.
I like these cars because the 2.2L engine has decent torque (130 to 150 lb ft, depending on year) for a small economy car. It makes for a nicer drive on the highway than one would expect, and is superior in this way compared to some of the Japanese and Korean competition of the time.
Hands down 70’s, 80’s and 90’s GM seats were the best. Lots of plastic, but comfy seats.
That little cubby hole in the console came in handy back in the day for house keys or wallet near you or change for the pay phone that was 1997 good times 19 at that time
The 2009-13 Corolla was the Sunfire/Cavalier's spiritual successor. Plain, humble and dated transportation that was behind all its competitors.
We have a fair bit of those and its cavalier counterpart down here still going strong in Venezuela
My grandmother bought one new in 97 base auto in bright blue, loved that car
4:05 it’s been a long time since I’ve encountered one of these. But as someone who’s cleaned out a lot of those cup holders I think there’s a rubber lining in it that you can pull out. Not sure if it’d make or break the Big Friggin Bottle test but in a pinch it can make it bigger
The ownder keeps that car in immaculate condition! Good on them!
These were awesome cars for the money. As a teenager these seemed fun & exciting to Bomb around in
I still see some of these out there. The other entry-level offerings from Ford and Chrysler (Neon and 1st gen Focus) not so much...
Man I'm from Brasil, and just love your reviews! 🇧🇷🇺🇸😁
Older cars are better made than newer models
In some respects yes but not in all of them.
New cars win in the technology department, but reliability might go to the older ones.
I think Rubbermaid and Tupperware collaborated to design the interior in these old GM car.
Colman Coolers lent their expertise in making the plastic extra durable and yet extremely uncomfortable to the touch.
I really like the styling if this car alot
Zack, Gosh cars were expensive back then!!! $15,000 in 1997 = $ 29,467 in 2024. That would get you a 225 hp, 50 mpg Camry LE Hybrid today. To be fair to the Sunfire, it does offer superior headroom compared to the current Camry. 😉
That price does seem crazy. My mom bought a loaded Escort wagon in 95' for $12k and I bought a well equipped brand-new Madza3 in 2014 for $19k.
Cars aren't "expensive" as you think when adjusting for inflation.
@@PremierAutoMan86 $20,000 was way more doable in 1999 than $40,000 is now though.
Some demands are inelastic and outstrip inflation.
5:50 went from siblings to step cousins in lightning quick Alabama timing
i've had two cavaliers. Great reliability and easy to work on, and they've got everything you've ever need from a car and nothing more. They're slick looking cars, especially the coupe. I've always liked the sunfire front end more (before 2003.. worst facelift of all time) but the interior has held me back from getting a sunfire (only one cupholder and the center console is half the size of a cavalier's)
4 speed auto became standard in 98 or 99, I had no idea the 4 speed was available as an option before that!
A perfect Frist car
Nice I drove a red sedan as a rental car, a 2002 model, I enjoyed it. 😀
So interesting. I wish I was closer to you so you could review my 95’ 5Spd Nissan Pathfinder SE. It’s so clean and unique 😍
You have a 95-foot Pathfinder? Wow!
@@doug6191 Yeah man it’s incredibly long. It’s really hard to make it around corners, but it’s good for passenger carrying when I put wings on it and fly it around.
that price seems high for 97
$40k salary post secondary was common then.
@@dachanistdang where was that salary
This thing probably would have sold for $13,900 on the lot in south Texas. I didn’t pay as much attention on car prices when I was 7…
We can sure use those affordable vehicles now.
The only gal i truely loved had a Sunfire as a first car. oh the good ol days
Had a really nice 02 5sp coupe back in the day in red. Got me all through college. My dad called it the baby trans am because it's absolutely what it looked like next to his. 😅
I have a visceral hatred for this car. My fiancé was killed when he was 23 when driving a final gen Cavalier as a rental for his first business trip out of college. This, being a tarted up Cavalier somehow draws my ire even more. Had he been in any other car with more modern safety equipment, he'd have survived. This car had only modestly upgraded impact resistance than its early 80's forebearer and it showed. I went into auto insurance and gained an expertise on such things out of sheer anger towards this thing.
Sorry for your loss those years ago.
Those IIHS tests on Dateline back in the day really opened eyes on how much domestic brands still lagged in safety then.
@@anthonyrowland9072 It's the same reason why their designs were so arcane: the bean counters ran the engineering ethos. Ford, used in credibly cheap steels. GM ran the same designs forever and Chrysler cheaped out on expensive components (gearboxes and electronics). Never mind all pertain to safety at some point. Toyotas may be bland. But, they're well thought out with entertainment value being the price paid. The Corolla that same model year (2004) had an advanced safety cage that kept the driver's side footwell from becoming a mid collision death trap. Total cost per car: $45.
Can we acknowledge that if GM started reproducing these. Exactly like this and retailed for 16k they'd outsell every car in America by a measure never seen before. All the complaints. Any issues would be overlooked and forgotten if average people could just afford a new car in 2024.
They probably wouldn't turn a profit when you consider all the safety features that have to come standard on vehicles today due to regulation.
I agree that the Big 3 should make an affordable no frills compact sedan again. In these times it might sell. The price would probably have to be about $23k US before discounts.
Deregulation. I'll save the economy. The auto industry and solve unemployment with one move. If it wasn't on the books in 1970 it can't be now and the speed limit is returned to the 55 max. America brimming with cars that can pull 30+ mpg sub 20k. The hundreds of thousands of jobs building them to keep up with the demand would create. One move. Just one and it fixes everything.
@@SecretlySeven 55MPH is too slow. Modern cars are perfectly capable of cruising at 80MPH all day long and most states are too big to restrict drivers to 55. Interstate highways were designed for cars of the 1950s with single-circuit drum brakes and non-overdrive transmissions.
Cars can cruise at 80. That's not the issue. The issue is today's irresponsible poorly skilled drivers. You fill the roads with cars that have 30 year old safety with these drivers at these speeds you're going to have an entirely new problem. If the cars are only as safe as they were in the 70's the speeds need to be also or we see an increase in vehicular deaths. Which is already absurdly too high.
A guy I used to work with had one of those, but his was a 2 door convertible...maybe it was a Cavalier.
Owned an 2001 Cavalier with the 2.2. Loved it. Good car. Same color as that 97 Sunfire. Cool 😊
That generation cavalier/sunfire were known to have front subframe rot leading to the drivetrain dropping to the ground.
Second gen was perfect for younger drivers and as a second car.
demolition derby car potential
My first driving car was a 2001 pontiac sunfire coupe. The only thing power on it was the sunroof and door locks but I loved having the sunroof. It was gutless but fun to rip on it on back roads. Me and my Dad put a good stereo system in it. Sadly I rolled it about 10 times and totalled it.
THE ULTIMATE CIGARETTE CAR! 😂
In this model year, there is no interior trunk release button or lever
Option Group 1SB is an option too, so technically it has 3 options.
i believe the weird cubby space was where the power windows would have gone if it had the option
There has always been something oddly charming about these, to me. But as a short guy (5'3") I find that the windshield is right in my face when I pull the seat forward. Normally I like small cars, but the windshield issue made me feel claustrophobic.
You're doing reviews again, Zack! I just got a new engine in my car, want to review my car again? Sincerely, - 82 KID
My first car was a new 05 focus for 12k it even had alloy rims and fog lights...crazy how expensive cars have gotten
It's the Pontiac version of the Chevy Cavalier. Not many left on the road as they either rusted out or were wrecked
My buddy Mike had a white coupe
omg these things were rental cars that were EVERYWHERE in the late 90s early 2000s
An ex had a Cavalier. She abused the hell out of it. lol
Had a choice between buying the Cavalier version of this car or the Geo Prizm of the same year sold at the same dealer back in the day. Chose the Geo. The interior quality was like night and day.
Usually called the Sunturd, because of the lack of power new, that got worse as they aged. I had one from Florida with no rust, but sold it when it got too slow for going up the hill near our house, worse than a fully loaded big rig 18 wheeler truck.
The same engine that was in my 1992 Cavalier I had as a teenager except my cavalier had the 5 speed manual.
The problem at the time was there were other cars for sale that had far better build quality for roughly the same $$$$.........and held their value better.
I used to work with a hot blonde whose semi-rich parents bought her a 1991 Sunbird convertible. The Sunbird was this cars' predecessor. And she looked GOOD in it!😍I'll Never understand why GM didn't keep the name Sunbird. They had to redesign it to meet federal safety standards, I get that. But the Sunbird, and Pontiac as a whole, was a success in ChicagoLand.😎
it is awesome! well done pontiac!
Sunfires and Cavaliers filled their mandate for the many folks that bought them - affordable to buy, cheap to operate and reliable. Sadly there are no more budget new cars available anymore.
Have a 2000 Chevy cavalier which is basically the same car.. 335,000 mi on it original engine and transmission still going strong..
The most car like car of all time.
I paid the same exact price for my 2018 Cruze. I bought it brand new.
It came in a tachometer rpm gauge thumb up
The official car of middle America. These were built for the generation that refused to buy Japanese imports, which i can respect but there were no good American compact cars past 1992. How many 1000s of gallons of Mtn Dew do you think have been drank in these third gen J-Bodies
There were no good American compacts prior to 1993, either.
I thought many of these were imported from Mexico.
@@doug6191 I'm sorry but I'd buy a 1990's Saturn or Escort up in a New York Minute!!😎BEST damn cars I Ever owned!!
4:20 i thought they were the most uncomfortable seats i sat in
Yeah, those look like the same seats in my base model Cavalier and my back would be killing me after a 2 hour drive. And that was with a teenaged back, too! The fabric material was reminiscent of a burlap sack.
Looks more interesting than 96-01 Opel/ Vauxhall Vectra (the car that replaced Cavalier/Ascona), but the interior is simply horrible. And, well, Vectra had better steering ang suspension tuning.
Back in 2014 I bought a black 2002 model after my younger brother wrecked my 2005 Grand Am when I loaned it to him for the day. It was dependable for my needs but everyone I knew said this was the wrong car for you I'm guessing because it was such a downgrade from the Grand Am but I still drove it daily until around August 2016 and gave it to my son as his first car. The car I bought to use as my daily to replace the Sunfire was way worse. When my son got it he rode it hard and things just went downhill for the Sunfire which my brother and his friends nicknamed it "Sunkist" like the soda. Then one night while driving home the Sunfire met its demise because my son ran it into a parked car and completely wrecked it thankfully he was ok but I was pissed off at him. Me and my brother ended up towing it to the scrap yard and I got $110 for what was left of it.
I owned the cavalier z24 and the engine block always leaked oil took it back to the dealer like 5 times then just gave up and left oil spots everywhere I parked, they said my aluminum block was warped.
4:19 Noah's Deli. I want a reuben!!
Is this for sale?
Love the exterior color
very funky little cars. always reminds me of like a gecko or something when I see them.
Please listen to the 98 Pontiac Sunfire song here on YT. Hilarious. Great review btw. 😊
I remember having one of these as a rental back in the day when my Civic was in for repair from a collision(not my fault, someone hit me). What a POS it was compared to my Civic, especially in just overall refinement in steering feel and handling. It confirmed why I had avoided GM cars.
Reminds me of turkey hot dogs vs. Oscar mayer. At 5 cents a turkey hot dog, if that’s all you can afford, and don’t get nauseous easy, this turd car is for you!
I owned a 2005 caviler the only thing i liked about that car was the gas mileage it got. Other than that I would never buy another it tweaked my lower back getting tboned in a parking lot at 10mph and totaled it. Crumpled like a aluminum can
03:50 BIG FRIGGIN BOTTLE FAIL!!!
I feel like these, and the cavalier had a certain interior smell.
Lol certain vehicles and eras do have signature smells it seems. Gm product always seem to have an old adhesive smell.
Hondas always smell the same! I think it's something to do with the type of foam used for the seats.
I had a two door with the 3 speed auto. It was horrible.
Worst Pontic since the 6000.