Hi everyone,

Long story short, I'm car hunting, and pretty much ready to make a decision... I think I've actually pretty much made it in fact. I had/have a 1997 Dodge Neon... great looking car when I got it, fun to drive, but had some problems with it...blown head gasket.... timing belt broke once when the water pump went out. Now my timing belt has broke again, seemingly ahead of schedule. The first time it broke, I lucked out with no engine damage. This time there was significant damage done. For a car with over 170,000 miles on it, it's not worth it to fix.

The two cars I've settled on is a 2004 Cavalier or a 2004 Kia Optima. I have heard about people having problems with Cavaliers, mainly electrical. But I've also heard a lot of blown head gasket stories. Obviously that can happen on any car, but I'm nervous of anything with an aluminum head now. I would be a single car owner, so I need dependability. I can't help but get this nagging feeling that the Optima might be more dependable. But I also know the Cavalier should be better on gas, cheaper to fix if something goes wrong, and cheaper to insure. I would be doing some high stress driving on occasion anyway, stop/start and idle.

Some of the things I've come across seem to tell me the 2.2 Ecotec is a pretty good engine. Are the third generation Cavaliers pretty reliable overall, or might I be looking at some problems?

I don't want to finance something and then have a bunch of problems along the way if I can avoid them.

There's a lot I like about the Cavalier, but I'm a little wary too.

 

TS, from one newbie to another. I just bought a 2003 Cavalier to use as a commuter-80 mile per day. Had it about three weeks. Car had 81000 miles on it but the maintaince was documented so I knew how well it had been taken care of. Prior to buying I lurked on this and several other Cavalier forums. I read that the Ecotec is probably good for 200-250000 miles if taken care of. Usually the horror stories you hear are from owners that have modded their cars. There are probably a few million of these things running around with no problems at all, but you'll never hear bout those, cause their stock and the owners couldn't care less about forums and altering their cars. I may be new here but I think most will bare me out that the Cav is a good little car for what it is, an economy car, not a Corvette. Maintain it and it should give you good service.
Just my opinion, but I use mine daily and can't afford breakdowns to and from work. So far, so good. If the 2004 your looking at has a clean history and some kind of maintaince history, I wouldn't hesitate. The Cav would definately be cheaper to repair than the Kia. Parts are all over the place and dirt cheap (as opposed to some other makes).
Grumpy

 

Thanks for the reply Grumpy. I'm sure you're probably right, and actually I have heard a few stories too of people running them for well over 100,000 with no major problems. If I can get as much out of it as I did out of my sometimes problematic Neon, I should be a little ahead of the game. The 04 Cavy has about 51,000 miles on it, which is probably 10 or 11,000 fewer miles than the Neon had on it when I bought it. It actually ran a little better and quieter than an 05 with about 4,000 fewer miles on it.

I'm pretty sure it's the direction I'll go. Basically my financial situation has slowly improved over the past couple of years, and if I can actually save money with the Cavalier, that should continue.

 

For info, I did a little research and Consumer Reports actually rated the 2003,2004, and 2005 Cavaliers as best buys due to very few problems.
Grumpy

 

Thanks again. I asked a friend and he's kind of a boss as well which direction he would go. He said the 2.2 L Ecotec is pretty solid. The old ones develop a few problems with age, but he said were pretty near bulletproof. He said Kia is pretty solid, but the safe bet is probably the Cavalier. So that's the direction I'm going.