Interior styling (European), excellent stereo system

Timing Belt - Beware, Catera is an interference engine :( , seat heaters, headlamp/foglight assemblies (moisture problems), expensive parts!!!

The Catera is overall a nice car. The ride is great, but it's quality sucks. The parts are very expensive and never in stock. Both my seat heaters in the fron have gone (Driver's inop. and Passenger's has a crazy hot spot!). The dreaded catera timing belt went (Sept/02) with only 51000 miles. FYI: GM covered whole cost of replacing engine due to timing belt failure. They don't advertise this but they recognized the problem and they will pay!!! I wouldn't recommend buying a catera.....don't say I didn't warn you!

if you like making lemonade THIS IS YOUR CAR

EVERYTHING except

NEVER AND I DO MEAN NEVER BUY THIS CAR. The ride is great good acceleration(when the eletronics tell the tranny to shift properly) sent it in for repairs 3 times until i was told .."we don't make them anymore for a reason" best bet is to trade it in...maybe you'll buy my piece of &*%$ STAY AWAY

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Good driving vehicle. When its running right, its a great car.

Wife ticked off at me for buying another cadillac after buying a Cimarron, which was probable the worst car we have ever owned. Too many blind spots while driving. Replacement cost of parts excessive

Transmission failed after 60,000 miles, cost over $2700 to repair. Alternator failed on road at 71,000 requiring tow to dealer, part not in stock,requiring 2 days of rental car costs. Total dealer bill to replace alternator was over $1270. Part was available at B&B auto parts same day for $170.00 Missing gas cost about $50.00 to replace. Now being warned about inferior timing belt. Dealer estimates cost to replace belt about $700.00. High operating cost is requiring me to look elsewhere for replacement car.

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Hondo, Which will probable be my next purchase.

Nice, smooth ride and the stereo truly is nice

This car will continue to cost money for repairs for things that I have never had break on any of the other cars I have every owned. Everything that I have mentioned in my summary and things that others have mentioned. This is not an exaggeration

WOW! I can't believe that I'm not the only one with this crap car! I did a search on Google under "catera bad gas mileage" and I found this page. I got a great deal, at least that is what I thought" due to hail damage it received while on the sale lot. Since then, it has been nickle and diming me ever since. It has 88K miles on it now, from the 49K when I bought it over a year ago. In that time, I had to have both O2 sensors replaced, a coolant leak replaced, of course the timing belt "issue" repaired. The brakes and alignment are a joke. I am constantly getting those either repaired or replaced...And yes the brakes squeel like no tomorrow. The gas mileage is terrible. I only get 150 miles to a TANK. Every so often, the moon roof will refuse to close unless I turn off/back on the car. The rear sunshade has begun to refuse to go back down now too. I truly hate that I bought this car and will never recommend this car to anyone in the market. If you buy a new car of its class, then get a 3 series BMW.

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None

GORGEOUS CAR BUT GORGEOUS DOESN'T CUT IT WHEN IT'S NOT A DEPENDABLE CAR.

LOCKING IGNITION. MAIN PART OF THE CAR AND IT DOESN'T WORK. 6TH TIME WITHIN 16 MONTHS ON SAME PROBLEM AND JUST GET THE RUN AROUND FROM THE DEALER AND SERVICE CENTER AT GM. I DON'T RECOMMEND GM OR CADILLAC TO ANYONE (EXCEPT BIN LADEN!)

BOUGHT A 2000 CADILLAC CATERA IN APRIL OF 2001 (IT HAD 199 MILES ON IT). IT GOES TO THE REPAIR SHOP EVERY 4 MONTHS WITH THE IGNITION LOCKING. DO NOT BUY A CATERA!!!!!!! I'M IN THE PROCESS NOW OF HIRING AN ATTORNEY TO GET RID OF THE CAR! YOU WOULD THINK A HIGHER PRICED CAR WOULD RUN BETTER THAN A CHEAP JUNKER WOULDN'T YOU? I WISHED I'D HAVE KEPT MY DODGE. I'M GOING TO BUY A HONDA NEXT. I'VE NEVER, EVER HEARD OF ANYONE HAVING A HONDA PROBLEM.

Ride

everything electrical

The Caterra we bought was the the worst mistake we ever made. We would like other victims of the Caterra to contact us about a Lawsuit.

Looks, Radio, Great suspension, Good shifting, Nice ride all together!

A little better fuel mileage in the city, more cup holders, better brakes

The Cadillac Catera is an awesome vehicle. I have owned mine for 2 years now and just now having problems, but no more than any other normal car. I had to replace the factory battery last year, knowing factory batteries only last 3 years anyway!!!... That has been the ONLY expense on my car. At purchase, it had 26K miles, now has 82K. And of course, the timing belt blew - but it is all covered under the GM extended warranty. I can say nothing but good things about the '98 Catera! Very sleek, attractive, comfortable ride!!.. Just put a new set of tires on it - great tire wear, considering the mileage I've put on that car!..

None

Everything

The Cadillac Catera is a piece of crap. DO NOT EVER BUY ONE.

Good test of faith and anger management when dealing with the repeated repairs and increasingly high cost of keeping this lemon on the road.

everything located under the hood.

We have owned our Catera for 15 months, and have driven it 6 days out of the last 45 days. The rest of the time it has been in for service for timing belt/idler pulley problems and problems with the engine resulting from failure of these parts. I have never felt so ripped off as I do when I think about my Cadillac. We purchased this vehicle to be our "family car" to last for a long, long time--this was a truly bad decision on our part. We will NEVER own a Cadillac again.

Good handling, low noise, ride confort, excellent Bose Stereo with Weather Band and RDS. An excellent touring car for long trips. Seats are by Recaro. Long (4/50)Warranty. Can be tremendous used car buy if you're prepared to sort the car if needed, cars with factory warranty left can be found for as little as 30% of the original MSRP. Can use regular fuel. Decent trunk space. Extended warranties available at reasonble cost online.

Engine failures (now GM warrantied through 7 years/100,000 miles on most cars), tire wear and alignment issues (appear to be control arm bushing failures), some other minor/annoying repair issues. Small glovebox. A comprehensive list of "Top Ten (or so) problems can be found at the Yahoo! Catera Owners Group. Average mileage of 24 hwy/18 city mpg. Big depreciation if bought new.

The Catera can be am excellent used car buy, provided the owner is well-informed and prepared to deal with a European sports sedan built by Opel of Germany. Please visit the Yahoo! Catera Owners Group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CateraOwners for the most comprehensive information on the Web about the Cadillac Catera, including service bulletins, discount parts and repair/warranty information.

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