NONE

EVERYTHING

1997 Caddy Catera is the worst car ever buit. HANDS DOWN THE WORST. at 53K my timing belt blew. It idles low now, transmition is sticking in gear, I just had to change the battery, had to have an alignment twice, and ruined 2 sets of tires. I called my local friendly cadillac dealer today, and they told me that and this is a QUOTE "1997 Catera's are pieces of Sh*t. You will have problems with it all the time, and thats why most of them are in the junk yard." DONT BUY ONE!!! I cant even get rid of it without being 2K in the hole!! And Cadillac cares not about their customers. I will never buy another GM product. EVER Oh yeah, one more thing, though the radio sounds nice, I am trying to get a CD player for it, FORGET about it. Even thats a pain in the butt, and will cost me 800 bucks. forget that!

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who cares

Not one

Everything

This is the worst car I've ever had. They try to make you think that you're getting a great extended warranty when you purchase your car. I purchased an extended warranty with a $100 deductible. I figured this wasn't too bad because it's a Cadillac, I will never have to use the warranty. I've used the warranty 3 times now. Faulty brake lights, timing belt tensioner, heater control cable, those are all of the repairs. Plus, my car has 61000 miles on it and they had to replace the engine because of a problem with the timing belt tensioner. I had a '93 Pontiac Grand Am 4 cyl. with 90000 mi. on it that gave me less problems than this car. Plus to top it off, I still owe $13500 on the car and if I traded it in, I would be $2000 in the hole. Horrible car......stay away from buying one!

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Like I said, my '93 Grand Am was better!!!

Power, comfort, level of equipment, reliability, maintenance schedule, dealer

Radio, brakes squeal, gas milage could be improved, needs a lumbar support

So far, this has been the best car (overall) I have had in terms of value. Before I bought, I compared Saab (93 and 95), Volvo (S40), Infiniti (I30), Audi (A4), Lexus (ES300 POS), Acura (3.2 TL), Mercedes (C class), BMW (3-series), Lincoln (LS), and drove to the Caddy dealer on a spur-of-the-moment idea, looked at a Catera, and ultimately bought one. It has not been a perfect car, but the overall quality has been good, and it had way more stuff for the same or lass money than the others I looked at. The only one that came really close was the I30, which was my other choice. Oh, my interpretation of quality is fit for the customer's intended use. One consideration for the selection I was making was maintenance schedule. I have a problem with paying lots of money for a car, and having a very expensive (approximately $600) tune-up every 30K miles. There are things I would improve on, like a lumber support for the back, and getting the damn brakes to quit squeeling. They work fine, they just shriek when applied. The radio is something else I would change, the one I have sucks. My wife's Hundai picks up LA stations that I can't get when in the home area. The car seems to have plenty of power, it's comfortable, handles well, and has been essentially reliable. My dealer has been helpful when I have had a problem. I would seriouly consider buying Cadillac again, based on the experience so far.

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Buick Regal LS

The radio

The car

What the hell is up with cadillac? You,d think your buying high quality when you see the name but you better check it to it first. Or better yet, don't buy it at all. From what I understand these cars where made over seas by Opal. So that should tell you something right there if your old enough to remember what a piece of crap they were. I will never purchase another car without checking the reviews. All I can say is. If you like to have you car in the shop on a regular basis and you want to cut $10,000 or more off the value of car when you drive it off the lot, then the catera is your car.

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What does it matter

I never saw one!

Read my summary

OUCH! What was I thinking? This has to be the worst purchase I have ever made in my life! My Catera ran for the first 15,000 miles then it was down hill from there. Hold on, here is the narrowed version of my story. I wish I was aware of this website before I made the purchase and please, DO NOT BUY ONE! My car was in the shop almost six months in a row! To this day I now have 70,000 miles on it and it is completely dead! I still owe over $14,000 on it! It is sitting in front of my house and I am making payments on a car that doesn't even run! Now someone at Cadillac tell me this, Does a Cadillac just stop running at 70,000 miles? When you purchase something with the "CADILLAC" name on it, you are under the impression you are making an intelligent buying decision. I found the exact opposite. Here is what has been wrong with it, the timing belt blew, my doors don't shut all the way (worked on several times),in other word when it rains the car floods. When it gets moist or rains outside the headlights don't turn off. With that, my wife who drove it (remember it doesn't run anymore)got a dead battery every week. Today the bottom of my engine needs $5,000 of work because the oil pressure doesn't hold. My brakes needed work every 5,000 miles along with a tire rotation. I can go on for a long time and loose you as the reader. Who else has has a story like mine? You can see where I'm going? I've have made a laundry list of complaints to Cadillac with no progress at all. THEY COULD CARE LESS ABOUT THEIR CLIENTS! Cadillac refuses to cover the repairs of my engine because I am 20,000 over the warranty. I spent $24,000 on your product. In other words, they refuse to invest $5,000 to retain a customer. I refuse to put money into a car that will break down the next mile. I am a young 31 individual who makes a very good living in the media. I could have bought Cadillac's for the rest of my life! What should I do? Has anyone took action before?

LOOKS

EVERYTHING

I bought this car thinking that it would be the best car for my money. I mean think about it, Cadillac,I can't go wrong. Boom!!!! Now that I am back in reality, I don't know where to begin. Well I have had water come through the vents, brake lights go bad, Fog light switch go bad, Tires are ate up in no time, Car had problems at 99M' and the dealer could not find the problem until the timing belt broke and ruined my motor by than I had 102,000' on it. My new motor cost over $5,000' to replace. Cadillac sends out this letter about if you have problems up to 7yrs, or 100,000 miles they will re-emburse the amount you've spent. Ya right.They said since the motor failed at 102M' it cannot be considered. BUT MY PROBLEM HAPPEND AT 99M' AND I HAVE DOCUMENTATION THAT THRE WAS THIS PROBLEM AND THE DEALER COULDN'T FIND THE PROBLEM UNTIL THE MOTOR ACTUALLY WENT OUT! sO NOW i'M SCREWED. jUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. With all these problems that everyone has posted here, you would surely think that the goverment would force Cadillac to do something about tis car. Why should it take an incident like the Ford explorer to get peoples attention to force them to admit the facts. THERE HAS GOT TO BE SOMETHING WE CAN DO WITH ALL THESE PEOPLE THEY CANNOT GET AWAY WITH THIS!!!!!!! IF PEOPLE QUITE COMPLANING TO GM THIS PROBLEM WILL NEVER GET RESOLVED. DO NOT LET THEM GET AWAY WITH THIS!!!

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NOTHING AS BAD AS THIS CAR. NEVER BUY A CADDILAC!

the power

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find it to be very powerful.have not had to take it back since.they stand behind there cars.

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nice bose system,very comfortable,good pick up,great looking.

blind spots

I really have nothing bad to say about my catera it has 55,000 miles on it and I have had no problems what so ever.the only problem i have with the car is that it runs alittle warm but other than that its a great car to drive. Its the first cadillac I have ever owend and certainly not the last.

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Timing Belt Update - The timing belt on my '97 Catera broke 4 weeks ago at 59k. Fortunately GM has just changed their policy on the timing belt/water pump issue and has extended the warranty on 1997 and 1998 models to 7 years/100k on this issue only. I picked up the car last week (after THREE weeks in the shop) and ALL charges, including towing, were paid by GM! PHEW!!! Otherwise my Catera has been trouble free thus far. (keeping my fingers crossed)

Nice looking car. Seats are good. Bose sound system. Fully Equipped. Warranty is (was) comprehensive.

Car is "unalignable" Eats expensive tires. Electronic glitches are common. Replacement parts are expensive. GM Dealers pretend your problem is unique.

Decided that I couldn't get anymore car for the money. Loads of glitches while under warranty. Didn't mind too much as I always had a loaner, and I got some revenge on GM through a trip interruption claimwhen it broke down on a trip far from home. I like driving the car, and I like a lot about it. I just wish I felt the same way I did about other Cadillacs we own. My mother's DeVille has been one of the best cars we've owned, and worthy of the Cadillac badge. The Catera, however, had some design and quality flaws that GM should have addressed. I had a GM dealer print me out an itemized list of all that had done to the car since it was first purchased in 1997, and the printer ran out of paper.