looks very nice handles excellent drives smooth is very fast

to expensive to fix goes throw gas like a v10 not a lot of shops know how to fix them

I must say that I love my catera. She HAS 113,000 miles on her and she is going strong. I have to agree this is a expensive car to fix, but if you keep up the general maintence it is awsome to drive. Push down the sport button and let her fly.

Looks nice AND THAT IS IT!

Every single thing you can imagine...Literally!

This is car is JUNK plain and simple...My grandfather bought this heap of junk brand new with 10 miles on it, he became ill and gave me the car with 20,000 miles on it...and to tell you the truth I wish I never even accepted it, it has cost me so much money, between tires, brakes, the head lights burning out every 4 months, the water pump, the oxygen sensor, the oil leak and coolant leak....Oh and I forgot I was with out it for a whole 2 months while the Cadillac dealer tried to figure out why the car would die in the middle of the highway!!! Sounds fun huh?!? I would not sell this piece of $&^% to my enemy! The car looks nice and really thats about it1 If anyone can give me information on the water pump it cost me $577.00 to replace I have read a few things about a recall, I called GM today when I found this site, and they said they never had a recall on it, well if there is one I would like to be reimburst for the $577.00..PLEASE HELP!!

nice interieor layout and styling is all I can say thats good about this car.

EVERYTHING ! This is an EXTREMELY poorly engineerd and performing GERMAN car. I would have expected Cadillac to offer superior quality products. Not so!

Warning!!!! do not buy one of these cares unless of course its mine! This car is junk. I have had to replace the ENTIRE cooling system TWICE due to the oil cooler leaking oil into the cooling system. Ive had to replace the Brake Switch $$. The harmonic balancer had to be replaced. The brakes themselves are terribly expensive. 300 just for the pads themselves + labor. I had to have the transmission worked on @ 2600.00$ I had to have the steering knuckle replaced. 1400$ The car started smoking and missing and wouldnt run at all due to some sort of sensor. Now I need to replace both front struts and the tie rods, estimate is 1300$. The car naturally runs hot (or so Im told) which causes the engine oil to overheat in the Texas summer. This causes the oil light to come on, or so Im told this is why its coming on. The driver side air bag is out of air. Im not fixing it. Brake lights constantly burn out. Its just goes on and on and on. The car now has just a little over 87K on it. Word of advice, sell it if you can... even if you sell it at a loss you will come out wayyyy ahead. Mine is being traded in tomorrow for a well built good quality Japanese car!!!!!!! oh yeah, I almost forgot...and the paint job is also inferior to most cars on the market.

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Toyota Avalon, Nissan Maxima. Both of these cars run circles around the cadillac. Im going back to one of them.

Comfortable interior

You'll need a second job to pay to keep it running!

Maintenance-intensive. My '99 catera was purchased new from a dealer. Within only 19k miles, it has needed a crankshaft harmonic balancer (warranty, first owner), water pump and timing belt, fuel pump, oil cooler ($$$$), brakes ($$), tires, and now MAF sensor ($$$). This level of upkeep is unreasonable for any car, much less a premium GM product. Buy at your own risk!

nice leather

The whole car..Don't buy one ,stay away!!! warning ! warning ! Lemon Alert!

Wow,where do I start! Had it 4 years with 60k miles and it is the joke around my wifes work,I guess your car is in the shop again! Replaced O2 sensors 15 times,water pump 3 times , valve cover gaskets, head light adjustments broken,floorboard filled up with rain water,and now I havent driven the car for 2 months and guess whats wrong now? The water cooling coil in the oil pan is leaking oil into the radiator,just paid to fix it (1267.00) Has any one heard of a recall on this repair? Well my repairs goes on and on bit I won't bore you with all of them,Just hope you all read this and stay away from the Catera-ble.If you own one that is running ,SELL IT NOW !!!

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MItsibishi,Jeep,Ford

all around good looks,fun to drive,fast!!!!!!!!!!!! BOSE!!!! what else is to say!!!

would like some more horsepower

i hope all the bad reviews on this car are all due to lack of maint. i just bought my 97' a month ago,it has 58000on it,and its been in the shop already{cadillac paid forit by the way} due to a recall. but other than that,it"s the nicest caddy i have ever owned.{had a 84'eldorado} i love this car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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cadillac eldorado,pontiac bonneville

all around good looks,fun to drive,fast!!!!!!!!!!!! BOSE!!!! what else is to say!!!

would like some more horsepower

i hope all the bad reviews on this car are all due to lack of maint. i just bought my 97' a month ago,it has 58000on it,and its been in the shop already{cadillac paid forit by the way} due to a recall. but other than that,it"s the nicest caddy i have ever owned.{had a 84'eldorado} i love this car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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cadillac eldorado,pontiac bonneville

Looks nice.

Quality.

Thinking about buying a GM product? Please read. I purchased a 1999 Cadillac Catera as a lease buy-out from my in-laws through their dealer. The car was 3 years old and only had 17,841 miles on it. It had 1 year remaining on its warranty. I reviewed several on-line car reviews and they were all good. My wife and I had an infant and another on the way. We decided to purchase the car because it was build soundly and we thought “Cadillac Quality” would reduce our maintenance over the long term. We continued to use the dealership for maintenance and followed their recommended maintenance intervals and actions. After owning the car for four months, the brake light switch failed. This is not an obvious failure. I started noticing cars swerving to avoid me when I would stop and I was getting a lot of hand gestures. Finally, one good Samaritan, while indicating that I was #1, told me I had no brake lights. I brought the car in and the switch was replaced under warranty. This was at 22,148 miles. After 10 months, I thought the car was falling apart around me. At a refueling station, the attendant told me that he could not add gas because the tank was pressurized & automatically shutting down the pump. I drove to another station with the same result. As I continued home, the engine temperature light illuminated. I immediately pulled over and saw coolant pouring out under the engine. I had a spare gallon of coolant mixed and stored in the trunk, which I added. I brought the car to the dealership. They identified that the ball check valve in the gas tank failed,which required the gas tank to be replaced. The coolant leak was from a failed left side head gasket. Both items were replaced under warranty. This was at 28,776 miles. The warranty expired two months later. We moved to a different state, but continued to maintain the vehicle at a local Cadillac dealership in our new area. At 40,100 miles, the check engine light illuminated. I brought the car to the dealership. They could not identify the issue, but stated that the code that initiated the alarm was for “a lean fuel trim condition in the left cylinder bank”. They cleared the light and charged me $81. On the drive home from the dealership, the check engine alarm illuminated again. I reviewed paperwork that I had on the vehicle and found a GM notice (not a recall) that the check engine light may illuminate due to failed oxygen sensors. I brought the letter with me when I returned the car to the dealership. The dealership was not aware of the notice, but based on the letter replaced the oxygen sensors at no charge. I drove the car for two days and the check engine light re-lit. The car now would shake violently on start-up and would idle rough for several minutes. I made another appointment with the dealership. This time they identified the Mass Air Flow (MAF) sensor was bad. Approximately $700 later, I had the car back. I contacted GM’s customer service and complained that the problems that I was having with the vehicle were not normal wear items. They reviewed my case and agreed to pay half of the claim. I was satisfied with their response. At 43,000, I changed the oil and discovered a white paste at oil addition port. I knew immediately there was a coolant leak into the engine. This was the second engine failure on the car and only 14,000 miles after GM repaired the vehicle for the first failure. I brought the car to a second Cadillac dealership in my area on a recommendation. I showed my service record to the Quality Care Manager. He indicated to me that he too thought this was premature for engine failure, but told me there was nothing he could do because the car was out of warranty. He told me I would have to deal directly with GM. I called GM and the GM representatives acted very annoyed that I would even request them to review this. I stated that head gaskets are not a normal wear part and that two failures of one on the same engine is indication of a quality or design issue with the vehicle. All that I requested was that GM cover this repair. I also pointed out that I had replaced wear parts at my expense without issue including brakes, tires, serpentine belt, tie-rods, filters etc. They reviewed my case and told me they would not assist me for this repair. I was flabbergasted. I told them that they had just preformed a head gasket replacement less than 18 months and 14000 miles earlier. GM quoted me their 12-months/12,000 mile warranty. Based on the reviews that I have read on this web site, it appears there are several Catera customers with similar issues. I am not a conspiracy theorist, but there appears to be some type of cover-up occurring since there has been no intervention by watchdog goups concerning these vehicles. I have a family and it appears to GM has no problem increasing its shareholder value by fleecing me to correct its quality issue.

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I've Ford, Chrysler and Mazda all without major issues.

Handles great Looks Nice Great Inside nice interior

Kind of slow of the line

I've had this car for over 5 years and only had minor problems ex. fog lights filling with water, center console bubbling up from the heat replaced twice and the door locks get stuck when it is very cold out. Other then that i'm happy with this car it only has 38,000 miles and I am the original owner (bought it brand new). I think it was worth my money it looks elegant handles turns better then a beamer and has a great cockpit and Bose system all and all this is a great car i'm upset to see all the bad reviews on it but every car has it's flaws....i guess.

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Styling, comfort, stereo system (however, the cd player won't function during bouts of intense Texas humidity, as noted in the user's manual)

apparent significant weaknesses in the mechanical and engineering features

I purchased this Cadillac used, with 17k miles on the clock about 1 1/2 yrs ago, and had the remainder of the 4 yr/50k mile warrantee left. Used the warrantee to replace both leaking fog lights. Replaced the battery myself; the original battery, which was still in the car, lasted until 11/2004, at least. Most distressing is that the warrantee expired in 07/04, and this 11/04 I had to spend $1400 having both valve cover gaskets replaced, oil cooler coils cleaned, and having a circuit board that operates 1/2 of the dash lights replaced under the dash. I've enjoyed the car since I've owned it, but recently found out that the resale/trade-in value of the car is almost nil. Since I owe about $9000 on the car, and the trade-in value offered was just $6000, I guess I'll cross my fingers and continue driving it w/out any warrantee in place. Please pray for me.

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Cadillac DeVille, Toyota Cressida (2). Those Cressida's were virtually indestructible..what was I thinking buying this Cadillac? Oh, well..I'll try and make due. Burn a candle for me please!