Faults:

One word for this car? Horrible.

I purchased this car NEW in 2000. No more than a week later, I had a problem, the instrument cluster stopped working completely. Checked the cluster fuse to find the fuse, on a car with 82 miles to be blown. OK, so I replaced the fuse. Turned the car on... POP went the fuse. Took the car to the dealership to have it looked at. Problem? The cluster was bad and had to be replaced. My head was spinning... a NEW cluster at 4x miles?

About 2000 miles later, I noticed a faint clunk coming from the front end. I figured "Ehh, maybe it's just from hitting a pothole, no big deal." WRONG! It progressively got worse over the course of 3 months. So, at 36xx miles, I took it yet again to the dealer. Upon sitting there, I noticed 2 other Cateras sitting in the lot with service tags on them. First thing that popped into my head? "Uh-Oh." Anyways, the noise I was hearing was a bushing worn out on my steering, I believe it was the idler arm. They replaced it under warranty. Great!

Then, for about eh... 40,000 or so miles, the car was fine, didn't have a single problem with the car in that time... except the fact that the tires were getting eat up like CRAZY.

Then... at about 46,000 miles, I noticed my coolant gauge going up, and up... so I hurried up and pulled over. Turned the car off and looked under the hood. Hmm, no leaks. Oil looks good, but seems low. Looked over at the coolant tank to see what looked to be dark goop in it. I let the car cool down and opened the tank to find oily sludge! Yes, oily sludge at 46k miles! Now something told me that I made a BAD mistake buying this car. I think I was sucked in by the "Engineered and built in Germany" thing.

Moving on... the car was yet again at the dealership. They looked at it and determined that it was the oil cooler under the intake manifold. Great... how wonderful. So they replaced the cooler and I was on my merry little way. Oh, and they also replaced the valve cover gaskets because they were leaking really bad as well.

Another hiatus... the car did great for quite a while, got routine maintenance done (timing belt, water pump, etc).

70,000 miles. I smell coolant burning, temp gauge is climbing. Get out to look under the car and see coolant rushing all over the ground. I shut the car off of course. This time, I have no warranty. Wonderful! Towed the car to a local mechanic. Tells me that a heater control valve went bad and needs to be replaced, apparently it's a common problem. Replaced a few hours later... Cost? $325.00 SIGH.

73,200 miles. LED brake light bar stops working... Control arm bushings in the front are completely shot and had to be replaced. $600 total to have this fixed.

74,000 miles. Front wheel bearing goes bad.

Honestly? For being a Cadillac, I expected a FAR better track record with this car. The car is nothing short of a piece of crap. It's currently sitting in my garage because I won't drive it anymore. My Grand Prix GTP isn't my previous car, it's a car I bought for my wife at the same time, in 2000. The Grand Prix? 128,000 miles and still running strong. The only thing major the car needed was intake gaskets at 100k, and a water pump at 105k. NOTHING else has went wrong with it.

General Comments:

The few good things?

The car is comfortable, especially on the highway.

I bought the car for its looks. The car looks great inside and out. I never expected it to be such a pain though.

It is decently quick.

Faults:

Head gasket blew.

Electrical system malfunctioned.

Ignition switch stopped working.

Timing belt was shredded.

ALL cams were misfiring.

Car would shake every time the brakes were stepped on.

General Comments:

This car has been trouble from the minute I bought it.

A week after I bought it the head gasket blew.

A few weeks later, the car wouldn't start. It had major electrical problems that needed to be repaired.

A few weeks later the car started to shake uncontrollably. The check engine light came on. After bringing the car to the first auto shop who couldn't figure out what the problem was, I brought the car to Cadillac who figured out that when the head gasket was placed, it was put on wrong. It was causing the timing belt to shred and all cams to misfire.

2 days after the car left the Cadillac shop the ignition switch died. I turned the car off, took the key out of the ignition, and the car was still running. It would have been funny if I wasn't so angry.

While driving to the auto shop to get the ignition switch fixed, the check engine light came on and the car would shake every time I stepped on the brake pedal. I told the shop, "don't even bother to fix it; just replace the ignition switch". Once that was taken care of, I traded that car in. I didn't even care about the loss I was taking by trading it in 6 months after I had bought it. I was just so happy to get rid of it! It spent more time in the shop than on the road. Everything takes longer to fix because it's so hard to find parts for that car.

Do yourself a favor, and don't buy a Catera!

Faults:

Coolant Leak.

General Comments:

The Catera has pleasantly surprised me. I know that there were problems with the older models, but the 2000 and 2001 models are absolute bargains for money.

I purchased a 2000 and I have put on 7,000 miles in the last three months and the car drives like a dream. For the comfort and features that you get in this car there is no way anyone should have reservations about purchasing one.