Faults:

Major Transmission failure at 32000Kms.

Both front wheel hubs failed with in the first year.

Computers out of sync causing fuel pump to stop and random stalling.

Driver Power seat control / motor failed.

General Comments:

This vehicle has been very unreliable. In the first 5 years of ownership, this brand new vehicle had left my family stranded 5 times.

The last time the vehicle would not start due to the computers not interfacing with each other, happened at a GM service center while getting an oil change. The technician actually came to my wife and asked how to start the car. This random stalling had happened 2 times before this event, and both times they could not find out what the cause was, and nothing was fixed. Eventually they tried to blame us for jumping or boosting the car, causing the computers to lose their sync. As it happened, the battery was dead the day we picked it up, and it was the GM dealer who I guess did it incorrectly.

The UAS child car seat anchors are so poorly designed for a "family van". UAS is only available on the 2 outer seats. This van has a third row of seats, that if you have 2 children using the UAS seats, you cannot access the rear row of seats. - absolutely ridculas. This was also not the only GM product that has this most ridculas feature. When renting a Tahoe XL, the same issue was observed.

Just had the read disc brakes fail, to find out that the PAD replacement ONLY was going to cost $285 plus tax. - Crazy.

Faults:

The intake gasket went luckily before warranty ran out, but still had to pay $100 to dealership for warranty work to be done. Asked dealer to look over all other gaskets, which they had said were all fine. Shortly after warranty ran out, head gasket shot. Dealer would not repair under goodwill warranty and really tried to avoid having to fix this problem. This will cost me around $2500 to repair and there is no guarantee on how long it will last for. Talked with several mechanics and they all know all to well the problems with the Pontiac Montana.

General Comments:

The Montana looks good and is a very comfortable ride, bu with the mechanical issues and lack of commitment from Pontiac, I will never buy a Pontiac or GM product again. I will pay the extra expense to buy a foreign car.

Faults:

At 52,000 miles we had to have the condenser replaced (rusted and leaking).

At 70,000 we had to have the lower head gasket, plugs/wires (burnt on) replaced.

We had vehicle in shop 3 times in three weeks due to battery kept dying. Mechanics explanation " I don't know".

Now brake lights won't work, bulbs are fine fuses are fine.

At the current mileage of 89,000 we are on our 3rd set of tires.

We also owned a Grand Am a few years back which we had to replace less than 3 years after purchase due to it's maintanance problems. Both my grand father and father were employees of GM for 30 years each and I will never purchase another GM product. I can no longer afford the repair cost associated with owning a GM product.

Faults:

There are some minor quality issues such as the vinyl trim around the windshield coming loose, rust at the bottom of the vehicle where the sliding doors are, cheap plastic dashboard parts etc...

A major problem on these vans is the factory installed XP 2000 GENERALS. Stay away from these tires. Go look for yourself before you buy at a used dealership - most of these tires split on the side walls down to the kevlar within 40,000Kms. This should be a recall by the manufacturer! Insist on different tires before purchase!

General Comments:

The motor has excellent performance.

The van has been reliable so far.

It's a comfortable good looking mini van.

It has better gas mileage than most mini vans.