Any opinions on the Cavalier... before I buy?

[Richard]

Hi Curtis,

I am considering bying a 2001 chevrolet cavaliar the is cng/gas. It only has 32,000 miles and was part of of govt fleet. Have you or any or your readers had any experience with these govt fleet cars, and particulary the cavaliar.

Richard

[CNGfamily]

Re: Chevrolet Cavaliar

Hi Curtis,

I am considering bying a 2001 chevrolet cavaliar the is cng/gas. It only has 32,000 miles and was part of of govt fleet. Have you or any or your readers had any experience with these govt fleet cars, and particulary the cavaliar.

Richard

Richard, have you browsed the GM forum? It seems like some have some Cavaliers have issues, but there are a lot of threads with info for you:

http://www.cngchat.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=34

[krnorth]

Re: Any opinions on the Cavalier... before I buy?

Our company has two cavalier's...we love them both. They get pretty durn good gas milage, seem to be very reliable. Also they are relatively inexpensive to fix/maintain (pertaining to the CNG system)...less the Gass Mass Sensor, thats an expensive part!!...most everything else seems cheap or reasonable on repair parts....

IMO...the Cavalier is a great car to go with for CNG (if you need BI-FUEL)..if you don't, perhaps the Honda would be best.

[DMN]

Re: Any opinions on the Cavalier... before I buy?

I've had my 2001 Cavalier fleet vehicle since last December. I've put about 7,000 miles to the 121k it originally had on it. Until last night I've only fixed the brakes... Last night in between the North Salt Lake I-15/I-215 interchange it pooped out on me. I left it there for a few hours then went back to tow it with my truck and it started up and I drove it home.

Now I'm searching all the threads here trying to figure out if I need to order a new $1,800 Gass Mass Sensor. But again, thats the only expensive part and its super easy to get to.

If yours has that low of miles I would get it, it most likely won't have a problem until it has as many miles as mine does.

FYI: If you need to "force" the cavalier into gasoline mode, as I needed to last night, pull the back seat back and unplug wire harness. Start it back up, it will run the rest of the CNG out of the system and then die. Turn the key off, then on again, and restart the car. It should be running in gasoline mode, at least it did for me.

[krnorth]

Re: Any opinions on the Cavalier... before I buy?

Unplugging the harness isn't probably the BEST way to do that.

What you can do is just remove the CNG Fuse that is in the fuse box under the hood, it will switch to gasoline right away and VOILA!

[freedml]

Re: Any opinions on the Cavalier... before I buy?

We bought one from a GSA auction over a month ago. It's just fine. We find the seats more comfortable than the GX and the AC is much more effective. It has more pep than the GX, and maybe a little more engine noise (but less than another one we test drove), and of course the full gas tank for a 500 mile total range. The drawbacks are the smaller CNG tank (150 mile range), even smaller trunk than the GX, and no HOV stickers. It was in good condition when we bought it. We fixed a few things we didn't notice before purchase, like the driver's visor swivel, one vent louvre, and added keyless entry (with lock solenoids since it had manual everything).

[siai47]

Re: Any opinions on the Cavalier... before I buy?

I have had several Cavaliers and all have been very reliable. Some things that become a problem are: Dash cracking below the windshield (very hard to repair), Seat foam settlling to a point that on some cars the metal frame is showing through the cloth (easy to repair with a low mileage junk yard seat), in warm climates, sun damage to the steering wheel. Most of the problem items can be repaired with parts salvaged off non CNG Cavaliers. The gas system seems to be pretty good in general. The only really expensive parts are the gas mass sensor, alternative fuel ECU, and the high pressure lockout valve. The rest of the stuff is pretty cheap from an IMPCO dealer.