2002 Pontiac Sunfire User Reviews

Pontiac Sunfire - Driving Excitement?!!? — Ah, yes...the Pontiac Sunfire. Where do I start? APPEARANCE: Let's start with the good news. It's a pretty good looking car...I like the front. It has good lines, even if the rear end with the spoiler mounted all the way up against the rear glass is a bit questionable. Even the base, standard wheel covers go well with the car. Alloys obviously look better, but the stock covers seem sturdy enough, stay attached, and look fine. I have no objection to the exterior of the car. Four stars. PERFORMANCE: Here's where it starts to go wrong. With the 2200 I4 noisily thrashing out all of its 115 horsepower, this is not a fast car. The transmission feels like it hesitates when it's about to change gears. I have no reason to believe that it isn't a reliable drivetrain, but it's coarse, unrefined, noisy, and slow. Handling is vague. The car wanders without moving the steering wheel, on an example with under 50,000 miles on the clock. Other Cavaliers I've driven have done the same thing. It;s not very confidence-inspiring. The steering wheel feels a bit odd - the bulges where your hands are supposed to go are placed up too high for my liking, but I'm a 9 & 3 hand position driver. The brakes are vague as well. There is virtually no pedal feel. The brakes work fine, but again, they do not inspitre much confidence. The pedal works much like an on-off switch. Overall, it works...it'll get you from A to B, but it doesn't feel like something you'd want to trust. Two stars. BUILD QUALITY: Very mid-90s GM on the inside. That's not a good thing...the plastic feels cheap, the seats are an oh-so-1995 pattern with colored weave in the gray seats, and the switchgear doesn't have a quality feel and seems fragile. The stereo LCD display on the example I'm referencing for this review had fallen apart and was completely unreadable. Fit and finish inside the car is erratic, but they did get it all screwed together, even if the dash does rattle. Two stars. OVERALL: It's a reminder of what happens when GM forgets that they need to build competitive products to sell cars. Thankfully, it's been killed off and replaced by the Pontiac G5. My initial impressions of the G5 are much more positive than the Sunfire, although I haven't driven one yet. To quote the owner of the example used for this review: "As soon as it's paid off, I'm pushing it off a cliff." Two stars.

Sensual Appeal — This car is Fast! The manual transmission allows you to catch that yellow light, throw it into a lower gear and get ahead, or just plain tear out of a stop light. The Stereo is amazing too, top of the line sound equipment and equalizers bring tranquil notes to the music guru, or if you just like to jam its loud! The visual appeal sneak's anybody's attention between the added LED lights and the cleanliness of the car.

Primary Use: Commuting to work

Ok — Appearance- I like the exterior styling. Its a very sporty looking base model. Handling- I like the way this car takes corners. Dislikes- It is a pretty expensive 4cylinder on gas compared to japan 4 cylinders engines. Parts are pretty cheap except for the clutch kit which ran me about $700 my cost.

Primary Use: Commuting to work

Junk — This car sucks. Replaced the whole suspension already passenger side ball joint replaced twice already within 150,000km. Drivers side bearing catastrophic failure at around 130,000km. Who engineers these cars anyways? They obviously didn't have long term owners in mind. Built in defects and failure points if you ask me.

Primary Use: Family transportation

:) — I loved this car!!! This car was my baby! It had nice pick up and nice speed, but not a whole lot of power. Didn't cost much to drive. FUN AS HECK TO DRIVE! good running car. i recommend it!

Primary Use: Commuting to work