1999 Chevrolet Cavalier problems
Owners have filed 337 complaints with NHTSA about the 1999 Chevrolet Cavalier. Brakes is the most reported problem area, at 17% of complaints. Next are electrical system (15%) and engine (14%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 337 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Brakes 17% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 37 and 5
- Injuries and deaths
- 23 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 62,000 miles 89 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 5 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 15 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 16 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 20 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 12 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 5 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 4 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 1 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 4 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 4 |
| 200k+ miles | 3 |
What the data shows
Of the 89 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 62,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 37 complaints mention a crash; 5 complaints mention a fire; 23 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1999 ranks 9th most-complained-about out of 16 model years of the Chevrolet Cavalier with enough data (229 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Tl*the contact owns a 1999 chevrolet cavalier. The contact noticed that the vehicle was smoking while he was driving. He pulled off the road and exited the vehicle. The vehicle exploded. The driver sustained burns and is currently in the hospital. A police report was filed. The contact stated that the failure is similar to NHTSA campaign id # 07e021000 (fuel system, other:storage:tank assembly:pressure relief devices). The powertrain was unknown. The current and failure mileages were 64,000.
While driving about 60 MPH over a wet surface lost control of vehicle, stricking trees in frontal collision, but air bags did not deploy.
Car started being hard to steer to the left and it was intermittent. It just started that morning of 5-28-05 . I was going down a steep hill and it became hard to turn it on a curve going off to the right. I proceeded slowly and as I attempted to make another left turn something snapped under the floorboards of the car and it would no longer turn at all-it would only go forwards or backwards.
Tl*the contact owns a 1999 chevrolet cavalier. The contact replaced the bulbs for her turn signals and brake lights on three different occasions. The fourth time it was discovered that the turn signal flasher sockets, located in the trunk of her vehicle, had burned out. The powertrain was unknown. The current mileage is 59,000 and failure mileage was 57,000. Updated 07/26/07.