1997 Oldsmobile Silhouette problems
NHTSA has received 155 complaints about the 1997 Oldsmobile Silhouette, and 14% of them involve steering. Next are lighting (14%) and body & structure (10%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 155 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Steering 14% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 6 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 1 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 75,000 miles 31 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 | 9 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 0 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 3 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 5 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 5 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 4 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 4 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 1 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 31 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 74,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 6 complaints mention a crash; 1 injury reported. Its complaints are less severe on average than those of 89% of model years in our database.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1997 ranks 3rd most-complained-about out of 12 model years of the Oldsmobile Silhouette with enough data (108 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 6 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.
When reinstalling removable rear leather left 50/50 beanch seat, had to manually open locked hooks before reinserting into floor anchors that resulted in latch hook spring loaded mechanism deeply cutting right wrist. The rear beanch leather seat anchor systems are very dangerous and difficult to use.
When backing to complete a u-turn, vehicle bumped into a mailbox after already stopping. Vehicle's rear window shattered on impact.
Vehicle parked. Child entered vehicle & turned key bell chimed. Door automatic locks locked automatically when shifted or pulled. Transaxle shift interlock system failed to work, causing vehicle to be put into gear without applying brakes. Brakes need to be pressed to shift into gear. Vehicle hit tree. No air bag deployment..et.
Front head light lens and park lights had water in them. Side park lights were loose and left head light cover fell out while driving. Ph
The passenger's side electric sliding door would not remain closed when the consumer closed it, after a few seconds, the door would pop back open. This problem was recalled twice 01v264000 and 01v067000).