1999 Pontiac Sunfire problems
Owners have filed 128 complaints with NHTSA about the 1999 Pontiac Sunfire. Electrical system is the most reported problem area, at 20% of complaints. Next are engine (12%) and brakes (11%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 128 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Electrical system 20% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 9 and 5
- Injuries and deaths
- 4 and 2
- Typical mileage
- 93,000 miles 38 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 | 1 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 6 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 5 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 2 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 8 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 3 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 4 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 2 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 4 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 3 |
What the data shows
Of the 38 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 93,000 miles.
Safety-related details: 9 complaints mention a crash; 5 complaints mention a fire; 4 injuries reported; 2 deaths reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 1999 ranks 6th most-complained-about out of 11 model years of the Pontiac Sunfire with enough data (85 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.
While driving 35 MPH and going through an intersections another vehicle hit consumer's vehicle from side where child was sitting in rear passenger's seatback flew back, and child fell through and out of trunk ,and died on impact. Child's shoes were left in car. Driver died on impact. Please provide further information.
Vehicle jumped from park to reverse while engine was idling. Vehicle was parked on level ground. Damage was estimated at three thousand dollars, driver sustained injuries to arm and shoulder. Please provide further details.
While traveling at about 25 MPH, driver hit an ice spot or snow and lost control of vehicle. Vehicle fishtailed, and flipped upside down twice. Upon impact, none of frontal airbags deployed.
The instrumental panel on my 1999 pontiac sunfire recently started functioning erratically I.e. Gauges (gas gauge, temperature gauge, speedometer) would start fluctuating wildly. Local pontiac dealership has diagnosed the vehicle as having a defective (or burned out) instrumental panel cluster. I was told that this component was not covered under any type of lifetime warranty and that the repairs would cost $472.31.
I was purchasing this used car from a dealer. They replaced the ignition assembly 3 times. The car would mysteriously shut off, the ignition assembly would not allow the key to be removed and multiple times this happened. I lost allot of money I put on the car as it became obvious they could not fix it and I had to let them take it back with no refund to me.........they said at the dealer that I was lucky that I didn't have a fire.