2003 Pontiac Sunfire problems
Owners have filed 113 complaints with NHTSA about the 2003 Pontiac Sunfire. Lighting is the most reported problem area, at 25% of complaints. Next are electrical system (24%) and engine (9%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 113 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Lighting 25% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 7 and 1
- Injuries and deaths
- 5 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 40,000 miles 73 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 | 26 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 9 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 9 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 4 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 16 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 3 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 3 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 3 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Of the 73 complaints that include odometer readings, half describe a problem before roughly 40,000 miles. For lighting specifically, the median reported mileage is about 18,000 miles (19 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 7 complaints mention a crash; 1 complaint mentions a fire; 5 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2003 ranks 7th most-complained-about out of 11 model years of the Pontiac Sunfire with enough data (82 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 1 safety recall campaign.
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.
Dt: while driving about 45 MPH, the airbags deployed inadvertently deployed which caused the consumer to strike a utility pole. The seat belt also failed, it unlatched during this incident. The vehicle was totaled as a result. The consumer had been driving for about 20 minutes when this occurred. No repairs have been made to vehicle.
I was driving on the highway around 5:00pm, perfect road conditions. I started choking & swerved into another lane, other driver blasted his horn & scared me. I over compensated & lost control of my car & ended up hitting the median. My airbags deployed, the passenger side was fine, but the drivers side didn't deploy correctly. The air bag came out of the side & not directly in front of me. The airbag blew my rear view mirror off of the wind shield & ended up breaking my right hand in multiple places.
Dt: bought vehicle brand new and it has been in the repair shop 15 times for the same problem. It is dying at random for no reason and will not start back. Sometimes it takes up to 20 minutes or longer before it will restart. Mechanic had no idea why this problem happened. The car was taken to different dealership, but no one could figure this out. Two weeks ago the car was subjected to a pressurized test. Consumer has the car towed on 5-31-2005 because it died, and did restart.
Head lights fail for no reason and at any time. This can include both high and low beam and fog lights. Has been repaired now for the 5th time at a GM dealer ship.