Ed of Dallas writes:
I'm having problems with the head gasket on my wife's 95 Chevy Cavalier. I had it replaced once and now I'm replacing it for the second time. There are a lot of problems with this head gasket, and GM knows it. Why does GM do nothing about it? One thousand dollars gets to be expensive.

Mary of Milwaukee writes:
I have a 97 Chevy Cavalier which has given me nothing but problems since day one. I have had 3 major problems with the car. I have already spent $400 on repairing a faulty anti-theft system. And now my head gasket is cracked. This is going to cost me $1000.

My car is only three years old. It is past warranty but I still feel this is not right. I have two other friends with the same exact car with the same exact problem. This does not seem right to me either. I feel as if my hard earned money is being wasted on a already defective part that I should not be responsible for. I also spoke with a mechanic who said they are known for this problem lately.

One main reason I bought this car brand new was so that I can have a reliable car. My car is everything but reliable. It has caused me one giant headache.

Ed of Dallas, TX, writes:
I'm having problems with my head gasket on my wife's 95 Chevy Cavalier. I had it replaced once and I'm replacing it for the second time. There are a lot of problems with this head gasket, and GM knows it. Why does GM do nothing about it? Isn't it possible for us, as consumers, to sue GM for a defective product. One thousand dollars for a head gets to be expensive.

It certainly does. but unfortunately, once the warranty expires it is difficult to successfully sue a manufacturer for defects, real or otherwise. Individuals, however, have had a great deal of success with similar cases in Small Claims Court.

S.F. of Glenview, IL, writes about her 1995 Chevy Cavalier:
We had the head gasket and the head replaced in September of 1998. In October of 1998 we received a letter from Chevy saying they were extending the warranties on the head gasket for our Cavalier because of early head gasket failure.

Our car fell under the guidelines they described. The letter stated that we should contact our local Chevy dealer for reimbursement. We did and for a $650 repair job (for the gasket only) we were reimbursed only $318.

I called they Chevy dealer. They said to contact the Customer Assistance Center. I called the CAC three times and each time was told, basically, "That's all we're going to do for you. Be glad we gave you even that much back."

I even wrote to John Middlebrook, who is in charge of Customer Service for GM, but my letter was just routed back to the Customer Assistance Center and I got nowhere ... again. Each time I called I was told that they are reimbursing at warranty rates only.

I am extremely angry and will not purchase another GM vehicle.

Jeff of Cambridge, OH:
I have a 95 Cavalier with a 2.2 engine GM has a problem with the head gasket on this year's 2.2 so they sent me a letter extending warranty to 7 years or 100,000 mi. My car was wrecked when new, 12,000 mi., it was totaled out and rebuilt with the original engine. I have a rebuilt salvage title and GM is using this as a loophole for not fixing my car. Why has there not been a recall? Why are they not concerned with customer satisfaction?

Robert of Alpharetta, GA:
The GM page on your site talks about a person who had part of the costs covered by GM for their 1995 Cavalier head gasket leak. My wife's 95 Cavalier has just experienced the same problem (with only 30k miles on it), but the GM CAC says nothing is covered.

Apparently there are a great deal of complaints out there for this issue. It will cost almost $1,000 to fix something that is incredibly premature - only 30k miles on the car.

We've also received quite a few general complaints about this model.