I just won a 2000 catera (non-sport) for 3450 on ebay. The car has 76k on it, and the pictures look flawless.
I was going to take a drive to the dealer selling it tommorow to pick it up, but I just read a bunch of reviews on the car, and am now scared sh**tless. It looks like a lot of the problems are pre-2000, but I also read quite a few about head-gasket failure in 2000 and 2001 models...this scares me the most. Owning older Lincolns, I know that cars fail over time and I am very mechanically inclined, but HG failure makes me want to run.
I currently have a Lincoln Mark VIII and a 2000 mustang. I'm looking for a car that has all the features, handles better, and is better on gas then my other cars. Is $3450 a good price for a 2000 with 76k? If you could buy your Catera again, would you?
The hood and quarter panels are not sitting right. You need to take a close personal look at the car to make sure it hasn't been in an accident. The other slightly questionable related thing is that the hazard lights have been used a great deal gauging from the amount of scratches around the button.
wait.
you said u already won it.
i though when u won something on ebay you have to buy it, especially cars...or do u just lose your down payment.
anyways,
ive got a 2000 with 72 K, bought it with around 50K and had to have all the HG work done almost immediately.
if i could go back, i wouldve never bought this car, just to expensive to keep up for me.
there are some that have had good experiences though...
just depends.
Based on these comments and what i've read about this car - it is undependable and is very prone to head gasket failure.
I can deal with upkeep and quirkiness...I have a mark viii and it seems like it's throwin little puzzles at me every other day. What I can't deal with is HG failure. Is it really that common?
It sucks because it seems like the Catera is just what I'm looking for...all the bells in whistles, but better handling and fuel consumption then the larger caddy's
well some people definatly have had a lot of problems with the car, but there are a lot of people on this forum that has had very little trouble with the car. so far for me I haven't had any problems with it. but the I've only had it for 4 months, but have already put 12,000 kms on it bringing the grand total to 210,000. only repairs so far have been breaks, which I knew about and did myself.
this deffinatly is a car you can't neglect. if you hear a weird sound, you can't hope it'll go away, you need to find out what it is. and as long as you can do a lot of the work yourself I really don't think it'lll be bad. but that said, like any other car there are lemons out ther, and catera's might have a higher percentage of lemons than other cars. I honestly don't mind.. this makes the car affordable for me.
but if you do get it, you'll realize it's a really fun car to drive. I've never diven a car that handles the highway so well.
also I'm not sure where you heard about the head askets being a problem, but I don't think that's the thing you should be worried about. I could be wrong though..
If you already won it that means you own it now, right? If you dont like it then put it back up on ebay and attach a buy it now to it. That way you get what you want and any monetary lose is minimal. God Bless, Joe
In my opinion, you shouldn't buy ANY Catera. This is what will happen. You'll fall in love with it when it's running well, then it'll eat you alive when it starts to give you problems (and it will). Some people are lucky enough that they have very few issues, but that's the lucky few. You'll hate to get rid of it, so you'll keep pouring money into it, thinking that maybe this will be the last major repair. Then another one hits, and it's the same all over again. I still have mine, but I wish I had done the same thing you didn't do......research it BEFORE you bought it. Mine's running good right now, but every time I drive it I'm waiting for something to happen or the check engine light to come on. I joined AAA just becasue of this car, it's that scary. But it sounds like you already bought it, just like I did mine on ebay. It's not right to cause a seller grief simply because you didn't take a few minutes to do the homework first.
