The ’92 Cavalier is the first car I have owned, my parents helped my buy it when I was 17 for about 1,500 it had just less than 100,000 miles on it. I’ve had it for a little over of a year it now and it has 116,200 miles on it. Keep in mind I really have nothing to compare this to, my parents drive middle class cars, Hondas so on (though my father does has a 66 Buick with a 430 in it, only 66,000 on it :-D). So I can’t compare this car to a BMW or anything like that, hope you enjoy my review ;-)
Outside
The outside of the Cavalier is nicely done it has nice lines to it and in fact if you look at is for a while it looks like Chevy based it on the Corvette (too bad they didn’t base the power of it on the vett… oh well more on that later). The ride height is a little on the low side and you have to watch out on steep drive ways and such or you will “bottom the car out”. My biggest problem with the car is the plastic very cheap looking bumper, it’s really in eye scour and it doesn’t look all that safe if you were to hit something at a good speed. Overall the car has a nice clean look to it; it doesn’t stand out either way- good or bad.
Inside
The inside of the car it pretty sparse, the “shifter” is on the ground and is easy to get at. The display (MPH, Gas, etc) is big and is easy to read. The other controls; heat, vents (no AC) and lights are easy to get at and to operate. The seats are what you would expect in a car at this price range, they are fine for everyday driving but anything after a couple of hours and they get really uncomfortable. And the backseats well, their small and tight. Any average size adult will have a hard him sitting back there for any amount of time… there’s no leg room at all! Much to my surprise the car does have a roomy trunk (for the size of the car). My mother had to get groceries with it once had had no problem getting it all in the trunk. All and all the inside is vanilla plain but it is functional.
The Ride
The rides very nice for a car like this, when the windows are up the car is quiet and not a lot of sound can be heard outside the car, (good for people how like to lessen to their music loud and don’t want others to hear it). With the windows down it’s a different story the car is very loud any wind at all and if sounds like your in a tornado. The car handles bumps to some degree but is on the ruff side. It handles nicely; I’ve had no problems weaving in and out of traffic. It doesn’t exactly “stick” to the road but it’s nice. In the winter with nice tires on it handles great (I live in Vermont). With ABS brakes you stop fast what more could one want? As far a the “performance” of the car well there isn’t any, the car has a 2.2 4 cylinder in it and it’s front wheeled drive, as a driving around town car it fine but at the ¼ mile you’ll get laughed at… badly (I know).
Other Info
After a year I’ve had to change the muffle and the brakes. The car is rusting on the bottom at the door panels, something I’ve seen them all do. Other then that it’s been a great car.
UPDATE I just had the car looked at and found out the brake and fuel lines are so heavly rusted there turning to dust. The cost of a repiar is around 600, too much to make it worth it. So it your looking at buying a cavalier make sure you look at the lines and as always never buy a car unless you have a pro look under it.
Amount Paid (US$): 1,500
Condition: Used
Model Year: 1992
Model and Options: base, Automatic
