Overview & Reviews

User Reviews:

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  My Chevy - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By My Chevy - June 24 - 8:50 pm

  I never expected to drive this car to over 194,000 miles, but its amazing what you can do when you change the oil every 3,000 miles. Ive had the fuel pump replaced, 2 fuel injectors replaced, and the alternator replaced. Not bad for this many miles. Never had a problem with starting it up, even in the dead of winter. But the best thing is probably that I can still get up to 33 mpg on the road. And thats with a 6-cylinder 3.1 liter engine!

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  Cheap made vehicle or a Chevy - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By Chris - April 28 - 4:57 pm

  This was the worst vehicle I have ever owned. Spend extra and by foreign. In my opinion GM is more worried about quantity then quality. I have had to replace a headgasket,two ball joints,Wiper engine, Service engine stays on because of the fuel. The only thing good about the 97 Lumina is that GM switched the paint used on the older Luminas that did not stick.

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  1997 Chevy Lumina LTZ - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By Petey - April 26 - 10:47 pm

  Bought the car in 1999 w/ 63000 mi. on. Managed to get to 160,000 miles on it before giving it to my kid after drivers ed. It managed to get 2 1/2 more years out of it. Got to 183,000 before head gasket went. Only repairs in 6+ years was a water pump, manifold gasket, tires and fluid changes. Always started for me.

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  3.1L need I say more - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By snake11292006 - April 24 - 2:37 pm

  My girlfriend bought this car a little over a year ago and it was a very realiable car until about a month ago. The frist thing was the intake gaskets had to be replaced at about 115000 miles. We got the car back and it ran fine for a 3 weeks when a new leak devloped. Took it to a shop and found that the timing chain cover was leaking. So that will be another $350 to fix. If you dont want to sink a lot of money into a car then dont buy one with the 3.1 or the 3.4 they have nothing but problems.

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  very disapointed - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By very disapointed - February 23 - 10:51 am

  Very expsensive car to own. I have had this car just a short time. 121,000 miles when I bought it, and in less than 6mos I have made some very costly repairs (close to $2000) with some repairs labor free because I did some myself. intake gasket, egr valve, catalytic coverter, trans flush new brakes. the check engine light comes on everytime I fix one thing something else sets light on. I really think this is a good example of a modern day disposable car. If I could aford to, I would just throw it away to the junkyard where it belongs. poor engineering altogether. Just a legal lemon, and a piece of junk.

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  Great reliable car for the money - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By Jason - December 29 - 3:26 pm

  I bought this car from first owner at 105,000 miles. Owner had previously replaced alternator and performed regular maintenance. I currently have 160,000 miles on it. This car had never let me down. Gets great mileage for a car this size. Intake manifold gaskets developed the typical leak on the 3.1 engine and I replaced them myself (I am ASE Master auto tech). AC is cold and transmission shifts smoothly.

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  Small things gone wrong - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By colorfularies - June 9 - 8:24 am

  I bought this car 4 years ago and it had 90,000 miles on it. I just needed something to get me back and forth to work in. The car was nice looking, had great pick up and rode strong and smooth. No problems at all the first couple years. Soon the white paint started coming off, and after a brutal winter with snow and ice storms, my car was left with patches of grey primer showing through all over the vehicle Ive seen other white Luminas with the same problem. I had it repainted a few months ago and now it looks brand new. A defect in the paint that GM should fix. Ive had the radiator, AC compressor, alternator, and water pump replaced.

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  Not to bad for an old car - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By Phoenix - February 12 - 1:55 am

  Bought it with just over 97,000 miles on it. Put on about 10,000 since. But after about two weeks of owning it the engine would heat up very fast but after continuing to drive it for about a minute straight itd go down until at an idle stop. Had a cracked cylinder head, worn hoses and cracked water pump. Then about a week after the A/C had a slow leak for a few days until it was dead. No money to fix and was moving to Phoenix! Still never found out what was wrong with it but dont want to spend the money to fix it. 2 months into owning it, engine runs very rough until driving at freeway speeds or engine is warm. Wont last me long but overall a good car, would be great if no mechanical problems

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  Reliable engine, leaky - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By drea - October 24 - 2:42 pm

  I bought this car from my mother who bought it new. It has almost exactly 193,000 miles on it and I just got the death sentence for it. It has been leaking coolant, which is common with the Luminas, for probably the last 60,000 miles. The coolent has finally leaked into the engine parts causing random misfiring. It has tranny problems. This car had terrible brakes. I constantly was replacing brakes and rotors. It had suspension problems. In addition, it had annoying electrical problems. The drivers window stopped working, headlight electrical problems, cruise broke, no left turn. This was all electrical, not fixed by replacing bulbs. It was never fun to drive. Bad turning radius

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  Fuel Efficient - 1997 Chevrolet Lumina
  By KaiserM715 - January 4 - 4:10 pm

  This car was purchased used with about 24k miles and currently has about 96k. This has been a very fuel efficient car , better than many smaller cars. Has been pretty reliable (have replaced alternator at about 36k, replaced water pump at 75k and had intake manifold gasket replaced under warranty at about 73k).The only other items replaced have been normal wear items (brakes, hoses, belts, etc).