2004 Pontiac Sunfire consumer reviews

I've had this car 3 years now and I've been very happy with it. I bought it new for under $11,000.00 US and for a car of that price it's served very well. It handled as well as could be expected in all sorts of weather, the manual transmission gave me lots of flexibility for driving up steep hills. On the down side, the back seat was a pain to get in and out of, the seat release button is not intuitively located, and even though the seats fold down, the trunk and door apertures are rather small. You could haul a lot of small boxes, but you will have a hard time moving any single medium to large item like a large office chair or new air conditioner in the box.

In August of 2006 I got the 2004 Sunfire (SE) Edition off a good dealer in town. I paid a good price and thought it was a good price, BUT then it went down hill from there. The car smelled 2 weeks after I got it and it was cleaned. Up until January 2007 the car was cleaned 6-7 times professional. I know its not the car fault (Well the material is cheap so it can't be cleaned so yeah it sort of is), but the previous owners covered it up from the dealer OR the dealer themselves covered it up. Anyways I got it at 19,100 and put 8,000 (95% from the highway) miles on it. Overall the car is stylish, but its not great at all. The Eagle Sport tires that come with it are junk also. I had to replace those 2 weeks ago with some nice BridgeStone Fuzion's. The suspension is horrible on this car and you feel every bump. The sunroof will evently break on you like it did to me also. I mean if you need a car to get around the city then this is great, but if you need to travel 100-200 miles a week then pay the extra thousands and get a better car. Now I know why Pontiac discontinued the car in 2005/2006. It's plain junk! The dealer is allowing me to trade the car in because of the smell and all the problems this car has caused me. So I am looking to go with another Pontiac model or Mazda, but like I said before....pay the extra thousands and get a good car like a....Mazda 6 s.

The car has pretty good pick up, corners fairly well and is reliable. After 9 months sitting in a garage my Sunfire required only a cable jump and a little bit of air in the tires.

At 20,000 miles had to have head gasket replaced, I'm lucky it was covered by warranty. At 21, 000 miles front brakes had to be replced. This car is 5 spead manual transmission, I don't brake a lot, I usually down shift. I feel I should have got at least 35, 000 miles before new brakes. Most of my driving is highway miles, very little traffice miles. There were other items that I had to have repaired, but they were small and I expect that with a new vehicle.