1999 Cirrus LXi randomly dies or surges.
 

We have a 99 Cirrus with only 62k miles which has gone through 2 distributors in the last 3 years (Is that common for this model?), The last distributor was installed December 2010, recently the car is randomly dying at idle or surging during city & freeway driving. It surges more often than dying.

When it dies It always starts right back up without issue, when it surges (bucking motion) all of the gauges shut off briefly (speedo goes to 0 etc.), the check engine light will come on for a few seconds when this happens but never stays on.

These symptoms are worse when the car is cold for example when first starting it in the morning theres a really good chance it dies just sitting there idling, after driving the car for around 30 minutes theres much less chance of these symptoms occurring.

Any ideas appreciated.

if u got cheap parts then yes its normal

I have no idea what parts were used the car was repaired both times at a shop (different shop each time) and the bill was between 800 - $1000 on each repair (replace distributor) we acquired the car after the 2nd repair.
Is there a known issue with aftermarket distributors? (if thats what was used).

yeah most are rebuilt and not new but that's also the price for not getting a brand new one that's is around 800 or more from the dealer.