Faults:

Not one thing excepting a minor manufacturer recall right after purchase.

General Comments:

I purchased this 2002 Pontiac Bonneville SLE new at the end of the model year in August 2002. I have now owned this vehicle for four and one half years and logged over 60,000 miles. This is the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. Other than oil changes and one minor recall, the vehicle has required nothing: no brakes, no tires (the 17” Goodyear Eagle RSAs will shortly be replaced), not even a windshield wiper. The vehicle is garaged and used primarily for high speed (60 – 80 mph) turnpike driving. It has consistently turned in a nominal 30mpg fuel consumption while driving on the turnpike. Around town the mileage dips to about 22mpg.

The seats are comfortable though not as much so as the 2000 Bonneville I previously owned.

My gripes with this car are few. The traction control system does not seem to work well. It is too easy to spin the tires duringn takeoff on a wet road surface. At turnpike speeds there is more wind noise than should be present in a car presented as an ‘entry level luxury’ vehicle.

My wife has a 2003 Lexus GS-430. One trip to the dealer for a 15,000 service cost more than all of maintenance in four plus years on the Bonneville. The Bonneville’s rate of vehicle depreciation is steeper than the Lexus’ but the amount of actual dollars lost to depreciation is more for the Lexus than the Bonneville at this point. I am not sure that the Lexus is any better with wind noise than the Bonneville, either. However, the Lexus does excel in one area: it accelerates like a demon leaving the Bonneville in its wake.

Faults:

The car would not start after only 2800 miles of use. We had used the car less than three hours earlier, and it functioned perfectly. There was absolutely no warning that there was a problem. It was necessary to have it hauled back to the dealership on a flatbed truck. It turned out to be an electrical problem related to the battery. The problem was corrected, and within a year we had the same problem. After the second occurence, it appears to have been permanently corrected. There were some other less significant problems along the way.

The biggest and most annoying problem is related to the noise in the steering column to which other people responding here have made reference. The problem has been addressed twice.

Presently, the problem appeared again after less than 3000 miles since it was last addressed. I find this situation to be inexcusable. We can put people on the moon, but we can't build a vehicle for use on earth that is more satisfactory. This is my second disappointment with Pontiac.

Our second car, a 1997 Grand Am was also purchased new, and I couldn't begin to tell you all of the problems we had with this car--so many that after numerous complaints to General Motors, they extended the warranty on the Bonneville for another three years.

I have never had a complaint with the agency from whom these cars were purchased and I have dealt with the same agency for over 35 years. I never had the problems that we have experienced with the last two cars purchased. I am now to the point that I am very seriously thinking about trying a foreign make car---something I thought I would never due because I believe in products made in the U.S.A. My patience has been exhausted!

General Comments:

The car looks nice and rides nice, but I expect that when a new purchase is made that I get a quality built product. From my experiences, this is not the case. I contend that until that until more Americans demand more in the area of quality, manufacturers will continue to produce inferior products.