1995 Pontiac Bonneville SE V6 3.8 Series 2 from North America

Summary:

Buying this car is the best decision I have ever made in my entire life

Faults:

When purchased, the front driver-side brakes and rotor needed changed. The reason I think for this is because of neglect from the previous owner.

I have trouble sometimes telling how much gas I have in the vehicle due to the gas gauge increasing and decreasing when speeding up and slowing down.

General Comments:

I have, on more than one occasion, achieved 400 miles on a full tank of gas.

It has awesome handling as if it was a train on the railroad.

It's interior, mine is all leather interior, shines like new and has not started to wear at all.

When I started having the brake problem, the electronics in the vehicle came on when it seems to have been the start of the problem and alerted constantly of a danger within the braking system.

The trunk space is enormous. You can probably fit another engine or two in the back of it.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 19th October, 2004

1995 Pontiac Bonneville SE 3.8 SERIES II from North America

Summary:

Affordable luxury and performance at it's best

Faults:

The gear selector light is not lit, so I can't't tell which gear I am in.

The oil pressure gauge is below 40 psi at idle at normal operating temperature. I changed the oil and replaced it with Castrol High Mileage 20W50 and that didn't help. The car had used about a quart and a half of oil in about 1500 miles is about a month. I thought that was excessive.

The Amp gauge floats into the red and flickers when the turn signal flashes. The car sometimes dies. I remove the alternator and had it tested and it tested fine.

The air condition will not hold a charge for more than two weeks, but cannot find a noticeable leak.

General Comments:

This car is a very nice car and handles real smoothly and hugs the road while cornering.

The interior is classic cheap Pontiac plastic, but very comfortable and the interior is extremely roomy to seat passengers and driver comfortably.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know

Review Date: 7th July, 2004

1995 Pontiac Bonneville SE 3.8 Series II from North America

Summary:

Best vehicle on the road

Faults:

Purchased the car with a blown transmission and had to replace it. ($400) Replaced the alternator at 185000 miles, harmonic balancer, water pump, idler pulley, and belt because I didn't like the way the factory models looked.

General Comments:

I love Bonnevilles. My first car was an 86 Bonneville which I sold because of some minor problems.

The Pontiacs have always been dependable and reliable.

This car handles like a champ.

Gas consumption is minimal as well.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Yes

Review Date: 2nd June, 2004

3rd Aug 2007, 11:19

The 1995 Pontiac Bonneville SE is the best car I have ever had. It handles better than most cars on the road today, and at 189,000 miles on the origional engine, I can't complain. Bought it from private party for $875 with emaculent interior. I love it.

1995 Pontiac Bonneville SE 3.8 from North America

Summary:

Not Fun To Own

Faults:

Outside of normal wear and tear:

A/C compressor froze up causing the engine to stall. ($1000 worth of fun)

Breaks required **lots** of attention.

Electric harness under driver's seat kept causing short-circuits blowing 2 fuel pumps ($450 each time + 600 to do the harness)

ABS stopped working after 60K (never bothered to replace the module that would run over $1500 p&l)

Interior trims and seats wore out rather quickly.

Power steering pump was on it's last breath at 90K.

A/T went out right after I sold it making my buyer one unhappy customer ($1500 to rebuild it).

All that to a car that was purchased for $10,000 and sold for $2,000.

General Comments:

This was my second Bonneville after owning 2 Pontiacs 6000.

Never again -- I have learned from my mistake and hope this can help others avoiding such mistakes too.

The car was expensive, unreliable and difficult to fix. It had a mind of it's own and it was working only when it wanted to work. Parts were not so cheap and getting anything done yourself required lots of patience.

The car had a very strong engine, but at a high gas cost. It sucked gas by the bucket. (~14 mpg avg)

Although marketed as a performer, the handling was very poor. It took a while to get used to it, but it never was truly matched to the powerful engine.

Inside, the car was very roomy and comfortable however, unless you had the top of the line seats, it was very hard to adjust them to a good position -- being 5'9" I had a hard time seeing past the steering wheel.

Overall, the car was powerful, comfortable, but highly inefficient and unreliable not making it fun to own.

Due to poor design, unreliability and lack of refinement, I decided never again to buy a GM product after subsidizing AC Delco and every mechanic for over 15 years with some serious CA$H.

Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? No

Review Date: 17th May, 2004

22nd Jun 2004, 12:38

Maybe you did something wrong. I am on my third Bonneville, my first was a 1988 Bonneville LE that had 160,000 miles on it when it was totaled. Then I got a 1992 Bonneville SE that had 170,000 miles on it when I decided to get a 1995 Bonneville SSEi that I currently have with only 55,000 miles on it.