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Pontiac Bonneville
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Comments
Ken
Not to belabor the point about torque but the SHO I had had nearly the same HP at 220 but couldn't accelerate out of its own way in 5th gear because it had NO torque, just an amazing ability to use what it had all the way to 7000rpm. That and the 5 speed stick gave a very impressive package as long as you weren't trying to pass someone in 4th or 5th gear and even 3rd at times. If I wanted to pass someone at 50 or less, I had to use 2nd gear.
My prayers have been with the victims and their families. Since they found those firemen today, I hope we have more miracles as well.
Stacy
Sorry - but it is not worth the energy to try and be more eloquent, I dont have the desire to out-desribe the media and the slew of adjectives.
There is no distinction between being a Canadian and being an American right now. We are all brothers - and I cant express my pain.
Our family has been destroyed - and we will try to go on.
God Bless All - with the exception of the perpetrators and their supporters. For them, I have no mercy now - and hope I can forgive in the years to come all those that foolishly felt this was a "just" act on behalf of their beliefs.
Dennis
Thank you Stacy for your concern. I'm glad my biz trips are by car these days. No interest here in personally verifying the new 'safer' flying routines.
God Bless America
Ken
PS - Canadian commentator Gordon Sinclair has penned eloquent and much appreciated words of encouragement for us here in the US. Nice to know our Canadian friends care.
You'll also see in the Globe and Mail site coverage about a noon-hour memorial service which I attended here in Ottawa today. Your Ambassador to Canada and our Prime Minister led the country - and the 100,000 of us at Parliament Hill - in three minutes of silence. It was very poignant. It was also the first time in my life I have ever sung the Star Spangled Banner - I surprised myself that I knew the words. A tribute, I suppose, to the many years of following the New York Mets during the Tom Seaver days.
BTW, GM of Canada has pulled all of their advertising and has replaced it with full page ads expressing sympathy for the US victims. Very dignified and incidentally the only auto manufacturer to do so.
Here's the actual text of the Gordon Sinclair radio piece
Pat
Host
Sedans Message Board
Dan - thank you for your concern and that of so many other Canadians. This attack happened on US soil - but it sent a strong message to the rest of the world that terrorists can operate anywhere they want. Civilized people everywhere must stand arm in arm against those who would rob us of our peace and security.
I was amazed on Fri evening at 7:00 - heading home - to see car after car parked on the side of Rt 95 - the major north-south interstate - passengers standing outside their cars holding candles and observing a vigil for the victims.
Flags are everywhere. On houses, cars, overpasses, buildings everywhere of all types. What a display of patriotism - I've never seen anything like it in my 46 years.
God Bless America
Ken
6 hour long waits outside blood banks . .
offers of assistance - all sorts . . .
and this from my industry . .
I deal with 6 of our locations that are continually having "parts" flown up from US vendors for rush situations - to solve machine down and cranky customer calls.... no one wants their fridge not running
anyways
it is routine that the day ofter they place their order with us, the customer will call and start enquiring as to what minute their part will arrive. each delay (by the hour) and they get more demanding etc etc . .
we didnt get one call last week from a customer asking when and or if their parts from the states would arrive - not a single one.
sounds like something minor in the scheme of things - but from the people we deal with on a daily basis - they did a 180 personality change with the realization that planes etc were not travelling , and American companies were not focusing on us, but elsewhere . . .
just another small link in the chain that joins our two countries . .
Anyway, I'm sending the address in case any of you can pull it up. I imagine it will work with either Real Player or Windows Media Player.
http://www.whoradio.com/mickelson/Banner.wma
I was over at my parent's house today and did listen to it on my mom's computer.
Good luck if you can get it to work!
Stacy
All in all, I found it to be a moving piece. While all this has been going on this past week, I got The Patriot out and rewatched it. When I saw this email, I guess it affected me more because I just watched the movie a couple of days prior to the email.
When you read about the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, Britain is now our greatest ally and has been for some time.
Its time for me to talk Bonneville
I brought mine into the dealer yesterday for last service prior to wty expiration. Mileage is 34.8K and the car is fantastic. While there it received oil and lube, brake pads up front and rotors resurfaced (under wty - thank you GM) as well as solve vibration up front that started after last rotation. New tires will be needed sometime before the end of the year.
I also had them install (finally) the SSEi stabilizer bar that Mark gave me in May. Wow does it handle nice now. Cornering is definitely improved and the car is just as steady and smooth as a rock.
I'm enjoying this car more now than ever.
Thank-you Mark!
Ken
Well anyway - it's in now and I've got an SE on rails! I've squeeled the tires a couple times trying out on ramps at decent speeds. Not that I will be driving more aggressively now - but just testing the feel - car corners with grace and stability.
Tires will be the next thing. I'm considering the Goodyear Aquatreads that people seem to post positive comments on. Not being all that knowledgeable about tires I am open to suggestions - requirements are to be quiet and smooth riding but capable in snow and rain.
Take care and thanks again.
Ken
I've got 3100 miles on my car and will be getting an oil change pretty soon. Everyone talks about Mobil One so guess that's the way to go.
Stacey: Mobile 1 is the way to go (IMHO) to cut down on engine sludge and wear on internal components but don't expect any noticeable performance improvement. For instance, my mileage has not budged since I switched to synthetic at 9000 miles. Nor is the car any more free-revving. Of course, I wasn't expecting any performance improvement.
Stacy - how long have you had that GP for now? Seems you don't drive as much as some of us here - those 3100 miles would take me about 5 weeks to accumulate. Hope you're as happy with your car as can be. Enjoy it and be glad for the little pleasures of life, like a new car.
Ken
I got my first ticket in 14 years so have pretty much been sticking to the speed limit although I may go 5 miles over. I don't want another ticket as my insurance company only insures low risk drivers.
Ken, maybe in my next life I should be a mechanic. How they could take two hours to install that bar with the use of a hoist and air tools is beyond me. Oh well, it's the end result that counts and I'm glad you're happy.
As I posted in the "mod" section, I just ordered the front bar for mine from Saner. I'll probably get the bar before I get my car back as it is still stuck at the moron Pontiac dealer in Sanford.
Mark
Sorry to hear of the miserable service here. It's situations like these that give GM a bad rap (deservedly). Shouldn't happen to anyone - just plain ineptitude.
Ken
I stopped by today and they said the first oil change was free. I need to schedule an appointment so I'll just have to see if it's free or not. I'm reserving judgement.
Granted this isn't a serious problem but it will let me know the kind of service department I'm dealing with.
Autowire - a review of the 2000 SSEi.Speedvision Online - a VERY positive review of a 2000 SLE. I particularly like the following passage: "I was prepared not to like the "Bonne," given my mind-set about GM products and Pontiac's tendency, in my humble opinion, to overstyle its vehicles. I was pleasantly surprised. This is a nice car." Hear hear.Weninger Motors - close-ups of a badly damaged 2000 dark bronzemist SE with airbags deployed. I wonder if the dash top separates like that for all deployment of passenger-side bags.
Vintage Bonnies:
1963pontiac.htm - I like cars 5 and 25. Get a load of this interior shot.Pontiacserver.com - jpgs of ads for older Pontiacs - including Bonnevilles from '58, '60, '61, '65 and '69.kingoftheroad.net - some guy's two-tone green '58 Bonneville. Do yourself a favour and check out this time-lapsed shot of the interior going from light to dark - it's worth the wait to load.ephemeranow.com - nice ad art of a 1960 hardtop. Don't visit this one first.pontiac58 - this car is a beaut! This one became my new wallpaper - simply gorgeous! Some nice interior pix on page 2 as well.1959 red Bonneville convertible - neat pic, nothin' special that I could see.justwheels.com - small pic and brief description of a number of Bonnevilles through the ages. Has potential - not there yet.compression ratio calculator - neat. this guy also has a gallery of vintage ad art (incl. a few Bonnies a neat '73 Grand Am).
And finally....
Norwegian fan page - this guy loves American cars and has the best collection of US car wallpapers I've seen in a while! There's one of a '58 Impala that's to die for. This site's a gold mine.
BTW, haven't the side air-bags deployed too? Should they?
Dan - If you come across more pictures of Grand Prix's from different years, could you post them? (Particularly from early-mid '70's) Thanks!
It will be good to get it back because somehow, the old Caravan doesn't quite get it after driving the Bonneville. My goal now on the Caravan is to hit 200,000 miles which it should do if the transmission(3rd one) holds up.
I saw in the Chicago Tribune that Olds is finished in 2004 but that the Aurora V-6 is done in 2003. Hope that isn't bad news for the Bonneville, LeSabre, etc. On this last trip out to Maine, I didn't see one on the way out although it was dark for about 7 hours. I did see 3 on the way back including a maple red one about 5 miles from my house. I do like that color. I also like driving a car that you don't see everyday but I'm a bit concerned that we don't see enough of them and that their future is cloudy.
Mark
I'm not sure why they would discontinue the Bonneville. It's a nice looking car.
I've been shopping around and it's been really hard to find one here in truck country (FYI, Texas). I'm afraid I'll have to ask the 3 local dealers to find one elsewhere. I just hope it doesn't hurt my negotiation edge.
Is a couple of hundreds above invoice per Edmunds fair enough or should I try to push below invoice?
Thanks again, y'all have been awesome!
Ordering one in will cost you a few hundred extra and yes, it does hurt your ability to negotiate - unless you're not fussy about delivery time. If you give them a few weeks, they'll be lever the next request THEY receive from another dealer and just trade from inventory. That way, they can avoid having to compensate the other dealer. At least that's how it works up here.
Or go to GM.com and search dealer inventories until you find one with YOUR car. I know that the GMCanada site works well this way - I know more about the inventory than the salesmen did. In the states, I think you have to go to GMbuypower to check out dealers' inventories. Hey, why wouldn't you?
Anybody else out there use buypower and can help evandro?
I used GMBUYPOWER to look around for specific colors etc, but ended finding the closest match at my local dealer. They told me that I could have negotiated for any of the vehicles at the surrounding dealers (based on buypower search) and they would have gotten it for me.
We love our Bonneville, and after 6 months of ownership we wouldn't change our decision to buy this vehicle.
Good luck
Go for it evandro.
The dealer told me that the car will be delivered to it, instead of another dealer. I was told that there'll be no extra transportation costs, just the usual destination fee.
Even checking all dealers in a 100-mile radius at GM Buy Power, I just could not find the one I want. They were either fully loaded or stripped. By fully loaded I mean with sunroof, a no-no for me, a 6-6er. That's the only option I don't care for, as the SLE has very few options.
Fortunately, the TMV finally showed up for my ZIP code at Edmunds and it's already printed! That's my upper limit.
GM's new low rates are very attractive, too!
Y'all be well!
What color are you getting? I had my heart set on Redfire for the GP but wound up getting the Dark Bronzemist. The Redfire I looked at didn't have any options and the Dark Bronzemist had the option package that included 6 way power seats. I wound up choosing the power seats over color. Now that I have it, I really like the color. I get a lot of compliments on the color as well.
Hope you get your car soon!
Stacy
P.S. My dad never got around to the bug screen. He got busy with other things so guess that's something he'll get to down the road. He's 70 so doesn't quite have the energy he used to.
Nevertheless, as you pointed out, I'm very excited! I've been showing the Bonnie's brochure to the family and measuring the garage. Silly me...
:^)
One important thing: it's genuine American metal!
I've driven white cars for 20 years and wanted a change this time. It just so happened that most of the GP's I saw were white (in the SE trim) and that was the one color that I didn't want.
Talk about American, Ken asked about tires awhile back and Michelin tires came with my 91 Grand Am when I bought it. Those were the best tires I've ever owned but under the circumstances didn't recommend them--figure we need to help our economy more than ever now. I'm sure he knows that Michlin are good tires anyway. Once the tires that come with the car wear out, I just buy the tires that Sears runs sales on for about $25 each. These are for 15" tires and I don't know if you can find good deals with 16" tires. Sixteen inch tires was another thing that came with the option package I got. I bet I'll be looking at $75 per tire.
Anyway, that galaxy silver looks really good on the Bonneville.
(Right now, extended warranties seems to be the main discussion on GP. I never buy the extended warranties and don't know anything about them.)
Goodyear tires came with the GP so I'll have to see how many miles I get with them. It will be awhile before I need new tires. (I hope!)
Evandro - Galaxy Silver must be the most popular color. I've seen far more of that color than any other - and accross the model line up too. I think Bonneville is about the best looking car in silver there is. Sounds like a winner!
Ken
Anyway, they are Goodyear P225/60R16 BSW STL Tires. I figure there's a good chance those are the sames tires you got for your GP. How does that break down? Are those All Season Touring/Grand Touring? I'm curious in case I'd like to get the same tire in another brand. I can tell the 16 in there stands for 16" but I'm not sure what all the other abbreviations stand for.
Thanks,
Stacy
225 = Width
60 = Percent of width that is tall; i.e; wall hieght
R = Radial
16 = Wheel size
I'm sure I'll be making a Christmas purchase where I'll use Consumer Reports so will check out tires then.
I was a little worried that replacing one tire at 6000 miles (we shredded one against a sidewalk) would pose some uneven wear problem and I wonder if that brief appearance of a vibration was due to that.
One way or another, a good argument for regular tire rotation.
Tirerack.com has a tire decision making guide that walks you through the tires that are available for your car and the wheel size. It asks you questions about winter driving and then asks you to rank handling, ride noise/comfort, and treadlife. I ranked those 2,1,3 for the GP but I'd probably go 1,2,3 for the Bonnie.
It goes beyond that and really helps you narrow down the choices. I did this already with the GP GT (I was considering moving to 17 in. wheels for the summer and keeping the 16's for snow tires). I kinda like what I read about the Continental
ContiTouring Contact CH95 but I hadn't completed my research and now may just go through this winter on the LS's (given that they're rated OK in the snow).
Tirerack listed our LS's at $83. You MIGHT be able to find a better tire at that price - but I doubt it. Stay away from Goodyear GA's - a lot of people report poor wet-road traction after slight wear.
My brother and sister-in-law live in Los Angeles and are frequently in Boston - and had previously taken some of the targetted flights. Man, I didn't want to know that.
I tried Michelin as well in tirerack and some came up for around $90. I'll also look into the Continentals that you mentioned.
Once I narrow down certain tires, I'll do a comparison.
I've been in rain situations where I've hydroplaned before and it's kind of scary. I say that because I've never driven in snow. I imagine you can get into all kinds of bad situations driving in snow. Anyway, I do want a tire with good traction.
Thanks for advice!