2000 Pontiac Bonneville SLE review from North America

Had no problems the first year, but once it hit about 40,000 miles it went to crap.

40,500 miles: Front right wheel bearing went bad. $228.00 (I've never heard of bearings going out this early)

48,200 miles: Right rear window stopped going up/down. Dealer wanted $300 to fix it so I took off the door panel to see if I could fix it and found A TREE Limb sealed inside the door. Also noticed the cable to the motor was broken. Called Pontiac Customer service and didn't get an answer for two weeks. Answer finally was, "sorry, out of warranty, not our problem". Service rep actually laughed at me. Three days later, the left window quit. Opened it up. Didn't find a stick, but same broken cable. Unplugged motors and bolted window slides in the "UP" position.

50,200 miles: Front right steering tie end went bad. Dealership wanted $185.00 to fix it. I went to NAPA bought the part for $36.99 and replaced it myself in 10 minutes.

52,228 miles: While driving down the road, the "Check engine" idiot light came on. About the time I thought to myself, "What now?" the car died hasn't moved an inch under it's own power since. Been at the dealer for two days. Haven't heard from them.

The car is a great looking and drives great when everything is working. However, this no one should have these many problems with a modern car. My former car was a 98 Intrepid ES and the only thing that ever went wrong was the rear view mirror popped off the windshield. (3.99 to fix) When I traded it for the Bonnie it only had 123,000 miles.

In addition to the major defects in the bonneville it also eats those odd size tires like candy $135 each, gets terrible mileage in town (24 highway, 19 in town), has headlights that cannot be shut off while running, has traction control that cannot be shut off, (even though if has a switch), and every time you open the door in the rain, it dumps a handful of water in your lap. Little things, I admit, but annoying, nonetheless.