2001 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi review from North America

Day after car was delivered we realized the front passenger door would not close properly. This was a sign of things to come. It was fixed under warranty.

At around 40000 miles, a plastic part on the electric sun roof broke. We were told an entire new sun roof assembly was required to fix it. Of course, it was out of warranty. It works OK without it so we did not spend the $1500. My wife is afraid to use it now for fear it will break in the open position.

At around 65000 miles we paid $1000 to have both front hub bearings and tie rods replaced.

The dash lights work intermittently.

Power windows on both front doors and one back door began working intermittently at about 70000 miles.

At 75000 miles the front passenger window and rear passenger window both failed. One makes noise, the other doesn't. We will take them in for repair tomorrow. I expect it to be several hundred dollars.

I wonder what will break next.

We bought this car because we wanted something larger than our old Ford Probe, but we still wanted a sporty car.

The Bonneville SSEi seemed the perfect car.

We love the styling, performance, and handling of the car, but it is simply not reliable.

We paid nearly $34000 for this car in 2000. It is now worth about $13000 on trade.

Next time, we are buying a Honda.