Love it or Leave it?

[bobgto65]

I own an '02 SSEi that I purchased new with all the goodies including the moonroof. It now has $194,000 miles on it. The engine is original and runs well. It burns a quart of oil every 4000 miles. It gets 24 on the highway, Recently, I put a lot of money into repairs (over $3000) including an A/C compressor, brakes, parling brake lever assembly, rotors, transmission work (valve body replacement), and various other mechanical work.

But it still needs a cat converter (the inside sort of disintegrated) , one of the front wheel bearings will need replacement soon. The passenger heated seat is not working. I do a lot of work myself but have not had time to fix that. The biggest problem is the body. It has the rust through problem below the gas door on the quarter panel. And the rear bumper will probably need to be replaced as well as the left TL lens that is scratched badly. , and a couple door dings on each side. The interior is very nice. Whe I bought the car, I bought an extra set of front SSEi floor mats and I put them in a few months ago, but the black stitching was not done well and most of it already pulled off.

I am guessing that the whole car will need to be repainted to make it look good and with the rust repair, that will cost over $3500. Then with the extra mechanical work, it is getting close to the value of the car and I am still left with an 11 year old car with 194,000 miles on it.

I bought an '09 GXP and I was planning to make that my daily driver and sell the Bonneville, but it only has 8400 miles on it and with only 1829 made, and the fact that it gets only about 15-18 miles a gallon, I am keeping it in the garage most of the time and still driving the Bonneville. I think the GXP will have high collector value as it is a 6 speed manual. I drive about 15,000 miles a year.

So I am sort of thinking about keeping the SSEi vs selling it and getting a low mileage 04 or 05 Bonneville GXP for a daily driver. I sort of like the look of the 04-05 better without the 'batman' lower trim, and these cars are so comfortable to drive on the highway.

We had an '88 Bonneville SSE before I bought the '02 but my daughter totaled it

So the question is should I put in another $4000 to make it look nice again, or sell it for about $3000 as is and put some extra money into getting the 04-05 GXP?

[crash93ssei]

Just how bad is your paint? I would be willing to bet that with a good detail it would come right back to life and cost a fraction of $3,500. The rust sadly is very common to the 2000+ Bonneville, either a new quarter panel or cut / fiberglass / paint to fix it.

If the car is very reliable and you don't hate it, I would put money into it and keep driving it. You already know everything about it as far as history goes and if you buy something else you won't, not to mention that another vehicle would also need maintenance eventually and overall just the vehicle alone would cost much more then it would cost to fix this one.

[sandrock]

I bought an '01 SSEi for 800 bucks I believe it was. It was good for parts when I bought it, but what made me sink money into it was there was not a speck of rust anywhere on it, even on the filler door area. Since then, I've dropped....

$2100 in engine rebuild. That included performance porting of the heads, new tensioner, new pullies, new accessories...anything that would cause an issue was replaced/upgraded.

$600 in interior refurb. That includes a new console, stereo, headliner, floor mats (new factory), a GXP cluster, replacement vents, and a few other things. And I still have a ways to go with that.

$500 in body panel replacements. 2 doors, some trim, the ground effects, low mile headlights from an '05 SLE, new passenger mirror. Still have a few things left to get.

$470 for new rims and tires. Low mileage swoops from a 2000 SSEi and 85% tread tires.

And now I am doing the paintwork.

I've dropped some serious coin into this car, and I still have a ways to go...probably another 2 grand before I call it finished. That's more than most people are willing to spend, but I look at it this way: The car is paid for, the styling is still catchy, there will never be another new Pontiac, and to get a brand new car with the options I want, the color I want, the style I want...all the things my SSEi can provide...would cost almost 4 times as much as what I've got into the car.

Honestly, the stuff you mentioned that is wrong is pretty common on these cars, and none of it are absolute reasons to off the car. Fix it up, mod it, do what you want and how you want it. Save the GXP as your weekender and keep it stock.

[ga93sle]

Drive it until the wheels fall off.

[wjcollier07]

I'd love it. An 04-05 GXP isn't going to solve your headaches, and might actually make them worse.

Thing is, you get to a point where...the car will be ready to do another 100,000 miles easily. There's no mistaking that there are some common issues with the car, the front hub bearings, the transmission, engine mount, and some window regulators, but if you have the parts replaced with high quality parts, there's no reason that you'll need to duplicate the repair soon again. Everything within reason can be fixed...can amazingly, it usually works out to be less than a car payment and cost of insurance on a new car, etc. Since you already have that GXP, I'd probably baby that, as much as possible, since that is a limited edition import, and will have desire years from now.

If you like the Bonneville still, keep the Bonneville, love the Bonneville forever.

[94SilverSSEi]

Yup. All of our cars have gotten to that point. You have to make a decision. Do you want to put the money in and drive the car for another 100,000 miles plus or dump it?

Seems like between 150-200k a lot of thing start needing replacement but then you are good to go for 300k and beyond.

That is if you can stomach the repair bills now


IDK if you have ever seen that commercial of the old car with money flying out of the vents, well thats how I see my car and a lot of the high mileage cars, once you stick some money in they start paying you back.

[Hotwheels]

I'd hang on to it....with used cars, every purchase has some degree if risk due to the "unknown." You've had it its entire life, know its history and maintenance, etc - that alone is worth something. And with a freshened tranny etc., its ready to go many more miles. I'd bet you could get a rear bumper, taillight and fiberglass 1/4 panel repair done + a good detail for well under $1000, as well as the heated seat and wheel bearing if you can do the work yourself. For the cat - just have a exhaust shop put a universal-fit cheap one in for $100-200.

For around $1000, you could have a real nice, reliable second car that you know the history of - you could easily drop $5k into a different second car that might be more of a risk reliability-wise with an unknown history. And it would give you less headaches than a Northstar GXP. I'd stick the money into it.

[Bugsi]

If you can seriously get $3000 for your SSEi with the problems it still has, I'd consider selling it for $3000 and buying another one in much better shape from harofreak00. If I lived anywhere near Minnesota, I'd buy all my used Bonnevilles from him. Seriously, his "Bonnevilles brought back to life" threads blow my mind.

[yonkerse]

I would fix what's required on the car and keep racking the miles on it. Rust is very costly to fix (as you know) so keep the car in good shape mechanically and it will serve you well.

I agree with Ryan (Crash93ssei) with a good detail. I bet that would revive most of the paint issues for a fraction of the cost.

[bobgto65]

Thank you all for your advice. My biggest fear in keeping it is that after I put all the money into it, then some ***hole hits the car and it is totaled. Then the insurance will only pay the book value and if the damage if more than that, I am s.o.l.

[94SilverSSEi]

That is always a possibility but there is a risk with everything.

Who's to say that 04 GXP u might consider getting, blOws the engine a week after buying, you'd be out a large amount there as well.

I would save just save all your receipts and paperwork and if something comes up maybe that paperwork will help the insurance pay more.

[DrOlds88]

Drive it as long as possible with just the basic repairs. If some idiot runs a red light and totals your car then all the hard work will be for nothing....the money you would spend to repaint and fix rust would be better saved towards a newer daily driver in the future.

[bobgto65]

Well I decided to love it for a while longer but I am going to leave it in May or June. I picked up a nice Graystone Metallic 2004 Bonneville GXP in New York with a little over 32,000 miles, garaged since new, driven for the last 5 years by a 74 year old lady, and the price was right (9K). It has the HUD and heated seats (drivers is broken but I will fix it soon). No Homelink or Moonroof. She gave me the original window sticker and all the service records.

After I drove it back to Maryland, it did not pass inspection because the tie rod ends were bad and the fog lights and license lamps were burned out. (But not the fog light ground wires so I just replaced the bulbs - read the fog light thread - and left the back covers open) She also did not do a great job parallel parking because the wheels all had a bad case of curb rash. I got it through inspecton. The original Goodyear tires are starting to dry rot, so it will soon be wearing new Continental Pure Contact Touring tires, and because it has that annoying highway speed vibration, the wheel repair place is going to use their Hunter Road Force Balancer to put the best ones on the front. OnStar is digital so it still works. They gave me a free 3 month trial. I don't miss the moonroof because the one on my 02 leaked and rattled and the front left drain coupler came apart under the floorboard when I tried to blow out the drains.)

Andrew from Bonnevilles Unlimited sold me a nice roof console with the Homelink for a great price so that is now installed (Yes they did make that for the cars without the moonroof). Andrew is out of them now but you can actually but the Homelink console one from GM if you want to spend almost $300. And I plan to put the plain leather steering wheel on because I don't like the fell of the plastic/leather combo on the GXP (it is going in storage and is not for sale). Other mods will be mainly replacing the radio with a CarPuter with solid state drive that boots up in 10 seconds with Windows 7, 7" double din Capacitance Touch Screen, AM/FM HD radio, external DVD drive, back-up camera, Sirius/XM radio (with a 2005 antenna going in the roof and good bye to the rear glass cell antenna), Garmin PC Navigation, Centrafuse front end software, Steering wheel control module, Bluetooth, OBDII port monitoring, Wifi using my Droid 4 as a mobile hotspot, a wireless mini keypad/touchpad and several remote USB ports. Most of the stuff is in and sitting on my desk. Once I start the project. I will take lots of pictures and post them.

I will be contemplating a way to prevent the rust below the gas tank door. I do miss the kick from the supercharger and even though this Northstar engine is rated 35 horsepower higher and has taller gears in the transaxle, I don't notice a lot of difference in acceleration. The gas mileage is about 10% lower then the 3.8 supercharged engine but is does drink regular gas so that's a wash.

After the electronics is done, I will sell the 02 SSEi

[1tinindian]

I'd love to see pictures of your Bonne GXP, sounds like a unique car without the sunroof.
And the low miles are almost unheard of.
I hope it serves you well.

Leon

[bobgto65]

I will post some pictures by the end of the week.

[00Beast]

Pics of the G8 are a must, as well.

[nos4blood70]

It's manual too.

[SSEiMan01]

Holy *shoot*, another GXP guy!

Yes, pictures please! Black GXPs are sex. Like Liquid Red ones.

That G8's mileage makes mine look old too!

[bobgto65]

I will post some G8 pictures and some of both my Bonnevilles by the end of the week. The G8 GXP is hott, I was trolling cars.com for about a year for both Bonneville GXP and G8 GXP and in December found the G8 GXP with 7377 miles at a GM dealer in New York. Seems the original owner didn't drive it much and traded it in for a new CTS. The salesman said I was the second person to call and the first was in California, and he couldn't get financing so they were waiting for his mom to cosign the loan and told me to call the next day. I called four times the next day and finally convinced the salesman to speak to his manager and they agreed to sell it to me. I wired the money and picked it up a week later. They took their time taking it off Cars.com and the salesman said they were getting several calls a day for the car, But I think I 'stole' it for $32,700. It has every option and when they popped the trunk open as a bonus there were two 12" subwoofers and a 500 watt amp that were included in the deal. I was going to make it my daily driver but it has such low miles and the gas mileage is pretty bad so now it will be my Sunday driver. Sucks to have no spare tire, just a can of spray goo sealant that expires in 2 years and an air compressor.

Still needing a daily driver to replace the 02 SSEi I found the Bonneville GXP on Cars.com in March (see my previous post) and it was well worth the 9K.

I am taking some time off during the summer to finish my mods to both

I notice several members owned Bonnevilles and G8's. My wife and I I have been driving only Pontiacs since 1967 (63 LeMans, 65 GTO, 78 Sunbird, 80 Sunbird, 86 Grand Am, 88 Bonneville SSE, 96 Firebird 6 cyl, 98 Grand Prix

Bob