Hey all...

So, I had reached a point of needing another reliable car that did not have a million kms on it (Bonneville 301,000, GP2 288,000), and being that it has been 9 years since the last Bonneville came out, and 6 years since the last GP, I had written off any chance of finding one of either that was fully loaded, and could meet the condition I desired...

So...alas...my search began with all kinds of platforms from the new Buick GS, through a new Camaro, Fusion...Altima...through the Caddy line...






Then...somehow, someway, as I parked up one of the VW cc 6 speed manual cars I had been out with on a test drive, a real big F350 truck pulled away and revealed something I never expected...



So, my first thought is..."sure, looks clean, but up close probably has 180,000kms on it, no options and probably owned by a young punk that beat it to hell since it has the ventshades, and I even noticed some projectors on it...but as any avid 3800 enthusiast, I had to ask the dealer how many kms. He was not sure, so while he went in to find out, and grab the keys, I struggled really hard to find a single flaw in this car. I was not even able to locate a scratch in the paint or door ding, paint chip repair, or anything. Seriously. Inside was the rare black leather, so she was a true black on black special edition GP, fully loaded including Monsoon sound. She is the L26 base powertrain, but I have a built L26/GenV engine that was in waiting in the shop to install this spring in my silver 2005, so it could be put here instead anyways. Investigating the under side of the rockers, flawless, like it barely saw any road salt in it's however-long life. Then the horn beeps as the dealer arrives with the keys...and says...78,000kms. Yep. So could it be true?

It was. How does a GP lover find such a car when he is not looking? Well, I did not much care. I drove it, it ran perfect. I had him stick it on the hoist right away to inspect below, and it was as I had hoped, so I bought it. He wanted $15,500 for it, I told him he was too high, offered $12k. He said no way, so I said too bad...then he said let me talk to my manager...and he came back with lowest he could go $12,500. SOLD.

Pickup this week, and cannot wait to move over my performance and appearance hardware from the silver one to this. Sometimes, a person can never predict what may come, but it is how you act when it does that makes the difference.








NOPE...The Bonneville does not go. It is my short trip car, and I will drive it until it goes no more. The silver GT2 becomes the winter car, unless I get lucky and find something better for snow, and then put it into the rebuild category.

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2000 SSEi - Hoddmann ported LIM and GenIII, 3.2 MPS, 1.8 SLP's, SSAC's, 3" Catback, AL104, 180tstat, Custom FWI, Cartuned

Nice find! Almost reminds me of a Comp G with those rims. I dig the body cladding alot though! My mom has an '07 Supercharged GT model but doesn't have that flare out on the front spoiler and the piece under the rear bumper doesn't have those grooves.

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-Nick
'95 Grand Prix SE coupe 'Black Betty' gone but not forgotten- my 1st love
'99 Olds Alero GX Coupe the get me by beater- sold
'03 Bonneville SSEi 'Gina' Feb. '16 COTM | 35% tint | smoked tail lights | boat roller mount | carbon fiber accents | Silverline exhaust tips
Ziebart rust protection & undercoating | CompuStar Accustart | LED interior lighting
Intense shift kit | Intense FWI | 3" ZZP downpipe | RDI headers | 3.4 MPS | Autolite 104s | 180 deg t-stat | custom tune | ZZP high flow fuel filter | alum coolant elbows and LIM gaskets | much more to come…hopefully
'15 Buick Regal 2.0 Turbo AWD 259 HP | 10k miles | 2-way remote start | undercoating and window tint to come
'98 GMC Sierra SLE Z71 4x4 | 112k miles | S&B intake | garage ornament | more to come

Nice score!!! I wanted the Special Edition fascias so bad when I had my 07, but they were stupid expensive...

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*Chris*

15 Nissan Altima 2.5SL/2004 Honda Shadow 750 Aero
Previous, 07 GP SE, 06 GP GXP, 97 SSE 40th, 96 LeSabre Custom, 93 SLE, 90 LeSabre Custom

What an amazing find! Looks terrific all black. I think all it needs are some more aggressive looking wheels to match the rest of the car.

Nice! This is kinda how I found my GXP way back yonder. As I was leaving another dealership, that I had just pulled in, to turn around at, as I was waiting for traffic, I saw it's nose peeking out among the cars in the front row. Slammed the vehicle back into reverse to go verify, and sure enough, a GXP!

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Retired Bonneville Owner and former GM Tech:
2004 Pontiac Bonneville GXP: Black/Ebony *SOLD*

Summer Toys: Combined 827 RWHP / 877lb/ft RWTQ
2004 Pontiac GTO: Impulse Blue Metallic/Black/M6: lots 'o mods, 415 RWHP / 405lb/ft RWTQ!
2006 Cadillac STS-V: Light Platinum Metallic/Light Gray/A6 - Spectre CAI, Magnaflow exhaust, Speed Inc. tune, 412 RWHP / 472lb/ft RWTQ

Daily Drivers:
2019 Chrysler Pacifica Limited: Mommy's new RGC
2015 Chrysler Town & Country Limited Platinum: Kids new RGC
2007 Chrysler Town & Country Limited: Sold to neighbor
2009 Pontiac G8 GT: L76, Sport Red Metallic
2003 Chevrolet Suburban 2500: Doeskin Tan - 8.1L Big Block... new plow truck
1999 Chevrolet Suburban: Sunset Gold Metallic - Daddy's winter beater and plow truck

I like the black on black and thats crazy low miles. Those spyder headlights though have some *shoot* projectors in them. Don't go well with hid's fyi, the cutoff sucks. Otherwise it looks really good!

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-Austin-
1988 LE, Intercooled L67 loading......

2000 SSEi R.I.P. Dead now :( INTENSE FWI, polished LIM, P&P supercharger, custom radiator, standalone trans cooler, trans-go shift kit (donating to the 88)

2002 2500HD Silverado with the 8.1 Vortec and Alison tranny. Likes to eat GT Mustangs and lots of tires, and all while stock!

Isn't it always like that, you never find what you're looking for until you aren't looking for it! Nice score!

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1998 Olds LSS/L67, 92K miles, Intense FWI, SSAC headers, 3.2 MPS, cat delete, 180 stat, AL 103's, HPT.
1996 Olds Eighty Eight LS/L36, 146K miles, mostly stock
1997 Olds LSS/L36, 95K miles, raided for dent free parts and sold
1989 Bonneville LE Gem (sold)
1987 Bonneville LE (retired)

I wondered about those, and if they were any good. Good thing you mention it, I was going to slap my HID's in this weekend...might reconsider and test them first in the dark.

As for the wheels, well, since the silver machine has deteriorated to the point of having to stay home instead of going to car shows without some fairly chunky investments to make it look 100% again, the wheels from here, which have looked awesome on both the Bonneville and GP so far for many years will grace this new ride...along with the carbon fiber Inferno hood and it's own custom aluminum expanded grilles of course...and I have zero intention of following the Ontario front plate laws with this new one.

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2000 SSEi - Hoddmann ported LIM and GenIII, 3.2 MPS, 1.8 SLP's, SSAC's, 3" Catback, AL104, 180tstat, Custom FWI, Cartuned

Im not sure if its a GP thing for the headlight or just hit and miss. My friend just got the same ones for his 08 gxp and it's terrible, he also has ebay hid's but im not sure if that would effect it really. On the other hand another friend and I found some spyder ones for his avenger in the JY thAt have great cutoffs and were adjusted great. He is just running a standard h1 bulb though. Food for thought yours could be fine who knows.

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-Austin-
1988 LE, Intercooled L67 loading......

2000 SSEi R.I.P. Dead now :( INTENSE FWI, polished LIM, P&P supercharger, custom radiator, standalone trans cooler, trans-go shift kit (donating to the 88)

2002 2500HD Silverado with the 8.1 Vortec and Alison tranny. Likes to eat GT Mustangs and lots of tires, and all while stock!

Nice ride! Those Spider headlights are known to be awful in the GP community.

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-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 247k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 98k miles

Well I will test them out, and if they suck, will talk with Spyder about why they suck....maybe I can get them fixed.

Anyhow, couldn't really care if they came with projectors or not, I am just glad the car is mine...

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2000 SSEi - Hoddmann ported LIM and GenIII, 3.2 MPS, 1.8 SLP's, SSAC's, 3" Catback, AL104, 180tstat, Custom FWI, Cartuned

Congrats!! And yeah, I'm not a fan of the headlights, and if they're known to be crap, well that's another nail in the coffin, lol.

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Bye Bye:

RIP sandrock

I came across this one a while back, but I never bothered to post it. A little older, and marginally more miles, black on black GTP for $7400 CDN. A salt free west coast car by the looks of it.

http://www.usedvictoria.com/classified- ... x_21847645

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1998 Olds LSS/L67, 92K miles, Intense FWI, SSAC headers, 3.2 MPS, cat delete, 180 stat, AL 103's, HPT.
1996 Olds Eighty Eight LS/L36, 146K miles, mostly stock
1997 Olds LSS/L36, 95K miles, raided for dent free parts and sold
1989 Bonneville LE Gem (sold)
1987 Bonneville LE (retired)

Yeah, thats a decent find as well, anything with minimal salt exposure. West coast cars do get plenty of rain, so are sometimes attacked by rust if not washed often. You would be surprised how many just like that showed in person 5/10. I had looked at dozens before giving up, then just got lucky on this one.

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2000 SSEi - Hoddmann ported LIM and GenIII, 3.2 MPS, 1.8 SLP's, SSAC's, 3" Catback, AL104, 180tstat, Custom FWI, Cartuned

So, already adding the personal touch...my MasItaly President's are on it now...



Grilles front and back for making it unique...





As always...there will be much more to come...

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2000 SSEi - Hoddmann ported LIM and GenIII, 3.2 MPS, 1.8 SLP's, SSAC's, 3" Catback, AL104, 180tstat, Custom FWI, Cartuned

Nice ride! Congratulations! - BC

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In Memory of Brad - 1/21/1977 .. 10/23/2013 ...... Aaron - 1977 .. 2017 .....
2017 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport ..... 1992 Bonneville SSE 1SB 170 HP L27 4T60E retired/sold to MattStrike ..... 2005 Bonneville SE 1SC 205 HP L36 4T65E - retired/salvage yard ..... PBCF user 2321

I like everything about it except those headlights, my friend had that kind on his passat and the output was terrible. Where did you get those lower grilles?

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-Ryan
2004 GTO....LS1, LSA supercharged 525whp, 6MT
96 SSEi...September 2010 COTM........GONE
04 GTP comp G.... December 2015 COTM........GONE
2013 Audi Allroad Quattro

Excellent! Much better with those wheels than the ones it came with!

I can say I drove it the other night, and was not at all happy with the cutoffs as was said here. They look real pretty, but thats probably all. May just be bolted in for shows...

As for the grilles, I always keep a half sheet of expanded aluminum in stock in the garage for my car projects, or anyone that gets work done with me. I think they are a simple install that make a huge difference. You can find it at your local metal supermarket, then cardboard template and cut to fit.

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2000 SSEi - Hoddmann ported LIM and GenIII, 3.2 MPS, 1.8 SLP's, SSAC's, 3" Catback, AL104, 180tstat, Custom FWI, Cartuned

Nice find and you've got it looking better already! I love those Special Edition versions!

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2004 Bonneville SLE "Bonnie the Ghosthawk" or the 4dr Firebird...Gone but not forgotten


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