Insurance auctions and salvage lots are oftentimes great places to find potential enthusiast vehicles at a serious discount. Now, you’re not going to find a Ferrari or a survivor Fox body, but there’s plenty of interesting vehicles that don’t have significant value but are hugely entertaining to drive. This 1993 Pontiac Bonneville SSEI was apparently discovered at an insurance auction due to a damaged left rear door. That would be enough to total a car like this despite having years of practical use left, which is why it’s listed here on eBay as a parts vehicle with an opening bid of just $100.
This, to me, is one of the coolest cars of the 1990s. It represented so much that the era was about, with the wild body cladding, the twist-style alloy wheels, tons of whiz-bang tech in the cabin, tinted taillights, and more. The real magic, however, was the Roots supercharger that gave the SSEI 205 horsepower, and spawned an era of GM products that relied on the same supercharger to create borderline sleepers out of otherwise mundane mid-sized sedans. The other little details, like the integrated and color-matched mudflaps, remind us just how distinctive this era of automotive styling was.
The seller snagged this Bonneville as a parts car but then apparently began driving it, and realized it was in fine shape aside from the damaged door. The interior is in excellent condition with the gray leather showing little in terms wear and tear. The thickly-bolstered buckets are indicative of the overall presentation, along with the myriad buttons that control a variety of comfort and convenience functions. With 167,000 miles on the clock, this tells you that the Bonneville was more than likely looked after by a long-term careful owner, as interiors generally don’t look this nice with close to 170K on the clock.
The supercharged powerplant was generally quite stout and reliable, which is why you see these engines swapped into other vehicles or at least the supercharger assembly. Pontiac wanted you to know that this was a the top banana in the company’s lineup, with SSE logos everywhere, including on the hood insulation pad (which is also in mint condition.) The seller notes that due to how he purchased this Bonneville, the next owner will need to have it inspected and vetted as being free from damage given how it was purchased – or, you can use it for parts. Please don’t do that. Give this supercharged sedan a new lease on life! Thanks to Barn Finds reader Barney for the find.
That interior sure held up well 👍 😌
A 1990’s GM car with 170K miles and a salvage title is a “beater” in my book – but a beater with some oomph, nevertheless!
Don’t part out. Too many cool toys in this. It’s a Supercharger 3.8 v6 very quick. I wonder if the oil was changed in the Supercharger? Fixed the door. I know guys who could fix the a wrinkle on that door. I drove a Grand Prix with all the same toys. Yes it was Supercharge. And it was fast. Love the heads up display. I wonder why GM took it away. If this ride was close to me. I would be bidding to win and take it home. It is very comfortable in these cars. It would be fun driving from NY to Florida. I hope the next owner get it fix, and enjoy all the goodies on it. 😄
Despite that wrinkle in the door this Bonneville has held up well, inckuding the interior. Hope it gets saved, I know the miles are a bit high but the overall condition would make this a great runner.
Providing proper maintenance and not too many miles under maximum boost. This engine is bulletproof! I have seen them in unboosted dress, go several hundred thousand miles with no issues. AND give great fuel economy too boot. I’m not wild about the rest of the car. (Although the front seats look comfortable.) I keep trying to think of something light weight that the drive train could be installed in. Even if it was installed in the back seat! Third generation Honda Civic? No, too many hot rodded Hondas around already. Geo? 924 Porsche? (Their cheap and handle well.) Volvo 1800 ES? (Boy, that would be a tight fit!) Anyone else have an idea?
shame it on the west coast i bid to own it. these are hard to find anymore. i have 4 of them and they run forever
These things ate through rotors like crazy. Bad warping. I had 2 Grand Prix’s and it was the same for me until I stopped getting OEM parts and bought Power Stop cross drilled rotors and ceramic brake pads. All was well until Uncle Rodney came knocking.
Ort warped rotors are a pain. Wobbly as well, as you know. 😒
Very. Plus having to shell out cash for new parts and labor every 20K miles (or less) was a pain in the drain.
Composite rotors (especially the early ones) did have an issue with warpage.
However because of the cooling situation of the cast rotor and steel hub section. Many times it actually set up a pad material transfer onto the rotors causing a warped rotor feeling. I was able to prove it to my self first and then to a customer who complained continuously about the situation. I took him out on the freeway with his shaking under braking Taurus and took it up to 90 mph and I applied the brakes almost hard enough to set off the ABS and almost come to a complete stop. That hard braking burned off the residual pad material and all the shaking under braking was gone. Now this was back in the early to mid ’90s when brake pad material was still being perfected. You can still get some transfer these days, but not near as bad as back then. I just noticed a little on the wife’s car yesterday. So I will have to take it out and do a hard brake with it. AND sometimes you need to do it twice in a row if you have a severe shake. I was able to prove it by taking some almost dead composit rotors and machined them down to just below “legal” thickness and installed them on my wife’s Sable wagon. Because I knew that we were going to go over the mountain to Sacramento and I would have a chance to really abuse the brakes. I drove that car as fast and as deep into all the corners on US 50 and braking hard once I got there. Let off the brake and never touched it (usually accelerating as hard as I could for the next corner, again waiting until the last minute to brake and having to brake really hard. After almost an hour of racetrack style driving, (my wife and kids were used to Dad driving like a mad man) I never got any brake shake at all. I had a long discussion with an engineer from Raybestos and he confirmed my diagnosis. He also made an interesting comment about current brake pads. In the old days (before the ’80s) asbestos was a major component of breaking material. The harder you braked the faster it would wear out. Now days with the high metal content of braking material. It is no longer how hard you brake. It’s how long you brake. The longer you use the brake to stop, the more heat you build up. So the granny that starts using her brake 1/2 a block before the stop is using up more brake (and because of the heat more likely to get pad material transfer) than the kid who slams on the brakes at the last second. Just thought y’all might enjoy that little bit of info.
That’s a great answer, and great detective work. Wish I’d gotten that answer instead of “stop going through puddles when the rotors are hot. That will make them warp.” I thought, how the heck was anyone going to be able to do that while driving in the rain?
May be tough to do without a title. That’s usually what parts car means.
In Co you can get a title for it as long as you have the bill of sale and it hasn’t been reported as stolen. I had the Oldsmobile version of this for awhile. My kids called it the grandma mobile. It got great gas mileage on my 90 mile round trip to work every day. A it definitely didn’t have a problem passing anyone on the drive.
In Co you can get a title for it as long as you have the bill of sale and it hasn’t been reported as stolen. I had the Oldsmobile version of this for awhile. My kids called it the grandma mobile. It got great gas mileage on my 90 mile round trip to work every day. A it definitely didn’t have a problem passing anyone on the drive.
Not that easy in Ky. Doable but not easy. One would need to check their state and local laws. I’m only supposing that’s the issue of course.
I bought a 1990 Bonny SSE in 1999, white with saddlewood leather interior. Had all the gadgets with the incredible instrument panel, accessible radio/cassette controls on the steering wheel (climate controls included) Center console control for the seats as well. And the previous owner customized the car with nice 18 inch chrome rims. Tranny was good with the 3800 motor. I never had a mechanical issue with the car, and all I had to do was convert that crappy air shock suspension to a regular Monroe shock replacement. When I purchased the car for $3,000 at the time, I was still a young overzealous guy, I didn’t bother to have a mechanic take a look at the car before the buy. And before there was an internet convenience tool called “Carfax” I later on found out that my beloved Bonneville was involved in an apparent accident. When I brought the car in for an oil change one day, the guy who was performing the oil change knew of me when I first bought the car and asked me “Hey do you know this car’s been in an accident? Of course I told him that I was not aware of that. Her showed me the evidence to prove his claim and discovered that the car’s frame had been welded from the front end to approximately where the radiator lined up by the front frame. I could visibly notice the welding marks and not only was I surprised, I was embarrassed because I’ve owned several cars before owning that particular car therefore, I felt I should’ve known better. And the worse part of it all was that the welding on the passenger side of the front end was splitting apart. Discouraged, upset, and disappointed with myself, I eventually sold the car in 2001 to a local junkyard dealer for $75 and walked away in grief. I will always miss that top of the line pretty Pontiac with a Disability.
SOLD for 1K.