This is a car that someone should snatch up. A highly original 1996 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi, with the venerable supercharged powertrain that is known to embarrass performance sedans twice its size (slight exaggeration.) The Bonneville was once the pride of Pontiac in its sedan department, and sadly, they have all but disappeared from local roadways. This particular car benefits from some pretty heavy-duty recent maintenance, including a replacement engine and transmission! Find it here on Facebook Marketplace for $4,000.
All hyperbole aside, this would make a great daily driver for someone. The seller has also replaced the supercharger oil, engine and transmission filters, engine belts, plugs, and ignition wires. Sadly, it still has one lingering issue, and that’s the 4T60e transmission shift plate. The issue is that this likely impacts shift quality to a degree that the car is not particularly enjoyable to drive. What’s curious is why this wasn’t addressed during the transmission replacement, and does raise questions about the integrity of the replacement unit. The bodywork appears quite sound and green over gold wheels is always a good combination.
This Bonneville with its supercharged engine makes seriously good power and torque: 240 b.h.p. and 280 lb-ft of twist. This engine is a popular choice at local salvage yards for owners of GM products that wish to up the ante in their naturally aspirated vehicle; they often appear nestled behind the heads of Fiero owners with a slight death wish. Regardless, it’s a stout setup, and we’re surprised to see both the original engine and transmission need replacing. Perhaps it was abused to a degree that made an engine swap the only reasonable answer, but the body looks too clean for the Bonneville to have been sorely neglected.
Plus, the silver leather interior is also in very good order, suggesting it was looked after for years by an owner that wasn’t a teenager. It has just 141,000 miles and all the bells and whistles that came with an SSEi, including the head-up display, gold alloy wheels, an electric sunroof, and a premium sound system. The seller notes that it definitely still needs some sorting out, which includes recharging the A/C and addressing a leak coming from the sunroof. This is definitely a DIY project, but one that looks worthy of the effort.
What kind of toxic spill occurred on the dash near the center console???
The wording of the FM listing suggests to me that the owner replaced the engine, transmission, and supercharger oils, along with filters and belts.
I think it was just not grammatically perfect, but was the intended information.
That would account for the transmission shift plate not being addressed during a replacement.
No undercarriage shots. You need to look underneath , particularly where the front subframe mounts to the body just behind the front wheels. These cars rust there and if that is not attended to it , it can destroy the structure of the car. Then you will have a junkyard find instead of a barn find!
i have 7 of these. 4 drivers 3 for parts. the subframes on these where the mounts go are where they rust as does other spots on the underside. you have to pull the subframe and weld giant washers to take of the larger holes.150k this needs a trans o/h. which even if you pull the trans yourself it’s still 1500.00 to fix. more if hard parts are needed. sunroof leaks- most likely plugged drains. a/c not working- bad compressor and a round of tires. by the time you’re done you will have put close to 3k in it. how much damage is done from the water leak? these are great cars with good longevity. i thought about making the 500-mile run but after reading the listing it would not be cost effective. you would need to get this for about 2k-2500.00. in don’t see this guy dropping that much. it does look good in the pics, but what you can’t see can hurt you.
The only thing that would concern me is the condition of the unibody, as mentioned. The HVAC issue is most likely the evaporator core, which was ultra common on these to have them leak. Sunroof drains are easy to clear, and the interior looks remarkably good.
The transmissions suffered from “double bumps”, but this has likely been updated out of that already; there is no point in replacing the shift plate at 141K, just rebuild the transmission. A competent builder can easily do it – I could do it in my driveway, albeit slowly because I’d have to remember what I forgot. They eat water pumps, but a good quality one should last 50K.
It’s the right colour, the right interior, the right wheels. I don’t think the money is that unreasonable, but maybe the guy would come down a bit to offset a bit of the transmission work.
These were pretty nice cars to drive back in the day, and the 3800 is damn near bulletproof if all you do is change the oil. I like working on them during my Pontiac days.
You are completely correct about the 3800 being bullet proof. I only wish the transmission was as robust. When everything is working correctly they are a wonderful experience. Not a hot rod, but very satisfying car to drive. (power and torque wise) And a 3.8 supercharged engine in a Fiero should be a blast!
If I learned anything about cars. When they get over 100k miles. Stay far away. They become the proverbial money pit. Water pump this week struts next etc etc. yeah some will run 200,000 + but that’s after you invested the cost of another new car of parts .
That’s not a spill on the center console. Look again, it’s mold/mildew from the leaking sunroof. Also, since when has the supercharger oil been self contained? When you change the engine oil you have also changed the oil that circulates to the SC as well. It’s a single loop. Having owned all 3 generations with a supercharger, I nearly jumped into my shoes and grabbed a friend’s trailer! If it wasn’t for that sunroof problem it would already be in my stable. I’d steer clear of this one, imo