I was thinking of the idea of maybe putting a check list together for future reference. Say for instance, I own a 95, and I noticed down the street, someone is selling a 97. It would come in handy to have a list of known and repetitive problems with that particular year, model etc. If having a list, it may discourage me from purchasing that model. Or, vice versa. What say ye?

Opinion on:
I'm not so sure that that would be as useful as it seems at first blush.

With a couple notable exceptions, most potential problems that seem to occur more frequently on one model year or another are just that - potential problems.

How would we really define what defines a model-specific problem?

Then, once you have listed all the potential problems that may or may not happen to a specific car year, what would that really do, other than make us all think that we should sell our cars and buy something without all the potentials layed out in front of us.

An example of this is the dreaded UIM/LIM Gasket failures. Almost all of us would concur that this will surely happen sometime in the lifetime of your NA SII 3800s lifespan. Even so, while the general consensus is that you should expect to replace these approximately every 50,0000-65,000 miles, there are some here who did not experience this problem until well in excess of 120,000 miles and more. And it is possible that there are some who have yet to exhibit symptoms with many, many miles on them (though I admittedly can't provide you with and example).

Based on that info, you might choose to buy a supercharged 3800, only to find that you've got to rebuild or replace the supercharger.

I'm certain that there are those that will disagree with these opinions of mine and I have no reason to stop your concept, I just feel that you should choose a car based on the reasons you bought a bonneville in the first place.

One more small anecdote and I'll stop blathering on.

Years ago, I purchased a new Toyota Tercel because It was touted to be super reliable and trouble free by, among others, Consumer Reports. Short story....continuous problems throughout the whole time I owned it and while my daughter used it for school. Many times when we were stranded by it and many thousands of $ in repairs in the 10 years we had it. I sold it with less than 150,000 miles on it for $250 because I couldn't bring myself to unload it for more unto an unsuspecting person.

Point being...there ain't no perfect car and each induvidual one will be different, even if they were built the same week in the same plant and are the same model with the same options.

opinion off....

Yeah, a list that could be perceived as "here'* what wrong with your car", while ebing helpful to the "veteran" memebers, wouldn't exactly inspire new visitors to join. Or, potential buyers to jump in.

I think it would kind of give the site a negative feeling. Those of us who've been here for a while would know better, but a potential member/owner might look at it and think "Geez, they're just here to bitch about their cars"

Plus, if I remember right, we get checked on once in a while by Pontiac themselves. How would that look to them???

The troublesome Bonnie problems are already listed as stickys in the proper places and a list of TSB'* already in General Northstar Sticky (a good portion pertain to all models)

this is not too bad of a thing to add to the photo catalog...i want to add info as well as pics...the site has come to a lull!!!