I'm in the market for a SSEI 1999 or below - what is the best year and what are the problems I need to look for? What should I be prepared to pay for a nice car with fairly low or moderate miles? Can you service the supercharger, change the oil or anything?
Thanks

*** Moved from Mechanical ~ Kevin ***

KBB or NADA should give ya a good idea on what you are looking at for a ball park on what you may pay for one. As far as what problems they have for 92-99 look in the forum under the model year of 92-99 browse through there and that will give you a general idea of the problems that that body style has.
otherwise Danthurs would be the guy to talk to or Bill Boost they definately know the issues with that body danthurs has a 97 ssei.
yes you can service the supercharger and the oil change on it is easy. there are tech write ups on those items in the tech section

I would suggest nothing older then a 97 if you want to get in to performance. 97+ can be tuned, older then that it'* harder to do, 96 can be tuned with DHP, but not HPtuner. 99 has a better set of heads, 97 has had some problems with micro cracks.

Basically u want/need/gotta have a 00+ my friend.LOL but i gues im a partial.

Which year is best, can come down to what you'd like.

98 or 99+ would be my suggestion. Many Bonnevilles suffer from water leaks. Keep an eye our for rust if you are in a non-tropical climate and it helps to know the car/owner.

97 had a pcm that was a one year only. 98+ the pcm standardized. 96-97 were supposedly the cracking head years, but I've seen cracks in 01 heads as well. Basically if the motor runs good, don't worry it doesn't develop into an issue unless you are sending them in as a core on aftermarket vendor heads. A rebuilt transmission would be nice as it should have some of the upgrades and a hardened 4th clutch hub.

Where are you located?

I'm curious as to why you want a car that'* 10+ years old? No matter what the miles, unless it was kept in a garage, it'* gonna have issues. I'm also biased to the 00+ plus for a couple of reasons. The exterior styling is one of them, I think it looks more sporty than the 99 and older. Also, they have more options, and can be had for little dough. I got mine with 60k on it for $9k.

I think outside of a black '02 SSEi named black pearl, the '99 SSEi is the best looking model. I imagine you could get a decent one for 3-4k. You won't see under100k miles though. Look up threads

Well, I would suggest buying a 96-99 if you want to do any performance or aftermarket modifications. I was able to pick up my '95 SSEi (which means it has a supercharger) for a mere $1400 and thats with 60,000 original miles. The only reason I say to get a 96+ is because performance parts for the series 1 3800 are rare and the series 2 engines are more powerful than the pre-96 engines.

Keep in mind the 96 has a few limitations when compared to the 97+ The 96 has a weaker transmission, and a slightly limited option for tuning the PCM.

what about the 95 se and sse'* with the series II - are they worse than the 96'*?