I've posted a fair number of questions over the last couple of years to this forum and would like to thank everyone who helped with what amounted to free advice for someone who knows his way around a car, if not the specifics of a Bonneville.

Unfortunatly, my 1992 Bonneville logged it'* last mile last week. Specific cause unknown, but when the engine makes heavy slamming sounds from the lower portion of the engine .. you know it can't be good.

Final tally 212,090 miles. I drove this one for 10 years almost to the day and put 162,000 miles on her.

Never had any major engine work or transmission work ..

oh well .. the fine folks at the dealer now have something to wholesale.

As for me, I've sort of jumped ship and bought a 06 Toyota Prius .. an interesting proposition considering you put down your deposit, wait a while and than get it .. with only an email with the name of the ship and anticipated port entry date on it for company.

Thanks again .. I'll probably buy another Bonne or other GM large body car for my wife soon .. I have yet to figure out why they seem to lose their value so steeply .. for certain years ..

(if anyone cares for reason for the prius .. if you run the numbers .. there is a $3150 federal tax credit and $850 Kansas state credit for these cars, that and the increased milage + their resale value of late .. I basically drive the car for free for the first year (near zero tax liability and resale value .. only have to make up sales taxes).

Satsuke

Just do me a favor and promise to drive intelligently in your Prius. I just recently started a 24 mile highway commute to work every day, and hands down the Prius drivers are the biggest idiots on the road. It doesn't help that California lets them drive in the carpool lane without actually carpooling. Maybe it'* just the yuppie culture out here, but it seems like I'm always getting cut off by an idiot Prius driver chatting on her cell phone while balancing her vente mocha latte in her lap, oblivious to trafic around her. So just promise to drive intelligently, okay?

OMFG!!! Thats all I can say, a prius? I know that I will get a ton of hate replys for this but I don't care, here in Michigan, the "Motor City" you would be out cast. I am sorry but that truely makes me sad, everyone wonders why the big three are suffering, theres your sign right there.

they may be one of the ugliest cars on the road, but hey they reliable and with all the incentives and tax credits/cheap gas/cost of gas now it is a great investment

Once gas hits 4 bucks this summer a lot of people will want to go from v8 to hybrid

Yeah you are right, but I can't bring myself to do that personally. I love my gas to much, and buying a ricer, well I would rather walk..........

its hard to buy from big 3 when they have nothing good to buy.

I don't know about this thing being a ricer .. I always reserve that description for the kids who take things like an Acura Integra or a Civic and put all sorts of body kits and exhaust sound tuners on them.

As far as the Prius, yeah ,. it'* a different sort of ride from my bonneville . the first time I drove one i wasn't impressed, back when it was based on the Toyota Echo frame.

Now they're more like a downmarket Lexus than anything else ..

As far as how people drive them .. I am more than aware that it is a smaller car than bonneville .. I didn't get the whole navigation package and cell phone integration stuff for that very reason .. the frikin thing already has a TV built into the dash.

Another difference I've noticed is the way the gear head forums work for Prius' and GM .. the ones I've found are almost entirely what they do with the car, and almost nothing about the technical aspects of it.

Granted there is almost nothing you can do with them at the moment work wise. You can change the oil, but not much else.

On my old bonneville ,. I tell you what, the engine was the last thing I was expecting to have go bad. Come to think of it, it might have been a timing chain come off ,. though than I don't think it'd run at all.

212,000 miles with no non-routine maintenance is doign well by any standard.

For my new car ., lets just say it'll take some getting used to, especially not having the nominal wind up of the engine when accelerating (they use a planitary gear arrangement for power transfer .. sort of like a torque converter and transmission in one unit .. needed because the gas and electric motors can be used at the same time .. hence the ~75HP gas engine and 25hp (but really high torque)electric.

I really think that in 10 years the automotive landscape in the US will be completely different. I think we'll see most production models capable of running E85 .. and gas / electric hybrids available as an optional powertrain on most segments of the market.

I don't know if I like GM'* initial hybrid idea though .. the Vue will be the first passenger car ,. and it'* electric motor isn't big enough to actually move the car.

yeah I would have to say out any fourms I have been on this is site is by far the best.

Its hard to buy a import when the look like they were beatin with a ugly stick!!!

Totally............... Also, I reserve the term ricer for anything that can be run on rice, IE anything Japaneese, Korean or whatever.