Well its been quite the love affair, about 6 years that I've owned my bonneville. I bought her with 62k on the clock and now she has 187k. She still runs, and runs strong but I have to let her go. Don't get me wrong I love how roomy and comfortable the car, I will probably never find something that compares in that department. And I was very happy with the mileage I got which was a consistent 24-25 on the highway. BUT... the car breaks down all the time, has horrible horrible brakes, and just has too many little problems to keep up with.
Here'* a list of how much has gone wrong over the 6 years. Plus it helps me to vent about my decision to get rid of her as I'm still not 100% ready to kick her to the curb :(
Interior water leaks since the day I bought it. (real bad smell and wet carpet)
Rear doors leak when it rains
Replaced the intake manifold gasket plus the upper manifold.
Replaced coolant elbow (still leaks though)
New MAF sensor
Hunt down for vacuum leaks
New rear brake hardware kit (adjustor let go and destroyed drum)
Replaced OE radio with another OE radio (lights went out, upgraded to monsoon head unit)
Replaced front passenger side wheel bearing
Replaced front struts and rear shocks, new FE2 springs all around (stiffer)
Fuel pump broke as it was at the alignment shop, so add a tow bill to that repair bill.
The 'NEW' intake manifold gasket failed AGAIN so I replaced that with the supposed new design;
at that time I replaced the coolant elbow since it was right there (still leaks though)
OE radio lights went out again. (not replacing it this time, got sirius instead)
Replaced the crankshaft position sensor because the car broke down randomly (intersections mainly)
Two front brake jobs including rotors. Calipers were fine.
Brake line burst
Replaced water pump
Replaced belt tensioner (spit belt while on highway, great)
Replaced belt
Two sets of spark plug wires and plugs
Two power antenna units
Countless flat tires
Out of control power driver seat (pushes me into the dash at random moments)
Intake manifold gasket failed for the THIRD TIME. (Finally got a new stovepipe and did it right. Coolant elbow still leaks!)
Brake line burst again
Replaced passenger side Axle (autozone gave me wrong part so add a tow and $250 for dealer fix)
Replaced A/C compresser (cheap chinese part broke 3 months later, still works but grinds loudly)
This was the time where I just had enough. Right now its sitting outside. I still haven't fixed the noisy A/C, the power drivers seat or the leaky doors. I always said I would sell it when the tranny died but that never happened! The TC shudders sometimes but it never broke. Even now I comtemplate keeping her but I know the next breakdown is coming, its just a matter of when....
Thanks for letting me vent. Gonna go drive my honda pilot now