One day Renée and I decided to check out this auction the have once a month that is open to the public. It ended up snowing like crazy that day but we went anyhow. I wanted to look for a cheap car for auto-cross racing. Since it was snowing so bad we didn't get a chance to look at the cars before hand.

Looked at the list of cars and seen the Bonneville. We didn't plan on sticking around for long just wanted to see what the auction was all about. We seen a few cars roll through, then in comes the Bonneville. I wanted it, without knowing anything about it. Once Renée seen it she said " your gonna buy it RIGHT!!!", money was a bit tight at the time and I had no clue where we were gonna park it since we only had one parking spot. Well bidding started at about 50$.

So I told Renée that I will not go any higher than 500$ for it. I got it for about 450$ before taxes and a bunch of auction fees. When all was said and done Renée took out her visa, yes she paid for it with a visa, kinda funny but not the first time I buy a car on Visa. After taxes and auction fees and processing fees and whatnot, it was about $890. Got it towed to the apartment where it sat for just over a year. I did put 2 new tires on it cause 2 of them kept going flat and if it looked like a car was sitting there the owners would tell you to get rid of it, but the super was really nice and let me keep it there. I would move it from one parking spot to the other.

Then shortly before we moved back in June 2003 ( so it was winter/spring) it went up for sale, it was listed at 1,800$ and I didn't wanna budge ( didn't really wanna sell it). Had a couple calls but nothing really serious.

Moving day came and I had a 27FT U-Haul and got the trailer to haul it back with, not a tow dolly but a trailer. Drove the entire 6 hours back following the car watching it the whole way. My dad drove the U-Haul with the car in tow.

It sat in the yard till around late October when I finally decided to get it into the garage to see how much to get it back on the road.

First bill was just over 2,000$, which got it on the road, then it had gone back just about each week since then and it was a few hundred $$$ each time. Bugs are finally getting worked out, and the car is really improving. The torque it has now is amazing compared to when it first went on the road.

All said and done including purchase of the car we spent about 5,000$ for it, but 90% of that was repairs. So we have allot of new parts on it and we know more about it.

I get to drive it once and a while on weekends since I am out of town for work, so Renée gets to enjoy it just about everyday. She knows when something is not right with the car, and tells me

" she is not running like she should be, I think she is getting sick", LOL. Yes she calls the car "she" or "her". They laughed at the garage( friends) but I told them, yes the car is a she, just like any woman, does what it wants, never listens and always has an attitude. Renée didn't like that too much, but the guys thought it was funny.


Sorry for the long post but you asked for it, LMAO

I got mine from a dealer who didn't know what he had. He had it listed as just an SE. Lucky for me I knew it had the SLE option. I got the car for $2000 under blue book

Very similar to my story, it pays to do research and know what your looking for!