WOW!!! I never would have guessed there were so many people into the Bonneville. I'm glad I stumbled on this. I have already discovered a bunch of great info.

I have a 2005 SE I bought a year ago. It was a former rent-a car. I never would have thought about buying a Bonneville, as I am a truck kind of dude. I now have two little kids and I can't put car seats in the truck, so I had to get another vehicle for when i needed to be their taxi driver. My father in-law has a used car lot and said we could have anything on the lot for his cost. The car that had the best of what I was looking for ended up being the Bonneville. First of all, it had room for the kids and is very comfortable. It has decent power, gets good mileage, looks good, and the 3.8 has a great reputation. And as a bonus, it cost much less than those boring Camrys and Accords. The depreciation on it was ridiculous. I guess because it was the last year they were being made. :(

So far I'm happy with it and really like to drive it. The only thing I have done to it is tint the windows and buy some better looking wheels. I have had to take it in for an AC problem and the driver door leaked, but they were covered under warrany. I hope to do some more to it as i learn about performance possibilities on here.

Ok, sorry about being a windbag. See y'all around.

Kent in Tallahassee, FL

Welcome!
Man, if you're buying a four-door for a family car, you got the right one! The Camry and Accord are no where near the size of the Bonnie. They're both Mid-size cars, the Bonnie is a full-size, and it shows. Huge back seat, lots of room for kiddies.
As for performance, it just depends on how much you want to spend, and how extreme you're willing to get. You can do anything up to and including a complete L67 swap, or a turbo build, or nitrous. It'* all been done. Have fun with it.

welcome

Welcome. As far as a family sedan goes you also have to love the huge trunk space.

Great choice.

Thanks for the welcomes. I really do think I made a great choice for a family sedan.

No doubt about it, the trunk is awesome. My kids love to play in it. They really get a kick out of crawling in and out of the little hatch between their seats.

95SLE, I saw the picks of your car. Looks really nice. I wish there had been an SLE on the lot when I bought mine. Where did you get the wood grain for the dash? I'd like to do that to mine.

welcome.

You can look at it from another angle too....when they are old enough to drive the car will be the right age for a begining driver, and its big so you dont have to worry about them as much.

enjoy the madness

Welcome to BC. Many of us stumbled in here, and have never left. And as far as being "into" a bonneville, some of the real nuts are having a meet right now in Florida. See the "Eastern" meets section for info.

Thank you for the compliment. I purchased the dash kit from Joshua Tree. Not the cheapest but a pretty easy kit to install. One of thoes projects that can drive you crazy because you only really get one good chance at installing it perfect. All in all it went on easy and was fun to do.
http://www.woodtrim.com/

Thanks for the heads up Bob!