The good, the bad, and the ugly

I bought this Bonneville used in 1997 with 20k miles. For the first 4 years this was a dream car. I should have sold it in '01. The durability of the interior trim is poor. The speaker grills have fallen off, as have the coverplates for most interior lights. The sun roof has leaked leading to mold behind the headliner. Yuk! That stupid cupholder in the center console broke off 3 times under warranty. I finally just cut it off. The lid latch on the center console broke off twice, so I finally went to velcro. Last, but not least, the gray paint on the buttons for the climate control and the steering wheel radio controls started rubbing off. Now I get this strange orange glow from my dash and steering wheel at night!

The trunk lid is poorly designed which causes water to run into the trunk whenever it is opened when wet. I had to replace the compressor at 90K miles, and get false "check oil" readings constantly.

I am now getting a code 1870 on my transmission and it does seem to have intermittent shifting problems.

I am disappointed because I expected to drive this car 10 years and get 175K to 250K miles out of it. My expectations were too high.