Family Car with Style & Performance

I recently rented this 2001 Pontiac Bonneville.
I didn't think I'd like it at first and to tell the truth
it took me several miles driving in it before I did like it.

This sleek four door sedan has style and a sporty look.
It comfortably seats two in the front and three in the back.
It handles like a dream and corners very well.

While I did say that it seats three in the back seat, I would
not want to be the person seated in the middle. The seat back
sort of sticks out in the middle where the arm-rest comes down
at. It looks like it would be uncomfortable on a long drive.
There are three point over the shoulder and across the waist
seat belts for all five occupants of this car.
This car even has child safety seat anchor points built into
the back dash to make installing a child seat easier and safer.

The 2001 Bonneville has four airbags. One airbag in front
of the driver and one side airbag for the driver. One airbag in
front of the front seat passenger and one side airbag for the
front seat passenger.

It's V-6 3.8 liter, 3800 series engine has all the power that
you could want to get out into highway traffic.
You can expect to get around 26 miles per gallon on the highway
and 17 miles per gallon in the city.

The trunk of this car is huge. It's long and wide but not too deep.
It has enough room for the luggage of five adults. The trunk lid
is large and opens high and out of the way.
An optional Convenience Net can be purchased to divide the large
trunk into to prevent your load from shifting around while you
travel. You'll find the trunk release button located in the dash
glove box.

The instrument panel has an (optional) Driver Information Center
that will light-up messages if you have a door ajar, trunk ajar,
hood ajar or even the gas tank cap loose.

It has the usual analog gauges like the fuel, tachometer,
speedometer, oil pressure and oil temperature gauges.
However I didn't like the placement of these gauges.
They centered the fuel and temperature gauges along with the
gear gauge in the middle of view and placed the speedometer
too far to the right were it is obscured by my right hand
at the 2 and 3 o'clock positions and the right portion of the
steering wheel.

Several times while driving I had to remove my right hand from
the wheel and crane my neck to see how fast I was going.
The odometer and trip counter are digital and take some getting
used to. They also are blocked from view by the steering wheel.
One neat feature I liked playing with is the E/M button.
This stands for English / Metric and when pressed
it will convert the speedometer, odometer and trip counter read
outs from the English mile to the Metric kilometer.
The hazard warning light flasher button is prominently mounted
in the dash above and a little to the right of the radio.
You can't miss it, especially at night. It is illuminated when
the headlamps come on.

One feature I'm not to wild about is the placement of the battery
and main fuse box under the rear seat. You have to remove the
rear seat cushion to service the battery and fuses in the main
fuse box. I wouldn't want to try that on the side of the road.

The car has power windows, power door locks with child locks,
power mirrors, cruise control, radio/cassette player with optional
CD player, radio theft-deterrent features, visor vanity mirrors
with lights, an optional passenger compartment air filter system,
day time running lamps, fog lights, and remote keyless entry
system with panic horn button and trunk release button.

The air conditioner didn't blow very hard, but the heater will
burn you right out of the car if you don't keep an eye on it.
There are vents in the rear for the back seat passengers.

The car has three accessory power outlets one in the overhead
console, one in the rear of the floor console for the back seat
and one below the radio in the lower part of the dash.
There are two cup holders in the front floor console and two
cup holders in the back seat arm rest that are accessable only
if there is no third person sitting in the middle of the seat.

Ultimately the only problems I had with this car was the
placement of the speedometer and the radio.
Other than those two things it is a great car.