Looking at buying a GXP

[94SilverSSEi]

Well congratulations!!! All that matters is that you are happy. Reading this post was like a sales pitch, made me miss my Black GXP.

[CMNTMXR57]

Same here, I was looking the other night at GXP's.

I ended up replacing all my Monsoon speakers with Infinity reference speakers. Night and day difference. Even though you were able to make the bal/fade adjustments to make it sound better, if you drive around with the windows down and sunroof open (like I do when it's nice out), the stock speakers flat out stink. Some of that has to to with the system dialing back bass as the volume increases, but it's all distortion and noise after a certain level.

One of the reasons I loved the GXP (amongst other things), was because of it's gauge cluster. That is what got me to start looking again the other night. I was parusing pics of mine with the dash at night... Oh how I miss Pontiac warm red on the Caddy at night.

[DCMain]

I had owned a 2004 GXP (bought it in March of 04) and sold it in 2008 with the mileage over 100k. Although the replacement Honda Accord (still have it) was far more reliable, I still missed the Bonneville. This May I was looking for a used car for my daughter and came across a 05 GXP with less than 19k on it. Well...my daughter will be driving the Honda.
For what it is worth, the 04 was one of the early GXP's and I had numerous issues with it but still managed to run up the miles. My "new" 05 (could be my memory playing tricks on me) seems to be a better car than the 04.
I'll post pictures when I can figure out how to do it. But I can tell you the 05 GXP puts a smile on my face every time I start it up.

[PontiacFan]

DCMain, ..., Where are you located, (Jersey?), & how many miles on the '05 now?
What color is it?

Naw, forget it, ..., you're too far away, ...

[DCMain]

I'm in North Jersey...10 miles West of the George Washington Bridge.
My GXP now has a whopping 19,450 miles on it. I replaced the (built in Sept 2004) original tires, and put on new (didn't need brakes but I'm crazy) AC Delco rotors and Hawk Ceramic pads. Replaced the stainless lug caps with new ones, the rubber weather seals in the engine compartment, both belts, coolant, trans fluid and 7.5 quarts of Mobil 1. The car will become my DD when my daughter goes from her permit to licence in November.
It is really too nice to drive as it looks newer than new. The previous owner never had it out in the rain or snow. The engine is amazingly quiet and the trans shifts very smoothly.
If you want to supply an email address, I'd be glad to send you some pictures.

[PontiacFan]

I've been looking pretty intensively to find another one.
Just curious if you'd interested in selling it, ..., as long as it's not black, ...

[DCMain]

Greystone Metallic and sorry, it is not for sale.
I've brought it to a few local car shows and I've had several people ask me the same question. I looked at a lot of 2 year old Impala's, Malibu's, and the Buick line up...all ok but nothing that is as much fun as the Bonneville and they were all around $20k.
I've seen numerous GXP's on CARGURUS and AutoTrader, but the lowest mileage car I found besides mine had about 40k on it.
I paid $12k for mine...I don't know if that's good or bad but it was well worth it

[1oldman]

I'm extremely happy for you! A fantastic looking car also. Now I'm jealous too. lol - BC

[bobgto65]

Congrats. Its a beautiful car. I bought an '04 GXP with 32K a year ago to replace my 02 SSEi and do not regret it. There are some other things you should do. The first is to flush and change the coolant. It is possible it was never done, and now if it is 10 years old, it 5 years past its lifetime and can build up acid and damage the gaskets. If the coolant level drops slowly you can add some GM coolant pellets od Bars Stop Leak. I had to do the same thing. I was slowly losing anti-freeze with no apparent source visible and no coolant in the oil. The other thing you can do is dry out and seal the pocket inside the gas filler door. If the car was outside for a year. it is likely there is water trapped in there now and eventually it will rust through the fender from the inside. There is nowhere for the water to drain. Look at this post I put up last year http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... or#p373090. If it has the original tires look carefully inside the treads. If you see fine cracks, they are dry rotted and need to be replaced. I used Continental Pure Contact DWS touring. The sidewalls are soft and reduce the likliehood of highway vibration. The engine can suffer from carbon build up so once a week so a 2-5 minute run at 5000 RPM in 2nd or 3rd gear and a few accelerations runs will help blow it out. The 4T80E is the strongest FWD transmission that GM ever built so it can take a lot of punishment.

If you like the sound of the monsoon, try replacing the HU, amp, and speakers with moderately priced aftermarket units (components fro the front doors and tri9axila 6 X 9 in the package shelf. and it will blow you away. GM uses cheap paper cone speakers. You can use a Metra GMOS-09 adaptor to keep Onstar and chimes and a PAC SWC1 unit to keep your steering wheel controls. See the sticky thread in the GXP/Northstar section of the forum for info about the fog lamps.

I have been told that if you put a bowl of white vinegar inside the car and leave it closed for 2 or 3 days, it will remove the cigarette smell.

Your car will look awesome with the tint.

[DCMain]

There is a very nice 2004 GXP on Ebay now outside of Chicago...31,000 miles asking $11,800

[CMNTMXR57]

I can't view Fleabay here at work, where is it located here in Chicago? There really is no "outside Chicago" as the NW section of Indiana, Northern Illinois, and SE Wisconsin are all part of Chicago. So I'm not sure if you mean out in the suburbs? Or somewhere downstate, etc?

[Steelworker26]

Well congratulations!!! All that matters is that you are happy. Reading this post was like a sales pitch, made me miss my Black GXP.

LOL My wife wants one now too although she has been the one driving it since we got it. I said we need to get rid of the kids first so she may be posting them on craigslist.

[Steelworker26]

Same here, I was looking the other night at GXP's.

I ended up replacing all my Monsoon speakers with Infinity reference speakers. Night and day difference. Even though you were able to make the bal/fade adjustments to make it sound better, if you drive around with the windows down and sunroof open (like I do when it's nice out), the stock speakers flat out stink. Some of that has to to with the system dialing back bass as the volume increases, but it's all distortion and noise after a certain level.

One of the reasons I loved the GXP (amongst other things), was because of it's gauge cluster. That is what got me to start looking again the other night. I was parusing pics of mine with the dash at night... Oh how I miss Pontiac warm red on the Caddy at night.

I will absolutely look into the infinity speakers.

My Father-In-Law buys new caddies every 4 years and he got in the GXP last night and said he liked it a lot. Pretty good review IMO. I love his car but can't afford the sticker.

[Steelworker26]

I had owned a 2004 GXP (bought it in March of 04) and sold it in 2008 with the mileage over 100k. Although the replacement Honda Accord (still have it) was far more reliable, I still missed the Bonneville. This May I was looking for a used car for my daughter and came across a 05 GXP with less than 19k on it. Well...my daughter will be driving the Honda.
For what it is worth, the 04 was one of the early GXP's and I had numerous issues with it but still managed to run up the miles. My "new" 05 (could be my memory playing tricks on me) seems to be a better car than the 04.
I'll post pictures when I can figure out how to do it. But I can tell you the 05 GXP puts a smile on my face every time I start it up.

I would love to see that car. I use photobucket for free. I got an account, uploaded my pictures (real easy) then you click on the img tab and it automatically copies it. You right click in the thread comment section and click paste and voila. When you post it the picture will show up. Until you post it...it will just show the img tag.

Probably a million ways to do it but that is how I learned.

[Steelworker26]

Greystone Metallic and sorry, it is not for sale.
I've brought it to a few local car shows and I've had several people ask me the same question. I looked at a lot of 2 year old Impala's, Malibu's, and the Buick line up...all ok but nothing that is as much fun as the Bonneville and they were all around $20k.
I've seen numerous GXP's on CARGURUS and AutoTrader, but the lowest mileage car I found besides mine had about 40k on it.
I paid $12k for mine...I don't know if that's good or bad but it was well worth it

Exactly why I went old school. Any newer car with low miles is way up there in price. Cash for Clunkers?

I had a hard time finding a loan because it was older than 5 - 6 years. Several banks said no. Chase who I got my house through said no way. Too old. USAA said sure - 9.5%. Navy Federal said yes 2.45%. Outstanding.

[Steelworker26]

Congrats. Its a beautiful car. I bought an '04 GXP with 32K a year ago to replace my 02 SSEi and do not regret it. There are some other things you should do. The first is to flush and change the coolant. It is possible it was never done, and now if it is 10 years old, it 5 years past its lifetime and can build up acid and damage the gaskets. If the coolant level drops slowly you can add some GM coolant pellets od Bars Stop Leak. I had to do the same thing. I was slowly losing anti-freeze with no apparent source visible and no coolant in the oil. The other thing you can do is dry out and seal the pocket inside the gas filler door. If the car was outside for a year. it is likely there is water trapped in there now and eventually it will rust through the fender from the inside. There is nowhere for the water to drain. Look at this post I put up last year http://www.pontiacbonnevilleclub.com/fo ... or#p373090. If it has the original tires look carefully inside the treads. If you see fine cracks, they are dry rotted and need to be replaced. I used Continental Pure Contact DWS touring. The sidewalls are soft and reduce the likliehood of highway vibration. The engine can suffer from carbon build up so once a week so a 2-5 minute run at 5000 RPM in 2nd or 3rd gear and a few accelerations runs will help blow it out. The 4T80E is the strongest FWD transmission that GM ever built so it can take a lot of punishment.

If you like the sound of the monsoon, try replacing the HU, amp, and speakers with moderately priced aftermarket units (components fro the front doors and tri9axila 6 X 9 in the package shelf. and it will blow you away. GM uses cheap paper cone speakers. You can use a Metra GMOS-09 adaptor to keep Onstar and chimes and a PAC SWC1 unit to keep your steering wheel controls. See the sticky thread in the GXP/Northstar section of the forum for info about the fog lamps.

I have been told that if you put a bowl of white vinegar inside the car and leave it closed for 2 or 3 days, it will remove the cigarette smell.

Your car will look awesome with the tint.

I have read your fix already for the rust by the gas cap. Well done. First will be the coolant flush /pellets this weekend as you suggest and then I will get to the gas fill. My SSEI had that issue. Only blemish on the car and it was ugly until the tow truck spar went through the front.

I have not inspected the tires on the ID yet but will also do this weekend so I can clean the inside of the rims. Thanks for the tire info. Good tires make or break the ride as I have learned first hand with three bad choices of tires on the SSEI.

I will happily work on the carbon build up

I already purchased the bulb and read the replacement info including the grounding and going in through the head light area.

Speakers/equipment upgrade I will absolutely be looking at after the paint job and the other minor repairs. It is hard to imagine sounding better but I didn't think the monsoon would out perform the Bose. Silly me.

As an additional note: I would NOT have continued on my Bonneville experience for all these years without this forum. So I truly thank you and all others for all input.

[DCMain]

I can't view Fleabay here at work, where is it located here in Chicago? There really is no "outside Chicago" as the NW section of Indiana, Northern Illinois, and SE Wisconsin are all part of Chicago. So I'm not sure if you mean out in the suburbs? Or somewhere downstate, etc?

Naperville

I'm from New Jersey so everything to me is outside of Chicago...

800-640-7987 is the number...IMOTORSUSA

[CMNTMXR57]

Uggh... It's one of my favorite colors too... Blue!

Only thing that it needs... Those flipping Eagle RS-A's replaced.

Naperville is a western suburb. I'd say it's the equivalent of Parsippany to New York City.

[DCMain]

Stop by the tire shop on the way home...wish I knew that nobody liked the RS-A's before I bought a new set...LOL

[CMNTMXR57]

They should ban that tire from sale. Go look at the reviews on any tire site.

This place also has a sale pending on a black G8 GT with 125k on the odometer. If I'm down that way this weekend I might swing by. It's on dealer row on Ogden, right across from a former Pontiac now just Buick/GMC dealer. The test track is just behind all of them. It is a cool little track that all the dealers in Naperville contributed to, to build and maintain, and they take people out for test drives on it.