PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

I purchased my SSEi about a week ago... A great deal off of e-bay. I have wanted one of these cars for quite some time and we were off to pick it up. To make a long story short, the dealer got the best of me on this. I drove about 70 miles, not quite home and the oil pressure bottomed out. Then the knocking, and a final puff of blue smoke. I had a used motor put in by a Vince's in Lockport,NY. These guys did me all right. The car also had a slip in reverse which is now much worse since the motor was swapped. We trailered out to my area to a transmission specialist who is going to rework my tranny. This car still has not made it home. I will have about 5,000 in it when it comes home this week but I should also have a very strong running SSEi for me and my kids to ride the summer in. I look forward to seeing you at shows and meets all summer long. We plan to be at Hershey this fall with my father 1913 Vellie and continue to raise my kids as "car guys".

I know exactly how you feel. I purchased my current 99 SSEi in July 2006. I paid $2500 and it needed bumper covers (I had already -paid $250 IIRC for them) and a motor (bought a salvage GTP w/38k miles) for $1100 and paid another $1000 for everything needed to get the SSEi car driveable (radiator, condensor, paint, and all parts swapped into the SSEi).
Drove the car less than 1k miles and had the original trans go (I blame the engine installer who I had do a trans fluid/filter swap -when the new engine was installed he ran the car for 10-15 minute about 8 qts low on trans fluid).
I had the trans from the GTP swapped in for another $400 plus fluid and filter.
Drove the car for another 2-3k miles and had to find a new engine because the GTP engine had the #3 piston chip during a light throttle accel to pass a car doing 40 in a 55 zone.
Got lucky with a want ad on Craigslist for a 3800 supercharged engine. Had a guy contact me with a VERY LOW MILEAGE drivetrain (motor and trans with hole in trans case) out of a 2001 SSEi that had been crashed and dissasembled in 2001 with the motor in climate controlled MANSION of a storage facility. Paid the guy $800 and he also threw in a set of wheels for me to sell (recouped $100 on those) and I paid another $350 for install + oil/filter/coolant elbows, and a few other odd parts.
I'm now happy to have the car paid off and being reliable with the exception of this past week the exhaust which had a mislocated interlock flex cause all (including 4 added exhaust hanger/mounts) but the rear two exhaust mounts ripped off so I have to have that repaired now.
I've also done some mild modding and have set a record here for fastest (1/4 mile) SSEi with only bolt on's OUTSIDE of the engine and no valvetrain modifications.

Welcome to the site. Hopefully you'll have better luck now that you've sunk all that money in. There were a lot of repairs I had to do when I first got my car, but nothing like this... :(

Welcome Aboard!

welcome. You're not too far away. Hopefully i'll see you around if we have any meets locally.

welcome. dont get down about the car, i had very similar issues to you but with a little elbow grease and alot of $$$ she is in pretty good shape now

Going to get the SSEi after work, lets see if it makes it home this time. New motor and reworked transmission. I may just drive around all night... wish me luck

good luck...and welcome to the club