“Fight the enemy where they aren’t.” That’s the often-recited line from Sun Tzu’s Art of War, and it’s good advice to many car companies. General Motors in particular took these words of wisdom to heart in the eighties. With the platforms GM had on hand, there was no way it could compete with the sublime road manners of a contemporary 5- or 7-series BMW, and the vault-like build quality of the W126 Benz was beyond them. You know what they could offer that the Germans were too stuck up to do? Wiz-bang gadgets! Trick features! Buttons galore!
Silly as the gambit was, the 1988 Pontiac Bonneville SSE pulled it off, and it’s a fun one to revisit.
Lost In the Salt Flats
As head of the Pontiac division in the sixties, John DeLorean revitalized the brand as the last word in General Motors performance cars with products like the Tempest, GTO, and Firebird. However, these were all typically compact to mid-sized products, and sales of Pontiac’s big sedan offerings often trailed behind the similar cars from other GM brands. Big-car buyers typically wanted luxury machines – a Cadillac for less money – and had no interest in the hot-rodded, full-sized sedans they might hear revving on the streets of a Saturday night.
After the first energy crisis, sales of GM’s downsized-but-still-large B bodies stayed strong; understandable since these things offered ample interior space in a package that don’t even seem that large when you see a surviving one parked next to a modern SUV (and you’ll still see a surprising number around today since these were easily some of the most reliable and durable GM cars ever). Unfortunately, Pontiac’s version was not as popular, despite it being one of the coolest-looking ones with optional Trans Am wheels.
Sales dwindled to the point that Pontiac dropped their B-body Bonneville after the 1981 model year. Yes, there was even a V6 option to increase gas mileage figures, though I can guarantee I’d have my foot to the floor most of the time and would never equal those EPA estimates. Note that it was also available with the dreaded 5.7-liter diesel V8 in 1981; that motor had been largely fixed by then, but contemporary road tests showed a zero to sixty time of just under 20 seconds.
For 1982, Pontiac put the Bonneville name onto what was once the G-body LeMans; a good car in its own right, but a mid-sizer that really didn’t do justice to the big and bold Bonneville legacy.
In fact, with the drop in fuel prices and renewed demand for large cars, GM realized almost immediately that they’d made a mistake and brought in the Canadian-built Parisienne for 1983, a slightly-rebadged B-body Chevy Caprice, to top off the Pontiac lineup.
General Motors heavily downsized the larger Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac cars for 1985 and 1986 as the C- and H-bodies. These drastically smaller cars were heavily criticized for being lookalike products with zero qualities to differentiate them. The top H-body below is the Oldsmobile, while the bottom one is a Buick. At least I think so. Do we even care?
Thankfully, when Pontiac designers penned their version of the new H-body in 1987 as the Bonneville, they made it more than stand out. With cars like the Audi 5000 Turbo, BMW 7-series, and AMG Benzes, the era of big performance sedans was upon us, and GM gave us something that at least looked like one.
Bonnie Strikes Back
The new front-drive Bonneville might have shared much with the other GM brands, but Pontiac infused it with a unique sort of European character – a late-eighties Pontiac European character, at least. The top of the heap 1988 SSE edition was sort of like the car equivalent of the German-themed Frankenmuth resort in Michigan that the Bonneville below is parked in front of; a place that from a distance appears to be in the Black Forest but in actuality is not far from a Bob Evans restaurant.
Check out those body-colored wheels, the blacked-out trim, spoilers, and ground effects – somebody in the Pontiac design studio saw the AMG Mercedes 500SELs on Miami Vice, right? It’s so hokey but straight-up cool at the same time. If you wanted to “Ride Pontiac Ride” in full-sized luxury, the Excitement Division had your car.
Smoked out taillight covers? Oh yeah. Rear headrests and a lower bumper diffuser like you were about the hit the Autobahn? You bet. Headlamp washers on an American car? Yessir. The SSE had all the (superficial) trappings of something ready to make a run on the ‘Ring, people.
Meanwhile, the Bonneville SSE was bone stock under the hood. The Buick 3800 V6 was always a durable thing, and 165 horsepower from this multi-port injected mill wasn’t horrible for the time, but you were not about to make a run through the Dolomites chasing Alpinas. At least it had that sort of overdone throbby Pontiac exhaust note.
That’s fine; no one who wanted a straight-six Bimmer engine powering the rear wheels would ever set foot in a Pontiac showroom anyway. Even if they did, they’d die of visual overload.
Interior By Sci-Fi Movie Set Designers
To appreciate a German “luxury” car interior in the eighties, you had to sort of reframe your points of reference. The quality of materials was usually impeccable, and the seats could hold you in comfort all day long. At first glance though, these cabins had the austerity and warmth of an operating room, often lacking features that cars a third of their cost had.
No, if getting your money’s worth meant More Stuff to you, then the Bonneville SSE was your kind of car. Look at all of those buttons! Pontiac made you feel like you were getting a lot in terms of switches per dollar.
Being 1987, you might have expected a digital mess, but the primary instruments on the dashboard were indeed analog, including a tach. Stray even a little bit beyond these gauges, however, and you can forget about Munich simplicity. You naturally get the car-shaped schematic with the many “function monitors” in glowing green:
Check out the compass that looks straight out of an arcade game console. Sure, it would be more legible to just display “E” or “NW,” but where would the fun be in that? This gauge looks like it’s telling you where to drop the photon torpedos. So rad!
Today, many more functions than this would be combined into a single touchscreen. In 1987, if it was a standard feature, you saw all the buttons for it all the time in the SSE. I do have to say that if I got into this thing as a rental car at 11 PM on a rainy night, I’d know how to change stations immediately. I can’t do that with a new Camry.
If you grew up watching Speed Racer, you’d expect to see a button on the steering wheel below to launch the car with the hydraulic jacks. It’s not there, but at least these radio controls meant you didn’t have to go digging for those tiny ones on the dashboard. It also meant you were sure to turn up the volume or change stations when you hit the horn.
Those massive seats look like La-Z-Boy recliners done up as dentist’s chairs with scary headrests, and at first glance, they appear to be the world’s most comfortable thrones. Brochures claim “14-way adjustment,” which means most people probably got them into contorted settings that took an hour to put right.
In fact, if you look carefully, you’ll see that there are seat controls unintuitively across the front of the lower cushion and also another separate switch on the side of the seat:
But wait! There’s more! On the center console, you got another set of identical-looking buttons to make all sorts of adjustments to the seats that you probably shouldn’t, including what appear to be controls for decapitation. Man, that wood sure looks fake, but at least it really is fake, unlike the real stuff in a Mercedes that’s so polished and clinical that it looks fake.
It doesn’t end there! Even the trunk is fully trimmed out, and the standard self-leveling rear shocks mean you can dump in all the junk you want and the headlights won’t shine into the trees. I don’t know if that black bag is factory tools or a first aid kit, but it’s certainly More SSE Stuff.
That air compressor to raise the back of the car also has the option to let you stick on a hose and use it as an inflator.
There’s even an on/off switch, and I’m pretty sure they give the hose to attach as well, if it’s still in the car nearly forty years later that is (maybe in that mysterious bag?).
Could an $80,000 BMW 750iL let you pump up your kid’s basketball in the trunk? No, I don’t think so. German “luxury,” my ass.
I Was Hoping For A Glovebox Microwave
Enough about the toys! How did the Bonneville SSE drive? Motorweek was impressed enough with the mid-9-second to sixty acceleration and rather flat cornering from the upgraded springs and sway bars, though I’m sure the bumpy stuff would set it dancing. Naturally, they hated the interior and mentioned that you could get the same powerplant in the less glitzy rung-below SE model.
That’s kind of missing the point of the Bonneville SSE. This thing couldn’t touch an Audi 5000 Turbo on a run between Munich and Stuttgart, but last time I checked, there are no Alpine passes between Detroit and Chicago or Cleveland. The speed limit was usually still 55 then, so who needed a Bahn burner anyway? The 1988 SSE was the European performance-looking sedan that lacked nothing except for actual European performance. Thankfully, Pontiac would rectify at least the straight-line deficiencies with later models featuring supercharging and even extra cylinders that I was about to talk about today, but just flat ran out time wasting digital ink discussing the absurd KITT-like kit on this machine. I can promise you I’ll get to those hidden gems shortly.
The grey example above was listed for a mere $7800 a while back. That’s a lot of car for the money with that nearly bulletproof 3800 under the hood and an exterior as ironically fun as a Members Only jacket. They’ll likely never be worth anything, so just get in and enjoy those big lounge chairs for miles.
This H-body Bonneville didn’t change the doomed course of Pontiac’s big sedans, but it certainly kept them alive for more years than we thought they could with a product that was perfect for the go-go eighties. The SSE was the ultimate statement in putting the sizzle over the steak, and boy, did it sizzle.
Pontiac Points: 68 out of 100
Verdict: The ’88 Bonneville SSE is the glorious cartoon interpretation of what middle American thought that an Autobahn cruiser should be. It was deceptively durable and comfortable – just don’t expect to outrun a Bimmer (or even an Olds 88).
My 7th grade English teacher had one of these in the early 90’s. He always had the same spot right out front. It was the same burgundy red as the top shot car; I thought it was a cool looking car at the time. I’d still drive on in good condition. I had family members and friends’ moms that drove this generation of GM cars, IIRC they were always comfy and seemed solid.
The next gen released in 1993 was a huge jump ahead in styling, and I remember they went hard after the Euro cars in the marketing, especially with the SSEI.
Ironically they’d probably do ok as an exotic import in Europe. There’s always a few people who want to drive American, because it makes them unique.
In fact, there was a car I’d sometimes see as a kid which now I look at the pictures might well have been a brown H-body something. Even as a kid I knew it wasn’t something cool like a Mustang, but it was cool because it was the only one I’d ever seen, and probably the only one in the country.
(And this was in the UK, so they must have really wanted it, to deal with the steering wheel on the wrong side)
I recall being a small kid (less than 10) and at the NY Auto Show with my dad and being so impressed with the vanity light on the sun visor mirror in the Bonneville. IIRC, it gradually ramped up and down in brightness, something I wouldn’t see again in person until my first ride in an early Lexus LS400, where the interior lights did the same thing. In my defense, I was young and easily impressed. I saw Malcom Bricklin’s SV-1 at the same show and loved that too. I wish I could recall what else was there at the time… I’m pretty sure that I had my Vivitar 110 camera with me at the show, but I’ve no idea where those snaps might be now.
I also remember when the SSE Bonneville came out a decade later, and I was sort of into it: monochome paint schemes were the rage back then, and de-chroming and (trying to) tighten up an otherwise big cushy American sedan seemed like an appealing idea (I was driving a Mark 1 GTI at the time).
TBH, in today’s post-pandemic dollars, $8K for a nice one of these seems reasonable, assuming most of those zillions of switches still work.
I just watched the Motorweek review. I know this was the golden age of seatbelt gimmicks but I don’t think I’ve seen this varient: in the video (around 4:20) it looks like both the lap and shoulder belts are connected from the door to the center anchor and you first pull up the lap belt to make space to then slide yourself under it? The guy does not seem happy or comfortable demonstrating it. For anyone with experience, was this as annoying/awkward in real life as it looks in the video?
It was an incredibly lazy way to comply with a law mandating passive restraints. Nobody actually used them that way, they either buckled and unbuckled like a normal belt, or didn’t use it at all. VW actually had a decent door mounted system on the A1 Golf/Rabbit which had just the shoulder belt on the door and a padded bar under the dash. The take rate was low, but the knee bar lived on as reinforcement for Rabbit Convertibles.
The motorized “attacking mouse” shoulder belt was a less annoying system and widespread air bags eventually brought seatbelt sanity
Yeah I remember the track ones well and agree that, while not great (what’s the point if you still have to deal with the lap belt?) they were far less annoying than this would have been.
I do have some memories of cars with door mounted seatbelts. That must have been what this was. I never saw anyone keep them buckled and never would have imagined that was the intended usage. I think if I did see it I would have thought they were using it not-as-intended since it’s so awkward and clunky.
My parents had a Bonneville of this generation (a ’91 or ’92), and I don’t remember the seat belts being that cumbersome. Maybe they moved the mounting location of the lap belt on later years?
So my dad had a 92 lumina sedan forever ago, and it had these on it, however we all just opened the door with it retracted and got in like a regular car, then buckled.
Me.. being the dork who read EVERY owners manual my parents had for their ever changing cars if it came with one, read the one for this lumina.
It demonstrates that you left the belt clicked in and as you opened the door, you slid in under the belts and shut the door.
So i tried this one day as the manual shows, and my dad had never seen anyone do it that way, and he was a gm alignment tech for a dealership for over 20 years. Got a huge laugh out of it, especially when i said, i can see why nobody ever used it that way.
I love this story! Even a GM technician had no idea. Clearly this was a compliance thing—like the seats in the brat
The best part may have been the reel locks weren’t uhhhh, locking like theyre supposed to, so… Wouldnt exactly keep you in place in a collision, or if the door were to come open in a side collision.
I always felt the motorized ones were maybe the “best” approach, even if annoying. My aunts probe hade these beauties and we found it easier to un buckle the top part and leave it retracted if we knew we were doing quick errands as not to get tangled by it when hopping in and out quickly. Then putting it back when going somewhere out of town.
They definitely were friggin’ awesome if you were 6! I’ve seen some ppl hate on them which I’ve never understood. Sure they were silly, but seemed benign.
And yeah I was thinking about how the door ones perform in crashes. All I can think of is how annoyed the firefighters would be if they pry open your door and then have this stupid web of belts to cut through.
Having seen some in wrecking yards, and some in the same demo class id typically run in, those doors tend to pop open without a whole lot of effort.
I can only imagine the joy on their faces trying to cut through all them belts.
my grandparents were diehard pontiac and gmc. two of their favorite cars they ever had was this greyish-purplish colorshift 1994 or 95 bonneville and a 1999 bonneville ssei. that sc 3.8 was no slouch and was respectable in the mpg department too. i remember pop beaming with pride when getting back from a trip to maine with 4 adults and luggage averaging 30mpg all the while im sure kicking 8-10 over the speedlimit the whole time. i got to borrow it a few times in high school and it was like being in a fighter jet with the seats and heads up display compared to my 69 impala lol.
That sounds like a wonderful memory Cletus! 🙂
I honestly just miss the days when cars resembled the national character of the country that made them.
German cars were sometimes seen as lacking in features, but they were ergonomic, always at least decent in terms of both comfort and handling (and often excellent), refined, and sometimes stupidly overcomplicated (looking at you, R129 folding top).
Japanese cars were simple, efficient, reliable, and hard-working–proof that they were soon going to dominate the world.
American cars were big, loud, flashy, and just focused on “MORE”. More thought was put into filling out a checklist of features than into the execution of said features (N-way adjustable power seats without a memory function being an example). Refinement and subtlety were lacking, but they sure tried to look the part!
At least the seats were functional. I think lipstick on a pig is a better description: every step up the model line gets you more chrome accents, badging, maybe taillights that are different but in no way better. Meanwhile the most expensive Caddy was just as much a heap underneath as the cheapest Chevy. Maybe more so since there was more dumb crap to break. Current shortcomings notwithstanding, things have come a long way.
This car was snazzy-enough that my dad, a diehard Ford fan and employee, decided to try one. An SE model with two tone red over silver paint with silver wheels. It was sharp! And comfortably fit six of us across two benches.
I’ll have to ask him what he thought about it. He kept it long-enough that it must have treated him well-enough. He never went back to GM cars, though.
I am also a Ford fan, and Pontiac was the only GM brand I was interested in.
…”appears to be in the Black Forest but in actuality is not far from a Bob Evans restaurant.”, “…they’d die of visual overload.” and “La-Z-Boy recliners done up as dentist’s chairs with scary headrests” all made me laugh! This is the kind of thoughtful, quality writing I enjoy here.
The MotorWeek video was worth it just to see the SSE being flogged at Mid-Ohio (ffw to the last minute). These days, the only time you’d see that is maybe during a LeMons race!
In the 90s, my next-door neighbor had a black SSE of some recent vintage. It was always a sharp-looking car, and sounded nice. I had the Z52-package Chevy Corsica in an electric blue metallic color at the time, so there were two rather sharp-looking GM cars with GT aspirations on the same street corner, effectively. And somebody a street over or so had a Beretta GT. Those were good times with some rather nice GM cars that punched above their weight for performance and features.
I was about to come on here to shit all over the car. But then after seeing it had a 3800 and saw that interior? Hell yeah. I’d happily drive that across country. My grandmother had a Buick Lesabre with one of those engines and it would sit there humming away at 1500 RPM down the freeway. It also had very UN-American like reliability. It was bulletproof!
My mom drove a 1989 SSE and then it was in the family for at least 180k miles, still on its originally tranny and motor. The alternator had probably been changed 5 times by then (my Dad and I were pretty good at changing it out quickly). She then passed it on to a co-worker and the last I heard, it was over 250k and that was in 2012 or so. This was in Ohio so rust probably got it eventually but it was undercoated and well maintained! I loved all the buttons and red backlighting and it handled surprisingly well.
i could be combining that era of GM cars into a pastiche, but in my mind that central cluster may have survived at least until my mom’s ’98 bonnie…
I remember a girl at my high school had this generation of Bonneville and it was the rustiest car I think I ever saw. It’s like they forgot to apply a coating at the factory. I mean there were literal holes in the rear quarter panels.
I beg to differ on their worth – these are pretty saught after, especially by me. haha. I’ve been after a first generation SSE for a while now, preferably black or green over tan. No grey interiors I’ll pass those up. If anyone has a line on one, let me know!!
Around my town there were 22 tauruses to every h-body of this generation.
The face lifted model was more competitive. At probably 5-1.
Seeing the photos in this story, I’m surprised at how well this design presents itself. It has aged better than those 1st gen Taurus.
Those two things pictured at the end of the historical info session, before you get to the ’88 Bonnie, better than the ’86-91 Taurus? Surely you kid.
Naw I was talking about the 88 Bonnie. And that 86 Buick.
Maybe you’re right and I was commenting before the coffee kicked in.
Thinking about it. These probably had higher transaction prices than the Tauri/Sables. They seemed about the same size to the kid riding around in the backseat though.
Oh man, the legendary Bonneville of that era. The most important car of my childhood. I learned to drive in it, took my driving test in it, learned to snow drive in it – with and without chains it was solid – took it home on mountain back roads several times in a half foot of unplowed snow. Did more oil changes and brake jobs than any car since.
We had the low spec SE, though. Ran it over 350,000 miles before a bent hood totaled it. Original engine, transmission made it 250,000 miles. Other than wear items such as axels, suspension, bearings, etc., required almost no repairs. Transmission, idle motor, and an inline fuse that was the victim of a hard bit of snow one winter.
The most reliable and durable vehicle my family ever owned. Really comfortable on long trips or in traffic. 30+ mpg too.
And it was plenty fast – I did some pretty hairy passing on 2 lane roads, and it could get up when you floored it. Better, actually, than our Suburban with a 454 – we tested it on an empty road, and the Bonneville toasted the Suburban. (Weight, aerodynamics, and fuel injection…)
I miss that car, and wish they still made durable, reasonably sized, comfortable, affordable sedans like it.
I remember my friends neighbors having the exact maroon SSE Bonnie that motor week tested. This was in the mid nineties and I’m pretty sure the guys wife was still driving it 20 years later. Haven’t driven by their house in many years, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that car is still there. I’ve always been a car nut- somewhat even obsessed with the next gen SSei Bonneville. Yep, just a dumb kid obsessing over a FWD GM car. I would still totally daily drive one too.
A friend of mine had a white 1990 SSE in high school. We loved that car, this was on the mid 90s. It was fun, sortof handled ok, lots of neato options. It had that 8 speaker stereo which was good for the time. Those seats were so finicky. Took forever to get them just right, he would get pissed if we accidentally didn’t switch the control and adjusted his seat instead of the pax seat. Did have a lot of electrical issues, but general ok.
I owned a 1989 SE in college, got it with 77k, sold it with 109k. Was well equipped, that same red as above with two tone silver bottom. Had the optional SSE gauge cluster and that cool for the 80ss compass. Had ABS, albeit early gen and pretty basic. Also well equipped with full power including front seats. I upgraded the stereo, headunit and speakers and a sub. That 3800 was a great engine, good power, reliable and I’d get high 20s mpg on the highway. It handled ok too for a 80s sedan, ride was great for a long trip. Previous owner replaced all the struts with new oem units before I got it. We drove it to spring break, to and from college (540Mi each way), internships, jobs. Was reliable except for a failed water pump that stranded me. I did most of my own maint, fluids, belts, hoses, tuneup stuff. The trans did start slipping a bit before I sold it, not bad but I’m sure it didn’t have a long life left in it. Was a good car, and it served me well. A 1999 Olds Intrigue GL, with the 3800, replaced it which I was thrilled to get – as it was my first new car.
That is such a sad, sad phrase.
Correct my ignorance but BMW was never a threat in the US and GM was never a threat to BMW in Europe. The problem was they both incorrectly thought they could build one car for two different markets and that wasn’t happening
For TWO markets? [World Car enters the chat]
I was basing on the two major markets at the time. I don’t think Asia and India were anywhere near the car market they are now.
I very suddenly want a blue 1979 Bonneville Coupe 5.7L V8 with bucket seats and console, rally pack and glass moonroof.
Because I’m a special kind of driver.
THAT is the greatest Bonneville in my book. The RTS suspension I think was their equivalent of the Caprice F41; a boat to be sure but drives a lot better than you’d think.
Loved the look of these. That entire burgundy package in the hero shot up top is fantæstik!