Nice near luxury car

Our shopping experience
Before we bought our new car, we shopped around a lot, and compared the Bonneville to the Buick Regal, Nissan Maxima, Toyota Avalon and the Olds Aurora. The Bonneville was VERY impressive, and a nice looking car.

Models
This car comes in the SE, SLE, and SSEi models. The SSEi is a supercharged version, comparing with other powerful sports sedans. The SLE is luxurious, with a six way power driver's seat, six speaker Bose sound system, remote keyless entry, dual climate control, 17" tires (this is what the Maxima has and you WILL pay more for these tires!). Even the SE model has many standard features that are considered optional on other cars. We test drove and researched the SSEi model.

Interior of the Car
At first, this car seemed like the cock pit of an airplane. It has bright red displays everywhere, and buttons and gadgets galore that seemed intimidating to me. The seats are made from Connolly leather, and boy are they comfortable! This is probably the most comfortable of all the cars we compared. My husband sat in the back of the car and he said it had good leg room, he is 5'10" tall. Looking at the back seats, the seat depth seemed a bit shorter than other models. The heated front leather seats have two temperatures, high and low, (this was a nice feature, as two owners of the Avalon told us it has only one temperature and it gets quite hot). Audio controls are on the steering wheel. The Bose stereo system has a wonderful sound, almost like surround sound. The seating in the SSEi comes with power memory. The back seat has an armrest and pass through to the trunk.

Ride and Handling
I found the seating a bit too low for a short driver. The automatic seats did adjust up and down, but I still found I did not see the road as well with this car. It handles impressively, and the ride is very smooth, comfortable and quiet. When you press the gas you know it ... the Toyota did not respond nearly as quickly as the Bonneville when punching the pedal. Consumer Reports said that this car has a "load leveling rear suspension" that helps with ride stability. This car is more of a sports car, and the back seat lacked the head room of the other models we test drove.

Other features
Sunroof, universal garage door opener, leather seating, 12 disc CD player, rear spoiler, theft deterrent system, keyless entry, dual climate control, traction control, cruise control, pollen filter, air conditioning, front and side airbags, rear heater vents, OnStar service, tire inflation monitor, StabiliTrak, trunk net, drivers lumbar seat.

Engine
3.8 liter, V6, 205 horsepower. The supercharged has 240 horsepower with a V6 engine.

Reliability
This car did not earn Consumer Reports "recommended" label. They didn't like the gas mileage (I cannot find any MPG stats in the brochure from the dealer), and said the back seat lacked some comfort. As far as CR's reliability records for this car, it has performed very well since 1998, so it seems to be a car that will not have any major troubles.

Price
The sticker price was $35,000 on this car. The dealer would not come down as much as we wanted. I felt that we could get a more luxurious car than this for the price.

We did not choose this car because of (1) the price, (2) too long for our garage, (3) a bit too sporty looking for me when compared to the Nissan and Toyota models we test drove, (4) driver view not as good for short people.

All in all, this is a car with tons of options, and has a very comfortable front seat. It seems reliable, but the gas mileage is not as good as other cars we looked at. If you like the sporty feel, and the feeling of power behind the wheel, this may be the car for you.