1997 Pontiac Bonneville Interior Review at Automotive.com
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1997 Pontiac Bonneville Review: Interior

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1997 Pontiac Bonneville Review

Excitement doesn't mean cramped.
Interior
Pontiac calls the leather that wrapped the doors and seats dark pewter.

It's a rich yet subtle hue with European-style stitching. The gray plastic

buttons on the heating/air conditioning console diminish the otherwise

attractive effect.

The other controls are darker, better grained, and more organic in shape.

The stereo system, especially the upgraded Bose package in our tester,

would match the performance of an expensive home system. The controls work

well, with a large volume knob adjacent to a smaller dial for tuning. If

you'd prefer not to take your hands off the wheel, often-used controls

are designed into the steering wheel hub. A deft touch of the index finger

is all that's needed to change stations or adjust the volume. Thankfully,

Pontiac engineers have gotten away from earlier pod designs that embedded

as many as 25 different controls in a confusing cluster smack in the center

of the steering wheel. However, they still maintained an array of buttons

on the center console.

There are nine separate ways to adjust the seats and it takes careful

attention to make sense of the smallish icons that tell you which adjustment

does what. More than once we attempted to slide our seats forward, only

to have the lumbar support try to rearrange our kidneys. But, when you

get the hang of things, you'll find the bucket seats comfortable and supportive,

even in harsh maneuvering.

And even with the front seats all the way back on their tracks, your

rear seat passengers will find more than adequate leg room. This car has

acres of space and uses it well.

The instrument panel is a clean, performance-oriented design but it

may be the most dated part of the car. The analog gauges say performance,

but the look is a little one-dimensional. There are two, large LED displays,

one a compass that tends to lag behind as you turn. The other an oversized

Information Center alerting you to a variety of potential problems, such

as low fuel or an open door.

Perhaps the most notable feature is the Head-Up Display, or HUD, offered

as an option on SSE and SSEi models. This technology, borrowed from military

fighter jets, projects images onto the windshield in your line of sight.

The main display is a digital speedometer. We found it consistently disagreed

with the instrument panel's analog speedometer by a couple of miles an

hour. There are those who like and those who dislike HUD. We appreciate

the way it helped us prevent a potential problem when, on a long drive

on a lonely freeway, a little gas pump popped into view reminding us we

were about to run out of gas.

Dual airbags are standard fare. So are daytime running lights. Next Page



1997 Pontiac Bonneville