Factory specifications, fluid capacities, torque values, EPA fuel economy and the federal safety record for the 1981 Bonneville.
The 1981 Pontiac Bonneville is characterized in this overview by a reliability headline recording zero recalls and a single total owner complaint within the Engine & Engine Cooling and Equipment area. While the broader model complaint history provides data from 1990 to 2005 where annual figures ranged from a low of 27 in 2005 to a high of 299 in 1998, this specific model year falls outside that documented timeframe. This distinction places the 1981 vehicle in a unique position within the model's reliability history, isolated from the later decades where complaint volumes fluctuated significantly more than the solitary issue noted here.
Owner-reported issues, recalls, investigations and service bulletins on record with NHTSA — an unfiltered look at what owners actually experience.
The federal record supplied begins in 1990—nine model years after the 1981 target—so a direct comparison against the 1981 Bonneville's same-generation peers is not possible from this dataset, and no 1981 row appears in the year-by-year series itself. What the data does confirm for 1981 is a single complaint filed under Engine & Engine Cooling/Equipment, with zero crash-related and zero fire-related complaints—an exceptionally quiet federal profile. Across the 1990–2005 arc that is provided, complaint volume fluctuates sharply (from 27 in 2005 up to 299 in 1998) and Technical Service Bulletins climb steeply after 2000, but these figures post-date the 1981 car by roughly a generation and reflect a different model lineage rather than the Bonneville's own trend. Because the supplied data contains no negative crash, fire, or injury indicators against the 1981 Bonneville, it offers no adverse ownership signal, though the absence of peer-year context means a pre-purchase mechanical inspection remains prudent. Concrete takeaway: strictly on the federal evidence provided, 1981 is a defensible used-buy year for the Pontiac Bonneville.
All 1 complaints on record, top 1 components.
Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation complaint database.
No recall campaigns on record with NHTSA for this vehicle as of the last data refresh.
Showing 1 of 1 bulletins on record with NHTSA.
| Bulletin | Date | Component | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 83-T-29 | 1983-05-01 | Structure | UNKNOWN |
The most common OBD-II codes for this vehicle's emissions system. These are standardized SAE J2012 definitions, not vehicle-specific fault reports.
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Cross-vehicle references for the kinds of data on this page.
NHTSA lists 0 recall campaign(s) for this model year. Check your specific vehicle by VIN.