This circa-1993 Sunbird sedan was spotted way back in March, when I was in Iowa City for the day.
While worn–VERY worn–it was the first Sunbird I recalled seeing in some time, so I lowered the passenger-side window and took a couple shots. That color is SO 1993. Remember when aqua/teal made a brief resurgence? Not so Pontiac, which was unceremoniously axed by the mothership in 2009. Too bad. This isn’t exactly a Van and Fitz 1964 Bonneville convertible, but I found it interesting nonetheless.
I certainly remember when this color was in. It really worked on some cars, others not so much.
I had a 1994 Sunbird LE convertible. Perfect car/no problems. By then, the J cars had all the kinks worked out of them . It’s successors were saddled with dumb names, Sunfire and G-5. After the “J-2000” interlude, you would think GM would have learned their lesson. All that money wasted on SAAB and hummer could have been invested in our beloved Pontiac. 🙁
Well, from Sunbird to Sunfire, its not that much of stretch, I don’t think that confused many buyers. The alphabet soup G-whatever stuff that came later was stupid though.
I found the G-names to be fairly logical.
G3–rebadged Aveo (subcompact hatch)
G4/5–rebadged Colbalt (compact) in Canada/Mexico
G6–V6-powered mid-size sedan/coupe (yes, I know some had four-bangers)
G8–V8-powered RWD full-size sedan
The question was “why”. Was GM aspiring to compete with BMW or some other European hi-po marque?
I understood them too, but throwing out names like Bonneville and Grand Prix for them, no.
They weren’t bad names. BMW has done it for ages, and so has Audi.
But, I agree- why? Beople know what Bonneville, GTO, and Grand Prix are. Nobody knows what a G5 is. Call it a Grand Am Coupe.
You’ve already spent the money on brand recognition. Why throw it away?
Exactly, thats one thing I’ll give the Japanese, they stick with a name, a Civic has been a Civic since Nixon was President.
Agreed. Acura learned it the hard way, throwing out names like Legend (one of the best names ever for a car, IMO) and Integra for alpha-numeric nomenclature that has little logic to it. It increased anonymity, and they’re still receiving backlash 20 years later. Ford also did this in the mid-00s, with renaming everything starting with “F”. Luckily they reversed this for many of their cars.
So true on the Legend name. As an Acura salesperson, if I had a dollar for every person that tells me they had owned a Legend and that “it was an incredible car, why did Acura get rid of the name?” I would be rich. It truly was a mistake and the name should be resurrected here in the states. The RLX still sells in Japan as the Honda Legend. Please Acura – go back to the old names for crying out loud!!
I believe the method behind the G naming madness was the lucky confluence of coincidences. Allegedly, the G8 was the 8th Generation of the Grand Prix (G8), the G6 was the 6th Generation of the Grand Am (G6), the G5 was the 5th Generation of the J-car (the Pontiac version had so many names, it’s hard to choose which one) and the G3 was the 3rd Generation of the Aveo, but this time with a Pontiac nose.
Myself, I wasn’t crazy about the idea, but I have a G6 in the garage which is a great everyday car and not a bad long distance driver. I wouldn’t mind a nice G5 GT as a runabout, I may have to work on that idea at some point. Truth be told, I would have preferred my G6 have a name. Grand Am would have been just fine by me.
I remember those days. That color really started gaining ground around around 89-90 in the Chicago area. I remember going to the World of Wheels custom show one year and I’d swear half of the cars were painted some form of Teal.
It got old quick.
Yes. That might explain why my parents’ 1993 Saturn sedan was that teal color.
I much preferred the original J2000 front clip. It said, ‘Pontiac’.
The Taurus/Cavalier style no-grille look, doesn’t work here. Comes across as a pinnacle example of brand engineering.
^^^ Me too. This definitely had the look of the mini “Bandit” era Trans Ams.
That metallic-teal-aqua is so 90’s it should come with a Clinton-Gore bumper sticker and a Spin Doctors tape.
Spin Doctors’ “Two Princes”… brings back good memories.
So either this Sunbird came up to Iowa from a more UV intense climate or it has been there its whole life and got its weathered paint in Iowa. I do like this color and Honda calls their version Blue Raspberry Metallic. Always found strange that GM put the front plate frame on the passenger side with many of their vehicles. When I was still driving my 95 Voyager in NY these J-bodies were a benchmark for me since if I saw one I knew my Plymouth was not the oldest vehicle on the road that day.
Those plate frames are dealer installed in most cases, they come shipped in the trunk of the car, or sometimes they don’t come at all in Southern states where we usually don’t have front tags on the cars.
some cars came with factory colored plate frames perfectly in shape with the bumper, while some other cars only came with a loosely placed black one. but it looks like more and more cars only have the second option.
I remember there was an Aqua Interior available in these, yet I never saw an example.
I would like a Sunbird Convertible in Teal/Aqua interior.
Perfectly fits the Sunbird…
Dont recognize the car but the name is very familiar, GMH badged their 4 banger Opel powered Torana Sunbird for 3 models. Very rare cars now the cam in head Opel engine wasnt popular and most were repowered with a red 6, Actually any Torana is a rarity now in NZ rust nibbled them to death.
And many of the Holden Sunbirds that were around got converted to 6 or V8 power. Instant Torana! Two of my mates converted them with Holden sixes, one with a Toyota five-speed. Still a really crude car though.
These used to be all over the place but I had seen one in a similar colour very recently with a little rust around the bottom, being driven by a woman who seemed to be still making good use of it. It was also nothing special but after all these years it had caught my eye. These cars are at least 20 years old and a rare sight. It reminds me of a time when we still had GM Pontiac cars in the family.
I used to have a neighbor, around 1998-1999 that owned 3 Sunbird coupes/convertibles and kept them all in excellent shape. I never did ask what the deal was, but he obviously found his vehicular muse. They were attractive cars. Earlier today I drove past an old Accord with a beltline as low as this Sunbird and wondered if there was some safety/rigidity reason why we might never see beltlines this low again.
You can thank pedestrian impact standards for high noses and high beltlines.
Yes, yes, it’s a good thing to try not to kill pedestrians. But maybe they shouldn’t be in front of a moving car in the first place?
Eggggggggggsactly…………
Pedestrian impact standards are funny. Whether you get hit by an angular ’80s car or modern jelly bean, you’re still going to have a sucky day when one hits you at 45 mph.
A classmate in high school (two classmates, actually, twin sisters) had a Sunbird sedan this exact color and probably around the same year, early 90’s to be sure. Got the job done but was a pretty anonymous car at the time (1996-98). Nowadays I might look twice if I saw one.
Another sedan of this same era was one of the cars I had for driver’s education back in 1995. I don’t really remember anything about it other than that it was in fact a Sunbird and was some shade of blue. Did only drive the thing once though.
I had several as rentals during the 90s. Those color schemes reminded me of dressing in the dark and ending up with clashing pants and shirts. Truly awful; I remember one that had the metallic teal finish with a ghastly red accent stripe circling its midsection.
It was gutless; when you hit the accelerator, the 4-banger groaned and whined, struggling to achieve a proper RPM. Once, I was trying to maneuver onto the I-5 out of the San Diego airport and almost met my maker in front of a Kenworth.
Many moons ago I owned a 91 Sunbird 2dr LE but it it had the 3.1 V6 which included the nice factory chassis upgrade, strut tower brace and gauge cluster w / tach. Had the auto trans.
It was actually a very smooth and zippy car. Enjoyed driving it. Also had an opportunity to drive one the same model year and engine but with the 5-speed. What a much better combination for performance, much quicker than you’d expect
J cars are dying off fast around here. A neighbor has a 2003-ish red Cavalier, in good shape. But most of the pre-95 boxy ones are long gone. Seeing like MY is as rare now as seeing an ’82 J2000.
Looks better than an Ascona or the Vectra Mk.1…
I learned to drive a manual transmission in a two-door, 1992 version of this very car.