(first posted 9/10/2018) Once billed as GM’s “We Build Excitement” division, to many who grew up during the brand’s wonder years, Pontiac will forever rank high in their memories as a builder of muscle cars and performance-minded everyday cars of the 1960s-mid 1970s, and the wonderful Fitzpatrick/Kaufman promotional artwork that went along with it.
The original Gran Am was indeed a product of this golden age of Pontiac, first appearing in 1973 as a premium luxury/performance companion offering to the Pontiac LeMans. A product that actually brought excitement and specialness to the table, this is the idea of Pontiac that so many enthusiasts remember, cherish, and embrace. Nonetheless, to those of us born just a bit later, the perception of Pontiac can be quite different.
You see, Pontiac could not keep its momentum. As the ’60s muscle performance gave way to ’70s Broughamy luxury, Pontiac began to flounder as it struggled to find its identity in an age of increased fuel efficiency awareness, global competition, and ever familiarity to related cars from other GM brands. Although it never abandoned its performance pedigree, by the early 1980s, Pontiac’s lineup was a grab bag of small econoboxes, Brougham-esque large cars, and of course, true sports cars.
Had Pontiac been an independent automaker, a diverse portfolio would have been more understandable, and even a beneficial quality. Yet as one of five car brands from General Motors primarily relying on selling badge-engineered variants of a corporate vehicle at similar price levels, lacking a distinct identity blurred the lines between divisions even further, making Pontiac’s lineup more redundant than ever. By the 1990s, Pontiac had probably become best known for its over-styled, over-cladded, over-ugly, and underwhelming versions of corporate GM cars such as the economy-minded J-car Sunbire/Sunfire, U-body “Dustbuster” TransSport minivan, and best-selling model of this era, the N-body Grand Am compact.
Originally introduced as a 1985 model, replacing the X-body Phoenix as Pontiac’s intermediate model, the N-body Grand Am shared its basic design and notchback “formal” roofline with its Oldsmobile and Buick siblings. As a Pontiac, it did gain several meaningful performance upgrades over its siblings, as well as what was initially tasteful ribbed body cladding, the amount of which varied between trim level.
Minor enhancements over the years made first generation N-body Grand Am a reasonably attractive car, as much as its conservative, formal-roofline body would permit. Along with its Oldsmobile and Buick siblings, the Grand Am was redesigned for the 1992 model year, featuring all-new sheetmetal and a fresh interior, although mechanically-wise, it was largely unchanged. Exterior styling was rounder and more contemporary, though significantly busier with numerous creases, bulges, sharp angles, and of course, more ribbed cladding for greater differentiation from its siblings.
Still, as far as its competitiveness was concerned, for the entirety of its lifetime, the N-body Grand Am couldn’t quite match more refined Japanese rivals in key areas such as ride quality and handling, NVH, interiors, and overall packaging. As one of several flavors of the same basic car, the Grand Am’s defining characteristic would always be its rambunctious, and quite frankly, tacky styling. Indeed, it quickly proved popular, a trend that would continue for most of its run. However, popular is different from being good. Forgive the vulgarity, but just like the “popular” person with many lovers, the fact that the Grand Am was popular often made up for its deficiencies.
By the time this third generation N-body Grand Am rolled around in 1999, this description didn’t change, despite its numerous improvements. Finally gaining an independent multilink rear suspension to complement the independent MacPherson strut front, the Grand Am’s body was 32-percent more rigid, front track was 3.3 inches wider, while wheelbase grew by 3.6 inches all for better handling and ride quality.
The cabin was also roomier, with redesigned seats for greater comfort, and the V6 was enlarged to 3.4 liters, boasting more power than before. Despite these meaningful improvements, numerous weaknesses still remained that decreased the Grand Am’s competitiveness and overall image, qualities that contributed to its sharp decline in sales over its final generation.
Above all was the Grand Am’s take-it-or-leave-it styling. While Pontiac did need to visually differentiate the Gran Am from its competition both in its overall market and within GM, it was not done tastefully. Despite it being an affordable largish-compact car, the Gran Am was styled like a sports car — in theory, not necessarily a bad thing, but in practice it came across as tacky and cheap.
While the 1999-2005 Grand Am was arguably a more attractive car than the 1992-1998 iteration, at least as far as its body and proportions went, the overload of ribbed plastic lower body cladding, deeply flared grille “nostrils”, and other related Pontiac styling touches reached gimmicky by this point. In fact, it’s worth noting that Pontiac actually offered two very different ribbed lower body cladding treatments on the Grand Am, one for the SE and one for the GT, neither any less vulgar than the other.
For comparison, just look at the Oldsmobile Alero. Sharing the same architecture, doors, and roofline, the Alero did without the Grand Am’s boy racer add-ons making for a far more visually appealing look. It’s also worth noting that the Grand Am SE models lost their ribbed cladding in 2003, though it was merely too little, too late.
Despite its sporty looks and aspirations, the Grand Am offered little in the way of meaningful performance upgrades to match them. Engines and transmissions were shared with its Oldsmobile Alero sibling, and while its optional 3.4 liter V6 made a reasonably healthy 170 horsepower and 200 lb-ft torque, it didn’t exactly blow competitors out of the water, either on paper or on the road. Furthermore, despite the Grand Am’s chassis and suspension improvements aimed at improving its ride and handling, numerous road tests found it exhibited substantial NVH, body roll, front plow, and mushy brake pedal, which all prevented it from feeling either very sporty or refined.
While the Grand Am’s interior effortlessly exuded greater personality than say, Toyota’s Camry or Corolla interiors of the era, any advantages brought by Pontiac’s highly-stylized interiors were lost in its cheap looking, feeling, and fitting plastics and switchgear.
The Grand Am’s cartoonish interior styling, with its numerous crevices, protuberances, gaps, inconsistently finished surfaces, and ill-fitting individual pieces screamed cheapness in a very loud way.
Likewise, the exterior, with its overall business just didn’t look quite as integrated or solid as most similar-sized vehicles, other GMs included. Again, maybe it was the body cladding and other plastic prosthetics to blame, but Grand Ams always seemed to have among the worst body panel gaps of the bunch. Adding insult to injury was the fact that rubber window seals and headlight gaskets notoriously came loose, as on this SE sedan.
Regardless of its shortcomings, the Gran Am was at least a popular car for most of its life, averaging sales above 200,000 units annually. Of course with Pontiac’s large dealer network, steep incentives, and a significant percentage of fleet customers, the Grand Am had a little help reaching those numbers. And therein lies the problem for Pontiac.
You see, for most of its life, the N-body Grand Am was Pontiac’s best selling car, accounting for over 30%, and in some years nearly 45% of total brand sales. Though halo models like the Firebird and later GTO were always present, everyday models like the Grand Am, Sunfire, and Montana were what Pontiac was in the minds of those less aware of the brand’s performance past.
Furthermore, for reasons I won’t delve into any further, Pontiac and the Grand Am especially developed a negative reputation based on who many perceived its real-world buyers were. For risk of creating controversy and/or offending anyone, I won’t go into any greater detail regarding that, but let’s just say that Pontiac wasn’t necessarily a brand that many viewed as one to brag about owning, even though many owners frequently did so.
Over the years, I’ve struggled to make sense of why many discuss Pontiac as such a praiseworthy brand and lament its loss, when I have but a lifetime of negative perception for the brand. I’ve concluded that this dichotomy is a result of period in which one was born and the Pontiac that they grew up knowing. Pontiac might have once made appealing, sporty, and above all special cars, yet this was a Pontiac I never knew.
See for me, this Grand Am is the Pontiac I grew up with and came to know, and this particular car will forever be my primary association with Pontiac. It’s sad to say, but this is also why I have never felt much sympathy for Pontiac’s demise in the same way I did for brands such as Oldsmobile and Mercury. With any of its highly regarded models merely storied relics of a far distant past, I only ever really knew Pontiac as the builder of over-styled, underwhelming, and quite frankly, ugly cars.
2001 Grand Am SE sedan photographed in Hingham, Massachusetts – August 2018
2001 Grand Am GT coupe photographed in Hanover, Massachusetts – December, 2016
Going with the last point made, first: yes, as the owner of an 82 J2000 one of the reasons why I was very reluctant to buy another Pontiac vehicle was my perception of the demographic that the brand was aimed at.
When the Grand Am was first introduced I was at a local Pontiac dealer getting some work done on my J2000. I actually liked the Grand Am until I examined it closely. The very upright rear window and the front clip that looked like it was designed for a longer and wider car combined for an odd look. The interior design? A bit underwhelming. Admittedly all the car’s styling faults were corrected by the mid 90s, but most of the market had moved on. By then, car magazines were singing the praises of the new, truly European Ford Contour.
Nice tiptoeing regarding the owner demographics. When I lived in Western PA, probably the best description of the Grand Am was ‘redneck BMW’. At least two, possibly three of my brothers in the local M/C owned used Grand Ams, all first generation models, making it the second favorite four wheeled ride in the club after the ubiquitous pickup truck.
And if I had my real BMW (1990 325is) out on a Friday evening, I could always count on some kid in a Grand Am try nudging me to race at some red light.
I’d say that “redneck BMW” is a good description of one of the primary types of Pontiac drivers I knew. I’m always reminded of kid from my high school who’s first car was an early-00s cherry red Grand Prix and drove it like it was an M5.
Living in Michigan during this time period, the used Grand Ams were more like “blue collar Jettas”. That is to say, all the “bros” really wanted to drive a Jetta but their parents worked at the car plants and didn’t want them driving foreign cars, so they bought a Grand Am (used) instead of a Jetta (used).
That’s very true and so many girls got the Pontiac Grand Ams alike. Nowadays many of those emo girls grew up with emo babies in the cheery red Pontiac Grand Ams ( if they still keep them, or they move to Dodge, Kia ), and I can count half a dozen in two neighborhoods I live during my entire college ( including a roommate )
You snobbishly bash Grand Am owners, make sure that we know that you went to college but can’t spell correctly? You’re clearly better than all! 😁
I’ve said before that no division suffered more from ’70s/80s GM’s inability to “get” sport sedans and ’80s/90s GM’s unwillingness to put in the cost-per-unit to make a car feel nice than Pontiac did.
I’ll add that it got a one-two punch from the dealers – that 1983 lineup had the Parisienne plugged in to replace the Catalina and B-body Bonneville that had been killed a year earlier, a pure badge job that offered nothing to the customer they couldn’t get in a Chevy Caprice, made to satisfy demand from the many freestanding Pontiac dealers still around. By the ’00s division management was clamoring for SUVs but the dealers by that time were almost all combined with GMC so they were getting them anyway.
Brendan, as one born twenty years before you, our opinions about Pontiac are pretty darn close. That means, to me anyway, it was a long slide before the end was reached.
You had these as examples growing up. Discounting for the Trans-Am, think of the examples pumped out during the late 1970s and early 1980s. T1000? Astre? Even the Grand Prix, a car I can’t help but like, was indecisive (particularly from 1981 to 1986) as it was either broughamified or quasi-sporty in intent. Such is not sustainable.
As for owner demographics, while I won’t disagree, I also think regional differences are a variable sized component we would be wise to not underestimate. From this perspective, these were often a teen girl’s first ride, purchased by Daddy who fondly remembered the Pontiac of yore. It was a borderline “chic car”.
That’s a very interesting observation, one I don’t doubt is true. Around here, I always felt like Pontiacs were much more frequently driven by males, and younger female buyers usually bought them as cheap used cars (I’m thinking back to a former neighbor, classmate, and cousin).
In my area, the go-to Daddy-buys-his-spoiled-daughter-a-first-car is the Jeep Wrangler. Which is probably one of the reasons my views towards that car are negative.
Pontiacs, of course also had another big demographic in senior citizens (usually little old ladies) of the GM religion looking for a cheap car to get to the grocery store and church.
One such daughter ran a red light and killed a world famous architect, on a road I travel more often than weekly.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2017/11/13/world-famous-architect-irving-tobocman-84-killed-bloomfield-twp-car-crash/860907001/
The Fiero stands out as the one interesting car Pontiac could call its own.
Brendan you make a great point. Every one of us soaked up the vibe (sorry) of each nameplate on the road during our childhoods. You picked a terrible time to be a kid if Pontiac was the measuring stick.
I was a kid in the 60s and Pontiacs were everywhere. Not only that, they were always seen as attractive and desirable cars – even the basic Catalina sedans. So I got to watch the long downward slide in real time. I did think that Pontiac did a credible job in the “brougham era” of the 70s – the big GrandVille was really nicely done. But as that trend played out they tried to go back to performance with mixed results.
All I saw in Pontiacs of the 80s was “Loud”. They claimed to build excitement but the kind made with bold graphics and red instrument lighting. Under the skin they were generic GM. I was genuinely excited about the G8 but that chapter closed quickly.
I concur, JP (we’re similar ages, I believe). Even the base-model ’66 Tempest I owned (formerly my grandparent’s car) felt very high-quality and the instrument panel was sporty and jewel-like.
Lutz did make one last-ditch attempt to bring excitement back to Pontiac with the misfortunately-styled ’04-06 GTO and the ’08-09 G8. We (the US market) were that close to also getting wagon and ute variants of the VE Commodore, but Pontiac’s demise put the kibosh on that.
Likewise with respect to being a kid in the 1960s. We were a Pontiac family solidly for about 10 years, including seven years with two different Pontiacs (two ’65 Bonnevilles, wagon and convertible, followed by ’67 Executive wagon and GTO automatic coupe). As soon as I was of age, I went the same route.
I think what hastened Pontiac’s mediocrity was the “More Pontiac per Gallon” ad campaign that followed the second (1979-80) fuel crisis. Trying to make your car seem “exciting” under those circumstances would be a challenge.
Being of the same age group, I concur. The 1960s Pontiacs were the high-water mark, and the tide never surged to that level again. By the later 1970s, there really was not enough difference in a Pontiac and a Chevy to make paying more for one make sense. Bad graphics, spoilers and air ducts, and the ribbed cladding all seemed like a JC Whitney catalogue had come to life at your local Pontiac dealer, which usually was combined with another GM brand (Cadillac and GMC being most common AFAIK). It was truly sad to see a brand that had so much potential yet shoot itself in the foot time and time again. The Banshee should have been, the Sprint 6 could have led a revival in smaller engine power, and the Fiero could have been the sports car that made GM great, but sadly, no. I still think killing Pontiac was a mercy killing. Too bad Buick wasn’t put out of its misery back then.
Glad you brought up Buick, as I agree. Even with the extra money poured into it over the past decade, its products (mostly rebadged Opels at this point) lack any exceptional or interesting qualities that would make them stand out. Buick has been off my radar the past few years now, and I couldn’t confidently say I could even name everything in their current lineup.
Buick’s general purpose is ever-questionable, as GM’s need for two full-line premium brands isn’t necessary, especially as Cadillac still struggles to find its place. If the Enclave was a Cadillac, the value proposition for Buick is virtually nil. I think GM’s keeping Buick around has been to satisfy dealer franchises wanting a car line in addition to SUVs/trucks, as most dealers are now Buick-GMC franchises.
The usual thinking is that Buick was saved because of China where 3/4 of modern Buicks are sold. From what I understand, the Chinese see imports as being much higher in status than Chinese brands, especially luxury imports, and for whatever reason Buick is thought of as a luxury American brand. If Buick was discontinued in North America, their rep in China would take a hit.
Meanwhile in the US, Buick struggles to find a niche above Chevrolet but below Cadillac, and also with crossovers that don’t infringe upon the GMCs sold in the same showroom. There isn’t much wiggle room there.
Very valid point about China, though with most Buicks sold there assembled there and even Chinese-specific models only sold in China, one has to wonder there will be a day when Buick will be a Chinese market-only brand.
My general feeling about Buick’s position in the U.S. is one similar to that of Lincoln, even if Lincolns may be a bit more luxurious. Its typical buyers fall into three main groups: 1) the faithful elderly loyalists who have been buying them for years, 2) the “buy American only” crowd who will only buy American-branded cars, even if they are in fact build outside the U.S., and 3) the crowd looking for a deal that are drawn by generally good incentives.
I agree, Brendan. Only I see Buick getting the same kind of squeeze that Mercury got, and we saw how that worked out. Although we know this will never happen GM has the ability to move Cadillac into genuine high-end cars (although it is questionable if GM has the ability to execute at that level) and move Buick into where Cadillac is now, like the lower priced Lexus line. But I doubt that they will go this way.
Once Buick loses Opel as a source of product and new vehicles have to be home-grown, things are going to get interesting. It is hard to see how GM will have more luck with a Mercury (domestically ) than Ford did.
One has to wonder what will become of the sedans and smaller CUVs of Buick when the current contract with Opel is done. With PSA now underpinning the new Opel models, GM will have to swallow a whole lot of pride to rebadge a French car as a Buick in America. That leaves as the only option rebadging current GM sedans as Buicks, and that never bodes well. Cadillac will not be able to move their models downstream without losing even more cache in the sales arena, and tarted Chevies are available at your local Chevy dealer without the price bump of a Buick. Will the Impalibu sell as a LaCrosse? The Cruze failed as the Verano, so that one is out.
If GM is so adamant about keeping Buick for China, it should move it to China and be done with it. Let the brand die in peace here. Perhaps the money being spent on Buick can be moved to make Cadillac more luxurious and successful.
“it should move it to China and be done with it.”
This would be a problem at the dealership level. When Pontiac was axed, almost all dealers had been folded into a Buick Pontiac GMC model, and dealers still had plenty of product to sell. But if Buick is killed, what will they do for the GMC dealers? Combine GMC with Cadillac? GMC has always been the really big duplication left after the bankruptcy and reorganization. They sell pretty well but where will they fit if there is no Buick, because GMC probably cannot sustain a standalone dealer network. A puzzle brought on by legacy concerns.
Meh. There are very few Buicks that are GM Europe cars, with the obvious exceptions of the new Regals. I believe once that has run it’s course, they’ll base the replacement cars off of either US, Korean or Chinese engineering and chassis. Much like the rest of the line up.
I think the real failure is the lack of upward movement of Cadillac. The unfortunate timing of arrivals and departures of division heads has only amplified the issue. This arrangement, Cadillac>Buick>Chevrolet only works if Cadillac is >>>>Buick. Right now, that isn’t the case, but I can see where change is happening. However, it’s glacially slow.
Actually, the majority of Buicks ARE Opel based. The LaCrosse IS on the Malibu platform, but the Regal variants and the Cascada are all Opel. The Encore CUV is an Opel Mokka, built in Korea, while the Envision is Chinese built and imported.
The issue with dealers is a good legal issue, but I really don’t see why GM cannot narrow down the dealers into 2 tiers. Chevrolet is full line car and truck sales, with the Corvette for good measure. The Cadillac/GMC duo would offer full line luxury car and luxury truck sales. The bump in price would justify the better dealership experience in the Cadillac/GMC combo over the more plebian Chevy dealerships. This is what they did with Buick and GMC after the bankruptcy, so it can be done. Not pretty, but it is how the sausage gets made.
JFrank: I think you missed my point. The only cars GM is getting from Opel AG are the Regals and the Cascada. Correct, that the LaCrosse is Epsilon based and built in the US along with the Enclave. The Mokka/Encore is not sourced from Germany and obviously the Envision isn’t either.
Actually, up until recently, Opel had a lot to do with GM cars worldwide, but of course that will change soon, if it hasn’t already. I imagine that engineering will shift from GM Europe and GM Korea to GM USA and GM China.
Hi Geozinger, no, I got your point, but disagree with it somewhat. I am not talking about where the cars are built, rather, where they are engineered. Opel engineering underpins most Buick vehicles sold. When the current agreement with Opel to supply Buicks is over, where is GM going to turn to get different platforms or models to sell? They did that with Saturn before its demise (they were pretty much all Opel products rebadged), and now Buick is at the same crossroad. No product is in the pipeline, so the replacement for the Regal, the Cascada, and the Encore are all in flux. I don’t think a PSA platform will underpin a Buick in the future, but who knows. Sans that, it leaves only current GM USA product to poach, and Cadillac will not move theirs downstream if they can avoid that. So, that leaves the Chevy lineup to poach. And one can buy a Chevy fully loaded like a current Buick, so other than for the sake of the dealers, why on earth would they do that?
JFrank: I think I may have misunderstood your post. But, GM cars are engineered all over the world. Opel/GM Europe did lots of heavy lifting, but I think now GM Korea and GM China will be doing more of the work on cars from here on out.
Additionally, no multi-national corporation the size of GM would not have 10 or more scenarios on how to handle the loss/sale/forced nationalization of one of it’s divisions. We may not see it right at the moment, but I’m sure they’ve got something planned to keep Buick going in the US.
Provided they want to.
Growing up in the late 70s and 80s, because of cars like the Grand Am, its still hard to believe there is no more Pontiac. Grand Ams were EVERYWHERE, and in my high school, a Firebird or a Grand Prix were one of the cars to have or be seen in, plus as mentioned, the GA was a popular first car for the kids whose parents bought them cars. By the time I graduated high school in 1991, they were well known as ‘chick cars’ since I knew if I was driving along and came across a Grand Am, it was worth taking a glance at the driver since there was a good chance it was a girl around my age.
Every one I every drove or rode in felt like it was made out of Tupperware and you could hear the ones with the Iron Duke 4 cylinder rattling along a mile away but the V6s at least moved along pretty will, albeit with a lot of torque steer. I would not call them enthusiast cars.
For me, there is only one Grand Am worth remembering….
Thinking back on it, I have had more experience driving Pontiacs than any other mark.
I started with a 90 Sunbird, then my mom leased a 99 Grand Am SE, then a 02 Grand Am GT1, and then an 05 Grand Prix. I briefly owned a 66 Catalina to swap its motor into my Impala, and I currently own an 06 GTO.
My mom bought or leased all her cars from one local dealer because she thought they treated us right back in 87 when my folks bought a new Olds Custom Cruiser. Before the Pontiacs we had also leased 2 Safaris from the same folks. I managed to convince her to seek other brands toward the end of the Grand Prix lease and she switched over to Saturn.
I quite liked the styling of the 92-95 Grand Am GT and I also very much liked the 99+ GA. And at the time, the 99 Grand Am and its V6 felt like the fastest car in the world to me.
The real dud to me was the final version of the Grand Prix. I could not find a single positive aspect of that car. I thought the previous generation was attractive and I wanted a Daytona GTP pretty badly. But the last one was badly designed and all Pontiac interiors were pretty awful up to that time, the last Grand Prix seemed to be trying to make it even worse.
It seems like Brendan and I grew up around the same time period but have vastly different experiences with Pontiacs.
This is my current Pontiac.
Thanks for sharing your differing experience and thoughts. That’s what I like best about CC!
What you described about your family returning to the same dealer multiple times because of good experiences was a once common thing, and especially one with dealers that might have several brands. It’s something that truly speaks the value of good customer service.
These days, with the internet, people are less likely to do that. It’s happened to me numerous times where a buyer I’ve given my honest time and effort to will tell me they bought the same car at a dealer over an hour away because they were able to save a few hundred dollars off a $35K car. Sorry, rant.
But, like salespeople in any industry, car sales people genuinely appreciate repeated business and referrals. So many of my own clients who’ve come back I’ve grown to know like good friends, remembering birthdays and their family. From they buyers’ prospective, it’s a lost art, as everyone is now so used to buying everything online, and not actually working with a human contact.
Brendan neglected to mention the second generation Grand Am, 1978-1980. Quite understandable, as they sold poorly and were gone after three years. I bought one new in 1978 and kept it for 10 years. Nothing more than a sporty LeMans, which in itself wasn’t too bad. Handled well with the handling suspension and had a teriffic instrument panel with full gauges. The 4 bbl. 301 was peppy for the times. As typical of GM at the time it had terrible fit and finish and poor paint. Tired and done at 100,000 miles.
Pic is an example of my color combination.
The article was getting quite lengthy, particularly the opening, so I had to trim it a bit. I did write a short piece on the 1978-1980 Gran Am a few years back though: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-cohort/cohort-capsule-1978-pontiac-grand-am-neither-grand-nor-am/
I’m not sure of Brendan’s age exactly but I’m guessing I am 5 years older than him. I was actually surprised to read that the Grand Am was Pontiac’s hottest seller in the ’90s and early 2000s because I hardly knew anyone who had one. Most of the Pontiac guys I knew drove Firebirds or supercharged Grand Prix GTPs (which were great when the transmission was holding together). I was always a fan of the Bonnevilles in the ’90s and early 2000s as well. The only guy I knew that had a Grand Am actually had one with a manual transmission.
I’m 25 if that helps.
“I hardly knew anyone who had one.”
This is so interesting – and as Jason alluded to above, I suspect Grand Am ownership was highly regionalized. Here in East Coast suburbia, Grand Ams were common only as rental cars. As far as actual Pontiac sales, before reading this article I would have guessed that the Grand Prix was Pontiac’s top seller in the early 2000s.
However, in the Midwest it’s another story entirely. My wife is from Missouri, and she and I have frequently commented that the Grand Am was the Official Car of Mid Missouri (for young drivers, anyway… middle aged folks seemed to like their Luminas). When we were married in 2005, in Missouri, our rental car was a Grand Am, and we joked that we were trying to Go Native. Even today, well-used Grand Ams still seem to be drive by a largely young and female clientele. Those who can’t quite afford a Grand Am buy a Sunfire instead.
But here in Virginia, weeks can go by without seeing a single Grand Am on the roads.
Grand Ams were all over central Indiana too. Their showing was probably not hurt by the big presence GM still had around here through the 90s with a big metal stamping and the Allison transmission plants in Indianapolis, plus plants in Anderson just to the northeast and Kokomo a bit to the north. It was not just employees who could get the discount but retirees plus family members of both active and retired workers. The Grand Am may have been the most appealing on this platform for anyone under 50 so they moved a bunch of them. They are still seen around here in areas where folks drive older cars.
They were all over Northwest Indiana as well. I’m 47 and in high school wanted the Grand Am (1989 version). The Somerset/Skylark and Cutlass Calais were pretty much non-existent but a lot of Berettas in the area too. When I graduated college in 1993, I ordered a brand new 1994 SE V6 Coupe with the 16″ wheels. Dark Green with Light Gray interior. Traded it in 4 years later when I upgraded to a 1998 Grand Prix GT Coupe in Silvermist with graphite interior. Didn’t like the sedan only redo in 2004 but ended up in a sedan anyhow. Currently drive a 2011 Buick LaCrosse CXS in mocha steel – 102K miles so far.
Grand Ams mostly started out as rentals in Vermont too, but since most of our rental places are franchisee-owned they were sold locally and stayed around. Someone in a Pontiac showroom looking for a new family car in the ’00s invariably went for the Vibe, it seems. It was well known to be a Toyota with GM cash on the hood.
Sigh. The 60’s Pontiacs were rock n’ roll cars…. The 80’s and 90’s Pontiacs were Disco cars, flashy and brash, but without much real content. Pontiac was very much just “Stayin’ Alive“. Or, if you will, Pontiac gave up its style and soul for a factory assembly line job – doing the same thing every time, again and again, for the security of a steady income. The 80’s were hard times for Pontiac, and for a lot of people.
The customers who were buying them were buying them to show the world that they hadn’t been beaten down into work-a-daddy’s; married and working second-shift, yes, but Not Dead Yet. These weren’t Oldsmobile or Buick people -those were old people’s cars- Japanese cars were too expensive for them, and buying a Chevy or a Ford Tempo meant you were used to your dog harness and had given up, but if you showed up at the bar in a red Pontiac Gran Am, well….
I never spent a lot of time in them during that era; a few rentals, and in the (1989?) Grand Am SE coupe with the Quad 4 which my friend bought. My chief impression of the rental fleet comes back as sitting down in the driver’s seat which felt like it was stuffed with hard mattress ticking, and staring at the dash made of a thousand different pieces of hard plastic; each piece with its own red light. You knew it was going to squeak and rattle even before you turned on the car. They reminded me of one of the Plymouth K car variations – a very basic platform with a bunch of fancy trim glued on- but not nearly as well executed.
My friend’s SE confused me. The Quad 4 suggested performance and so its roughness -would have been- forgivable except that the formal roofline and bordello-cushion red interior screamed brougham. He only kept it two years, and cheerfully traded it for a new Maxima.
Great point, but I disagree on the music genre. Disco, however loathed by some, was a completely different sound from the rock and roll of the day, urban, hip, and made to dance to. The 80s and 90s Pontiacs were more like Hair Bands (the heavy metal type). Yes, they were rock and rollers, but with too much makeup, too much leather accoutrements, and long frizzy hair. They were not a big change from the old rock and roll style, but dolled up to look different.
Agreed – Disco was sophisticated and urbane, Pontiac and hairbands….
Disco is to R&B/Funk as Hair Bands are to Rock/Heavy Metal. I didn’t know leisure suits and cheesy neck medallions were sophisticated and urbane.
Actually, leisure suits and cheesy neck medallions were not really common to “real” disco devotees. That seemed to be the lounge lizard’s form of attire, and really, they didn’t care what music was playing at the local meet market. Studio 54 would not allow guys in leisure suits in, and it carried a modern vibe that catered to a very wealthy clientele, albeit usually artistic or anti-establishment, think Warhol, Liza Minelli, Bianca Jagger, and the Halston. Disco seemed to revolve around anything BUT straight white guys, which is why is was so reviled by many. The Disco Stu caricature really only happened in suburban bars copying the trends.
Brendan’s viewpoint is one I can relate to, despite at least 25 years between our birth dates (I suspect closer to 30, but I’m giving myself the benefit of the doubt here). Even for me, whose first automotive memory was of the lighted image of Chief Pontiac clicking on and off as my father toggled between high and low beams in our ’68 LeMans, Pontiac lost the plot before I reached driving age in my opinion. I’m old enough to recall when the marque had some mystique, but for most of my lifetime as a car-crazed kid it was clear that these were just better dressed Chevys. I’ll concede that through the 70’s Pontiac did differentiate itself with slightly more upscale and sporty styling. The Colonade Grand Prix was a much better Monte Carlo, the ’78 downsizing of that model still differentiated itself well enough, and the Sunbird was still a better trimmed Monza, the Firebird was a Camaro with better details, etc.
I think for me the jumping off point was in the very early 80’s. The ’82 Firebird was a more aspirational car to me that the Camaro of the same generation, but it had sort of a caricature aspect to it that made it seem tired to me by the second or third model year. The initial split-grilled styling of the early 60’s was both a blessing and a curse. The Knudsen years of beaked loop bumpers and styling backed up with great performance set the tone for too many years of silly styling cues trying to recapture magic that had no basis in real-world performance figures or actual value. By the time I reached driving age in late ’83 I might rather have driven a Firebird than a Camaro, maybe thought a Sunbird better suited my taste than a Monza, but frankly they were all the same to me, and in either guise not something I’d cross the street to look at. I can’t say what I think Pontiac SHOULD have done to stay relevant, but I can pretty much point to the period between 1980 and 1985 as the time when the train derailed.
This reminds me of when my sister lived just north of Boston (in Lynn) in the early 2000s and drove a bright red ’95 Grand Am GT 2 door. Even though she kept Michigan plates on it for several years after moving out there, it looked so completely out of place that nobody would’ve mistaken her for a native even without them!
She was very loyal to the brand, driving only 2 door compact Pontiacs for nearly 25 years. I (only half jokingly) suggested that she took her current job that gives her a company car because she wouldn’t know what to buy otherwise, now that Pontiac is gone.
Personally, I am one that laments the loss of Pontiac, despite never having owned one. They had a reasonably well targeted demographic at the end and did well in pursuing it. Their consistent application of sporty looks, even in an often mundane package, is not only lacking today, but it also freed up other GM divisions to pursue more refined/sedate styling. Now, more and more automakers seem to be trying to cover both ends of the styling spectrum in the same car, which usually doesn’t turn out very well.
I am almost 20 years older than you and growing up on the East coast, my opinion is the same as yours on Pontiac. Except that when I think of Pontiac, I think of 6000’s like my dad’s 84 6000 wagon with the wood grain sides, or the STEs. We did own them and they were good cars for the 1980s. But it seemed to me like Pontiac never evolved from that point. In the late 90s I test drove a Grand Am just like the models pictured because I had $4000 in GM points on my GM card, and I was amazed that the V6 Grand Am felt exactly the same as the late 80s Pontiac 6000. It was like no development had taken place in a decade. I was in the market for a car then, not an SUV, so I could find no GM that I wanted to own at the time. I bought a 5 speed manual Nissan Sentra instead which was an econobox, but more fun then a Grand Am in every way.
I was too young to remember the 60s Pontiacs, but I did want a black and gold trans am in the late 70s. So I’d say that was the last Pontiac that I wanted to own. The A bodys of the 80s were not bad cars though..
My version of the title: Pontiac Grand Am: How I Would Like Not To Remember Pontiac
Pontiac in the ’80’s and early ’90’s was OVERTLY trying to be perceived as the BMW of the US. With red instrument lighting and a front end double snout that for a while got very close to what BMW was/is doing they were really pushing for that in their advertising, notwithstanding that any similarity ended there, full stop. That’s probably where the “redneck BMW” stigma came from.
My first experience with Pontiac was my parents ’77 Ventura. Meh, obviously a Nova, but basically just a generic “car”. A few years later I got to experience some ’60’s Pontiacs through a friend that left me with a much more positive attitude. But then the new stuff got progressively worse with more and more cladding, like multiple layers of plastic surgery. Towards the end, I think starting with the G6 things got a lot cleaner and more attractive again but the damage was done and fairly terminal.
I rented a Pontiac Grand Am of that generation once. This is how I remember it:
In some ways, Pontiac was the saddest badge-engineered division, because it was constantly trying to market itself as a place of performance despite being the exactly opposite, at least until the very end. Dodge had some street cred due to the Viper. Oldsmobile was a vehicle for the…olds. You got what you paid for with a Hummer. And Saturn’s dealer network developed a unique set of practices that separated itself from its GM siblings. Even Mercury knew what it was: fancier Fords basically designed for college educated women.
But Pontiac tried to be the exciting division despite the existence of cars like the G3, G6, Vibe, and Torrent. The GTO, G8, and Solstice arrived far too late to change anyone’s minds that it was anything other than rebadged Chevys with somewhat unique styling. Pontiac truly died when the Fiero was cancelled.
These cars never did anything for me. Body-cladded pieces of sh!t. “N-body” could easily be translated as “Nobody”.
I liked the one and only Pontiac I ever owned. At 3500 pounds, it would move along pretty nicely with its 3800 Supercharged Series II engine. But then they killed the coupe a little later in this generation of Grand Prix (Mine was a ’97). The sedan version of these never really looked right to me.
As to the Redneck BMW reference? – Maybe in some regions, but not around here. The Grand Prix and Grand Am were everywhere in the Baltimore area back then. There are still several around, perhaps now owned by that demographic, although the numbers of these cars are starting to dwindle.
As to the BMW M5 and GTP comparison, (well, Brendan mentions a comparison above with the next generation Grand Prix, anyway), I have my own story. Coming down I-70 one night on the way back to Baltimore, an M5 and I were playing a little cat and mouse and having some fun at speeds I’d not care to admit, but I thought the GTP was doing a fine job of keeping up, even leading at times. When we got to the US-40 split off, he decided to bid me adiue, and kicked the M5 in the ass as he approached and exited onto US-40. Yeah, I couldn’t keep up. Impressed, and a bit humbled, I continued down I-70 towards home. So much for THAT comparison!
I like these too. The GM corporate interiors and other qualities let the GP down, but they were otherwise good looking cars and genuinely fast for the times with the supercharged 3800 to make up for those deficiencies, the Grand Am never had that.
My stepson had his father’s Grand Am of this generation; a GT with the 3400. It was ok, but I liked my Grand Prix (or the memory of it… I had the Retro-Stang by then) better. It was his go-to-college car.
What you say about the Pontiac interiors of that era is so true though. Very plasticky, if I can make up a word here. At the same time I had my GTP, I also had my Dad’s old Regal GS (same engine – a ’98), and although the interior was much nicer, it still had acres of hard plastic. The perception that it was nicer was that it seemed to have better quality leather than the Poncho.
I leased a 98 GT 3.1 V6 for 2 years! It was a great car; roomy, quick, well built and quite handsome in red! I wanted another GA in 2000 when the lease was up and what I saw was overwrought on the outside and cheap on the inside. Styling looked like a cartoon so I passed and went to look at the cleaner styled Olds Alero! The salesperson at the local Olds dealer was such a JERK when I went to trade in my ’98 then I went down the street to Chevy; looked at and bought a brand new ’01 Malibu LT 3.1 V6! Very good car; so good I traded the ’01 on an ’03 Malibu LT! When ’05 rolled around the Malibu was homely as it looked like it was built out of Legos! Olds was gone, Buick no longer had anything to compete and the GA still looked, well like a GA!
My family and I grew up owning and enjoying Pontiacs. From a 1963 Catalina to a 1979 WS6, true 400 CID Pontiac, I have nothing but great memories and experiences with them all. Pontiac’s problems within their division probably started with the engineers creating the first, true musclecar in 1964. Every division and other car makers went scrambling to offer anything to match the venerable GTO. The biggest problem Pontiac had was dealing with the immense jealousy coming from the Chevrolet division. Most every time Pontiac designed, engineered and produced any car that would threaten Chevrolet’s performance offerings, GM seemed to thwart Pontiac’s production visions. The XP 2-seater designed by John Z. DeLorean and his staff, ended up with Chevy engineering department, looking very much like a 68 Corvette. A much-improved and higher-performing Fiero was shot-down due to the fact that it could out-perform the current Corvette…I think Chevrolet had more to do with the demise of Pontiac, than Pontiac did itself.
As someone not much older these were the Pontiacs of my youth as well, in fact my best friend’s first car was a silver 2000 coupe with the fat cladding, which he added even tackier red ungerglow to, A pillar gauges a gaudy low end head unit and a few other tacky accessories, and it met its demise with a cracked transmission case after a few too many neutral drops. All points are valid, the noise, quality, durability were trash, even to 16 year olds, and it conspired to make the questionable exterior styling a bigger joke than it was. The worst part to me though was the laser beam RED dash lighting, I got picked up many still dark early mornings on the way to school in that car and those things just seared my tired eyes. Copying BMWs illumination no doubt but BMWs were more orange and softer, they just blared in the Grand Am though, I think I still see remnants of it when I close my eyes!
On a positive note, one got nicely thrashed in Lethal Weapon 4
https://youtu.be/xg5AypnkqSg
Also the styling looks very quaint by 2018 standards: Flame surfacing? Check. Angry headlights? Check. High(ish) beltline? Check. Big butt? Check.
The whole red instrument light thing is irritating in that it is about nothing but style. BMW seemed to pick it up at some point then Pontiac copied. Yes, aircraft make use of red lighting but only because it will not blow out your night vision in dark conditions when you need maximum ability to see the flashing lights of other aircraft. In virtually any driving situation your eyes never really acclimate to dark conditions anyway and the red lights are not nearly as visible as the greenish ones that are the most common. I thought the red lighting was cool as hell when I was a kid in the 60s and saw it on the neighbor’s Studebaker Avanti. But I am older now and see it for what it is – a styling affectation.
I like the lighting in my Mustang. I can make it any color I want (well, there are 125 possible color combinations by blending RGB, anyway). Right now it’s Ravens Purple for football season. Sometimes I make it teal colored, or even go retro and use the classic Ford green.
Funny, I almost never us red, as I too got bored with that driving my GTP for so many years. Once in a while I will blend up Orioles Orange, but after this past season, it may be a while before I use that color again. ;o)
The Orioles are still one win ahead of the 1962 New York Mets. It’s not a total loss season . . . . yet.
Of course after this, the O’s will go out and sign a few sluggers instead of good pitching that they really need and be back here again next year.
I don’t know what is worse the Dodgers(my favorite team) choking in the playoffs year after year or turning on MASN and watching the O’s get blown out early.
Of course it is better then having to put up with the Nats TV announcers (Santangalo and Carpenter) which make me want to jump off a building.
I remember that scene from Lethal Weapon 4 (my least favorite of the series; Lethal Weapon 2 is my favorite).
I believe there was some product placement deal with GM throughout the series, as GM presence was heavy in each of the four Lethal Weapon films.
Murtaugh drove an Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight in the first, while Riggs always drove the latest GMC Sierras in each film. Murtaugh’s wife drove an Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser in the second, followed by a Roadmaster Estate in the third. Murtaugh’s daughter Rianne drove a Saturn SC2 in Lethal Weapon 3, while Leo Getz drove an Allante in 3 and a GMC Yukon in 4. Backround cars were typically GMs also.
Pontiac tops BMW in the A/C department though
For a variety of reasons, I bought a new ’95 Grand Am coupe with the Quad 4 and kept it for 12 years/100K+ miles.
Unlike most here, I liked the Quad 4, at least until the first water pump went out ($$$$).
And yes, as it got older, the more I came to dislike that body cladding, but the real sore spot with me was the relentless cost cutting that seriously compromised the car. I’ve never seen so many things break in the interior; you’d think the car was used by a gorilla.
Personally, I think the driving lights fitted to most new cars are a total waste, but for me they served as secondary headlights the night the Hi/Low beam switch quit while driving on the freeway. Good enough to get me home.
Speaking of lighting, I can’t stand the red instrument lights/graphics. The car I have now has red, the Grand Am had it, and even my previous car had them. I wish they’d go away.
I looked at a new Sentra in ’95, and I should have done like Carlo (above) and bought it, I know it would’ve been so much better.
My Dad had an ’84 Pontiac 6000 wagon in the mid-90s and it too had the red instrument lighting. Really hurt my eyes at night, never liked it. The 6000 was an ok car with the Chevy 2.8 V6, but a typical GM parts bin engineering product. Nothing special about it and lots of broken trim pieces that seemed from lowest-bidder GM supplier etc.
Those later Pontiacs became a bit too garish, and by the end, despite the arrival of the GTO and the Solstice the brand really had no sense of direction. Still, it would have been nice to have seen a new Firebird based on the current Camaro.
Replace Pontiac with GM:
Pontiac might have once made appealing, sporty, and above all special cars, yet this was a Pontiac I never knew.
Brendan
Good article. I think to answer your question, Pontiac is an entity that is seen in many ways.
I do believe you are correct about the fact that Pontiac is seen differently by different generations. In my folks generation(they grew up in the 1960’s) Pontiac was seen as the speed company with the Firebird and GTO
I was born in 1977 and watch countless hours of Knight Rider while growing up in the 1980’s (both when it was on originally from 82-86 and reruns) and to me the 1982-1990 Firebird is still one of the most attractive cars that were made(yes the car was made till 1992 but I hated the 91-92 front end)
I also liked the Fiero and think that GM killed the thing off too soon (the 1987-1988 models had all the bugs worked out)
I do believe that the Grand Am had a multi faceted reputation depending upon the area
I live in a wealthy area(Columbia) in the middle of one of the wealthiest counties in the USA(Howard) and those Grand Ams were everywhere. I actually saw lots of them in Clarksville MD parked in the driveway of those multi million dollar homes. that and Saturn S Series
These were the cars that well off folks gave their children as first cars. The cars were safe and got a good rating from the Feds. It had ABS, Airbags and traction control. Plus they blended in on the road.
The other group of folks that bought the Grandam around my way were folks that wanted a good commuter car or a second car.I worked at a Pontiac dealer during 2000-2003 and the Grand Am only cost a bit more then the Sunfire so most folks bought it over the Sunfire.
Also the Grand Am was a way to get a new car for a not a lot of money. I know a lot of folks on CC deride the Tempo, Aspire, Escort, GM J Bodies and the N Bodies and wonder why they sold so well as they were supposedly inferior to a Toyota or Honda.
Well the main reason was that they were affordable and allowed folks to get a new car. In the 1990’s, banks were tight with lending money. A lot of folks could not get a loan at the bank for that new(or used Toyota) but they could go over to a GM or Ford dealer and GM or Ford would finance them on a car. A lot of folks financed Grand Ams and had them for years.
I have had several Pontiacs over the years. I have a 1999 Firebird, 2009 Vibe and now a 1997 Trans Sport. All were decent cars and all ran well for me. I have had many many many cars and trucks since I was 16 (from Volvos to Cadillacs) and these Ponchos did not give me any worse service then the others.
The GM 3400 V6 actually was a good highway cruiser engine. It does scoot and keeps up with traffic very well. I have the 3400 in my Trans Sport and it has no problem keeping up with traffic or cruising at 70mph-90mph if needed. It is true the 3400v6 along with the other GM 60 degree engines are cursed with coolant leaks but it will keep up with traffic on the roads.
There were a gabillion of these in Maine in the 80’s, and the 90’s models sold well too. A friend had one like the featured car, in red even. I asked him if it really had four back-up lights. He said. “Yep, you put it in Reverse and all four of ’em come on.”
I grew up in rhe 80s and 90s and i 100% agree. While i admit i always loved the ga styling mechanicly it was always a let down. Old pushrod engines with no stick, no IRS till 99. Cheap cartoonish interiors. I was always hoping to whitness the pontiac of delorian my dad would tell me about…only to be dissapointed when id drive one.
I grew up in a Pontiac family. The first one I liked. It was a big 72 Catalina sedan with a 400. After that it was down hill from there. There was an under powered 77 grand Prix with a 301. Pretty car but slow and the dark green was hard to keep Clean. Next was a blue 84? Grandprix with a 305. It had strange ripple cloth that wore quickly. Then came a 87 Bonneville which was front wheel drive and had Taurus like styling. It was a nauseating car to ride in and had eternal offgassing of chemicals smell. It was compact and had awful seats again some strange rippled cloth and rode like crap. It also had a thick steering wheel and awful orange dashboard lights. It ate tires too. Next was a horrible self distracting first generation grand am with the noisy head gasket eating quad 4. Parts regulary fell off. Next was a second generation grand am that was even worse. After that it was Toyotas. I never owned a Pontiac. Usually I have a big Ford or Lincoln.
Recently I had a friend with a torrent. It was litterally mostly snapped together like a model car for beginners too young to handle glue. It was a piece of crap that in the year it had it had numerous electrical issues, needed wheel cylinders, master cylinder, booster and several sets of tires. It also ate the underengineered window regulators regularly.
It had all the sporty? Things that made it a pontiac. Including ugly BMW style grill and headlights, horrible orange dashboard guages, fat steering wheel. Plastic every place in and out. Mercifully it got totaled in a wreck. It was a small SUV and not comfortable. It had short seat cushions for illusion of space. No loss Pontiac going way. They in my opinion lost it in the late 70s early 80s with the demise of the Bonneville, the horrid LeMans and Bonneville g with fixed rear windows, the horrible 3.8 Buick, 391, 301 turbo, and 265 engines, the metric 200 transmission,. The ugly 78 LeMans and Grand Prix, the astre was garbage too. Then they killed v8s,. Made the slow 80s trans am( I beat my friend in one driving my 78 LTD) and after that came fwd, orange dash lights, plastic cladding, the hideous 88 grand Prix, 10 years later was mercy killing
We had two Pontiacs when I was a boy–a 1967 Safari wagon and a ’70 Bonneville Executive Safari wagon (I hope I have the nomenclature of the models and the year of the second wagon correct). Both were loaded, top of the line, with wood on the side. I learned to drive in the ’70 and it had enormous power. But it was one miniscule detail that made the Pontiac special to me. When you put the headlights on bright and night, a small neon green dashboard indicator in the form of the famous Chief Pontiac glowed in such a manner that you felt you were enclosed in a special world only to be found in a Pontiac. I felt superior to my friends whose moms drove Ford Country Squires or Chevy Estate Wagons. Fast forward 30 or more years to the Pontiac Grand Ams, and I felt sorry for them especially because of the cladding, and frequently the red paint jobs. I just couldn’t understand how a stylist would think they gave the cars class.
I still think the 1982 Firebird is one of the most attractive cars ever built by anyone. It is the opposite of almost everything they made afterwards.
I’m old enough to remember the glory days of Pontiac as a child, the Grands Prix, the GTOs, the Trans Ams. I was 15 when Burt Reynolds (RIP) flew the Trans Am Special Edition into our hearts and memories. When the 1979 Firebirds came out, I was smitten. In fact, I still want one. I came from a Ford family, have had dalliances with Dodges, but the brand of car I’ve owned most as an adult has been Pontiac. Not much longer however.
I also witnessed the “mulletificaion” of Pontiac; I get the redneck BMW stereotype. There were lots of young men who, after blowing up their DSM Eclipse/Talon gravitated to the Grand Ams, as they had a lot of bang for their buck. There was a similar groove with the 7th and 8th gen Grands Prix and the 3rd and 4th gen Firebirds.
Many folks point to the Camry and the Civic and say: See what happens when you don’t change the name of the car? But I say, the cars have grown and gotten fat; they’re worthy of ridicule as they have ballooned into these unrecognizable (esp. the Civic & Accord), almost parodies of their former selves. Longer, lower and wider just ain’t for Detroit… Although today, it would be longer, higher and fatter… GM tried that with the heritage names in the 80’s and folks pilloried them mercilessly. The Grand Am of 1985 wasn’t the Grand Am of 1978, nor was the 1978 version the Grand Am of 1973. But, they tried using the label. It didn’t work.
More to the point, the 5th generation Grand Am was Pontiac’s all things to all people. If you could swing the note for a Sunfire, you could probably swing the note for a Grand Am SE. If you couldn’t do a Grand Prix SE, you could definitely do a Grand Am SE, maybe a GT if you were so inclined. It was a decently sized car, with the Q4 it was sufficiently economical to live with. With the 3.4 V6 it was pretty snappy. A good sized trunk and enough room for the kiddos, if they were not in high school, yet.
My 2001 Aztek was struck by lightning and we had to wait a week or more for a Body Control Module to arrive. Our old Pontiac dealer (Orson E. Coe, Grand Rapids, Michigan), lent me a 2001 Grand Am GT 2 door in a dark green and a black leather interior. It had the “Ram Air” 3.4L V6 and autobox. For my money, it was only slightly slower than my 5.0L Mercury Capri, but returned much better mileage if you kept out of the accelerator. Without admitting too much, I enjoyed my time with the GA GT immensely.
I know the cladding was controversial at the time and folks didn’t like the red IP lights, although many other cars had them (the 5.0L Capris were one example). I’ve owned several Pontiac models with the red IP lights and I don’t mind them at all. As long as I can see the information, it really doesn’t matter to me. At the time of these cars’ introduction, I wasn’t a huge fan of the cladding, but my mind has changed over the last several years. I would happily take a 5th gen Grand Am over the monstrosities that we see today. You can keep the ” flame surfacing”, the Furai crap, etc. The origami folding of today’s cars’ flanks is far less tasteful than the cladding applied to older cars back in the day.
FWIW, I’m a big fan of the Epsilon I body GMs (Malibu, G6 & Aura), but I think the changeover from the N-body to the Epsilon I (and it’s higher price) hurt the sales of those cars. Here we are 20 years later, and I STILL see N-bodies (Grand Ams & Aleros) in daily service in my part of Western Michigan.
I went to get my hair cut this evening and saw two 5th gen GA’s for sale in my six mile trip. I was at the boneyard not too long ago (to get parts for my daughter’s FORD) and found a decent number of N-body Grand Ams in there. One could still daily drive a 5th gen Grand Am and have access to nearly all of the service parts to keep it running into the future.
Enjoy the redneck and poor boy slurs, I’d take a Grand Am GT with the Ram Air and the hard plastic interior (easy to clean). I’d be sure I have the cloth seats and the Monsoon stereo, too!
Someone who is driving a 20 year old Alero isn’t driving it for the reasons anyone who is in a position to buy a new car (hint: usually not someone who is driving a 20 year old car that’s worth less than a new iPhone) buys a new car. The person who bought that car in 1998 would have been horrified at the idea of driving it in 2018.
How the mighty are fallen, this ‘grand am explains more about why the Aussie built GTO failed than its average styling, buyers must have thought OMG another waste of sheet metal masquerading as a sporty type car though compared to the domestic rubbish GM was churning out the Holdens were reasonably good.
Pontiac tried to be too many things,maybe because of upper management,and a lot weren’t well thought out (forced on them).
Man, were these ever ugly. A prime exhibit for GM’s tacky styling and cheap materials in that era.
They look like they were styled by a committee of accountants.
I’m quite surprised that there’s not one comment that mentions the vehicle introduced in 2001 that many consider the reason Pontiac would eventually be cancelled. I’m speaking, of course, of the (wait for it) Pontiac Aztek. I would postulate that the mere fact that the Aztek was a Pontiac could have had a detrimental affect on sales of other Pontiacs, simply by association.
No, the Aztek is not the vehicle that killed Pontiac. But it certainly didn’t help.
The Aztek was to ribbed cladding what the ’59 Cadillac was to tailfins. Its outlandish, over the top application of ribbed cladding was the point when it was generally agreed that Pontiac had gone too far, and subsequently the brand began toning down applications of cladding on existing models and eliminating it altogether from the design of new models.
“The Aztek was to ribbed cladding what the ’59 Cadillac was to tailfins.”
This will go in the CC Book Of Automotive Quotations – if I ever get around to writing it. 🙂
Not the way I remember Pontiac. (my ’69)
Now, THAT WAS A PONTIAC!!! 🙂
This article reminds me of a woman that I work with. She’s approaching retirement age and looks her age. The years of bad eating have packed on pounds in odd places and in odd shapes. The young guys make under their breath comments about her appearance. I tell them that she was something to look at 30 years ago, and she was. They just can’t grasp the idea.
Well I guess I tend to disagree. My mother had a 2001 grand am se1 for her car in Florida. When she passed away it was low mileage. My father gave it to me for my son who was 15 and getting ready to drive. He used it all through high school and college for eight years. Told him when he graduated I would get him a P.U.. He got a z71 Colorado. I then took the Grand am and put new carpeting and seat covers in it. I now use it for a daily driver and park my 3/4 ton farm truck. I get 30 miles a gallon and after a little tlc the grand am looks like a new car with 91000 miles on it.
Pontiac was embraced as a brand by the Boomer generation and it died as a brand when the Boomer generation aged out of Pontiac.
What I saw during my lifetime was young people wanting the Pontiac image when it meant handsome pointy-nosed two door coupes like the Tempest, GTO, Firebird and LeMans. Pontiac sold excitement and the TV ads showed hot chicks in mini-skirts, neon colors and vinyl knee-high boots with long-haired guys with long side burns and porn staches with vinyl Beatle boots.
This pop image attracted the older generation as well, the swingers wanted those paisley patterns, avocado green colors in their Catalina and Bonneville, and their Safari wagons. Pontiac was the choice for the older bald dad who didn’t want to look old. The Muscle Car Era was peak Pontiac.
Then the Boomers aged into parenthood and responsibilities. Pontiac put brougham touches in their sporty Grand Prix Personal Luxury Coupes, and LeMans turned into Grand Am/Cam Am upscale intermediate rides. Hot rodding was replaced by polyester velour pimpmobiles with padded vinyl roofs and hood ornaments. Still beloved by the Boomers, the 1970s saw Pontiac still popular with that generation. Thanks to Burt Reynolds, the TransAm becomes iconic and sells millions of Firebirds/TransAms.
Then Boomers discovered imports. As Pontiac downsized, rightsized and added four cylinder, front wheel drive compacts to their line up, Boomers decided that they wanted more than a broughamized Firebird. White collar Boomers migrated to imports and the love affair between the Boomers and Pontiac started to fade.
By the 1990’s Boomers didn’t drive Pontiacs anymore and the brand kept trying to add youthful excitement to their GM cookie-cutter cars. The 6000 revived Pontiac’s image quite a bit, but the Fiero flamed out, and the division became an also ran, noted for winged spoilers, plastic ground effects, and dozens of buttons on a swoopy gray plastic dash. The Pontaic Grand Am became their best seller and gateway to the Jones, X and Millenial generations. However, Pontiac didn’t build excitement, it pasted rattly plastic on mouse-fur interiors with bad resale value.
It was sad to see Pontiac try to sell the Aztek. It was sad to see a Trans-Am snout on a dust-buster minivan. Pontiac became a cartoon of its style cliches. Like the aging Boomers, Pontiac began looking like someone divorced balding uncle with a come-over mullet, chain smoking Camels. The brand sold to folks who remembered a more youthful time. By the time Oprah was handing out free Pontiacs, we all knew they were free for a reason.
Pontiac wasn’t alone. Dodge, the Pontiac of Chrysler, also saw Boomers leave it behind, and thanks to the Ram trucks, would have gone the way of Plymouth. (And still might). When Pontiac was axed, Chevy was given a new lease on life and GM faithful traded their Grand Ams into Chevies.
I know folks who had Grand Ams. They weren’t great. Good looking cars with front wheel brake issues and often driven with little maintenance. Finding one without problems is a challenge. It is easier to find a Sunbird.
The 1999-2005 Grand Am still survives in the rough parts of St Louis and on our side of the river in Illinois. . They are usually being chased by the police. I saw 2 of them just today a little worse for wear. They have replaced the Chevy Caprice “box cars/box tops” in hood lingo from the 1990s. But the Nissan Sentra is still in first place
I saw a very well preserved G6 coupe, at work today. A couple coworkers, had no idea that Pontiac had been discontinued, over a decade ago!
This photo was taken on the high, dry plains of southeast Colorado in September 2016. Enough said…
Good lord, will the stupid “dustbuster” moniker ever end? Enough already. My family had three Pontiac Trans Sports. We liked them.
The only Pontiac I own and of which I have a very good memory of mechanical durability and sobriety in terms of exterior design (even more than its Matrix progenitor) is the Vibe ’09 that I had . For me there the only Pontiac worth remembering. Of course there was my mother’s rwd Sunbird with its 3.8 buick which kicked ass every time the accelerator was applied but in fact it was a disguised Monza which came from the Véga.
Did all Pontiacs of the late “cladding” era have grey interiors, with a few beige for variety? It sure seems that way. Not many are burgundy, blue, or green inside… making Pontiacs look dull, not exciting, when behind the wheel.
Mixed feelings on these. Way less bland than any competition, relatively affordable and stylish. On the other hand, they definitely had mechanical issues (a friend’s father referred to his as Goddamn), used lackluster technology and cheap engine parts.
Someone mentioned in the older posts that a lot of the domestic market was import intenders who only would get financed on domestics (plus most domestics were cheaper). And did this change between the 90s and 2000s? If so it might make sense why the Big 3 share plummeted in the Aughts. You might have bought a Grand Am in ’96 but if you could now finance an Altima in 2004 you were plumping for that over the now old Grand Am.
This was another model where GM’s designs cycles were problematic. If the ’99 had come out in ’97 and been replaced by the G6 in 2002 they would have been more competitive. The name change to me was also dumb.
But sadly this was the best of the Pontiac design cycles. Both generations of J car lasted far too long and were seen as proportionally more bargain basement than even the Grand Am. The 88 GP stayed around too long, the 97 Wide Track was a hit but almost no updates and the ’04 was not a big market player. But at least the GP looked normal. The Bonneville? After an excellent design for 1992 w a nice refresh the 2000 model looked like a preschool art project and sales plummeted as a result.
Still Pontiac should have been retained in 2009. I don’t buy the Buick China argument and much as I like that brand Pontiac even with its flaws had a younger following.
But the real culprit in this era? Saturn. The development costs busted GMs budget to build cars that would never be profit kings. Moreover, what was GM doing in 2000 while these Grand Ams were being built. Introducing a too weird Euro design as the Saturn L Series! GM had no product discipline in this era.