This Pontiac Was Everywhere! Now They're Gone - Pontiac Grand Am!

It’s crazy how my knee jerk reaction is to hate this car like I did when I was a kid… but it kind of looks cool now lol

Being a kid in the 80’s, I remember my parents buying mostly GM vehicles, especially Pontiacs. They bought a new Pontiac Firebird in 1985, a new Pontiac Bonneville in 1987, and a new Grand Am in 1989. We also had a new 1984 Chevy Truck, and the toy car was a 1985 Corvette. I guess that is what makes me particularly fond of 1980’s GM vehicles, especially Pontiac.

Some of the greatest memories of my life happened in 80s and 90s grand ams. My best friend in hs had an 86 two door, my first girlfriend had a 94 four door, and I had a 96 four door SE. loved that car. Super reliable and cheap to run! Sold it after two years for what I paid for it. LOVED your anti suv rant.

I love your rant session too. You know when people can’t park their vehicle properly, that they are driving too big of a vehicle. I’ve seen this multiple times. 😂

The SE’s were rare as hens teeth at the time. Almost all of them were LE’s with the Iron Duke. These were sporty when compared to the other N-Body cars. Over at Buick and Oldsmobile they still had column shifters and horizontal speedometers unless you got the “sports” version, and you could even order a Buick version with a vinyl top and wire wheels.

I never see these anymore and this is one of the best examples I've seen in over 20 years. Nice!

The Quad-4 engines were high revving and fairly torquey engines. In these light weight grand-ams, olds Calais and Buick Somersets they could deliver some very lively performances but they would really wake up when mated to a 5 speed stick shift, specially if they were the HO versions. There was even a special edition of this engine, available for a couple of years in some top models, which was rated @ 190 hp, then an impressive figure from an engine displacing only 2.3 litres when many v8’s of the same era needed double the displacement to deliver the same power.

I remember seeing these all over the road in SE Michigan during the 1980s and 1990s. This version originally came out in 1985 and redesigned in 1992. Also remember Pontiac having a commercial with blazing guitars in the late 80s pushing the sportiness and youthfulness of their cars which helped sell the vehicles. Quality of these vehicles were questionable at best, but sold people on their designs. By the time its replacement came out (the G6), Pontiac was going down the tubes (save for the Holden based G8), and because of the bankruptcy, GM was forced to shut down Pontiac in 2009. However, with that being said, I miss the days when it used to be cool to be driving sporty coupes with are now extinct (Grand Am, Grand Prix, Beretta, Alero, Accord Coupe, Probe, Solara, Monte Carlo, Thunderbird, Cougar, etc.). They indeed were simpler and more affordable. Nowadays so many people feel the need to drive oversized CUVs.

My Mom had a 1987 Grand Am SE with the 3.0 liter V6. It had a sunroof and the GM stereo with equalizer and Bose speakers in the doors. I remember I loved the growly sounding exhaust and the great sounding stereo and orange backlit dash. It was a very nice car back in it's day. I remember though that after the power steering rack went, it started to nickel and dime her with various repairs. She replaced it with a 1994 Pontiac Sunbird with the 3.1 liter V6 which was even more peppy. She loved her Pontiac's. Nice to see this one. Have not seen a Grand Am of this vintage in years, let alone one in this condition.

Dude, you just picked up another loyal subscriber with the Grand Am video. My parents bought me an 89 LE with the Quad 4 in 1988. I had so much fun with that car but the biggest memories were forging a relationship with the service tech over at Lane Pontiac doing so many blown head gaskets on it. Also had an 85 Colt Premier Turbo which was remarkably similar to your 85 Galant. Your channel is a trip back to high school for me! Thank you!

My first car was a used 1985 Pontiac Grand Am and they had that trippy speedometer they changed the following year. I loved it

Ethan, It may have taken 32 years but somebody finally said something nice about Pontiac's Little Am. 😁

I had a 1987 Grand AM SE 2 door in silver. It was a sharp looking car back then. The 3 liter Pontiac V6 sounded good and was plenty quick enough. We beat the hell out of that car...I was 20 when I bought it. Definitely used the 50k power train warranty when the camshaft snapped in half! For a very inexpensive car it was pretty impressive at the time.

I have a grand am gt, has never done me bad, a great car, reliable, powerful and has amazing handling. Also pretty spacious

3rd generation Grand Am was the first car I learned how to drive. Of course when I was in school it was mandatory to learn how to drive a manual before an automatic because manual cars at the time were generally cheaper. Man the nostalgia of the 90's the last decade of genuine ideas and not built on top of other ideas.

I had a 1991. Identical to this car except the wheels. Yes back in the day it was a very sharp car. And the Quad 4 ran very well. Thank you for the Pontiac Grand Am memories.

Back in the day, I had a white 4 dr SE Grand Am. I absolutely loved that car! It seemed like everyone had one! Thanks for the memories! 🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿🙌🏿

I absolutely love this video, I absolutely love your Grand Am, and I definitely appreciate our mutual knowledge and love of 80s & 90s cars. I will definitely watch this video over and over again. I do appreciate the Pontiac split grill to the BMW split grill. I prefer the Grand Am over the Calais or the Somserset/Skylark. My grandparents 90 Olds 98 and my Dads 89 Chevy Beretta GT had those GM style seatbelts, and I don’t think we even once left them buckled getting in or out of the car. Do you remember the infamous electric seatbelts? My 91 Saturn SL2 had those. 😊

The G6 definitely carried on the Grand Am’s legacy. For a car that hasn’t been produced in 12 years, I still see a ton of them on the road. I still see the last gen Grand Am on occasion.

My first car was a 1987 Grand Am base model. It had the overworked 3-speed automatic, the 2.5 L Iron Duke, air conditioning that sapped 25% of the power and CRANK WINDOWS! I loved driving that car. I thought it was pretty comfortable and I always loved the body style. I really loved the flat dashboard with speakers on top, where God intended them. It had factory 6x9s in the rear, too. All in all, it was a nice date car during my first couple of years of college.