N body Grand Am. NMNA, but wish it was

When was the last time you saw one of these??

https://atlanta.craigslist.org/nat/cto/d/marietta-classic-ride-ready-for-new-home/7768574778.html

Those things were everywhere, but now they're gone. I haven't seen one in years.

This of course is the same design as when it debuted in '84.  I was in my early teens during the mid-80s and had a love for Pontiac styling.  Grand Am, Grand Prix, Fiero, Sunbird, Bonneville, TranSport, 6000, T100, Safari wagon.

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

Those things were everywhere, but now they're gone. I haven't seen one in years.

Good riddance Grand Am - my wife's '86 was a flaming POS.  Next to the "free" '95 Chevrolet Lumina from the FIL this is the car I hated the most but I do keep a picture in my phone for nostalgia.  $8500?  
 

The soon to be Nissan Altima of the 80's....

Yeah, wow. In college, I knew a girl who had a gold one. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Everybody knew that girl.

In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :

Terri. 

My mom had the Cutlass Calais version. It was ok, better than her 83 Buick Skylark that got totaled

In reply to Iusedtobefast :

My parents had the Calais version, too, but it was a sedan. (It did have the body-color mags, though.)

I also had the Calais version, had the Tech 4 engine (roller iron duke).   I sold it with 255k miles on it, would have passed for 55k, super clean.

In reply to akylekoz :

I wonder if I have a photo of ours. It had some kind of sport package, IIRC, that included a tach–even with a column shift. 

I don't know if I've been around here for too long, but cars like that are starting to look cool?

(Is there something wrong with me?)

This is how I most remember them

I'm a dyed-in-the-wool 80s kid, Generation X'er, and multiple Radwood attendee. And I cannot summon one single iota of GiveaE36 M3 for a Pontiac Grand Am. They were E36 M3boxes then, they are E36 M3boxes now.

For a few minutes there, one in particular was the hot Street Touring autocross car. 

David S. Wallens said:

For a few minutes there, one in particular was the hot Street Touring autocross car. 

Yeah, Matt Grainger from the Midwest. he had a Quad4 Calais that was basically the predecessor to our Achieva. None of them are great cars, but it was an era when executives could approve certain deep-dive option packages to give Firehawk teams an advantage with "dealer available" cars. For example, on our Acheiva, deleting a/c and power windows, then specifying the base radio (AM/FM only, no tape), gave you a Torsen and an ecu that unlocked a few more hp. Calais had similar weird option combos, although not quite that hardcore.

PS: this car is a piece of crap, though, and not worth anywhere near $8500

In reply to DrBoost :

My wife bought a new '86 pictured above and after the 4th Chicago winter rust developed around the rear wheel areas then all over.  Years later I'd sand it down and paint on a mismatched white rustoleum spray.  I kinda gave up.

Woody (Forum Supportum) said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Everybody knew that girl.

Two things:

-Approximately 87% of the female student cars at my college were GM J or N Bodies. The really cute ones had Grand Am GTs, and the cuter they were, the crazier they were! I briefly dated two of them; both complete basketcases (the girls, not the cars). I even knew one that had a Cavalier that upgraded to a Grand Am! A friend of mine had a particularly psychotic GF that also had a Grand Am GT; she was a real mess. It was a weird time. These truly were the Nissan Altimas of their day. Big Grand Am Energy preceded Big Altima Energy. 

-My friend had a gray-on-gray-mouse-fur 4-door '89 Grand Am. His parents bought it for his older brother and when he went off to college out-of-state, the Grand Am fell to him. Pontiac did Build Excitement, but they forgot to install it on this car. It was excruciatingly boring. He very much wanted it to be cool, but it never really was, and his parents would not let him do anything to it because his little brother was next in line for it when he himself went to an out-of-state school in a couple years. So, he did the only thing he could think of: he would pull up to stop lights, pop it in Neutral, and roll back while moving his hand around near the console to "pretend it was a manual". Then, to get the jump on the guy in the other lane, he'd rev it to the moon and Neutral Drop the thing into oblivion. That poor transmission probably saw 100 "ND's" during the 1.5 years he had it. It put up with it, too! 

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Ahh, neutral drops. 

David S. Wallens said:

In reply to Tony Sestito :

Ahh, neutral drops. 

My buddy in high school had a '70 Olds 2-door baby blue Delta 88 with a 455, 2-barrel and he broke up with this chick and around 10pm on a Friday night he's drive by her house that was on a good size hill.  

He get to the top of the hill, throw it in neutral and coast backwards down the hill and halfway down toss into drive and attempt to accelerate up the hill. Smoking tires he finally got up the hill and smoked up the entire block leaving a lot of tire on the pavement. Then we'd circle back and check it out. 

Don't forget $500-$1000 got you a lot of beater in 1978.

I worked a Pontiac dealership for about three months in 1989.

Young wife after young wife would come in to test drive a Grand Am.

Every single one of them made it clear that they were cross shopping Honda Accords. Those who could swing a little extra on the payment (nurses and teachers) ended up buying the Accords. The rest settled for the Grand Am.

I felt bad for the ones who came back.

Of course, gotta add this to the conversation:

I don't dispute any of the comments about the cars mechanical or driving attributes.  It was a turd.  However as a 12 year old in 1984 I didn't know a damn thing about mechanical or driving.  I just loved the look, even the wheels.  Then they added the 2.8L and I loved the snarl of the exhaust.  So I've always wanted one.. but $8500 is crack pipe price.

The Quad 4 5speed cars were fun while they lasted. What other N/A 4 cyl  was putting out 180hp at the time ?