The Pontiac Grand Am is a 2-door fastback coupe / 2-door notchback coupe / 4-door fastback sedan (car) / sedan / 4-door notchback sedan (car) / sedan from Pontiac, built from 1973 to 2005, as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry. Under the bonnet: 400 cuin Pontiac V8.
The story
The Pontiac Grand Am is a car model that the Pontiac division of General Motors produced in various years between 1973 and 2005. The first and second generations were RWD mid-size cars built on the LeMans GM A platform. The Grand Am name was reused for a FWD compact car from 1985 until the nameplate was discontinued in 2005. The platform began development intended to be the next generation GTO, but the muscle car era was drawing to a close. Pontiac decided to make this model America's answer to European luxury sports sedans. The Grand Am name was derived from two other Pontiacs; "Grand" signifying Grand Prix luxury, and "Am" for Trans Am performance.
The first generation Grand Am featured innovations that included a deformable urethane nose (an evolution of the "Endura" bumper pioneered on the 1968 GTO) and was one of only three GM cars (Olds Cutlass Salon, Chevy Monte Carlo S) to debut radial-ply tires (RTS - Radial Tuned Suspension) as standard equipment. The intermediate sized Grand Am was canceled in 1980 when it was replaced by the Pontiac 6000. A compact-sized Grand Am, based on the GM N-platform, was released in 1985, replacing the Pontiac Phoenix. It became Pontiac's best selling car and was later replaced by the Pontiac G6, so named as it was intended to be the 6th generation of the Grand Am. All 1973 through 1975 Grand Ams were built in Pontiac, Michigan at Pontiac's main assembly plant. The 1978-1980 Grand Ams were built in Pontiac, Michigan at Pontiac's main assembly plant and in Atlanta, Georgia at GMAD Lakewood. All Grand Ams between 1985 and 2005 were built i
What is underneath
Power comes from 400 cuin Pontiac V8; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It shifts through a TH400 automatic or 4-speed manual. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 112.0 in (2-door) / 116.0 in (4-door). These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Its place in the line
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Pontiac LeMans (for 1973) / Pontiac Phoenix (for 1985) / Pontiac Tempest#Third generation 1987–1991 / Pontiac Tempest (for 1992 - Canada); its successor was the Pontiac G6 (2005); assembly was at Pontiac, Michigan, United States. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Volkswagen Passat, the Lancia Stratos, the Mitsubishi Lancer — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Pontiac catalogue sit the Pontiac 2+2 and the Pontiac 6.
What it costs now
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Pontiac Grand Am has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.