MotorWeek continually uploads previous road test reviews from the early days of the show, to its YouTube channel, which often feature General Motors products from years gone by.
The car review show recently uploaded a road test review that was conducted back in 1992 of the the-new Pontiac Grand Am GT. The sporty-in-spirit sedan had just been redesigned for the 1992 model year when MotorWeek got their hands on the car, with the boxier, third-generation Pontiac Grand Am going out of production in 1991.
The fourth-generation Grand Am introduced the pointier styling to the car (MotorWeek calls the nose bullet-like) that eventually evolved to appear on the fifth-generation car, which would also be the last-ever Grand Am. MotorWeek liked the extreme new styling, describing it as a cohesive design in the review and lauding GM for paying attention to all aspects of the design, including the sometimes overlooked rear end.
They also liked the optional 2.3-liter four-cylinder Quad 4 engine, which they described as free-revving and nature and fun-to-drive when paired with the five-speed manual transmission. They didn’t appreciate the vibrations produced by the engine, however, and encouraged GM to use balance shafts in the car to help smooth out the running operation. Another small complaint levied on the 1992 Pontiac Grand Am was the handling – soft suspension tuned for bumpy American city streets meant the car had a lot of body roll on the track and in spirited driving scenarios. We’re sure Pontiac’s buyers preferred the added comfort, though.
If you ask us, this car still looks quite good from a styling aspect and has aged well. There’s certainly cars from the early 1990s that look much older by today’s standards, so this attempt at creating a forward-thinking design was mildly successful at the least. We think the body-color matched alloy wheels look pretty cool too. Dare GM try and make those trendy again?
Check out the video embedded below to hear what MotorWeek had to say about the 1992 Pontiac Grand Am when it was new.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more Pontiac news and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
Pontiac had the best seats in GM cars at the time. I still think some of those from the Trans Am GTA were some of the best ever for a car of that price range.
Boy do I miss this time era in so many ways. All the GM divisions were still intact. There were so many choices, interiors actually were available in color, coupes, sedans, wagons, stick shifts, plenty of engine choices like this Grand Am which could be had with a SOHC 2.3 with 120 HP, several Quad 4 variations and the 3300 Buick V6 that was sadly held back by the old 3 speed and lazy 2.39 gears. Trans Ams. T-tops. Recaro seats. RWD full sized sedans and wagons with V8 engines. Plenty of convertibles too. Even Hurst shifters. Then you had Roger Smith and Saturn and many of the same issues that plague GM today such as poor management, poor decisions and misreading the industry. Quality control was all over the map especially with the Dex-cool and intake gasket fiasco but thankfully the after market quickly remedied those issues.
I would right now take a like new SS Impala in green grey from 1996 with a floor shifter, a 1999 Ram Air Firebird Formula with T-Tops and a Park Ave Ultra with supercharger for my daily driver .
The shame is that Pontiac did a lot with what they had to work with. Forced into using left over Chevy and Buick bits they did a lot with what they had.
Imagine if they were left to do things right with their own power plants and engineering like the 60’s and early 70’s.
Pontiac was at their best when they broke rules like witht he GTO and 455 SD. Even then they stopped Delorean from using Radial tires, composite headlamps and 4 wheel disc brakes in the 60’s. Imagine if they had them then what it would have done to the industry. John was about 10 years ahead in his thinking and GM was 10 years behind.
So sad GM got rid of Pontiac. That division had so much potential especially for younger buyers. Pontiac offered affordable, sporty looking, and performance-oriented sedans like the Grand Ams, Grand Prixs, Bonneville, etc. They also had some cool affordable 2-door performance cars too with the Trans AM, Firebird, etc. GM now offers only me-too sedans from Chevy (basic family sedans), Buick (higher level family sedans with one sporty and expensive GS model), and Cadillacs (which are nice but too expensive). GM needs to have an affordable and sporty performance sedan offering again.
I have a ’93 Sedan in this exact colour with the same engine ??♀️ Only 719 Sedans in ’93 and 505 apiece for ’92 and ’94, ’92 would also see 2,037 Coupes, ’93 had 3,442 Coupes, and ’94 had 2,738 Coupes all lined up with Quad 4 High Outputs.
Mine has 139k, I flew to Philadelphia and drove it back to Asheville literally 48 hours after this video was published