The Pontiac Grand Am

[PontiacGrandAnn]

For everyone who has a GA, what made you buy it? Price? Look? Options?

[goldfinger]

Price and looks mostly.

I was also impressed by the power put out by the 4 Cyl engine. I figured it would be whimpy, however it was an upgrade performance wise from the 3.8L V6 Thunderbird I had been driving. :)

[WhiPontiac]

1. Looks
2. Performance
3. Price

And then everything else just fell into place. I found one fully loaded for less than $10000 and I fell in love with the thing.

[Peyman]

hmm....i didnt even want it....my parents took me to a friend of theirs to buy a car...and all he had for me that i could afford was a Camry....another Camry....Sentra.....or Pontiac.....i got the pontiac cause they didnt realize it was a sports car and that was my only chance....now i love it....

[HondaCivicsSuck]

it was my uncles GA. He really didnt take good care of it..... he only sold it to me for $1,000. but there is a cacth. that winter i blew the motor and tranny. So i bought the car because of the price.

[Pte Socks]

Well my entire time looking for a car iI really only had one choice in mind. I wanted to get a mazda protege but after fruitless months of searching for one under 12000 CDN, I realised I had to admit defeat.. simply because thats all the money I had.. and partly because I would have to afford my entire insurance for it and I couldnt afford that ( I wanted a stick but my mom cant drive one so I had to get an auto ). Thats when I began to fall in love with the GA. It wasnt too expensive, had way more hp ( I didnt realise how slow 122 hp was for a 1.8L protege lx and how REALLY slow a 92 hp 1.4L protege se was) So I spent a number of months trying to find a GA in my price range and I finally settled on a car that had a ton of km's (122,000 but all highway) but was everything I wanted. It was comfortable as hell, had abs and trac control for our terrible winters, was just in my price range for a V6, was an auto, and damned if she doesnt look so damn hot! So yea.. i fell in love with looks and comfort and price.. god i love my car

[RocketFast321]

I wanted a pick-up but to much money. Only thing left on the lot that was mid-size was about 10 grand ams, and this one was the cheapest one.

Price

p.s. Now i see a car that looks just like mines everyday. errrrrrr I did not think this car was so popular.

[Night Wolf]

what made me buy my GA ('91)? first, price and what it COULD be after alot of work

It was going to be an awesome project between me and my father, but alot of stuff happened between me and my father, and that project, among many other things went down to drain, I have always loved Caddy's and my car had everything I wanted, year and everything, and the price was just wayyy too good to beat. my GA are STILL at my fathers, and who knows when I'll see them, or my $800 next time.

[jayhawk]

Why? :lol: Because I had to. I had a 1991 Bonneville that was T-boned in January of 2001, and I needed a car NOW. I have grown to love it, it has been ultra dependable, and I like it even more since Ive stumbled across this site. I never knew there was so much stuff offered for the Grand Am!

[Themeneea]

it was the fastest car i could afford

[Jordon'sGrandAm]

well it was all 3 in one. I like the ga since the early 90's, and the lady was gona sell it and get a Hundi so i deciede to buy it. we knew her so i got it for 26 hundred. and it's a v6 so i could not go wrong on that buy.

[Chaotic Reality]

I originally started liking them from the looks, and I knew they had a V6, sunroof, fog lights...(i dunno why but i always wanted a car with fog lights.. ) :p - When I started looking for a GAGT I found a place with a '01 GAGT coupe with 20k miles, then they told me that they also had a black one, and to come check it out...well it was a seden, GT1 package (didn't realize what a GT1 was until I bought it) but it had the sunroof so that was pretty much the deciding factor between the two...and mine was a year newer.

J.

[Spoonya]

I hated the GA...... I was looking to buy a Grand Prix ..... then realized that since I was BUYING the car, I wanted all the fixins...... and a GP would have costed me huge coin..... so I took a GA for a spin...... fell in love with the "cock-pit" like Dash, and badda bing!...SOLD!

[TA^Guy]

Being a huge General Motors fan I've always liked the look of the GAGTs. We purchased a '95 SE with a 3.1 in which we mildly modded with a GT front bumper cover, cleared out the lights, etc.
We then sold it to my inlaws when they got rid of their old car so we could purchase a new GAGT. We've had our eye on them for awhile and the time was right.

[BBT]

I had an 89 Bonneville SSE. It was starting to become a money pit, the tranny was slipping and I had already poured a ton of $ into it. Time to cut my losses. I had tried a number of cars, and was certain I was going to end up in a Chrysler Intrepid, Concorde or maybe an LHS. But went to a dealer to see what they had, tried a 96 GA GT and really liked it. My own personal dealer tried to get it flipped to him for me to buy but the original dealer wouldn't give him a break on the price. So he hunted around for one for me. It had to be a GT.

He found my 95, with more options (sunroof, leather, CD, power seat) than the 96 I had looked at, with lower mileage and better pricing. SOLD!

[CHollman82]

1)Price
2)Performance
3)Styling

For my 5500 I could have either gotten my Grand Am, a Mercury Mystique, or a Beretta. I think I made the right choice

[Teamdiracing]

I have owned a 00 GA and after wrecking it I bought an 03 SC/T the reason I bought one is they are one of the most fun cars to drive. Aside from the 3.4 being pretty quick, I also love the handling, the styling, and most of all the fact that it is not an Import, and it still looks and outperforms many.

[LargeFish]

1. Manual tran.
2. Quad4HO
3. Passenger space
4. Working near Lansing ALL you see is GrandAms!

p.s. - Manual tran. listed first because it threw out the Grand Prix and Bonneville SSEI that I really liked that year. Runner up Camaro Z28 was dropped due to passenger space...

[Artic]

I have liked grand am's since the 95 models.When I rolled my 91 cutlass ciera mom thought it would be nice to get a new car for me.So we went looking on a small lot in town had a choice of sebring,neon,malibu,sable,and a few trucks.I did not even get to test drive my 97 gase due to my shift at work.I had to a day later cruising around in it.Had it for almost 5 years and 107k later went looking for a new 99+ ga.Seen a sweet 00 se2 but could not afford it ended up with a se1 bone options.Had it around 6 months then mom and dad wanted to trade off their 01 gagt I took it from them and tookover payments been happy with my v6 with power and a moonroof :)

[2KGAGTguy]

1. Necessity
2. Looks
3. GM Product
4. Price

I'd had my eye on Grand Ams for about a year, and hadn't planned on looking for one until the fall, but both my other cars decided to quit on me on the same weekend. Being tired of constantly tweeking motors and replacing worn parts I was forced to push my plan ahead, and rather than forking out a couple thousand for a beater, I went for relative reliability. I didn't want to buy new so as to keep payments down and net income up. White is about the best looking colour on this car IMO, and I found this one on the net and it looked SO good with the tinted windows and black trim. Even though it has no mods to it, it gets lots of looks and compliments. I've been messing with the GM 60&ordmV6 now for ten years too so with the 3400 in the car that was a big bonus. Plus I knew there was a good aftermarket for the GA. Still expensive, but at least it is there.

I love this car. Even though GM seems to have a less than perfect track record, I see lots of GMs on the road, and lots of happy people. Myself included. Sure imports are great, but they too break down. Personally I think they are over priced, and for the money I paid I think I did very very well. Too bad there are so many GAs on the road! Especially here...

[martopg]

Well I bought mine used... the main reason I bought it was price...

$2 Grand for a 96 with 69K was a damn good deal. Just didn't know at the time that there was $5 grand that had to be done in repairs... :pissed: :( :mad:

The other reason I got it was that it already had tint on the back windows and rims (granted that they're 14s) :P

[95SE3100H80]

i got mine for my HS graduation from my grandparents, it used to be theres... incidentally, how do i put up pics

[GA1999]

A. Because the payments were reasonable.
B. Gas Mileage
C. My 92 T-bird had 266K on it and after the winter we had the body was shot.

Initially I hated the car when I first bought it. Hearing about nightmares my friends have had with their Grand Damns, the 1st thing that came to mind was it was a pile of junk. However, the car seemed to grow on me after a few weeks of owning it and I haven't loked back since.

[PontiacGrandAnn]

I should probably answer my own question... :D

I obtained my GA in 1997 through my grandma. She had Alzheimer's and couldn't drive it anymore. It only had 18K miles on it, Not bad for a 3 year old car. (at the time)

I love my car don't get me wrong, but I don't think I would get another GA unless the safety factor on it becomes better and they put their signature cladding back on. (and a few others)


I'm finding all your replies very interesting, thanks! :P

[Klez32]

I was in the midst of getting a new vehicle. Checked out couple of import places first.

Toyota dealer kept on harrassing me to overpay for celica, were pushy and lied a lot. I walked out because they were too pushy and annoying.

Miller Nissan... went there 4 times to buy Se-R Spec V and every time their pushiness and overpricing just drove me out slightly more pissed off then the previous time.

Mitsubishi dealer was beyond pushy. They tried to sell me a lancer for the price of 2. When I walked out they chased me down to the car and kept on now finally to give me a good deal. At this point I didnt want to do anything with them. I came to purchase a vehicle, not deal on how much I can afford to pay on a car. FAgs.

Ford dealer, dont want to write pages about the bullshit I got there.

Then went to a GM dealer Livingston dont remember exact name. Its one on topanga. They were not pushy about selling me a car. They let me pick it out, test drive it. I was surprised because most car dealers would not want me driving their cars, but those guys asked me to drive it to feel the car. Above all that, after the drive they didnt push me to buy it. I asked about the price and they were very honest about it and gave me a proper price and discounts. They were extremely honest about it. I liked the car, and the honesty of the dealer so I got a Grand Am. My next car will be most likely from this place, I like honesty and hate pushiness and bullshit.

Thats my story to it.

[AznGA]

I wanted a sporty 4 door mid size GM car. So it was between Alero, and Grand Am, but I liked the looks of GA GT. So decided to get this.

[D.L.P.J.]

Well, after owning several Pontiacs already, and not really having any problems with any of them, I wanted another one. I was finally old enough to afford a Ta w/ram air and when I tried to buy a blue one for a b-day gift to me, they were all gone for good!! I had seen the new GP already and unless it's in GXP form, which is not available yet, the GAGT looks cooler! I also loved the GA's interior. I also saw that with aftermarket mods I could get it to GP level in performance, so I ordered a Blk GT1. When it came in I was stunned when my salesperson showed me the door sticker and vin# showing that it was made on my b-day!!!! It has been total love sense then. I get looks all the time with the few exterior and interior mods I have done so far. Even from people in much more expensive cars!! A guy in a new blk. Infiniti G35 chased me in my neighborhood just to get a closer look and ask me what kind of car is this. My friends who mostly drive Japan makes, admit that they love my car and wish theirs weren't so boring style wise and slow. My father has a 2k Bonneville SSEi and he just stares at my care when I go to his house. My next car will be a blk GTO, or the new G6. I am hoping Pontiac makes the "Solstice", it is gorgeous, I would love to own that as a wekend car!

[Dman97SE]

Well, a day two years ago my ex-girlfriends dad accidentally backed into the side of my Jeep Cherokee with a full size chevy pickup. Took it for an estimate and eventually got 1400 in cash for it and went car hunting. I stopped at the local GM dealer here in town which I got my jeep from and whom my parents have dealt with for a few years and I saw a '97 Grand am se coupe sitting on the lot. It looked good and the dealers asked what I was looking for. I told them the price range and they asked if I would test a Nissan Altima (97 I think) but that was an ugly car and I inquired about the Grand Am. Anyway, I bought it, fell in love with it, then got some 17" moda r-4 rims for it and looked really tight and I got a LOT of looks with that 2 door red ga. So at first it was styling, then price, and performance.

[Dman97SE]

The second GA I came to own was after I had put way too many miles on my 97 and decided I needed a newer car with less miles for college, and have more options in it. I went back to the dealer I bought my 97 from and was looking at new (99 plus) grand ams and prix's. I figured the Grand Prix's were too expensive for what I wanted and I saw 2 Grand Ams right in the front. One a white '00 GT2 (with leather/sunroof, etc) and a red '99 GT1 without leather but with pretty much all the options. I knew the white one with leather would cost more and I wanted to save a little cash for college. I took it for a test drive and fell in love again (I guess I just love red cars lol). The price was good, I talked them down about a grand (!) and drove away with a pimpin' grand am GT sedan. Now I have cut white reflective tape over the Grand Am, GT, and V-6 H.O badges and the thing gets looks even without tinted windows or rims. Girls I know ask me if they can drive my car, unfortunately I am overprotective of my car and say sorry but no, and girls I don't know ask to go for a ride and I still say no. (What is wrong with me LOL:???: ) Anyways, Grand Am #2 was price, performance and styling mixed into one. It was a perfect deal for me!

About two weeks after I traded my 97 Ga in for the new one I see an older guy that bought it driving it around smilin' and having a good time. That's what a grand am is!

[crazeyGT]

Well I searched the net, went to check out chevy cavalier, the dealer was nice and all, but the car just didnt fit me.. Then I went to check out GA, the guy took me for a drive, showed me the "power" it has, the stereo is good and all of that..

next day I came back with my dad, so he could check it and see what he thinks, and they had this nice white GAGT, on the showroom floor, the guy said 18.5K for it with 5k miles.. and to my surprise my dad bought it on the spot.. So thats how I got mine...

Just sucks, thats the only one they had w/o the sunroof :( oh well ..

:)