1989 Pontiac Grand Am: Favourite Automobile Adverts | The Each day Drive

May 17, 2025

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Strolling the stroll, kind of.

It was time for Pontiac to stroll the stroll. Having claimed because the automotive’s inception that the Grand Am was infused with the identical expertise and character as high quality European fashions of comparable dimensions, Pontiac was lastly capable of put its cash the place its mouth was. Effectively, kind of.

1989 Pontiac Grand Am

Grand I’ve

New as a compact automotive for 1985—the title had been utilized to quite a lot of Pontiac fashions prior—the Grand Am had proved to be a scorching vendor for the model. Credit score the ‘Ams arguably sporty design and inexpensive lineup, and disrespect the automotive’s low cost inside and mediocre efficiency. Atop the trim-level mountain was the SE, which till 1989 had been powered by a modestly fascinating 3.0-liter V6 produced by Buick. The slow-revving pushrod mill churned out simply 125 horsepower, however an affordable quantity of torque, making the automotive fast sufficient for stoplight drag-race tomfoolery.

Engines

For a interval, a turbocharged 2.0-liter engine was inserted into the Grand Am lineup, but it surely’s energy supply was peaky, and the motor was famously unreliable.

Quad 4

Enter the “high-output” Quad 4, a completely fashionable—in idea—4-cylinder engine that includes a 16-valve overhead-cam (OHC) cylinder head, and surprisingly excessive compression ratio. New for 1989, the LG0 (Normal Motor’s inside product code) engine produced 180-185 horsepower and was mated completely to a 5-speed handbook transmission. Of us looking for the comfort of an computerized have been downgraded to a 160-horse model of the Quad 4 engine, internally dubbed LD2 by Normal Motors. Neither the LG0 or LD2 may very well be had in any Grand Am trim stage however the SE. Be aware that the LG0 required premium gasolinewhich can have restricted its attraction. The LD2, nonetheless, ran simply high quality on regular-grade gasoline, per Pontiac.

Efficiency

And with its new engine, the Grand Am lastly had—no less than on paper—the specs anticipated of a European-car wannabe. That stated, the LG0 engine was one thing of a disappointment, although not for its efficiency.

Whereas buff books of the day have been reporting spectacular 0-60 mph occasions of round 7.0 seconds for LG0 outfitted Grand Ams, evaluations of the engine weren’t particularly constructive. Although sturdy, the LG0 was famously loud and coarse sounding, and customarily tough general. This was the antithesis of small German engines of the period, which have been famously refined.

Reliability Points

Making issues worse, the LG0 engine was stricken by reliability issues, together with:

Head-gasket failures
Timing-chain tensioner points
Extreme oil consumption
Cooling system points
Ignition-system failures

This at a time when German vehicles have been famed for his or her reliability.

Advertising

Supplied from 1989 to 1991, the high-output Quad 4 engines largely didn’t place the Grand Am as any kind of budget-friendly German-car different. Nonetheless, with its racy—arguably gaudy—designand consumer-friendly pricing, the Grand Am continued to promote like hotcakes, even when the expertise boasted of within the advert seen right here was deeply flawed.

Iron Duke

Most Grand Ams got here with GM’s ubiquitous, and customarily dependable, Iron Duke 4-cylinder mill. The innocent engine was greatest identified for being cheap easy in operation, and likewise gasoline environment friendly. And whereas boring, the Iron Duke stored most Grand Am homeowners fairly pleased.

And whereas the Quad 4 experiment within the Grand Am fell flat, variations of the engine would go on to increased horsepower rankings, and even some racing success in variations of the Oldsmobile Achieva.