1989 Pontiac Grand Am: Favourite Automotive Adverts | The Every day Drive

May 4, 2025

10

Strolling the stroll, form 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 tremendous European fashions of comparable dimensions, Pontiac was lastly in a position to put its cash the place its mouth was. Properly, form of.

1989 Pontiac Grand Am

Grand Am SE

New as a compact automotive for 1985—the identify had been utilized to quite a few 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 attention-grabbing 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 totally 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 (Basic Motor’s inner product code) engine produced 180-185 horsepower and was mated completely to a 5-speed guide transmission. Of us searching for the comfort of an automated had been downgraded to a 160-horse model of the Quad 4 engine, internally dubbed LD2 by Basic Motors. Neither the LG0 or LD2 may very well be had in any Grand Am trim degree however the SE. Observe that the LG0 required premium fuel, which can have restricted its attraction. The LD2, nevertheless, ran simply tremendous on regular-grade gas, per Pontiac.

Efficiency

And with its new engine, the Grand Am lastly had—a minimum of 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 had been reporting spectacular 0-60 mph instances of round 7.0 seconds for LG0 outfitted Grand Ams, critiques of the engine weren’t particularly optimistic. Although sturdy, the LG0 was famously loud and coarse sounding, and usually tough general. This was the antithesis of small German engines of the period, which had been famously refined.

Reliability Points

Making issues worse, the LG0 engine was tormented 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 automobiles had been famed for his or her reliability.

Advertising

Provided from 1989 to 1991, the high-output Quad 4 engines largely didn’t place the Grand Am as any form of budget-friendly German-car various. Nonetheless, with its racy—arguably gaudy—design, and 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 usually dependable, Iron Duke 4-cylinder mill. The innocent engine was greatest recognized for being cheap easy in operation, and in addition gas environment friendly. And whereas boring, the Iron Duke saved 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 scores, and even some racing success in variations of the Oldsmobile Achieva.