Mama always said better to stay quiet than to speak out if you can say naught but ill . . . good advice, along with the other wise abjuration that it’s as easy to fall in love with a rich girl as a poor one.
Struck out terribly on the latter, and have honored the former more in the breach than observance. But by way of turning my life around, let me say this about the Pontiac Grand Prix GTP I tested earlier this year: It had a really swell Bose radio, and I do like General Motors’ head-up display that flashes speed and other data onto the windshield.
Look, the Grand Prix debuted in 1997 – last millennium, for heaven’s sake – and it shows. Thankfully, a replacement is on the way, and I’m not going make you go all the way to the end to hear that you should wait for it . . . IF, and only if, you’re a die-hard Pontiac person. You must have at least one piece of bar-ware logo clothing. The Grand Prix model has been in existence for 40 years, if you can believe it. GM is capitalizing on that seismic anniversary by tricking up some 2002 Grand Prix’s as anniversary editions. Wow – think they’ll be collector’s items?
There are three series of GP, the SE, the GT and the GTP.
The SE is the value leader, if you want to bend the term, starting at $21,505, sans freight. It comes with a four-speed automatic transmission and the old 3.1-liter overhead valve V-6 (175 hp, 195 foot-pounds of torque).
Move up to the GT level and you can swap out that old wheezer for a similarly battle-tested 3.8-liter overhead-valve V-6, worth 200 horses and 225 foot-pounds. But the move up will cost almost two grand, even at the prevailing discounted prices.
If you’re really serious about throwing your money down a rat hole, get the GTP for nearly three grand more. Along with some alleged aesthetic improvements – add the 40th anniversary package and you even get a grotesque rear spoiler – you get the old soldier 3.8 under the hood, but here it’s goosed along by a supercharger. Resulting output is 240 hp (at 5,200, pretty lofty terrain for this engine type) and a brawny 280 foot-pounds (at 3,600). You pay dearly for it, though, and not just up front – GM specifies 92-octane fuel for this mill, whereas the others are content with 87-octane juice.
By the time the press fleet manager had tiptoed through the options list, my tester listed at $30,050, including freight. It was well-equipped, with traction control, antilock brakes, alloy wheels, OnStar communications system and the head-up gauge display, in addition all the usual power aids.
The nice thing about that head-up display, which is projected on a semi-silvered patch on the windshield, is that not only does it keep the driver from looking down at the standard speedometer, it keeps her from having to radically change her point of focus. I can’t imagine why it hasn’t become more popular. The Grand Prix is a midsize sedan, able to carry five folks, assuming they get along pret ty well. The first-cabin folk fare much better than steerage, of course.
All tricked out as a GTP (the name derives from a racing series), it weighs about 3,600 pounds. Hefty as that is, the blown engine gives it right frisky off-the-line performance. The one thing to be said about the old overhead-valve technology is that it tends to concentrate torque at the low end, making for an eager launch feel. GM typically enhances that sensation by wiring the throttle rather tightly, so it doesn’t take much to get the front tires smoking, before the traction control kicks in.
When all’s said and done, the big guy scoots to 60 in less than 8 seconds, which qualifies as rather perky for a big old barge. The supercharger is barely noticeable except for a faint whistle when it’s cranking up. Operationally, the sensation is just of a larger engine, not the afterburner feel you get from a turbo. A supercharger does its work over a wider range than a turbocharger and kicks in faster, being driven off the crankshaft. The exhaust note is too obtrusive just off idle, and only gets worse as the gasses flow faster. It’s tiring after a bit, and not that euphonious.
All things considered, the Grand Prix GTP is fairly economical, once you get over the ultra-premium-gas hurdle. EPA estimates are 18 mpg city, 28 highway. I got 24.5 in mostly exurban running, fooling around from time to time with the supercharger. The GTP is geared quite high, sacrificing some performance on the altar of gas economy. Accordingly, there’s pitifully little engine braking to be had even in second gear. In fourth, which is a 0.71:1 overdrive, the car feels as if it’s a fractious horse, eager to run back to the barn.
The biggest problem with the GTP is its lack of bodily rigidity, Built to the standards of long ago, it’s hopelessly out of sync with what has been going on the last few years, thanks to the increasing role computer-aided design plays. We now expect cars in even this family class to feel all of a piece, not like a loose aggregation of parts. Camry and Accord deliver, to name just two which GM presumes to name as competitors.
Not only does the car feel rather vague and uncoordinated, it rattles and groans like the senior citizen it has become. The steering is numb, ditto the brakes, although the latter seemed to get the job done all right in simulated panic stops from 70 mph. When the antilock was called into play it made an odd whirring noise.
When the government crash-tested the Grand Prix, it again showed its age, garnering four-star ratings (on a five-star scale) for front-seat occupant protection in a frontal impact, but only two stars for the front and three for the rear in side impacts. It has front air bags, but neither side nor head-curtain balloons.
In the insurance industry’s 40-mph offset frontal impact collision, the Grand Prix was graded “acceptable” overall. That scale goes good, acceptable, marginal, poor. It was one of the best, however, in the insurance institute’s 5-mph bumper bash, sustaining $479 worth of damage on average in each of four bashes, bad as that may sound.
The tester had the 40th anniversary package for $2,695; a power moonroof, $795; AM-FM-CD Bose stereo system upgrade, $345, and a heated driver’s seat, $100. Total, with freight and package discounts, was $30,050. Payments at that price would be $609, assuming 48 installments, 10 percent interest and 20 percent down. Not surprisingly, Edmunds.com says its surveys show most folks are managing to get a $1,500 discount on the GTP. It should also be noted that the Grand Prix has much in common with the Buick Century/Regal and Oldsmobile Intrigue.
