From: mills@athena.lkg.dec.com (George Mills)
Newsgroups: rec.autos
Subject: Review 92-93 grand-am
Date: 20 Dec 92 07:54:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: dialup.mills.724838065

I've been wanting to do this for a while now finally have a little time.

I used to own a 1987 4000CS quatro and traded it in for a Grand-Am.

The reason I state my old car is that it was a $20,000.00 car (in 87)
and is consider by many a decent machine. It was a nice car, really
handled and felt wonderfull. But that's all, it had so many problems
(to many to list) and was extremely expensive to fix).

After that I promised myself never to spend that kind of money for
a car again.

We were open minded to any car.
If it was a tie between foreign and domestic I would go domestic.

We test drove:

Saturn (non sport model)
Honda civic
VW Jetta GL
Caravan
Grand-Am

The saturn was ok but the famous noise and poor crash tests scared us away.
We went to several dealers and almost bought because of the excellent sales
people alone. To bad they don't have a safer car to sell.

The Jetta seemed like a tin toy after having the Audi. Also poor record
of quality and repair cost. Had brand new one before and was a lemon from
day one.

The honda also seemed like a toy but less so than saturn. Price was
a bit steep with the options we wanted because of the way they equip
the cars. Had to get top model for anti-lock brakes. Hated the sales
people. Must of got 10 calls from 10 salesmen after looking at 1 car.

The only reason I mention the caravan was that we need both a sedan and
something bigger. We chose to wait on the caravan. But we went to a lot
of dealers. And they ALL had great sales people. We will definitely by
a dodge minivan once we pay the grand-am off.

Then came the Grand-Am. Really had no plans at looking at pontiac.
Just was a lazy saturday and the the aqua grand-am caught our eye. We expected
it to be way too expensive. But we were in "sticker-shock" (in the other
direction :-)).

Wow we can afford it and it looked so sharp. So we test drove it. Wow it
did not feel like a toy. Actually had the bigger car feel like the audi.
We almost bought that one, but after learning of some options we
really wanted we decided to order one.

We got exactly what we ordered/wanted on time. But the dealer could not
of screwed up paper work or returned calls etc, any worse. Lucky
that they had a good car.

35 miles per gallon highway epa (higher than even the smaller cars)!!!
   Only got 31-32 with 90% highway at 70-75 mph.
Sport interior is very nice, no excuse not to for the mere $150.
Cruise, best cruise on market with Tap-up/Tap-down 1mph.
Stock AM/FM cassette very cheap option and really sounds great for stock radio.
    Audi radio was awfull sounding by the way, but great controls.
    GM radio sounds great but ok controls.
    It took a month to figure out how to get the GM radio to scan
    (Push seek up and down at same time, NOT in OWNERS MANUAL).
We bought the stock engine with 5 speed manual. We really wanted that
     mileage. The engine is a tad boggy (under powered/over geared).
     If you want power they have two much more powerfull engine options.
The engine in the audi was incredibly smooth and flatish power curve.
     for a small 2 valve per cyclinder engine it was pretty incredable.
     The engine in the GM is not as smooth and quiet rev'd out. But for
     10K less (today) I'll take it. Very quite and smooth in 5th on highway
     though. And still better than any other car we test drove.
The lighting is wonderfull each passenger gets a bright map light.
All accessories shutoff automatically if left on.
Automatic door locks (lock when over 8 mph)
Anti-lock breaks standard.
No air-bag, GM's argument is that anti-lock breaks potentially protect
      everyone. They certainly have a point.
After 3 months and 3000 miles. Not a squeak, rattle, etc. Absolutely
      nothing. My only other car that did this was a GM. All VW/Audis
      had problems before we even got home.
Only car (out of 5) I ever got compliments on, in fact several from
complete strangers.
The driving controls are perfect, PERIOD.
Finally GM offers a split folding rear seat, but cannot lock.
We paided $14,000 for 93 at 5.9 finacing.
Adding automatic and next engine up jacks the price up $1200.00 or so.
Buying the sport exterior also jacks the price up allot. Very sporting
      but base model is plenty sporty for me.
No sun-roof option.
I think it's bigger and roomier than any sedans we looked at.
Also got gauge and variable ratio steering, both fairly cheap.
Also got A/C.
But audi/VW heat/ac controls are still simpler and more effective.

I think I'd buy two if we didn't need mini-van.
GM really figured things out on this car. We bought american
(mostly, nothing is pure) and we are pleased and proud of it.
Achieva is also the same car.
3yr bumber to bumper waranty, finally.

If your looking in this price range/size, test drive one.
I think you'll be impressed.

I'm not affiliated with GM, I just want let folks know GM
is a great choice once again.
Newsgroups: rec.autos