The folks at Pontiac have declaimed that "wider is better" for more than a generation now. Their "wide track Pontiac" slogan dates all the way back to the last days of the GTO, with today's Grand Am a direct descendant of that quintessential sixties muscle car. Along the way, though, the lineages crossed and recrossed, and today we find the Grand Am a somewhat curious hybrid of sleek, powerful sportster and family car -- presumably targeted for the young family that's just now outgrowing its sporty car but isn't quite ready for the burly SUV or the bulky minivan.

Sitting firmly astride the fence between family vehicle and sport machine is an uncomfortable position -- the manufacturers of most cars this size have opted to go the luxury route or forego sex-appeal for economy; that's left but a few vehicles to attempt to serve the multiple masters of fuel economy; driving "fun"; animal magnetism; and carrying capacity. None of them do everything well, few of them even get most of it right. The Grand Am, it seems to me, is one of the latter... Here's the tale of my two weeks in a Grand Am.


Sports Car Characteristics

No longer does Detroit drop a 400-cubic-inch monster under the hood, slap on dual exhausts and four on the floor, and call it a muscle car. Today's vehicle has to meet stringent air-quality and fuel economy standards, and must also meet the quality-control goals forced on Detroit by the well-made competition from Europe and Asia. The Grand Am's V6 engine is slightly over half the size of gas-guzzling screamer under the hood of the last GTO I rode in; and the Grand Am gets gas mileage in the high twenties (I averaged about 26 mpg over a thousand miles or so). Yet the torquey little engine -- allied with a four-speed automatic transmission -- has plenty of punch for freeway on-ramps and on-the-road passing. Maybe wider is better: the car handles admirably on twisty roads; she hugs curves tightly and rides bumps like a Mahre brother in the back bowls at Vail*. The driver maintains a strong positive connection with the road through steering and suspension, unlike most larger US vehicles. The transmission handled shifting well, with only minimal hunting at odd speeds or on hills. The cruise control holds at speeds below thirty, useful in my neighborhood where the limit is twenty-five; especially useful on hills where the automatic tranny's overdrive setting lets the car coast like a runaway freight train.

Also like a classic sports car, the cockpit is cramped and the ride a tad on the noisy side. While the Grand Am doesn't suffer much from wind and engine noise, road noise is well above average.


Family Car Characteristics

The vehicle seats four comfortably -- assuming the two in the back seat are fairly short; and provides seat belts for five. Trust me, the passenger in the middle had better be on good terms with the other two! There are well-marked and readily accessible mounting points for car seats in the rear.

The front boasts bucket seats and dual airbags; a medium-sized glove compartment, and console storage for a half dozen or so CDs with a few small articles underneath the jewel cases. There's a sunglasses compartment in the ceiling; three cupholders in the front (and two in the back), and small cubbyholes in the doors (what we used to call "map pockets"). This trim level offers only one power port (the cigarette lighter) in the front; none in the back.

The trunk is small and cramped; though the rear seats fold down in a 60/40 split to allow for larger items. The trunk lid has a high lip, and a small opening, making access difficult for heavy items. Bulky items are also difficult to get through the opening. Ms scmrak noted that the trunk doesn't say "aaaaah," it says "oooooo." In fact the trunk opening is smaller than that of our '92 Accord.


General

Seating, at least in the front, is comfortable and roomy. As noted above, rear-seat elbow room is somewhat limited. The climate controls are well-marked but poorly well-laid out: the air-conditioner "ON" switch is both sized and placed awkwardly, as is the rear-window defroster switch. The stock AM/FM/Cassette/CD (single-disc) boasts above average sound and has some interesting features. Most useful and/or irritating among them is a "speed volume control," which raises the volume on the system as the car's speed increases. Fortunately, you can turn it off... There are also six preset equalizer settings, much like the stock Ford Taurus radio except that this one doesn't tell you what setting is for talk radio, jazz, country, etc.

The dashboard has average to good sight lines to the instrument panel and right-side switches; the switches on the left side (fog lights and panel) are difficult to see from driving position. I was not pleased with the orange back-lighting on the instrument panel; it becomes very difficult to see when using sunglasses. There's an interlock that keeps the panel lights from coming on before the parking brake is released, a smart idea, actually (wish I'd thought of that myself!).

Some design elements are just plain stupid: the seat belt buckles disappear between the seat and the door; one almost needs double-jointed fingers to get hold of them with the door closed. The buttons for the cruise control are inside the steering wheel hanging off the central "platform," the space between their hard- and sharp-edged housing and the inner rim of the wheel is tight enough that I scraped my knuckles a few times.

Quality-control is fair: the carpet in the cabin and the trunk fit poorly and had gaps; there was a short in the electrical system that blew a succession of fuses in the cigarette-lighter/power port circuit; and some body seams were uneven.


The Accelerator Pedal

+ good blend of fuel economy and power in the V6 engine
+ good acceleration under highway conditions
+ excellent road feel and handling
+ dual front airbags
+ comfortable front seating
+ good sound system; nice bells and whistles
+ minimal wind and engine noise
+ good cockpit storage for this size car


The Neutral Zone

= average cockpit layout
= only one power outlet
= somewhat undersized rear seat; children or small adults only
= somewhat dated styling


The Brakes

- undersized trunk with poor and uncomfortable access
- oddly small accelerator pedal, slipped out from under my size elevens several times
- strong road noise component in cabin
- poor quality control; unpredictable reliability


Overall Recommendation

The Grand Am retains more than a hint of its distant ancestor's road muscle, while providing enough space for a family with small and/or adolescent kids: as long as there are only two! For daddy's (or mommy's) commute, there's still plenty of power and handling and it's comfortable on long road trips.

I'm inclined somewhat to be somewhat concerned about the vehicle's durability -- with only 26K miles on it the interior was already shabby. Reference, though, to the bible of used car buyers -- the Consumer Reports annual car-buying edition -- has shown a pattern of increasing reliability and quality in the Grand Am over the past five to seven years. The 2000 model was the only US model in their top ten for "family sedans."

Overall, I think the Grand Am and the similar Chevy Malibu fill a niche that might help a newly-expanded family make the transition from their sexy sports car to the real world. If your family has just outgrown that Firebird (or Camaro or whatever) you ought to take a look. Enjoy!



*for you younguns, Steve and Phil Mahre were 70s-era Olympic snow skiers. I had to do that -- I'm thoroughly sick of "corners like it's on rails"!


Amount Paid (US$): 20000
Condition: New
Model Year: 2001
Model and Options: V-6 4-SPD Automatic