Why is Grand Prix lacking

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The Grand Prix was never a flagship model for Pontiac from day one, it's been the GTO and Firebird. The Grand Prix was the luxury line.

I've owned several g-bodies since the first one I bought 22 years ago. My current GP has the best interior by far and subtle styling cues that give the car a little more flavor than it's bowtie brethren :lol:

Sometimes I wonder if I'm making a bad decision by investing money into my GP because I know I'll never get any kind of ROI out of it. But on the other hand, I'm fine with finding them cheap too!
 
pontiacgp said:
Being as humble as I am it is hard to reveal to the common people that it takes a higher IQ to appreciate the exquisite Grand Prix.... :mrgreen:

I guess we are a special breed huh? :lol:
 
G-Body_Vet said:
The Grand Prix was never a flagship model for Pontiac from day one, it's been the GTO and Firebird. The Grand Prix was the luxury line.

I've owned several g-bodies since the first one I bought 22 years ago. My current GP has the best interior by far and subtle styling cues that give the car a little more flavor than it's bowtie brethren :lol:

Sometimes I wonder if I'm making a bad decision by investing money into my GP because I know I'll never get any kind of ROI out of it. But on the other hand, I'm fine with finding them cheap too!


I agree, I paid $400.00 for mine with 26,500 miles on it. The interior was perfect but dry rotted. For that price I can afford to spend a little on it.
 
Well I agree that the Grand Prix has the nicest factory interior of all the gbodies with a center console that meets the dash and an excellent dash design for aftermarket gauge lay out.
Now this is just my opinion and don't hate for it, but for me I just can not get on board with the front end, the chrome grills are just too overpowering and scream nothing but luxury car.
For me I like an aggressive and sporty front end that I think a Monte SS, GN / Regal or Cutlass can pull off with some minor mods.
If I had a Grand Prix I would have to put an aftermarket 2 + 2 nose on it.
 
Even the performance G bodies except for the GN/Ttype may not have been fast performance cars but they sure had a great platform to build something/cool/fun/fast from. You can still get a performance Pontiac built to order crate motor from the Pontiac vendors.. you are just going to have to pony up some dough. But if its really cool fast reliable and "Pontiac" with your personality to it it can be well worth it. Who wants to go to the car show/ cruise in and look at another semi fast over cammed sbc with a poorly tuned for the street aftermarket fuel slobbering holley carb and an antiquated 3 speed & drag gears cobbled into a could be nice Pontiac Olds or Buick. :puke:

Build your version of what Pontiac should have done taking advantage of what modern upgrades you can without leaving its heritage behind. You know Pontiac heart or motor and wheels maybe a GTO Judge paint scheme or something instead of the cheapest possible motor and chevy ralleys etc. You could actually do have build something cool that pays tribute instead of another belly button and saying but I saved x many hundred dollars following the herd and it was the easiest way to go because I didnt have to research learn know anything before doing it.
 
For a long time I didn't like the 78-80 GP's at all. I think the ugly finally grew on me! I agree that aren't very sporty, but there's something about that big grille that could take on a sinister look with the right color combo, stance, wide tires and enough cubes.

For those of us old enough to remember this movie....this is what comes to mind for some reason :lol:
 

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What's not sporty about the Grand Prix?? Does anyone remember the 2+2 ??
 

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I think it's because the "sporty" g-bodies usually received blacked out trim, spoilers, plastic front facias and/or decal packages. The 2+2 was only a one year run and not everyone liked the rear window.
 
565bbchevy said:
Well I agree that the Grand Prix has the nicest factory interior of all the gbodies with a center console that meets the dash and an excellent dash design for aftermarket gauge lay out.
Now this is just my opinion and don't hate for it, but for me I just can not get on board with the front end, the chrome grills are just too overpowering and scream nothing but luxury car.
For me I like an aggressive and sporty front end that I think a Monte SS, GN / Regal or Cutlass can pull off with some minor mods.
If I had a Grand Prix I would have to put an aftermarket 2 + 2 nose on it.
I agree with you that the interiors of the Pontiac are much nicer and made with better quality than the rest of the GM line. I also like the body lines better, if you look at the GP from the side, the front fender is thinner and sleeker looking and it tapers down to the front. As far as performance goes for the GP, yes they were made as a luxury car always have been, but to say the Grand Prix had no performance is totally wrong! If you mean ONLY the Gbody years I would agree, as none of the cars of those years had any real performance, except for the GN. Like was said, even the Monte S/S was supposed to be so called performance but it had a smogged 305 which only had 180hp and 225 ft/lbs. which in my opinion was weak! Most of you guys are probably too young to remember that the Grand Prix had a lot of performance from 69-73 you could get a 400 V8 265 bhp. 400 V8 350 bhp. 428 V8 360 bhp. 428 V8 370 bhp. or a 428 V8 HO 390 bhp. and a 455 CID V8 with 500 lb·ft (680 N·m) of torque. Now that's performance! As far as the grille goes, I love the look of the "split grille" it looks mean and people do get out of my way quickly when i'm cruising down the fast lane, there's something about it that does look intimidating. I think that BMW copied the Grand Prix with the "split grille" look because they have it too, i'm just not sure who had it first but I think it was Pontiac. To end the dilemma of a non performing 231, 265, 301, 305, 403, etc.. just swap it out for a performance motor and have fun with it!
 
I agree, I had a 71 Grand Prix SJ 455. It was a luxury car and it would haul @$$. It broke turbo 400 trannies like they were nothing.
 
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