1989 Pontiac Grand Prix SE: Regular Car Reviews
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 พ.ค. 2022
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New 2nd channel "Regular and Roman"
/ @regularandroman - ยานยนต์และพาหนะ
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Love when he does these horrible committee based cars. Him waxing poetic over pure mediocrity is what we live for.
I actually thought this was a handsome car. I drove one of these with a Quad 4 and I was... impressed? What has become of me...
People sleep on the later year Pontiacs soo much it's kinda sad. They really weren't that bad and the 3800 platform ones had solid tuning potential, any ounce of decency they had unfortunately were destroyed by the owned by broke crack addicts stereotype they eventually got later on. It doesn't help that the Flint Michigan plant would carefully put together one car, then slap the next one together. But if you take your time finding a lower mileage loved one they can be a supriser
Actually there's nothing horrible about this car. Can't say the same for that pile of junk in your pic. Hope you didn't put much into that thing.
TH-cam just asked me to rate your comment! No joke! I gave you a 🙂. You're welcome.
@@lenwoodcruze3594 do you pick the comments or are they randomly generated by TH-cam?
I never knew that a Grand Prix could ever be that clean. I always thought they came from the factory looking grungy.
😂😂😂
Full of swisher sweets and pus
@@RegularCars it also reeks of *Newports*
You shoulda seen my 92 Creampuff!!!
Me too I always thought they came with at least one broken brake light and a faded color
The condition of that Grand Prix is AMAZING.....it had to have lived in a garage its entire life ....paint alone on those cars would fall off as they were sitting on the sales lots .....not to mention you could almost hear the dash pads cracking the day after the warranty expired....Josh is a lucky owner 👍
A museum should hire that guy to watch over their shit. Maybe the library of congress. Future Generations of Americans need this man so they can remember the great political speeches of the likes of Ted Cruz, , Shelia Jackson and Maxine Waters. Surely the greatest orators of our time..... equals to the likes of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln.
It looks like a respray to me. When it zoomed in on the Grand Prix logo on the side of the vehicle it looks like you can see where it was taped around and repainted.
@@stephenj4937 I was thinking somebody went after this thing with the machine buffer and didn't take off the badges. Does have a lot of orange peel in the paint, but that was kind of standard back then.
These are the cars at cars and coffee that I pay more attention to than any stupid Ferrari.
lucky indeed
This car is impossibly clean. I expect GM's one-stage paint and clearcoat to be faded less than a year out of the factory. Somehow... the owners did an awesome job preserving such an car. I was born in 1979, so I was right about the age of seeing something like this new and thinking it was cool, without realizing how an car it is. They were *EVERYWHERE* in Detroit where I was growing up.
Same here, these things seemed to roll out of the factory half way falling apart; somehow still chugging along on 5 cylinders, no muffler and most of the sheet metal consumed by rust in just 4 short years later when I would reach driving age (born in '77). Friends had these, they were pretty common as well as the grand ams of this era. (Probably more Grand Ams; those were truly everywhere Downriver)
@@michaellorenz7177 Agreed, the damned Grand Ams were like cockroaches. Every rental car I had in the late 1990s and 2000s was a Grand Am.
I had a 1990 Beretta GT in high school with that exact same paint and it was still pristine when I sold it. Even when I was parking it outside. I have no idea how. It shouldn't have lasted that long.
I miss that car.
@@Kazinsal_ my Mother got a Beretta GTU brand new when they came out, I think it was a 88 but not sure. It was black with red lettering/accents and sunroof. It also had the exact same 2.8 liter V6 and it seemed to get up and go. It did look faster than it probably was but my Mom had a heavy foot and liked to do red light drag races. 🤣 She was quite sassy back in the day! When my sister started driving she blew the car up, never told my Mom exactly what happened. Daddy had a new motor put in it but it wasn't the exact one but one out of a Celebrity or something and it was never the same.
You always think to yourself "okay, mr regular MUST be out of forgettable and/or cruddy cars to review", then BOOM, pontiac grand prix.
I don't think he's done a '95-03 metro
@@RockyFoxxowo that definitely needs to happen
2005-2010 chrysler 300
My Grand Prix wasn't cruddy 😂
You always think to yourself "okay, mr regular MUST be out of forgettable and/or cruddy voices from our past", then BOOM, Cave Johnson meets Chesty Puller.
My mom used to drive us to school in one of these as a kid- I didn't realize I would spend the rest of my life being let down by seat adjustment in EVERY. OTHER. CAR. My dad has a $70000 Duramax now, my mom has a brand new Palisade, I've sat in $100,000 Audis with massaging seats that didn't have as much adjustability as this thing. EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Maybe take the seats out of this for your next car and make a custom bracket
@@roddydykes7053 You've never worked with Delco electronics.
My mom had a 93 Bonneville SSE with the same seat adjustments and surprisingly 20 years later they still worked.
@@PaulRudd1941 An average. Maybe a median. Fact of the matter is that if that still works 32 years after, throw some Peugeot in there for good measure.
My grandpa used to have a specced out M5. That had incredibly complex seat adjustment options. This is like Egyptian compared to that. This is next level.
Thanks for having me on the show! I had a great time. She really is my little “Ferrari” 🚗
I loved that era of Pontiac. I love buttons. I want my cars to look like the dash of the Enterprise!
Try a Pontiac Bonneville SSE (or SSE-i) - more buttons. Many more.
One of the best intros in a while!
KEITH!
(one of the best cars in a while)
Channeling Cave Johnson for this
@@RegularCars apple
@@RegularCars "All right, I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons? Don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! 'I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?'
Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's going to burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down!"
Those taillights are just awesome. Btw, the early 90s Grand Prix (GTP) looks absolutely sick
Grünkohl 👍
Those recessed quad sealed beam headlights. Always an awesome look. The Camaro looked great with them too until they got the composite headlights from the Chrysler Concorde.
I wanted a GTP bad for a while.
Always liked the gtp even though I owned a 94 SHO. Miss that car.
Josh & Sam
This is what I watch RCR for. The sports car reviews will always be interesting and entertaining, but your commentary on these cars-the cars you see in the background of old movies and never think twice about-that’s way more interesting than any muscle car or sports car to me. They always end up having the most fascinating quirks or backstories.
Also I was not expecting to see that many buttons. Wow.
The potential BAT price of this vehicle is frightening.
No LOWballerz
It doesn't matter how old these cars get, or how few I see out on the streets: in my head, this is the prototypical "used car".
I remember the model that came after this always being the typical cheap used car back in the 00's
In rural areas these were advertised as "great school car" even when off lease.
I always think third/forth owner, trailer park car when I see these
@@SAMann729 "I am just going out for some cigarettes"
Yeah, because they were considered "nice", so they hung around. Lots of used Tauruses and Sables, too.
I had a 94, my first car, electric blue. I was an 18 year old alcoholic juvenile delinquent, and that grand prix saw more air than Shaq at the free throw line. Center console? Olde English malt liquor. Off road? No problem. Every button on that thing came loose or straight up disintegrated. I cannot believe this one has all the buttons in mint working conditions. Thanks for the nostalgia trip, RCR.
I cannot be the only one whose inner parent kicked in the minute he started repeatedly flicking all of the buttons. Oh lord, you're gonna break it, those buttons are technically older than I am and considering the shape I'm in, it's a bloody miracle they all still function
I had the 95... I swear if you breathed on the covers for the window switches they'd break off. I had so much JB weld in there to keep it together. Was great for long highway trips but I was ALWAYS working on that old car.
@@marinertheraccoon when mine finally shit the bed, there were no covers on the doors anymore. It was literally switches hanging out of the door on the wires. I loved that fucking pile.
@@marinertheraccoon I still daily drive my 95. Window switches are broken off, head gaskets are leaking, rockers are completely gone from rust, gonna nurse it along as much as I can. Car has just over 285,000 miles. Cruises all day at 80mph on I-94 no problem!!!
No matter how good or bad or mediocre cars like this are it always makes me smile to see one in near perfect condition out on the road.
I feel the same way about seeing Pontiac Solstice and Saturn Sky and I just look at like the rolling VCRs they're still fully functional after twenty-some odd years
I love it, drop dead gorgeous, weird and a bit clever. Props to the owner for keeping it mint.
"IS THE WHOLE WORLD NOW A GIRL!"
When you said that I saw the "CEO of GM" as JK Simmons looking like J. Jonah Jameson, smoking a big fat smelly cigar, in the most delightful demi-misogynistic way and laughed my ASS off.
hahaah nail on the head!
Same, had to clean my keyboard of coffee after that! :)
Can you imagine how futuristic this car would have been back then
I was 18 so I don't have to imagine I remember when all of the gm10 cars came out. It's when they were changing the rwd cars to fwd
I dunno - something about it reminds me of the Volvo 480, but without the pop-up headlights. A rare example of a Volvo being more extreme than the mainstream.
There's a lot of Ford Taurus in that front end to my eyes, that had the same effect on people in 85
Eh, the buttons, sure, but the car as a whole was considered fairly conservative. It was no Taurus.
It may have been more impressive if we didn’t all know that it was basically just a Buick Regal/Olds Cutlass with a bunch of tacky add-ons and plastic body panels. Back then GM and it’s cookie cutter cars were really wearing thin on the publics patience, especially since the foreign automakers were really stepping up their game
I had a summer job in in '89 at GM Design Staff. Worked in the copy room. They had 3 months of meetings regarding having one or two wiper styles for the redo of the W body. Thousands of pages of copy. Thousands of hours of meetings. They decided on two.
Accounting said one with a memo.
Enough said.
Sounds like GM.
F**k, I thought you was me for about a second.
I had one of these in college, as a winter beater, back in 2003. I could see the ground through the floor boards. I popped the hood once while it was running and was squirted in the face with power steering fluid. The fluid was shooting a solid 4 feet up out of the car. I sold it for $200, and bought a Ford Probe GT.
This was one of those cars that I wanted when new, but somehow never got around to buying used. I don't remember about the '89s, but the '88 SE had bucket seats front and rear, an aspect of this car that you barely bothered to show or mention. There were four seat variants available with Oldsmobile and Buick as well. And why not? If you're not playing with about 60 inches or more of hip room, three across tends to be uncomfortable. Selling the K car as a six seat sedan had to have been among the world's cruelest jokes.
As for that five speed manual, good luck finding that at the dealer when new, or ever as a used car. Maybe that's why I never had one of these.
This 89 had indeed rear bucket seats. They can be seen at 4:55 then again at 9:09.
My 89 Cutlass had rear bucket seats. We had six or seven in the car at one time. ;)
I can relate. I thought this platform of cars was cool when new, but I guess by the time I got old enough to buy one, new or used, I moved on to something else.
My little league coach bought a brand new 1989 GP. He wasn't that much older than us at the time, and this was his first new car, so he was very proud of it. The seats were comfortable, but the styling inside and out were as busy as this review suggests.
That little V6 did sound really good. Had a similar one in a Fiero. By the way, the Fiero never had power steering. Parallel parking involved cardio.
I have ALWAYS wanted a Fiero. Loved them from the first time that I saw one. But I was stationed in Europe during the duration of their manufacturing run with USAFE. So I missed the boat on buying one new. Now finding one not modified is like finding another Hope diamond.
How was your Fiero?
@@vapsa56 it was a lot of fun. Mine was unmolested with a V6. The most surprising thing was how small yet heavy it felt, in a good way. It wasn't exactly nimble for its size, but you still felt safe. I mostly enjoyed it for its ambition within the GM bureaucracy. It was definitely a parts bin car, but it kind of rose above that as a whole.
@@leightonmann I owned a 1984 4-cylinder Fiero when I was a teenager in high school. It was gutless and I always wanted a later model with a V6. But it was a pretty unusual/sporty/coolish car while I had it. I'm pretty tall, but I remember that the Fiero was really comfortable for me.
Buddy of mine had one, loved it. Then at 14 years old, for whatever reason, everything just rusted to shit. Floorpan, fenders, taillight housing, strut mounts, everything just disintegrated.
@@Nick-ue7iw that's why I gave mine up. Rust was hidden under all the plastic body panels after 10 years of Midwest winters.
I loved that intro. Seems like the best explanation possible for how any GM car happened during that time period.
You've made me so happy! I had a 1989 Grand Prix LE, and I miss that car every day. My LE didn't have the 30 way seats, Or that crazy looking steering wheel. I loved the conversion switch on the electronic dashboard, since I did a lot of trips across the border back in the day for concerts. That car had about 113,000 miles on it when my parents made me trade it in back in the mid '90s for a "newer more reliable" car. The salesman literally told me to sell it myself to someone, since the dealership's offer was $50. I sold it to a girl I worked with, who promptly backed into a light pole a week later.
A lot of stories of my younger and dumber days were made in that car (mine had a bench back seat)...
This reminds of classic RCR and I am immensely happy.
This car is BEAUTIFUL in person. Also Josh is a treasure. And yes it was at Radwood Philly lol
I’m a grand Prix fan. This is an amazing example! He’s lucky to find one this nice. Love it!
I had an '89 Grand Prix as my first reliable car, bought in 1998. Changing the rear spark plugs in that thing was almost an enjoyable experience: You'd remove the two dog bone engine mounts on top, rock the whole engine forward, and then hold it in place with one of the mount bolts. I'd like to shake the hand of the person who thought of that feature because it was definitely intentional.
I did the rear plugs on this one! That’s exactly what I ended up doing too. I ended up removing the alternator as well. I have big hands 😅
Graduating in spring '90 and a job offer to work for EDS in a GM plant, I went car shopping at a Pontiac dealer. Compared to Honda and Toyota, GM disappointed me so much that I thought they were doomed and I refused the job.
Government bailouts are the only thing keeping American car companies going
In 1989 as a young college grad with a computer science degree, bought a Chevy Berretta GT. I was the type customer GM wanted. That was a piece of junk vehicle and last GM car I ever owned.
Oh no, so sorry for you. I've actually inherited a '92 Beretta GT from my dad (owned it for 26 years) and now I'm kind of stuck with it. On the plus side, there was, I believe whoppin' 200 units sold here in Finland, so it's a very rare sight. On the minus side; no spare parts as no one knows what it is. But that's about it, well you should know, having owned one. :D
I have a friend who inherited one of those when his mother passed away. It literally had sat in the garage never driven, but she insisted on having "a car" in case she need to go out and his father wasn't home to drive her. He drove that car maybe a year before it all but fell apart...
Had a 94. 4 banger with a 3 speed that couldnt get to 70 MPH. To its credit, it made it 21 years and 186k miles in the salt belt before things just kinda fell off of it, the gas tank mainly. Loved the star trek dash. A beretta with the quad 4 or v6 and a 5 speed today would be sick
@@Nick-ue7iw WHAT? I thought that the Malaise Era was long gone by 1994. How could a 1994 model year car be unable to reach 70 mph? That sounds more like a Chevette or a diesel Oldsmobile. Are you sure that the third gear was working? Was one of the cylinders not firing? I'm sure that something was broken.
Recently had the pleasure of saving the buick version of this car, a 1996 regal coupe. Loved the weird pillar door handles. Only 61,000 miles. The previous owner could not get it started. Turns out, both battery terminals were completely stripped and not making contact with the battery. Long story short, ran beautifully. Was impressed with how nice it was to drive with its quiet interior and smooth ride thats impossible to get in new vehicles. Suprisingly there were no rattles or squeaks. By 96, the quality had been inporved greatly. These old 90s buckets have a light and nimble feel to them, likely because they are very light and lacking safety equipment. Even with the buick suspension, it was fun to toss around. An older woman bought it for her daughter to drive. Sold the old girl for a great profit and kept her out of the junkyard.
My dad had an 88 SE, which didn't have all the bells n' whistles this brought back so many memories. Can confirm this car was louder than it deserved to be, could hear it coming a country mile away. The backseat folding up was how I started my day and how it ended my day coming home from kindergarten. He ended up donating it in 2002 after it had been a winter beater for a good 5 years. Good review
I like how the voice for Roger Smith is more of a Cave Johnson impression 😝😂
Automotive design isn’t about WHY, it’s about WHY NOT.
LMAO. Nailed it!!!
5:44 If only the steering wheel was normal that dash would look seriously slick
It's kind of similar to a 1991 Holden VP Commodore SS dash
Looks like my volvo 480 dash
Take heart, within a couple of years that wheel would be replaced by a first-generation airbag wheel with all the style and grace of an overstuffed laundry bag. :)
I love that weird overly buttoned wheel. Give me all the controls!
@@ajesuale Hell, yeah. It's the physical manifestation of a "GodMode" folder in Microsoft Windows. EVERTHING in ONE PLACE! Even if you NEVER use half of it, HAVING it right in front of you means YOU ARE THE BOSS! 👍😊👍
A friend of mine had a '91 GP SE coupé in highschool. Not as well equipped as this example but in 2000/2001 it was a hot car for a high schooler in nowhere Wisconsin.
Wow. I could not imagine having a "newer car" (10 years old or less) in high school. I graduated in 1980 with a 1963 Cadillac! (Yes, they are "classic" now, But THEN just a very elderly used car!) "Scary" to me that it would be the same as an '05 Caddy now. 🤔 😳😲
@@jamesslick4790 Hah, I had a 13 year old Escort (at the time) L trim. At least it was manual and had "EFI" (really just throttle body) on a 1.9L engine.
@@the_kombinator Well even TBI beats a carb, And you DID have the three pedals!
@@jamesslick4790 TBI theoretically beats a carb - I've had a few. The 87 Escort had a steady leak into the TB, my 93 Swift would flood the TB if taken a turn too quickly before it's fully warmed up (ebrake slides in the HS parking lot in winter) and to this day I run 4 cars with carburettors, and yeah they're problematic at times, but I would rather deal with those than TB. I don't even like EFI, but at least that's more reliable ;)
@@jamesslick4790 Driving a two-seater 1990 Isuzu Pup (Chevy Luv) in the class of 2015.
Still driving it, in fact.
I was 7 when this car dropped, and 17 when it entered the used market. Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Regular
That J. Jonah Jameson intro was mint.
Okay but like can we all agree that the first voice he did in this vid sounded like cave Johnson 🤣
Okay, aside from the exterior styling, I'm a huge fan of this car. It's so "This is the future" from the 1980's, and it's got, like, ALL of the weird quirky 1980's-1990's features. It's so dumb and I love it. I especially love how adjustable and comfortable those seats look.
Hah, I like the styling, and tolerate the engine. Delco electronics and GM interiors from that time are crap though.
@@the_kombinator It's certainly not the worst styling of the time, but it's not my preference, particularly when the Nissan Z32 came out the same year in Japan. But, the Z32 doesn't have nearly such exquisitely adjustable seats.
This opening monologue is one of the best you've ever done.
I've been waiting for some good GM garbage. They always make for the best RCRs. Thank you for this
So true.
All gm is garbage when you think about it
@@gtx-808 really a tired trope
@@gtx-808 I mean yeah. An old GM car will run badly longer than any car will run at all
I had a 1990, Grand Prix LE sedan with the 3.1 and the same 4AT. It had the same button-laden steering wheel as this one. But…mine was from the time when GM had some awful primer or paint and it flaked away down to the metal. Sometimes I miss that car because of what that car meant to me and at the time in my life when I had it.
I think it was the primer. Happened to my 95 lumina. 800 bucks at maco and it was looking good again
Had the Lumina variety of this car and you could beat that 3.1 worse than the wife and it would still put out. The primer was crap and I recall the hood giving away half the paint right around paying off the car.
I had a Lumina Eurosport with the same engine, same exhaust and a few less buttons and , while I despise GM, I have to admit it was one of the best cars I've ever owned. I totaled it with 220k and still ran and drove like a new car.
I don’t believe the Luminas came with the 2.8L V6. They 1990 and by that time it was the 3.1 across the whole fleet.
My wife had a 1992 Z34 with the 3.4 DOHC V6. Was a head turner but definitely not reliable. You had to remove the whole engine to replace the alternator.
@@calvinnickel9995 I think your right. My mistake. It was a 3.1. It had that throaty / metallic exhaust though
I had a 6000LE with that engine. Decent grunt out of it.
Two things,
The 2.8 always sounded awesome. And it's probably best served by the 4 speed auto because it's more torque than revs.
And we had a citation x11 in my earliest years. I reached into the back seat to get my mom's purse to get the house keys, and the seat fell back and broke my pinky finger with a 80s karate chop
What a fantastic looking car. It certainly has an air of 'Honda Prelude' about it, especially the interior.
The closest equivalent we had to this in the UK was the 1989 Vauxhall (Opel) Calibra. That initially had 2.0 4 cylinder engines until the 2.5 V6 was launched around 1993.
Perhaps it's the badge but it also put me in mind of the Rover 800 Coupe, but not as good-looking.
@@AshleyPomeroy Please don't compare the 800 Coupé to the Grand Prix. The Rover is gorgeous and has a gorgeous interior, the Grand Prix is a Grand Prix.
I was in a long distance relationship with a woman that owned one of these. It had the digital compass in the centre stack. The seat adjustment blew my mind. We drove from Des Moines to Pittsburg. Comfortable, but an underwhelming driving experience.
I often come to RCR for a unique review of cars I'll never have the chance to drive, but also a masters course in various psychology and English literature. This was none of the above, and I still freaking loved it.
For some reason I really like this car. All the futuristic bleep bloop bleep 80's tech makes it a perfect reflection of its time. Nice classic!
That was a good intro, feels like the good ole days again
Good on this guy for taking such good care of this gem. My first car was a 92 grand prix LE that my parents gave me. Then when unfortunately it was hit and totaled by a semi, I got me the 95 SE two door that I wanted so much. I love those cars so much, this takes me back. My dad also had an 87 trans am gta that shared allot of interior bits between these cars. GM, yeah we're merica, parts bin to the max.
Pretty decent car to release on Memorial Day. I remember my grandfather having a pickup with some of those buttons too.
I really like this generation of the Grand Prix. One of my dream cars is the Pontiac/McLaren model because it has this synthwave feel that no other GM model of the period gives me.
I just got my Black 90 Turbo back and will be putting up new videos with it.
YES! I love when RCR does a video on a car that I actually owned.
Gotta love all those old school analog controls. My 2019 civic is all touchscreen climate controls, and they are mounted at the very bottom of the dash near the gear shift, forcing me to take my eyes off the road every time I need to make an adjustment. After a couple months of driving this Grand Prix you would have the muscle memory to recognize where all the controls are, operate them without taking your eyes off the road, and they emit a satisfying *click* when you operate them, so you know you've actually pushed the button.
My mom’s boyfriend had a Pontiac Grand Prix. I remember it was left in a lot by his dad who had recently kicked the bucket. When I got in I remember the smell of wet, aging cardboard throughout the car with the carpeting now a texture similar to that green floral foam stuff, around that color too. Wasps frying under the rear windshield. I remember there being trouble in starting it and when it was finally up and running, night-time about 8:00pm, staring into that bright red clock center of the dash I doubt showing the right time. I remember winter time, the breaking down miles from home in near negative weather, no heater because of course no heater, braving the cold and wet wind forcing itself into the car via the indefinitely-down windows. We would’ve been in my moms car BUT her blazer’s transmission “banzai’d” itself. Josh sucked, his car sucked. My worst nightmares are seeing him again, or being forced to drive a Pontiac Grand Prix.
The owners were generally this shitty
FWIW I'm a two weekend a month dad (because that's how the system does it) and this weekend I drove my kid 200 miles (each way at $4.85/gal in a 4Runner) to play in a travel baseball tournament.
They lost two games in which they had 5 run leads late. The second game was a walk off win on an error by the catcher who threw a missile to left field trying to "hold a runner on" at 3rd base with two outs and an 0-2 count on the batter in the final inning. My kid started pitching that game and lost the win on that throw (and several other mental errors made by the entire team). Whatever. It's part of the game.
They went on to win Sunday but missed advancing on the 5th line tie breaker. Runs allowed. The team that got in... the same team that took the walk off win by error.
The point of all this...
There's a lot of two weekend a month dad's out there delivering the goods with what little time they have to work with. Those disappointment dad's of the 80s and 90s? They had sons. And now those sons are father's. And we're fixing it.
Edit: I'm off to fix my son breakfast in the rare three day weekend that I savor having him one extra day. And because this is the way it's set up I will have my son for about 100 more days before he graduates high school in just over four years. 100 days in four years. That shit weighs heavy on a father's heart. I want more time but neither the court or his mother will hear it. Not without tens of thousands of dollars spent in court.
That edit hit like a freight train. Sounds like you are doing a phenomenal job, I wish your situation was better and more fathers were like you.
@@remingtonspeed7481 Thanks. We make the best of it. He asked if we could go to the gym after breakfast. But before that if we could go outside and work his arm a bit.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Edit: It's important to understand most fathers do well. They pay support on time and invest the little time they are "permitted" with their children wisely. Even in bad circumstances. It's the bad ones that everyone talks about. And the good ones that are the target of a bitter mother that has no reservations about spreading false information about the father. Just remember the next time you hear a father isn't living up to his roles that there are two sides to every story. Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear.
Pontiac made a McLaren version of this with a turbo. I remember seeing one in a junk yard years ago and it had the multitude of buttons syndrome as well.
I actually really dig the styling on these late '80s and early '90s Pontiacs. Ones like this, the slightly later Grand Prixs, and the ones with the front light-bars.
Funny thing, the full-width light-bar was there in styling proposals from nearly the beginning, but then the Mercury Sable came out with one, and they didn't wanna seem copycat, so they shelved it until a later facelift cycle. (Source: my uncle who worked for Pontiac design.)
my GP has a lightbar. All my friends say its the ugliest piece of shit they have ever seen but I think its unique you dont see too many GPs of this era on the road anymore
In about 2005 I got a 94 Grand Prix GTP that was this clean. It was gorgeous. Every option and a million buttons. This was the original owners garage kept baby. Then I started to daily drive it.... The sunroof leaked. Interior panels came loose and rattled. Exterior door handle broke. One by one the options stopped working. Then one day I put the key in it and smoke started coming out of the ignition. Drove it straight to a dealership and traded it in.
I love that Mr.Regulars impression at the start of the video is like a more congested and "angry-wierd-dad" version of Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
One of the best impressions I have ever heard.
That intro givin' me HEAVY Cave Johnson vibes.... 12/10
"Pontiacs, Oldsmobiles, Buicks - manufactured by General Motors, the most vigorous purveyor of philistine vulgarity the world has ever known." - Bill Morris
I remember some of these on the road in the early 2000's, less by the end of the decade with plenty in a nearby junk yard, along with lots of Plymouth vouger mini vans and various old Oldsmobiles.
Your pronunciation of Nintendo was absolutely perfect. Chef's kiss on this one
Late 80s GM was insane, there was this, the Fiero and that one Buick no one bought that had a frickin touch screen. Cocaine must've been cheap af back then.
Buick Reatta. Beautiful car it was. GM was in a weird place they had the money and resources, but not the execution.
@@ra0929 yep, this car is a great example. 30 different seat positions but not a way to let them sit still when you try to get out of the car.
I wish coke was still cheap lol. $100 a g now. You can get a g of meth for $45 a g though and it's way better lol
Good that thing is truly mint. I wish I could smell this car.
Words cannot describe how gorgeous this car is in person. It’s like it left the showroom floor in ‘89 and sat in a garage until present day. It couldn’t have a more perfect owner either.
As a GM10/W body enthusiast, I'm in love with this clean, pristine '89 Grand Prix! It's underpowered like hell, but that 2.8L V6 has that pushrod V6 exhaust note that's pure nostalgia for someone like me who grew up around so many GM cars in the early 00's. File this car in as one of the many reason why I miss Pontiac.
I worked As a mechanic at GM during the life of this car. I always joked that they should have had a holiday for the dealership technicians to celebrate this car, because it bought them new homes, new boats and put kids through college on the flat rate they earned working on these.
They tried too many different unproven things all at once in this platform. The front struts with the replaceable cartridge, the rear disk brakes with the pins that always seized up (they fixed it by 93), the monoleaf rear suspension with the grommets and bushings that always came off, the powermaster brake system (thank god that was short lived), the awful 3400 DOHC engine that had problems they could never figure out, and all the weird electrical problems.
The 2800/3100 V6 wasn’t bad, and they ran forever. The Pontiac seats were comfy, not so much with the other brands. This was allso the time whennGM was trying to go FWD on almost everything, including the Cadillacs.
When the next generation W body came out in 1997, they learned a lot of lessons and the Grand Prix was a great car till the end of the Pontiac division.
One of my favorite marquees in all of autos. Hells yeah, GP.
Wow 😳
This is in BEAUTIFUL condition!
Your commentary is awesome! You have a way of describing vehicles in a way a true enthusiast can understand and I can’t get enough of these reviews! Thanks for that! 😃
Most 80’s design of all time
God that car is just gorgeous. absolutely stunning.
The first thing I thought of was how amazing this thing looked I swear every one that I see is usually either on blocks or the paint is so peeled back it's like it needs so much. Though never can get close enough to see the inside
The only equivalent I've seen that's indecent condition recently but not the same car is a Geo Storm, that got me very excited when I saw it. It's like... I see them every couple years, but this one still had the pinstripes, the name plates, and RAN!
I'll never find my Storm unicorn again (friend had the rare wagon/hatchback in the early 2000s) but this Car makes me smile xD
Had a 94 Grand Prix SE coupe and it was ahead of its time. Loved the wide track aspect. Eventually traded it in for a Hyundai Sonata.
Amazingly well preserved Grand Prix!!
I absolutely love this car. Was so close to buying a facelifted version, but it was filled with electronic gremlins
Buddy of mine had one of these back in highschool in the late 90s/early 00s. It was 2 door with the 2.8 and a 5 speed. We cut the mufflers off it in auto shop and stuck some gigantic chrome tips on it that were probably 3.5 or 4 inches in diameter and like 30 inches long, they basically filled up the area where the mufflers use to be, and surprisingly it actually sounded kinda tough.
My favorite memory was him always telling everyone that the "FI" (fuel injection) stamped on the intake manifold was actually F1... Lol
Still one of my favorite looking taillights on a car to this day for me
Everytime i seen one these when i was younger i would just stare at the back of them. They were so futuristic looking
@RegularCars - those 30 way seats were perfect UNTIL you get a hyperactive 9 year old in the passenger seat and every single switch and button is mashed. The seat, the same seat that you've spent hours on perfecting the optimal amount of comfort and support, has now become a Middle Ages torture rack, hellbent on hitting every pressure point you have in your lower back and neck. And without seat memory (really GM...30 way power seats and NO MEMORY???), all of your hard work is lost due to the grubby, twitching fingers of a brat you didn't want to take with you.
You should have hand cuffed him with his hands behind his back before you put him in the car or put him in a straight jacket. The arm, hand, and body static memory imposed by the restraint would have prevented your seat from losing its perfect settings. 😂
My mother had one of these in 1989, in white, with the manual transmission. You didn't mention the "pre-fastened" seatbelt option. You just hook in the seatbelt and then, when you open the door, you can get in and out without having to take the seatbelt off. I don't know how effective it would be in a crash, but mostly found the tension in the seatbelt made it very hard to open the enormous doors...but it was there.
Did anyone really use the seat belts in that manner? I assume that everyone just buckles and unbuckles the seat belt in the normal fashion.
The regulators who thought that those "passive belts" of that era (door-mounted or motorized) were a decent alternative to air bags were a special kind of stupid or were heavily smoking crack.
This is the type of video-style I know and love from you, keep up the good work!
Great introduction 😆. Thar guy has kept that 89 Gran Prix in amazing shape. You should review my friends 1990 Seville.
Buy 3 packs of Camels get 3 free. God I miss my childhood
Free Tshirts with 5 pack purchase!
My mom had a Grand Prix in the 1990s. She tried getting a 2001 Sunfire when the GP went out, brand new on the lot the Sunfire had a warped and cracked dashboard. My mom went and got a Civic
Nice nasubi icon bro
@@futsuu thank you. I always thought this pic was funny, but it took years before I found out his story. What a ride he endured
You make a moment of my day when u upload and i enjoy every minute of it.thank you for all that u do ❤❤❤
I thought I had seen the cleanest used 2dr Grand Prix around 2008 or so when my friend from college owned one. It was a 94 bright red 2dr SE. It had the facelifted exterior and interior with dual airbags and soft touch dash. No cracks and everything worked. And it had the 3100 V6 with a bit more beans.
But this 89 trumps that one by a long shot. What a time capsule. I'm not even fan of these but I would own it in a heartbeat.
I’m always surprised at how underpowered cars were in the 80s
If if didn’t come with a 305 or 302 V8, it’s gonna be underpowered.
130hp is the same as the PVR V6 in the DeLorean DMC-12. I wonder if there was a legal reason why they're the same.
That's emissions BS for you. If it didn't have a turbo you weren't getting anything past 200 to 250 hp.
80s emissions with 80s tech was a nightmare. computers wouldnt be powerful enough for proper injection until the OBDII era.
@@applepoop10 my '85 central fuel injection 302 is rated at 140hp. And it get's shit gas mileage...
We're getting closer and closer to a true Harold Slovinski episode
My Mom had an 88’ or 89’ , that car was the most comfortable car to drive I’ve ever been in before or since. The ergonomics were spot on.
I had the pleasure of having a couple of these in my family. A Grand Prix sedan and a Cutlass Supreme coupe. They made me love the W body. And nothing sounds like those old 60° GM V6s.
GRAND MEANS BIG AND PRIX MEANS PRICKS
That would look nice lowered a couple inches…The 3.1 multi port in the cavalier z24 used to be pretty quick…These should have at least got a 3.1..
The first thing I thought when I saw a full-body shot was that it would have been a lot better-looking if the lower half - the bit with the BMW grille - was much shorter. The front is like a blocky Volvo 480.
They did I had one in 91
@@Thumper68 yes they did, later on…But at a minimum they should have had the 3.1 if not the 3.8…
@@NewEdgeDesigns the 3.1 was the normal engine they had 3.4 in gtp. I think they should of used the 3.0 turbo like the 90 mclaren edition
@@Thumper68 ya the 3.4 was trash…I had a 92 with the 3.4 died at 40k miles….But the one in the video was a 2.8 so they did have smaller than the 3.1 in the earlier years..My point was the least the car should have had was the 3.1..
It brings a tear to my eye to see a would be beater kept as a survivor
A really interesting thing is that Pontiacs interior design was inspired by modern aviation at the time. Light grey buttons on a dark grey panel are a hallmark feature of aircraft with Collins Proline avionics… like the flight guidance panel (autopilot) on the Canadair Regional Jet.
The Hunter Thompson style take on Roger Smith is gold.
80s GM: 🤖 BEE POP BEE dashes.
You became corporate American 80's guy reacting to imports from Japan & I love you for it!! Had me laughing my a*s off. Then I saw your POV driving shot & DREAR LORD!!! There's less buttons in the Millennium Falcon!!!
Awesome as usual. I don't think I've ever heard a video end with "Rehoboth". That made me crack up. I'm from MoCo MD but live in Maine now -- so we spent a lot of time on the MD/DE beaches. This piece made me re-think those late 80's Grand Prix -- GM was actually trying something new. I loved the style right before this one (Monte Carlo SS, Grand Prix) -- I was 17 and convinced my mom that she wanted an 87 Monte Carlo SS. We loved driving that. Thank you, and I love the writing in these videos -- insightful, wistful, crass, sublime and smart-as-hell.