Grand Am GTs - any worth?

I would E36 M3 pure glee if an Achieva SCX or Quad 442 fell into my possession. 

It's like Olds somehow had daring styling figured out and the guys at Pontiac had different kinds of corrugated plastic and a hot glue gun.  I don't get it. 

I'd still rather have a same-period MX-6 Turbo or 626 Turbo but that's a no-brainer.

Vigo said:

I would E36 M3 pure glee if an Achieva SCX or Quad 442 fell into my possession. 

Car Craft:  "Four cylinders, for sale, too much money!"

Everyone else:  "My domination in Showroom Stock, let me show you it"

Vigo said:

What's kind of sad is that the last Grand Am GT was more or less 'any number of  a long list of other GM engines' away from being cool. Previous 3.4 DOHC? Sure. Concurrent 3800, even supercharged? Yes. Later 3500/3900? Yeah, that would work. Either drivetrain from the Cobalt SS? Definitely. Later 3.6? Yes. It was almost an enthusiast car.  3400? .......mehhhh.

Precisely!   I just did an intake/head gasket on one for a friend, and it made me laugh everytime i looked under the hood and saw the stupid "Ram Air by Pontiac" script.  Yeah..  the same POS 3.4 that barely pulls around the piece of E36 M3 Chevy Venture in my fleet is some kind of a hot rod is this tin can wrapped in plastic.  Supercharged 3.8 would have been a game changer for me in that car.

I'd have to have my Grand Am with a Quad four.

In reply to ronholm :

The 3400 (it is definitely not the same engine as a 3.4) is actually kind of a beast.  Very good heads on the 3100/3400, better flowing than ported race-spec heads when Chevy cared about that engine family in the 80s.  Look for the 2.8 power recipe book.  The 3400 is better in every way than all of the race-only stuff in there.  GM deliberately strangled the 3100/3400 with poor exhaust manifolds so that it wouldn't beat up on the "upmarket" 3800, which had worse heads, but also got tubular headers so it could get 200hp.

Once the 3800 was discontinued, the 60 degree was allowed to shine, although its displacement had grown to 3500 and 3900cc by then.

My folks had a '94 Cutlass Supreme with the four-valve DOHC 3.4 liter LQ1. It was pretty hot. I didn't realize at the time that it would become a fairly rare engine. The 3.1 was much more common.

About 2002 or so, a girlfriend bought a new grand am gt. She thought it looked cool(it wasnt ugly) and her stepdad was a mechanic at the dealership. 

I hated that car. It was a huge POS and was always an argument waiting to happen as i was a regular dip M3 19  year old with a loud mouth. Quite a few “i told you so”’s every time it crapped out, embarrassing her and her stepdad because i had said dont buy it, its a POS.

I cant recall any exact issues it had but it was always something, back in for repair.  The interior was horribly too. Extremely cheap plasticy. 

Grand Ams were unredeemable E36 M3boxes when they were brand new. Why anyone would want one in 2019 is beyond my understanding.

(remembers which forum he's on)

Ah, I get it. 

In reply to Dootz :

Most FWD General Motors products are crap when they're new. If you can find a 10-year-old example that's running well it will probably keep running for a long time.

I've never owned one, but the 1999-vintage Grand Ams I had as rentals seemed a little better than their reputation would lead one to expect.

Tom_Spangler said:

Grand Ams were unredeemable E36 M3boxes when they were brand new. Why anyone would want one in 2019 is beyond my understanding.

(remembers which forum he's on)

Ah, I get it. 

Yup, they sound like ass, look terrible inside and outside, and can't go more than a few months before needing repairs. Sorry not sorry to those who have rose tinted glasses on.

Daylan C said:

I want to drive an Olds Acheiva SCX W41. Probably don't want to own it though.

Racecar example pictured because racecar.

Didn't those have trouble with the rear wheels falling off on the racecar versions? I also kinda remember reading that they were fast but handled terrible.

In reply to Tk8398 :

Don't know and honestly don't care. I know Saturn S series cars that got raced (way different but also FWD GM and possibly similar suppliers) ate rear wheel bearings and if it handled anything like my old Malibu, it was probably pretty awful. I still want to drive one just once.

friend of mine owned two. The first died a mercifully early death due to a freak rainstorm. The second ran horribly for 10 years until he traded it in on a Camry. At least it was better than his Escort GT

I had forgotten that Olds Achievas existed once. That's a nice looking car, and like the Cutlass from the same era, they look great as RWD racecars:

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

Oldsmobile has never made a better looking car than Pontiac, ever. Facts!

The first-generation Grand Am, the RWD A-body based ones from the '70s, are still pretty awesome. I do want one of those. You could even order them with 455s.

I had a 80/81 Grand am Street stock. Just a little different than the Malibu's and Monte's everybody else was building.

Always wanted to build something like this but with stock car rims

If we are going down the road of other "Am's", there's also the Can Am!



Take the Lemans, add Trans Am bits and sweet 70's stripes, and BAM! I love these, and so should you.

In typical, classic GM fashion, they stopped making these when the mold for the rear spoiler broke and they were too cheap to fix it. 1,377 of them snuck out of the factory before that happened.

 

Sure Grand Am GTs have worth......what is scrap going for these days?

Tk8398 said:

Didn't those have trouble with the rear wheels falling off on the racecar versions? I also kinda remember reading that they were fast but handled terrible.

Ran one in SCCA ITS for several years, along with a couple Quad4 dailies.  No real issues as a low-bucks racer.  Brakes were just as mediocre with $150 Carbotech pads as $7 wholesale Wagner pads.  Had a lifter failure and a rear hub failure as the only real big failures on-track.  Basic parts were easily sourced given how many GM FWD cars were on the road with similar platforms.  

Tony Sestito said:

If we are going down the road of other "Am's", there's also the Can Am!



Take the Lemans, add Trans Am bits and sweet 70's stripes, and BAM! I love these, and so should you.

In typical, classic GM fashion, they stopped making these when the mold for the rear spoiler broke and they were too cheap to fix it. 1,377 of them snuck out of the factory before that happened.

 

Well the other reason they stopped after the mould broke was that the can am used the same dash and console as the Grand Prix so it was kind of taking away Grand Prix sales. The conversions were done at Jim wangers Motortown shop.

Daylan C said:

In reply to Tk8398 :

Don't know and honestly don't care. I know Saturn S series cars that got raced (way different but also FWD GM and possibly similar suppliers) ate rear wheel bearings and if it handled anything like my old Malibu, it was probably pretty awful. I still want to drive one just once.

The S Series and the Grand Am have the same rear wheel bearing/hub, except for bolt pattern.

Nick Comstock said:

In reply to pres589 (djronnebaum) :

Oldsmobile has never made a better looking car than Pontiac, ever. Facts!

Hmmmm id debate that

Klayfish said:

Streetwiseguy said:

Klayfish said:

  I even liked the first gen cars from '85 and up, as crappy as they were.

You are a sad, sick little man.

Yes...yes I am.  I just thought this looked cool back in the day...

My first car was thats kiss'in cousnin the Olds Calais Supreme. 3 liters of V6 fury

MotorsportsGordon said:

Tony Sestito said:

If we are going down the road of other "Am's", there's also the Can Am!



Take the Lemans, add Trans Am bits and sweet 70's stripes, and BAM! I love these, and so should you.

In typical, classic GM fashion, they stopped making these when the mold for the rear spoiler broke and they were too cheap to fix it. 1,377 of them snuck out of the factory before that happened.

 

Well the other reason they stopped after the mould broke was that the can am used the same dash and console as the Grand Prix so it was kind of taking away Grand Prix sales. The conversions were done at Jim wangers Motortown shop.

Yep, heard this as well. The '77 Grand Prix was selling extremely well (288,430 to be exact, a best for the Grand Prix) and the production line was going full-tilt trying to keep up, so it didn't make sense to be stealing parts from that car for a car that was always going to be lower volume.