As mentioned in earlier Blogs, I live in Washington and commute to a job in Texas pretty much on a weekly basis. Because of this I find myself in a different rental car just about every week. My last review was of a 2007 Dodge Charger (http://driversaid.blogspot.com)
This week the boys at the rental car counter handed me the keys to a 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix. This was one of Pontiac’s base models; cloth seats, 3.8 liter V6, 3 speed auto with overdrive, no traction control, no ABS and minimal interior and exterior trim. Other features included standard fair AM/FM radio with a single CD, a trip computer and a driver’s side electric seat with fore and aft height and lumbar adjustment. The seat recline adjustment was manual.
To me the plain wrapper Grand Prix is a very handsome car. The interior is also friendly and even in cloth seat fair, invites the driver to sit down and get on with the business of driving. The Grand Prix seats are very comfortable. The bottoms are firm but not to the church pew levels that I’ve seen in some Chrysler and Ford products. I also appreciate the prominent side bolsters that are just perfect for keeping you planted during spirited driving on two lane country roads. The wrap around dash in this car works very well in keeping all of the controls within view, e.g. no hunting for the outside mirror adjustment. There are only a couple of things Pontiac could do to improve the dash look; 1) tone done the trip computer reference screen and 2) reduce the overall size of the speedometer. Both of these are a bit overwhelming in this snug feeling cockpit.
As far as my 12 volt outlet location fetish, this car failed miserably. The primary dash outlet is located BEHIND the console mounted shifter with a second one located inside of the console. To use any windshield mounted accessory (as in radar detector), the power cord has stretch across the shifter and approximately 3 feet to the windshield. If I didn’t carry an extension for just such an occasion I probably wouldn’t be able to use my windshield mounted accessory. Believe me, there’s more than enough room on the dash to mount a couple of outlets. At least there was a notch in the center console to allow my cell phone charger to pass through.
I’ve always liked driving these GM full size Front Wheel Drive (FWD) vehicles, including Pontiac’s Grand Prix. These cars are very neutral handling in most conditions and can be aggressively tossed in the twisty’s. Specifically these cars don’t seem to have the same predisposition toward understeer that their equal sized Ford and Chrysler competitors seem to have. On the negative side, the Grand Prix and for that mater all of GM’s full size FWD vehicles, has a very noticeable torque steer issue. On roads with a noticeable crown, when you plant your foot on the go-fast pedal, you can feel the car pull to one side and when you correct with a small amount of steering input, it pulls to the other side. I’m not talking about breaking traction, just an odd variation of torque steer that has the tendency to generate a side to side oscillation. This doesn’t really inspire confidence in the vehicle’s straight line, full throttle handling although it’s not nearly as severe as some of the German and Japanese FWD products I’ve driven.
The 3.8 liter V6 engine provides more than enough ponies to get you in trouble by pushing you well past any posted speed limit. The bottom end torque of this V6 was more than adequate to get you moving in a quick minute. The transmission is also a good match for the vehicles power and weight and with the exception of the low gear shift point, operates smoothly. At wide open throttle the low gear shift point is just under 6K RPM. Pontiac's 3.8 liter V6 is a bit wheezy (breathing hard and making no power) at anything better than about 5200 RPM. Pontiac, either open up the intake or change the shift point.
What I found really disturbing about this car’s overall performance were the brakes. In fact I would strongly recommend that if you get one of these as a rental and it DOES NOT include ABS, get another car. That also goes for all of GM's full size FWD vehicles. Without ABS, in a ‘full on’ braking maneuver, the rear of this car will be airborne in a N.Y minute and with one or both rear wheels locking, the back of this car WILL come around. Panic stop this vehicle and if you’re not quick or have a few hours of track time, this thing will have you sideways and heading for the ditch (or guardrail) before you know it. Even with ABS the full size GM FWD vehicles are a handful when an emergency stop at speed is required.
When looking at the good, the bad and the ugly of this vehicle, as much as I like the interior and exterior packaging and presentation, between the non-ABS brakes and the 12 volt outlet configuration, this car isn’t anywhere near something I would consider owning. Sorry Pontiac, equip all your vehicles with ABS and you could have an exceptional mid price car.
The Good;
- seats, adjustment, bottom firmness and side bolsters
- wrap around dash style
- rear coat hook
- trip computer
The Bad;
- body rattle
- clunky steering feel at low speed (parking lots)
- low gear shift points
- torque steer
- location of 12 volt outlets
The Ugly;
- non-ABS emergency braking, squirrelly as hell
Thanks for listening.
MMJennings
