When Pontiac introduced the first A-body Grand Am for 1973, they advertised it as a European-style GT, “a more-than-acceptable alternative to the costly imports.” Even Grand Am fans were skeptical of that, but a Grand Am with the L78 400-4V engine and the very rare 4-speed manual was a competent and luxurious American-style sporty car, with decent performance and a distinctive look — more distinctive than the still-available midsize GTO. Should the Grand Am have been the 1973 GTO?
The Pontiac Grand Am a lot of people are most familiar with is the later FWD N-body Grand Am of the ’80s and ’90s, which was a big hit for Pontiac and used to be a very common sight in many parts of the country. The original 1973–1975 Grand Am was a different, rarer animal: It was the most expensive, most ambitious version of Pontiac’s Colonnade A-body intermediate, pitched — none too successfully, from a sales standpoint — as America’s answer to the European imports the buff books loved.
Looking at the 1973 Pontiac intermediate lineup, one gets the impression Pontiac expected that the Colonnade models’ new look would be a smash hit, and focused on developing a multitude of different packages to let buyers mix and match the various available styling elements. The Grand Am combined the LeMans body with some Grand Prix interior features and a new front end with a flexible body-color urethane nose and fender caps. The Grand Am was available as a four-door, but most buyers chose the two-door version, which also featured the louvered rear quarter windows of the cheaper LeMans Sport Coupe.
Grand Am buyers got more than $600 worth of standard equipment that was optional on cheaper models, including power steering, power brakes, a 400-2V V-8 engine with 170 hp, Turbo Hydra-Matic, rally gauges, bucket seats, and a center console. The Grand Am also featured an early version of Pontiac’s Radial Tuned Suspension package, which was exclusive to the Grand Am and Grand Prix this year.
While the muscle car era was entering a terminal decline in the early ’70s, hit hard by rising prices, tougher emissions standards, and sky-high insurance premiums, you could still built a fairly warm Pontiac intermediate in 1973. The fabled LS2 SD-455 engine, announced as an A-body option, was eventually limited to the Firebird (although one Grand Am was built with that engine), and a functional Ram Air system was developed and then dropped due to noise concerns. However, a Pontiac A-body buyer could still have the non-SD L75 455-4V, with 215 or 250 net horsepower, or the 400-4V, with 200 or 230 hp.
Pontiac still offered a midsize GTO this year, but it was no longer a distinct model — it had been demoted back to option package status for 1972, and it stayed that way for 1973. Available only on the two-door LeMans or LeMans Sport Coupe, it now listed for $354 with air conditioning, $368 without.
The good news was that the GTO was now mostly a performance package. You got GTO identification, a blacked-out grille, and the “NASA” hood with flush NACA ducts, but the meat of the package included the 230 hp L78 400-4V engine, firmed-up suspension, big tires on wider wheels, and the heavy-duty M13 3-speed stick shift (although you could order either a 4-speed or Turbo Hydra-Matic separately). If you wanted all that equipment — and if you were considering a GTO, you probably did — the option package was an excellent deal.
The bad news was that the old GTO image was almost gone. A car with the GTO package didn’t look much different from a regular LeMans inside or out unless you were close enough to read the decals and badges, and Pontiac complicated that by also offering a similar-looking, cheaper GT package with more dress-up and less performance hardware. The days when everybody on the street knew just by looking at it that the GTO was the hot ticket (whether it actually was or not) were fast slipping into memory.
By contrast, the Grand Am was unmistakable, at least from the front or side.
In back, it could have used something else to make it stand out; the Grand Am did have different taillights than other Colonnade LeMans variants, but it was a little too anonymous from the rear. As with the earlier Endura-nose GTO, it might have benefited from a rear wing spoiler like the one fitted with the now departed The Judge package, but perhaps that wasn’t deemed European enough.
That nose, though! I have to confess that it’s difficult for me, being Gen X, to appreciate how contemporary buyers felt about the flexible nose cones on this car and the Chevrolet Laguna S-3. Having lived through the ’80s, the urethane snout and six-segment grille on the Grand Am doesn’t seem especially outlandish; 25 or 30 years later, Pontiac would have dressed up this car even further, with plastic body-side cladding and spoilers. Judging by the sales figures for the Grand Am and Chevrolet Laguna S-3, this kind of thing was much more controversial among buyers of the early ’70s. Nevertheless, if you were looking for image, over the top and in-your-face, the Grand Am hit closer to the mark than the comparatively understated GTO.
That was also true inside, where the Grand Am had the fancier “deep-contoured” reclining buckets from the Grand Prix.
The 1973 GTO only had bucket seats if you ordered the GTO option on a LeMans Sport Coupe with buckets, which were rather flat and didn’t recline.
Grand Am buyers also got a variation of the Grand Prix dash with full instruments, distinguished from the GP with slightly different instrument bezels and a different grain for the wood veneer. GTO buyers could order rally gauges, but they were crammed into the regular LeMans instrument panel. (Adding a tachometer cost an extra $51 either way.)
Although the Grand Am came with the L65 400-2V engine, you could order the L78 400-4V or L75 455-4V at extra cost, with or without dual exhausts. Since the Grand Am was not that much heavier than a LeMans with similar equipment, a Grand Am with the hotter engines gave away little to a GTO with the same powertrain, and the upgrade didn’t cost a lot extra: The white Grand Am pictured here has the 230 hp 400-4V, which cost $76 on a Grand Am: $46 for the engine, $30 for dual exhausts. The main deterrent was that in any A-body, the more powerful engines were likely to trigger insurance surcharges, making them expensive to own.
You might run the same risk with the 4-speed manual, which was too bad, because ordering it on a Grand Am (where it was only available with the 400-4V engine) entitled you to a $46 credit. Thus, you could in essence step up to the 200 hp L78 engine for nothing, or choose the 230 hp dual-exhaust version for just $30, which was a performance bargain by 1973 standards. Nonetheless, just 1,058 1973 Grand Am buyers chose the 4-speed, which wasn’t available with the standard L65 400-2V or the 455.
Both the 1973 GTO and the Grand Am came with stiffer-than-usual suspensions with front and rear anti-roll bars, although their suspension tuning wasn’t quite the same, since the Grand Am had radial tires while the GTO had fiberglass-belted bias-plies. A further nuance was that the GTO had lower-profile 60-series tires (G60-15), while the Grand Am radials were 70-series (GR70-15), theoretically trading a bit of ultimate grip for greater sidewall compliance and (maybe) better wet-weather traction.
For 1973, both cars handled quite well for Detroit iron, although their limitations were still apparent. These were big cars, so they were more comfortable in broad, sweeping turns than tight maneuvers, and their limited suspension travel made them prone to bottoming abruptly on sharp bumps. Car and Driver complained that the Grand Am suspension’s fat anti-roll bars (1.12 inches in front, 0.94 inches in back) also provoked an unpleasant duck-like waddle over undulating surfaces. The Grand Am and GTO were similar enough that both cars had similar characteristics to slightly varying degrees; seeing how they compared in a back-to-back ride-and-handling shootout would have made for a very interesting comparison test.
In many respects, the Grand Am was a logical extension of the original GTO concept, arguably more so than the somewhat half-hearted 1973 GTO package. The 1973 Grand Am had flashier looks and the GT-style interior appointments the GTO concept had always demanded and didn’t always get. The buff book crowd is still in a state of perpetual mourning for the SD-455 and Ram Air options that didn’t make it, but even without them, a properly equipped Grand Am offered about as much performance as anyone still did in 1973. Also, while the Grand Am wasn’t a great sales success, it did sell much better than the 1973 GTO, which accounted for only 4,806 cars.
So, should Pontiac have just made the Grand Am the new GTO? That was how it was originally conceived, but I can see a couple of reasons why they ultimately didn’t go that route. For one, Pontiac apparently had high hopes for the four-door Grand Am (although in retrospect, it’s hard to see why, since its sales were dismal), something I think GTO buyers would have found antagonistic. For another, GTO sales had been falling like a stone for quite a while, and Pontiac marketing people had probably recognized that the midsize muscle car trend had mostly run its course. They were willing to keep the GTO alive a little longer as long as it didn’t cost too much, but its prospects really didn’t justify any big investments.
The Grand Am urethane nose undoubtedly cost more to develop than the GTO blackout grille and decals. GM senior management might well have balked if Pontiac had proposed to put that money into the GTO, which the corporation saw as a relic of a dying fad they had never been very comfortable with in the first place. It probably seemed smarter to put that investment into a new model that might find a more sustainable market.
Also, with its much higher price, the Grand Am was effectively aimed at a more upscale, more affluent audience than the GTO. The white two-door pictured here had a base price of $4,263.50, and listed for a hefty $5,240.50 as equipped. Even accounting for its extra standard equipment, the Grand Am cost over $500 more than a similarly equipped LeMans Sport, not a small amount of money back then. Unfortunately for Pontiac, that proved to be a miscalculation — people who could afford a Grand Am could generally also afford a Grand Prix, which offered similar powertrains, even greater interior luxury, less controversial (though no less flamboyant) exterior styling, and the assurance that it wouldn’t be mistaken for a $3,000 LeMans even from the rear. Consequently, the Grand Prix sold dramatically better than the Grand Am.
While the GTO was clearly fading away, the first-generation Grand Am didn’t find much of a niche either. Production totaled 43,137 units in 1973, 17,083 in 1974, and 10,679 in 1975. (If you counted only the hotter hotter optional engines, the picture looked even worse: 17,872 for 1973, 7,060 for 1974, and a meager 4,143 for 1975.) Pontiac dropped the Grand Am after 1975, although it would return later with better results.
Both of these cars are interesting collector’s items now (the Grand Am sold for $56,073 in April 2024, while the GTO sold for $23,750 in August 2025), but the sad truth is that in 1973, the GTO’s day had passed and the Grand Am’s had yet to arrive.
Related Reading
’73 GTO/Grand Am Development (at Dean’s Garage)
Car Show Classic: 1973 Pontiac Grand Am – Meeting Your Heroes (by William Stopford)
Vintage R&T Road Test: 1973 Pontiac Grand Am – American, Yes; Grand, Not So Much So (by Paul N)
1973 Pontiac LeMans Sport Coupe: The Poor Man’s GTO, With A 3-Speed Manual Transmission (by me)
1973 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ 455: The Most Desirable Colonnade Grand Prix, In A Soulful Shade of Blue (by me)
1974 Pontiac Le Mans GT 350 4-Speed: The GTO’s Understudy Takes The Stage (by me)
Truly one of the ugliest Pontiac production cars EVER! The “urethane” bumpers were so discolored after a year or two, they cheapened the look and made the model depreciate even more. I once owned a 1968 LeMans and it had much nicer style than the ’73 model. I would have bought a ’68 GTO, but couldn’t afford it. The LeMans was classy, and the interior with bucket seats and console was similar to the GTO. The 1968 GTO bumper was also color coordinated, blended in well with the style of the body and looked great, but I think they didn’t match very well after a few years. The chrome bumper on the LeMans held up much better but wasn’t as sporty.
Ugliest car at the time. I had a red 396 Chevelle. Never liked American cars of the 1980s. Firebird and atrans Am and GTO Models were ok but the end of 39c a gallon gas destroyed the US car industry. Now a senior citizen I drive a 455 🐎 power Volvo. Ill stick with the current offerings.
And there was once some plans for a Grand Am wagon who didn’t go further than the prototype stage.
And someone posted on Facebook, a photo of a proposed 1976 Grand Am that never was. I think the scan might come from a old issue of Collectible Automobile about the 1973-77 Pontiac mid-size/intermediate.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1712630748969016/posts/3880304662201603/
I recognized the scenery behind the white LeMans right away. From the “Curious Cars” YouTube channel.
Yep, as soon as I saw the lead photo, I heard Bill in my head complaining about the weather, his neighbors, and giant birds and cats plotting against him.
As I wondered on a previous post about Colonnade cars from Pontiac, I don’t believe that management cared which version you bought, as long as you bought one. Mixing and matching all the bits from the body and interior and powertrain was just the same as a kid playing with Lego.
The GTO and the Grand Am were aimed at slightly different audiences, but both were basic $3600 LeMans coupes loaded up with profitable options and upgrades. A sale was a sale.
I wonder if the Grand Am would’ve done better if the minimum buy-in wasn’t a 400 just as the gas crunch hit. Maybe with a 305 or 350 it would’ve done a bit better.
The gas shortage didn’t hit until mid-October 1973, which was after the end of the 1973 model year. It thus didn’t have much, if any, effect on sales of the 1973 Grand Am.
The gas shortage hammered sales for the 1974 model year, and the economy then slumped into a recession for 1975.
At the time I was a die hard 15 year old Pontiac fan. I was really disappointed with the GTO. I think I convinced myself that the Grand Am was futuristic looking and as you point out the front end was (except for the beak). Pontiac had a complete change in management at the time and they were just throwing stuff against the wall to see what would stick.
If I was buying an intermediate musclecar and was a GM guy, the Olds 442 was the best looking. I don’t like the louvered rear windows and the 442 was available with standard windows too.
I miss Bill; hope he is well and I do hope he can continue to make some more Curious Cars videos as he adjusts to his move. Will have to rewatch that one.
1973-77 was a bad time as manufacturers had teething pains from adjusting to the new regulations. I particularly dislike the sweepspear on this car; it’s a part of the platform sharing with Buick. The entire side profile looks more Buick than Pontiac. The Endura noses… at first it looked modern; then they discolored and aged poorly. Now they’re more of a kitschy curiosity. Certainly GM had overlapping options that could move a lower priced car into the next tier. This era is kind of a twilight time before the Japanese cars dominated the smaller car market and the Germans captured the upper end with VW working on that Beetle replacement.
Agreed! I enjoy Bill’s cantankerous nature and digressions. Kept me entertained during Covid and his “Covid Whiskey” cure wasn’t too far off.
After I typed my comment I realized that I typed “Le Mans” instead of “Grand Am” but it was too late to fix by then.
Funny, I don’t remember these 2 door GrandAms at all. Just the four door, which along with the 4 door Cutlass Salon attempted to compete with Mercedes or the BMW Bavaria with some European style. I do think the white BaT car looks very nice; the period-correct tire size looks right but I think on a GrandAm they might have been raised white letter not whitewall?
Nope, the standard radials were black sidewall, with whitewalls optional. People inevitably put RWL tires on these cars now, of course, but the Pontiac Accessorizer suggests that you couldn’t order a 1973 Grand Am, Grand Prix, or Firebird with RWL radials. It might have been an availability thing.
Thanks for checking. I still think the whitewalls look wrong on this kind of car but I guess authenticity trumps style 🙂.
I’d take it in a NY minute. Though it could be made to really haul, I like as it is: A comfortable, well equipeed sporty coupe that can still nicely through the gears.
Ditch that bogus Buick inspired “400-4” decal from the air cleaner lid though. They’re on far too many restored classic Pontiacs.
Hard to tell what was going through Pontiac product planning minds back then, but it would appear that the intention was the Grand Am was to replace the G.T.O.. I guess with the intermediate market trending towards personal luxury and away from high performance the Grand Am made sense as a luxury-performance model and the G.T.O. as mechanical option package. Then again there seems to be no explaination for the X-Body 1974 G.T.O..
The ’77 Can Am always reminded me of the ’73-’75 Grand Am.
Thank you Robert. I thought the exact same thing- this reminds me of the short lived 77 Can Am which I always have been interested in.
I remember when these came out. GM and the magazines treated it like The Next Big Thing, but then I seldom saw them as that record-breaking sales year progressed. I like these a lot more now than I did then. The dash and steering wheel were particularly nice for the era. That wheel eventually saw the inside of quite a few GM models before air bags.
The best evidence that the Grand Am was probably intended to be the GTO are these preproduction photographs of what looks to be a full size clay or buck of the mostly final design. Curiously it also seems to be wearing Firebird badging in the top pics so Pontiac may have been in a scramble to fit an identity for this car in a rapidly changing market. Given it being about as all new as it gets by Detroit standards reinvention as a new model I. grand am does seem logical on paper, even though in my opinion it’s clearly what the GTO would have evolved to anyway, devoid of outside forces
The question I’m not quite clear on is prices adjusted how did the Grand Am compare in price not to the contemporary 73 GTO, but to a more loaded up Judge model circa 69-71?
This 4-speed car was about $200 more than the well-equipped Ram Air GTO tested here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/vintage-reviews/1970s-vintage-reviews/gm-brands-1970s-vintage-reviews/vintage-car-life-road-test-1970-pontiac-gto-455-and-400-ram-air-there-is-a-substitute-for-cubic-inches/
However, in the 1973 lineup, you could conceivably get a 4-speed GTO for a list price of about $3,800 if you were willing to make a lot of sacrifices in convenience equipment, whereas you’d be unlikely to find a Grand Am for much less than $4,400.
Ah definitely an extra notch upmarket then. I think what has somewhat been a question in my mind was whether the 73(or even 72) GTO went downmarket in price/content from its highest heights to be alluring in a lower base price before naive buyers figured out the actual cost of ownership with insurance. But at $3800 it still wasn’t quite in RoadRunner territory.
With all these Collonade Pontiac topics the picture is finally becoming clearer to me as to what Pontiac product planners had in mind for these variations, even though sales never quite panned out in the end
I did various calculations when I was writing this post the other day to try to figure out how the Grand Am compared to the rest of the 1973 LeMans line on an equipment-adjusted basis, and realized that there was definitely a significant price premium for the LeMans that went beyond just adding up the cost of the standard equipment that was optional on the base LeMans and LeMans Sport Coupe. The size of that premium depended somewhat on how one valued some Grand Am equipment that you couldn’t order on a regular LeMans, like the Radial Tuned suspension, but in broad terms, you were paying approximately $300 more for the Grand Am due to its special nose and different interior treatment (a lot of which was borrowed from the Grand Prix, either directly or with slight modifications).
By contrast, the GTO option was really a pretty cheap way to get the equipment it contained. It cost a bit less than ordering the engine, transmission, and handling package à la carte, and they’d throw in the GTO decals and badges. I wouldn’t say it was downmarket, exactly, since a lot of it was about the same content the GTO had always offered going back to 1964, but if it hadn’t been so brutally expensive to insure, it would have been a bargain at 1973 prices, and the ratio of useful performance equipment to gingerbread was quite good. It didn’t include stuff like rally instruments, but those had been optional on previous GTOs too.
Radial Tuned Suspension. In Australia it was known as RTS and turned the final Holden’s (the HX and HZ series) from wallowing under steering rides into slightly less wallowing under steering rides. In reality there is actually a noticeable improvement from the HQ and HJ series in ride and handling, more to what it should’ve been when originally released. Was RTS a Pontiac exclusive or did other divisions use the term?
If, and it’s a big “if”, the 1973 Grand Am was launched as the GTO originally planned even as a 4-door sedan. They could have marketed as a muscle car for the family man, following a bit what Holden did with the Monaro Down Under by offering it as a 4-door sedan a couple of years after its introduction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Monaro#HQ
I was offered a 1974 Grand Am sedan, loaded with the 455 for free when I was 19. It was simply a matter of the owner not wanting it anymore and he knew I had given it the nod.
However, my insurance company would have nothing to do with that car or me owning. So I had to pass.
But I’d have one today. Make mine burgundy with the ox blood red interior, honey comb wheels, cornering lights and the full line of options please!
Back in the day I recall that there were some people who thought that the Grand Am styling was derivative of the Raymond Loewy designed 1953 Studebaker.
The Grand Am 4-door Colonnade sedan was awfully similar in concept to the Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon 4-Door Colonnade sedan. I wonder if the 4-door Cutlass Salon was any more popular than the 4-door Grand Am?
Nope, four-door Cutlass Salon sales were also dire.