2005 Pontiac Grand Prix Review

Since 1962, the Pontiac Grand Prix has been a family-size car with custom-car styling and a performance-car attitude. The first two generations of Grand Prix were big cars, too, even by 1960s standards. For 1969, the Grand Prix shrank to mid-size, but its theme of dramatic style continued to today. For 2004, Pontiac released the ninth-generation Grand Prix, and it's better than ever.

The previous Pontiac Grand Prix had been known as a fine mover, a good stopper, a fair looker and a reasonable handler. The current car brings improvements in all those categories, and a real revolution in interior design, not only in eye-appeal and ergonomics but in versatility, flexibility and utility. The latent creativity of the General Motors design staff has been stirred into activity coming up with more good ideas than a carton of cartoon light bulbs.

If the name "sport-utility vehicle" wasn't already taken for more cumbersome, truck-like machines, it could have been applied to the Grand Prix, which has a valid claim to both "sport" and "utility." It's fun to drive in the twisties and you can stuff a nine-foot kayak into it and still close the trunk.

Detail improvements for 2005 include an upgraded generation of OnStar standard on all models, and the availability of MP3 audio, DVD-based navigation, dual-zone automatic climate control, and remote starting. Model and trim designations have been rationalized, while the Comp G option package still stokes excitement at the top end of the range.

A commitment to style separates the Grand Prix from other mid-size transportation pods. A coupe-like tautness characterizes the exterior design of this four-door sedan, thanks to a more extreme wedge shape and a roofline five inches longer than that of the previous-generation model. The rear end is as muscular as a speed skater's. Pronounced, enlarged taillights are mounted at the corners. A discreet spoiler finishes the deck lid.

Through the taillights and extended into the sheet metal are two horizontal bulges, like cladding segments escaped from the sides of a Grand Am. If this were a fashion story I would say they were "to add eye interest" to the rear. And oddly, they do. Anyway, following a Grand Prix down the highway is a pleasant occupation. The rear is important in appearance and certainly distinguishable from its road mates.

Appearance is the most subjective aspect of any automobile. Suffice it to say I would rather follow this Grand Prix than spot it in the rearview mirror: I'm not delighted with the front end. The slightly sculptured hood is a good beginning, but when shaping lines come off the hood swooping down to trace around the grille something goes wrong for me. The resulting grille with its trademark Pontiac division is straight across on top with bowl-shaped curving sides. It appears to me like a tight smirk, ungenerous and simpering. It's off-putting. The headlights are even more slanted and attenuated than on the previous Grand Prix.

The so-called Coke-bottle sides are marked (marred I would say) by two parallel character lines through the two doors about a hand's span below the door handles. Gratefully, there's no cladding, but these lines bother me. I think one reason the new Grand Prix looks best in black is because black hides these creases.

The black Grand Prix at the press introduction also had a solution for some of my objections to the new grille: a heavier, more important optional chrome surround. (Now if a black Grand Prix came with a crew armed with California Dusters I'd consider it in a heartbeat.)

The aerodynamic door handles are hard to grab and hold onto.