Eight years ago, in the shadow of the RMS Queen Mary, the Pontiac PR corps proudly revealed the latest Grand Am to the press. Maybe a replica of the Titanic would have been more appropriate because as styling goes, the props were aloft, rivets were popping like firecrackers and deck chairs were sliding into the North Atlantic. Although the chassis showed significant improvement, the body had the same corrugated side cladding and exaggerated features as its predecessor. Inside, it followed Pontiac's "organic" theme of interiors...inspired by the left ventricle?...and had huge, absurd hoods around the main gauges, "mouse ears" so convincing that Mickey himself should've sued for copyright infringement.
When asked for our comments, most of us searched through our bags of weasel words and phrases, out of politeness. But a certain New Jersey kid — we'll call him "Scott Oldham" to protect his identity — piped up and said, "If this car was restyled from scratch, then why is it still so ugly?"
Thankfully, there's no such shipwreck with the Pontiac G6, the Grand Am's replacement. Of course, the sedan version was rolled out last year, amid the buzz generated when Oprah gave away 276 of them to her television studio audience. Sales didn't exactly skyrocket as a result, but in fairness, let's remember that only V-6 models were offered initially, with 4-cylinder cars coming later. And now the V-6-only coupe body style is here, with double-take good looks to go along with the competent Epsilon front-drive chassis that's shared with the Saab 9-3 and Chevy Malibu. Of course, our test car here is the top-line GTP version, whose 240-bhp 3.9-liter V-6 has a 39-bhp advantage over the GT's 3.5-liter V-6.
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