1985 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am review from North America

The car overheated when I first got it. Shop after shop could not figure out what was wrong. Nothing mechanical was broken. Finally, while driving it slow and with the heat on to keep it running on a trip home down a country road, I asked some Amoco guys if they knew what it was. I figured they would have dealt with all cars and all problems. They knew without looking because they had a third generation Trams Am with that problem a month earlier and showed. They were right with just one guess: The air dam under the nose was missing. It pushes air up to the radiator from under the car because it has no front grille say, like a Camero. The car was suffocating! I got it home and ordered it from the dealership and told them I would install it myself. It cost $48 dollars and it never happened again. Now, the problem is that it will scape going in or out of parking lots with an incline like a driveway. One side piece broke away going up the ramps for an oil change. I will fix it some day, but it really just needs the center piece to function. The T/A is my favorite model of Firebird, but the front end design makes for some strange issues as the above story. Don't even get me started on how tricky it is to change the bulbs in those fog lights tucked way back in there!

The T-top leaked and left a puddle in the passenger side when I got it, but a little rubber restore rubbed in the seals of the roof and the tops stopped that right away.

All other problems are just typical with a car this old. Is it really going to be 20 soon?!

This car was loved and cared for by whomever had it before me, so my thanks to them! It came from Wisconsin and had been a summer car only. That was obvious. I had to drive it in the snow one winter before moving to Southern California and it did well if it had a 90lb bag of sand in that very end space of the hatch-back. Sorry to say, the snow did a good job removing the paint from the lower side of the rubbery nose this car has, which paint does not do that well on anyway. It is always the first paint to chip on a car, Trans Am or not. The rest the car looks like the day it arrived at the Pontiac dealer, except for minor things like the clear coat on the rims had a little of that sunburn pealing away look and the nose around the fog lamps as I have said. It is red with silver on the very bottom and the previous owner had the decals and the hood bird replaced with reflective silver paint. I told you they must have loved it. The interior is two tone fabric: red and grey seats and red over grey on the doors. Very impressive.

Last week, the guys at Auto Zone came outside to see it when I pulled up. It's just a Trans Am, not a show car, was my thought. They were amazed that it look so good after so long. This happens every once in a while.

Although it is called a sports car, it is too big and long of a car to be considered "nimble" or even that quick. I think of it as a great 4 seater and very sporty with a powerful engine. Why this is considered a "sports car" and my parents '85 Thunderbird (also V8, two door coupe) was not is for insurance companies to explain. It is super responsive, grabs the road well, not insane on gas, and actually has a bit of space inside to cart stuff around. This is my second Firebird and I plan to keep it until whatever fate befalls it.