2001 Pontiac Grand Am SE-1 review from North America

Absolutely NOTHING has gone wrong with the car since I purchased it used in March of 2003.

This is far and away the most comfortable, quietest, smoothest and all-around best driving car I have ever owned.

My previous car was a 5.0 Mustang, and I was amazed at how little I gave up in the way of performance. This little twin-cam 4 will smoke the tires easily and will literally blow the doors off our 275 horse SUV and my V-6 compact pickup truck. The acceleration is nothing short of phenomenal for a 4-cylinder.

The engine is so smooth and quiet that I have been known to forget that I had started it while talking on my cell phone in a parking lot and inadvertently hit the starter again while it was running.

The interior is very well designed, sporty and has all controls and instruments within easy view and reach. The seats are plush and very comfortable, and all power accessory controls are well-marked and located for ease of use.

The automatic transmission shifts very smoothly. With the cruise on it is almost impossible to detect the down-shifting on hills unless you notice the tach needle jump up. Starts are crisp and fast, with no hint of slip like that in my Fords, and the upshifts, even under hard acceleration, are smooth and not jerky.

We've owned cars from all three U.S. automakers, as well as one Japanese car (TOTAL LEMON) and one German car (TOTAL DISASTER). NOTHING has impressed me for the money and value as much as this sporty little Pontiac. At the time we bought this car my mother had a 2003 Lincoln Town Car. The Grand Am is, to me, as comfortable on the road as the Lincoln, and it has every option the Lincoln had except leather and automatic climate control. For the $9000 I paid for it it is the best value in a vehicle that I have ever owned.

I placed a review of this car some months back, and for some reason a "frowny face" was placed by the review. I have NO IDEA why that was, as the review clearly indicated how pleased I am with the car. I suppose it might have gotten a "frowny" because I had indicated that I WOULD NOT buy another car from Pontiac. That is the case UNLESS Pontiac builds something that can compare with the Grand Am. I have test driven two new G-6's and find them boring, unimaginative, and much slower than my 4-cylinder Grand Am even with the V-6. Why Pontiac would replace the sporty, fast and best-selling Grand Am with a boring, ugly, plain-Jane Japanese wannabe like the G-6 is beyond me. My friends who own Grand Ams laugh at the G-6 and, like me, plan to drive their Grand Ams 200,000 miles and then buy a Ford unless Pontiac gets its sanity back and builds exciting, sporty cars that don't look like every other boring compact on the road.