worked at a Pontiac dealer in 88. worst car i ever saw. cam shafts were breaking in half at IDLE. PASSIVE BELTS WERE BREAKING. parts came from Korea. they wouldn't air ship. all parts were sent by ocean freighter, 4 to 6 week wait for parts. they had a national holiday once, no parts could be obtained during this time because nobody was working those 2 weeks. last thing. when sold, they were touted as , European designed in Germany cars. the sales dept. really wasn't telling people they were made in Korea. had customers come in for work , and i had to tell them 4 to 6 weeks for parts. they would ask why so long, and when i would tell them where the parts were coming from they asked why. these people had NO idea these were Korean built cars! now a good one. there was a recall for the passive seat belts not working. people brought their cars in for the recall. but, we didn't receive the recall parts yet. now here is the kicker, GM made us keep the car and not return it until the belts were fixed. federal law wouldn't let us release a car with non-working seat belts. talk about mad people. we were in Ft. Myers, fla. some people drove their LeMans down there for vacation. were told we had to keep the car till fixed. they were basically stuck down there till the parts came in! most flew home, then came back down to get their cars. great way to wreck a vacation! also, GM didn't offer ANY help to these people.

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I owned one of these with air conditioning. I actually liked the car a lot. It was a 5- speed and I actually put a super trap muffler on it. Sounded like a pissed off bumblebee. It was great on gas and was an overall fun car.

Available in the U.K. back then as the Vauxhall Astra, and the 2.0 16v GTE was pretty fast. They're actually appreciating in value today!

I bought one of these the first year it came out, 1988. GM, in all its corporate wisdom, decided that they couldn’t sell it as a Pontiac In Canada, so they created a whole new dealership called Passport, and the Le Mans was called the Optima. They had some rebadged Isuzu’s and Suzuki’s selling as Passports as well. After a couple of years, (2+ years, you can’t make this stuff up) they gave up on Passport and changed the name to Asüna, I think the umlauts were over the u, same car, different name, then they gave up on that, and changed all the dealerships to Saturn, Saab, Izuzu, all makes that GM had an interest in. Anyway, I had a wife and two kids under 3, and my 71 VW 411 was starting to age dangerously, (I have a thing for oddball cars) so I HAD to get something new, and it couldn’t be more than $10,000, and the monthly payment couldn’t be more than $200. And I really liked the way the Optima looked. Much better looking than the Tercels, Mazda 323 Protegè, Civics of the day, and the Rabbit was slightly over my price point. So I got a red Optima VL (Value Leader)...4 speed manual, manual steering, roll up windows, power brakes (alone in the power group), no radio, fixed rear windows, no AC of course and no tach. I quickly put in an aftermarket sound system, and tachometer, but being so basic, it was light AF, and those hard working 74 horses moved that thing around like a bat out of hell. I bought it in Vancouver, my home town, which is lucky to see one snowy day every 2 years, but after 4 years I took a job up north, in 1992 where there was real winter, and that little car was parked outside for the next 6 years on Mile 52 on the Alaska Highway, in the snow and cold (it could get down to minus 40 for a week or two then warm up to minus 20 for most of the winter) oh, and after deciding on the 2 door hatchback, we had another kid the next year, so the 4 door would have been nice, but I still liked the styling of the hatchback better. To make a long story longer, we took all five of us regularly back to Vancouver to see family, a 14 hour drive through about 4 climatic zones, plus we took a road trip right across Canada to the east coast and back through the States, we moved to Kelowna, still no garage, Kelowna got a little snow but it could get up to 37 Celsius (98 Fahrenheit) for a good 3 months in the summer. Then I got a job back in Vancouver, while still living in Kelowna, which meant commuting the 4 hour drive every weekend for almost 2 years over two mountain passes, the highest being 3600 metres. My ears would pop when I came down, like in an airplane. Little Red now had about 220,000 Kilometres on it (137,000 miles) and it owed me nothing....other than maintenance, I had a new clutch installed, brakes got done, new muffler, oh and 3 windshields, (gravel roads) that was about it. That never garaged car, with that mileage after 14 years of crazy driving, looked almost as good as new, one tiny little rust spot on the fender where a rock chipped the paint, and ran awesome, until I blew a cylinder on the commute home, and that was pretty much it for Little Red. I wished I knew how to work on cars, with another motor that thing could have gone another 100K. But like I said, it didn’t owe me anything, and it saw me through some huge life changes, and never once let me down. I know it sounds stupid, but that little misfit, orphaned car, that everyone loved to hate, had been my best friend. I’m actually a little choked up as I’m writing this....folks and their cars! eh? Anyway; I just thought I’d step in to give a different story than I was reading here. Happy motoring all!

I remember seeing these when i was a kid. They were somewhat popular. This car looked very very modern in 1988. Especially for a small car. I suspect most of the ones sold in America are all in junkyards now.

I love how this show brings in reviews of strange or significant stuff, always good

The LeMans was a "hold my beer" reaction to the Merkur XR4Ti.

Wow. I had no idea that this car was Korean made! Its essentially the Chevy Spark of the late 80's!! It even has similar performance numbers of a Spark!

The Opel Kadett gsi was very popular in Europe, especially the 2.0 16v.

2:06 When you see the moving camera tracking the car doing the 0-60, the camera wasn't mounted on a car, the cameraman was running alongside with the LeMans.... ;P

I had one of these. It was a good car for what it was. Took it on a 2000 mile round trip and averaged 40 mpg.

Thank you for sharing "more GM footage". I look forward more old classic GM footage and Lincoln footage.

I was the unfortunate owner of a 1988 LeMans and these things were built nothing like the original Opel was. Daewoo has never been great at building cars IMHO but these especially had atrocious build quality. One failure after the other, and this was with a car that was maintained and not abused. Parts were expensive and/or difficult to find, dealers ended up disavowing them, and they had nothing feature-wise or mechanically to offer.

Not a bad car for the 1980's, but the decision to assemble it in South Korea was the biggest mistake. Should've come to the US straight from Opel factory.

I remember when I first saw one of these cars - my shocked reaction was "Didn't the LeMans used to be a really cool muscle car?"

The Pontiac LeMans was an cool car in the 80's, I was a fan of th four door sedan, light blue and red colors fit the car.

Honey I shrunk the aztek

I've always called this one the Pontiac "LeMons".

A neighbor’s son got one of these used as his first car around ‘92. I don’t think he had it more than a year or two before it started falling apart.

Lol I forget these ever existed!

3:51 John: However the seat belts are difficult to reach and easy to tangle! LOL

I was hoping to forget about these things.

Standard equipment includes defective steering and brakes. The big 3 really left the door wide open with a welcome basket for Toyota and Honda.

That car was crazy fast! It owned the drag strips back in the day

Gorgeous little car! These were sold as the Daewoo Racer in the country used to live. They came as 4 door sedans though. they did sell these hatchbacks under the Pontiac brand as well, but they were uncommon. Always loved the design of old Daewoo cars. They were cheap and not very reliable, but they all had Italian design.

I love the Velcro wallet.

I'm 1000%sure they're are none of these left on the road

Here in Brazil we had a different version of this car, the Chevrolet Kadett. Our "Pontiac Lemans" was launched in 1989 and had very good 1.8 and 2.0 versions beetween 98 hp and 121 hp. The performance was very good too (0-60 mph in 9.0 s and a top speed of 122 mph in the "GSi" version with 121 hp), and it was a very well built, reliable and well equiped car. In that little square on the panel wrote "Lemans", our Kadett had a board computer with many functions, RECARO seats, digital dashboard, and the rear suspension had height regulation with air. A very good car. I had a GSi version and i miss it too much.

As a US Army soldier stationed in Germany in the mid '80's, I remember the Opel Kadett E. I thought it was good looking solid handling car so much that I bought one during my last year in Germany( a 1986 1.8 2dr hatch).The Kadett lived up to my expectations. Couldn't be brought back to the US. so after I got back to the US, eventually got a hold of a 1988 Pontiac lemans 2dr hatch. Handling wasn't as lively as the euro version and build quality but, for me it was a good car. Except for front brakes pads wearing abnormally fast , it never left me stranded ( 35k miles and 3years routine serviced). STILL - should have came straight from Opel in Germany( would have been a way better car and had a better reputation here), and SHOULD NOT have been named Lemans!!!

Car of the year...wow. Cars have certainly come a long way since then.

Well, he could laugh at the Chevette and T1000 all he wanted, but I think the owners of those had the last laugh compared to the owners of this hunk of s***.

It was a good car in Brazil as Chevrolet Kadet

Another car that most wouldn't recognize today. Always interesting to see these videos. They shed light on cars I would have never heard of. I'm sure most aren't on the road anymore, and with no cult following, it seems time has no choice but to forget them.

I came to know it as the Chevrolet Kadett here, and I loved it, especially the GSi model.

I got my driver's license in an 1988 Pontiac LeMans when I was in the Navy station in the naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Oar Harbor Washington State fond memories in that car when looking back today

Ahh, my first car. It never ran out of gas, I think I only used what came with it from the dealer. Brakes were horrible; almost had to Fred Flintstone it a couple of times.

3:00 The LeMans fishtailed!!!!🤣🤣

What fantastic, heartfelt responses to this little abomination sold by General Mediocrity. This mutant makes my old 79 LeMans sedan look like a limousine in comparison.

Also known this car (in Europe) as the OPEL Kadett E (Vauxhall Astra B for the UK market). The opel kadett E GSi 16V (2.0 liter 156ps) was pretty fast (0-100kph in 7.7" and a top speed of 220kph) back in 80's (1984-1993) and it was a tough competitor for the Golf MK-2 GTi /Golf G60!

Yeah! Originally it was the german build 1984-1991 Opel Kadett E. Great car!

This was a popular car in the UK back in the day, sold as the Vauxhall Astra! Had all sorts of engines too, from 1.2 to a 2.0 16v which was an excellent engine popular in Caterhams. They sold diesel ones too, and saloon/sedan (called the "Belmont") and estate/station wagon. And the van version which was basically the estate without windows and seats. I'm sure they all, but especially the normal hatch, were meant to actually be very aerodynamic for that time.

Hyundai/Kia are respected Mainstays in the American market today, it's easy to forget that there was a time when Korean cars were subpar, and this vehicle and it's legacy are a perfect example. Even though most of the blame belongs in the lap of GM executives and their chronically poor management

This is quite different from my 1972 LeMans.

I remember my grandma telling me her husband at the time and her went to go test drive one when new and what an experience it was. She ended up sneezing upon getting in, the force exerted from the sneeze caused her to hit her head on the dash, leaving a huge crack. She said the dealer had never seen such a thing and quit his job that day. She ended up with a Honda Civic instead.

Same year as my Fiero. I think mine held up better haha

I grew up with a 1986 (UK) Vauxhall Astra 4 door Hatch; as the family car.. was brilliant.. until someone stole it in 1993 and joyrided it into a tree. lovely format with fond memories.. not exactly recreated truthfully for the North American Market but glad that you got it in one way or another. We had a Tipo after that; a format copied from 94' to become the Focus and then the Spacious Euro hatch for a lot for of cars post 95' Thank goodness for Tipo's the unsung hero of family four door hatchbacks. Clever engineers from Turin, Italy.

My parents had one these when I was still in car seats, had to have been around 1990, anyway, I don't know what ever became of that car, but I as a baby always enjoyed the automatic seatbelts clicking into place.

I wanted the GSE model back in 88... I had just graduated high school really loved this design.

My brother got to drive one of these in Drivers Ed, the local Pontiac dealer gave the high school deals on them (I got to drive a Sunbird then a 6000 in Drivers Ed the year before). My brother hated them he would step on the gas and it wouldn't get anywhere. The instructor would always tell him to stop flooring it.

What a horrendous thing to do to the LeMans name. Good riddance to what Pontiac wound up becoming.

Aztek..I am your father. And the Ford Aspire is your distant cousin.

Parents bought a brand new '89 Pontiac Lemans GSE after driving the Opel Kadett version while on a family vacation in Germany. Night and day difference! The Pontiac was an absolute garbage! It got lemon lawed back to GM.

I bought one of these for a beater back in about 2008 and pulled the e-brake to drift around a corner about a mile from the seller's house. The rear motor mounts broke loose and I drove it the rest of the way home with the oil pan dragging on the asphalt. Great car

My favorite part of these videos has always been watching the penalty boxes work their way through the slalom. Shake your booty Pontiac LeMans!

Finally figured out where they took the design for the Aztec rear now. It's from the LeMans!

These cars are legendary in Europe. The GSI version was a dream car for teenagers here back then.

We didn't have the problems with ours that everyone else seems to have had. The only unusual issue with ours was that the front doors would freeze shut any time it got below freezing. By the time you got where you were going they would work normally. We live in Texas so this didn't happen very often. Aside from that it was a decent little car.

that rear end slip in the beginning LOL!

The roof mounted luggage rack supports is a very cool idea.

I remember one of these in the driver's ed fleet in 1988. I got a 1988 Ford Tempo.

3:28 bonus points to the motorweek editor who arranged the 2 other European cars for the parallel parking clip!

Good morning fellow MotorWeekers!!

My dad got one given to him for free and that car would not die. Took him everywhere for years and it finally lost a cv axle and my dad just junked it.

My mom drove one of these for 12 years, she still misses it.

In my country "Brazil" , this cars was a Chevrolet Kadett GSI 2.0 8 valves with 121 hp

03:28 Parallel parking a Pontiac LeMans between a VW Fox and Peugeot 505 - I bet that will never happen again in all of history.

I got given a UK variant of this as my first car. It was a family hand me down (first bought by my father second hand, then given to my older brother and then to me). Mine was a 1991 (J reg for those in the UK) Vauxhall Astra Expression 1.4. Since it was my first car, I have mostly positive memeories of it as it enabled me to visit places I would never have otherwise gone to. We had a family friend who had a garage so my annual servicing and MOT would only cost around £30 plus whatever for parts. Being in my family it had led a hard life. I hardly did anything to it maintenance wise other than put petrol in it, top up the oil and replace worn tyres. I can't even remember cleaning it all that often. I had it for about five years before it finally died when the cam belt snapped on the motorway (the engine then ate itself). I ended up selling it for scrap for £30. In total the car survived four owners, ran for thirteen years and accumulated about 130,000 miles. Feel sorry for all those who suffered reliability problems but I can't complain too much about the one I had.

My first car was a opel kadett. Really good car. It was indestructable

This was the perfect example of a throwaway car.

When I saw the beginning of this episode, I was almost like nope...not gonna watch this, since seeing the car almost loosing control on the emergency manuver! 😳😳😳😳😳

Believe it or not I have a colleague who imported an Opel Kadett. Imagine my surprise seeing the guy pull into a parking lot in America in 2023 in an Opel Kadett.

This was Opel Kadett in Europe, car that had solid reputation especially because of sporty GSi version which was most powerful car in its class at the time with 156 hp from 1.8 liter 16v twin cam engine. Later on, I remember that they didn't prove to be reliable a lot and even worse they rusted like crazy. When I gom my driving license 15 years ago (I was living in EU) I tried to find something cheap and sporty but these Kadetts were mostly destroyed by rust and they were very rare, like most Opels. On the other hand, Audis from same time could be bought in very good condition with barely any rust on them, which is why I ended up with one.

Other than the cheap plastics, the dash is better looking than any modern day GM car, especially the made-by-Wal-Mart Cadillac dashes.

When I got my first car in 1996 my parents took me to see a used LeMans and a Hyundai Excel. Both were 1991 models and I ended up getting the Excel because it had a moonroof. It ended up being a great little car actually and I am glad I went with it over the LeMans although I liked the way the LeMans looked a lot more.

My first car was a 1987 Vauxhall Nova which was the smaller sibling to the Astra (Le Mans) and all the interior switches and seat belt holders were identical lol.

My dad got one of these, I was probably 9 o 10 years old, I remember playing around inside and realizing that the dash was made cheaper than some of my toys, lol

This was the Vauxhall Astra here in the UK. The kind of car your mum gave you after passing your test and tried your best to make it not look like a shopping car!

I always liked these cars. I don't know why GM sold them as Pontiacs only, but at least we got them (unlike most Opels of the time). I almost bought one used years ago, and I still see one driving around my town (yes, one).

It was my first car back then in 1998.The best thing is the red rear lights with blinkers have not only a SAE number, they have also an "E" in the circle.That means you can drive this tail lights in Europe (Poland, Germany) without anger to get a ticket from the police.

I had one of these in the early 2000s and they're indestructible. It took neutral drops from the limiter everyday for 3yrs and a 150,000kms oil changes if it was lucky every 15,000kms

I saw one _on_ _the_ _road_ in my neighborhood in 2007 or 08, confused the crap out of me because I wasn't aware Pontiac ever made hatchbacks like this or the 1000. It was red and being driven by an old lady, and was in fairly good shape too. She brought it to a auto repair shop (which judging by these comments, is it's natural habitat) the next street over, so I got to go look at it up close. I thought it was kind of interesting.

Another piece of work winner!!

Last time I seen one was about 10 years ago. Red color

This reminds me of the old Vauxhall Astra panda cars on _The Bill_ - 'Go! Go! Go! 😊 We got this model in the '90s as warmed over, stripped out leftovers here in Australia - Daewoo Cielo...they lasted forever (with busted door handles and droopy interiors.)

In 1991 (at 19 y/o) I obtained a 1989 Le Mans GSE, the "sporty" version! IIRC, it had a 2.0L 4cyl, with something like 120 HP! It had a spoiler (which did help the looks of the car), fog/driving lights, and body-color (red) molding and alloy wheels! It was actually a fun little car! Until it wasn't! Had about 2-3 good years with it.

Fast forward 20 years and the Saturn Astra was a North American version of the Opel Astra(Opel Kadett's new name starting in 1991), a Belgian made car that was miles better than the Korean made versions of the Opel/Vauxhall line of Kadett/Astra models.

Vauxhall Astra mk2 in UK. GTE 1.8 version was the "Hot Hatch" model.

Wow. Opel Kadett E I Had this as a 1985 model. Drove problem free 125k miles with it. My 1.6 had 90 hp.

If only Americans could have had the version we had in the UK called the "Vauxhall Astra GTE" it was (and still is if you can find one) a great hot hatch! They had 2.0 16v (some 8v) engines and were awesome fun.

They could have shaved off .3 seconds of that blistering 1/4 mile if they could have tamed that 74 HP from burning rubber.

My mother's 1st new car was a 1969 Pontiac Lemans. It was a far cry from this thing. She raved about that old Pontiac until the day she died.

Pretty decent review actually I thought it would have failed miserably. Great to see a fair review given. Seems like it would have been a fun run around car to have.

i have known the Opel Kadett for the longest time since i used to see a lot of those as a kid growing up in the Netherlands but i never knew Pontiac had it's own version of it. i kinda like that though, if the Kadett was still around as much as it was i would definitely like to see them side by side

tengo un Opel kadett e de 1987, 250.000 km y funciona perfectamente bien, no debe confundirse con un Daewoo Racer que es una verdadera mi***** I have an Opel kadett e of 1987 built in Germany, 250,000 km and it works perfectly well, it should not be confused with a Daewoo Racer that is a real sh ***** a sad copy of kadett

I had one for a few months in late 1991 early 92 while I was in the Navy. Central California in the summer NO A.C. Here’s a good one, I had a vehicle back into my drivers Headlamp. Ran vehicle for about three weeks with a simple piece of Cardboard over the lens to protect from further damage and to maintain some of the aerodynamic profile. The day before I was scheduled to bring to the dealer for repair I picked up the lens at the dealer. The insurance company had settled the claim (the other drivers not mine) all I had to do was drop off at the dealer the next morning and wait with it. About 1/4 mile from the base main gate I get pulled over by CHP for guess what....broken headlamp. During late morning with plenty of sun and daylight. Explained the deal and even showed him the new headlamp assembly on the passengers seat, explained that it was scheduled for removal/replacement the next morning. He would not hear any of it, issued a Fix-It Ticket which is basically show proof of repair within 14 days, get signed off by mechanic and local Law Enforcement authorities then bring to local CHP Office and ticket cleared. Cost me $25 plus all The extra time because this CHP had axe to grind or wasn’t having enough luck with speeders that day. Drove into base, found a few tools and replaced in the barracks parking lot.......figured out by looking and guessing since this incident preceded You Tube by at least 10-15 years.

That velcro wallet put into the glovebox, LOL😅

I loved my 89 aerocoupe!! Unfortunately It didn’t last as long as i had hoped. 😔

Sorry to the Americans and Canadians who received the build quality with this, the Vauxhall Astra/Opel Kadette versions were built better. These would make an ideal candidate for engine swap from an Opel Calibra, its been done many times in Europe. The C20LET engine is fantastic out the box and far as I know should drop straight in with the right engine/trans mounts. since its Opel based, there are loads of options for suspension, bushes, strut reinforcement as well as brakes. I can see this as an amazing sleeper ;)

Hah, a 1988 Pontiac LeMans! I almost forgot this was around!