I miss Pontiac

Our 1986 Pontiac Bonneville had fake allen key recesses implying that sections of the instruments could be removed, yet the dash was one piece of woodgrain coloured plastic.

My first car was a 1991 Pontiac Grand Am with a manual transmission and I loved that car!!! It was bulletproof

Man, those cars used to be EVERYWHERE. That dash proposal reminds me a lot of the mid to late '80s S-10 analog dash.

I had a 1988 Pontiac 6000 STE with the 2.8 litre engine and (the quite rare) 5 speed Getrag transmission. It was also equipped with the fully electronic instrument cluster (which I, at the time, called the "Tokyo by Night" cluster) and the full meal deal steering wheel controls for stereo, etc. It was pretty damn cool ride back then. Kind of wish, now, that I'd held on to it. Oh well.

That funky steering wheel reminds me of an old Zits comic. Jeremy’s father is teaching him how to drive. “Here’s where you place your hands on the wheel, at ten and two”. Jeremy asks, “Where do I put them at other times?”

Grand Ams were everywhere and look better than any raised wagon that are everywhere today.

Just think about how many of those Grand Ams were on the road thirty years ago. Now, try to remember the last time you saw one...

My 1986 Celica GT had a digital dash where a red RPM gauge wrapped around an oval green digital speedo...The contrast was amazing, especially at night. Definitely the coolest implementation of the technology in the 80's, though my bias is obvious..LOL 😂

i miss my old 87 IROC and it's interior, functional, yet simple.. gauges were easy to read, Radio/AC easy to reach and use. and it felt like a huge upgrade over my 81 Camaro. and that dash always looked amazing shined up with a little ArmorAll! 🙂

You mentioned the digital instruments in the '84 Nissan 300ZX Turbo and the operation of the tachometer. It moved left to right for RPMs and expanded up and down to indicate turbo boost. The dual motion was really quite fun to watch while driving. Especially at night!

My grandfather bought a new Pontiac Bonneville every two or three years. I miss the Pontiac division!! 🙄

I didn’t have one of these gee-whiz models, but my ‘87 Sunbird had all red lights on the dash. I did a lot of night driving at the time, and that really helped with eye strain.

Loved my 89 Grand Am with Quad 4. I had a sales job that required a lot of driving. Comfortable interior, great power and fuel economy. Car ended up with 169,000 miles. Key was catching the head gasket leaking early, usually around 100k.

I would love to find an 85 or 86 Pontiac 6000. Always loved the Pontiacs use of the orange backlights on the dash. Great video as always.

I used to have an old 1989 Isuzu Impulse (associated with GM back then) that had instrument bezel controls like that. The cluster wasn't digital it was standard analog, but all the usual controls were in the bezel. Nothing was on the column, even the blinkers were an up/down toggle switch mounted there. That was the most unique car I ever owned or drove, and it worked and it felt natural using that setup. Such a cool car.

A guy I worked with had a starship enterprise as we called it. The old 6000. 😊

5:16 What a lovely 1985 Citroen DS steering wheel and dashboard on display here 😅

The 6000 STE and Bonneville SSE were the epitome of buttons in the steering wheel and digital graphics on the dashboard.

I believe some of the early Astro / Safari minivans had some pretty funky 'graphical' instruments in the early years, that kind of fit in with GM's "high tech" theme.

Hi Adam, you're the most reliable source of automotive history. Thank you,

I was working for the company (1984 thru 1995) that built all the wire harnesses inside all the GM Delco radios and the electronic dashes. We used to get samples of the new designs to show the employees.

I custom ordered a 85 Grand Am in February of 1985. It was the first new car we ever bought. It was an LE, black over dark grey with a light grey interior. I wanted the optional dash, but the dealer told me that every car he ordered with the optional dash got delayed because the digital dash was on back order at Pontiac. So i ordered the car without it. It was pretty much loaded otherwise including the 125 HP V6. Paid about 12,000 for it. We drove that car for 13 years and put 125,000 miles on it when it developed a rod knock due to the offset piston design. A great car. It was replaced as my wife's daily driver in 1995 by a 95 Olds Cutlass, then I drove it until 98 when it was replaced by a 95 Taurus.

My step dad always got grand ams and cavilers never did get it he still loves em before he came to the house he had pretty cool cars a firebird and when he first came a Monty Carlo beautiful 70s green inside and out next thing you know a 80s grand am was sitting there

That pic of the cluster from the brochure wasnt available . In late october 1984, my dad ordered an 85 Grand Am LE ,which for 85, was the top teir trim , color black and gold ,matching biege interior , and tried to get the dash as pictured in the brochure , it was not available due to a strike . The accending tach bar was actually the speedometer . There was no tach . My dad also ordered the drivers enthusiest package which had performance suspension high tech turbo wheels with a color called " chestnut" painted on the inside of all the slots in the wheels, eagle gt tires ,systems information readout cluster (which was located under the stereo in that pocket same readout as you see in the late 80s Trans Am with digital dash) leather wrapped steering wheel and a 5 speed stick. Was a cool little car , but it lacked the tach and there was a verticle fuel guage where the digital speedometer would have been. Im thinking that first pic you show of the production dash cluster with the 4 spoke wheel is the actual cluster because if you look closely , you see speed in MPH and yellow KPH on the accending guage where the tach would have been , the angle of the pic blocks out the verticle fuel guage in the center . It all looked awesome at night as it was all backlit in red .To my knowledge, that brochure pictured dash cluster, never was installed on any 85 Grand Ams , cant remember if it was 86 or 87 when they changed over to more traditional guages .

I had a 1986 ZX, loved that dashboard.

I had an 86 Z24 . I drove it from Detroit to Alaska and had to do a quickie lube in Saskatoon, SK along the way , the cluster amazed those techs they'd never seen anything like it.

The Grand Am pictured is identical to the one my parents bought new in 1985. Same maroon metallic paint, ribbed grey moldings, and same wheels (14" if I remember correctly). Theirs was equipped with the 3.0L V6 which had EFI, and an automatic trans. Something of note, theirs did have the little driver information center in the center stack above the console, which was similar to the one pictured at the beginning of the video. It was a quartz digital display that would show messages in text, and there was a birds eye view of the car with light up segments to alert the driver of any of the body closures being "ajar". Most of the time the text section said "Monitored Systems OK", but it would alert you to the aforementioned body closures ajar, washer fluid low, and myriad other monitored systems. The washer fluid warning drove my parents nuts because the washer reservoir was quite small for its time (I think it only held a quart, definitely less than a half gallon) so it would warn the driver regularly. When a monitored system needed attention, not only would it scroll the message across the driver information center, but it would also signal the chime module four times - BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. I forget how often it would do this, maybe every 5 minutes? I can't remember, but I do remember it would occur multiple times during one drive cycle. I remember one particular evening we took it to pick up a Christmas tree. It was low on washer solvent, the check engine light was on (which would trigger the DIC to say "Check Gages"), and on top of that the Christmas tree was hanging out of the trunk, so the whole ride home (which fortunately was only about three miles) was BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP - CHECK GAGES - Pause - BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP - WASHER FLUID LOW - Pause - BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP - TRUNK AJAR. And about halfway home it started all over again. Lol Another item of note, ours did not have the uplevel instrument cluster, so the speedometer WAS the 45 degree swept gage (to spell it like GM). It did not have a digital speed readout and it did not have a tachometer. For the most part it was a decent car while we owned it but, unfortunately, that car was plagued with rust issues. I remember when the car was only two or maybe three years old, they had the trunk lid repainted (under warranty) because rust bubbles were appearing around the trunk lock cylinder. A couple years after that, the rust bubbles started coming back and a few other areas had joined it (if I recall, it was starting to bubble near the ribbed moldings, the bottoms of the doors, and the leading edge of the hood). It met an untimely death in 1991 just short of 100,000 miles when the nylon timing gear came apart, at which time they traded it in for a two year old Buick Century, which turned out to be a stellar vehicle. Although that nylon gear's eventual replacement would have been imminent, I'm sure its demise was hastened due to my dad's 5,000-8,000 mile oil change intervals. He was NOT a stickler for vehicular maintenance. Lol

Buddy had an 88 Bonneville SE in HS. That 1 had all kinds of gauges, lights buttons ( some mighty tiny) and steering wheel controls much like the 6000 did. I recall that the plastic buttons would pop off the steering wheel at random, and he had to use a pen tip if he wanted to use them after they fell off.

My 1st car was an 87 Grand Am. Got it for the cost of the tow, on its way to the junk yard. It was a disasterpiece. Bent frame, leaked everything & all the pant peeled off. It magically passed inspection... probably cause I worked at a shop. It was you who told me, 88 was the 1st year the Iron Duke got a balance shaft. Best $25 I ever spent.

Pontiac were the tech kings division for sure but that Riviera touch screen was a tech masterpiece.

The Subaru XT dash also moved the car graphic in the middle upwards when you activated the 4WD, as the car would physically raise itself thanks to the air suspension

Those dash's were so modern! The 300 Z was like a space ship and so was the Pontiac 6000. I was amazed how they kept their resale value even with many, many miles on them.

I owned a 1984 Nissan 300ZX, with the digital gauges. It was an awesome car for its time. If you left the door open, the car would talk and say right door open or left door open, depending on which door was left open. It did not use the word ajar. It was a very fun car to drive. Mine happened to be a little faster than most 300ZX of that time. When I bought the car, it had been souped up. I bought it from Oklahoma Sooners college professor, it was his weekend, Hobby. I was only 16 years old and I fell in love with that car. I did not sell the car until I was in my late twenties. It was still a good mechanically sound car when I sold it.

If you ever find a 1986/7 Grand Am SE Coupe, PLEASE make a video on it! I bought one in 86 and it was stolen a year later. It has always been my favorite car that I've ever owned. I wish I could find another one but there do not appear to be any left...

This was a great video. Brought back a lot of memories and even learned a few things.

We had an 86 Toyota Cressida growing up. Dad bought it with 13000 miles on it. Beautiful digital dash! Great car. Dad drove it till the late 90s.

We had a 6000STE with the digital dash and steering wheel controls. It was surprisingly effective.

Anyone else remember Pontiac 6000, Chevy Celebrity or other A Body? Not sure I've seen one in 25 years.

Gm had very nice interiors and dashes in the 80s. Some of the best. A bit of a shame though that they lost a bit too much flair in the transition from design exercise to production. Production grand am had one of their better ip setups, but the mockup you showed was even cooler still. If I could find a decent 85 or 86 grand am I would buy it. Definitely a favorite

My sister had the sedan V6 version. It cruised nicely but had the standard analog gages. We did a couple trips down to Ensenada! 🌮🍻✨

That concept dash was neat to see. I owned a 1985 Grand Am V6 as my first car in 1997, it had the standard gauge cluster (non digital), the angled section was the speedometer, but then it had the driver info center at the bottom of the centre stack below the radio which would show a lighted indicator on a map of the car with scrolling digital style text if the door or trunk were open, the washer fluid, coolant, front and rear lamp. I'm in Canada so the speedometer read to 130 km/h (85 mph) with a small space the indicator bar would move into which I approximated to be 140 km/h. From a modern standpoint the car would be slow, but the engine torque was 150 lb-ft at 2500 rpm, it only weighed about 2500 lbs, so it would pull away from a stop quite haldily and could outplace most traffic of the time. The original owner had removed the cat and the EGR so that might have helped too. The gauge cluster novely wore off fast, it was changed it to a more standard round dial in 1988, so I swapped it out for a later model cluster with a tach and speedometer that read to 180 km/h. I drove it to about 250,000 KMs (155,000 miles) in 2003 before an encounter with a transit bus ended it.

My aunt had a blue 85 or 86 Grand Am with a manual transmission, and I drove it on a few occasions when I had flown from out of town to visit. I still remember there was an (orange?) "Upshift" light that would always illuminate on the instrument cluster when the car wanted you to upshift. Kind of odd... and annoying at night.

That designed one they purposed... Looked JUST like the one in KITT on Knight Rider. That's cool.

Thank you for the review. I had a 86 Camaro Berlinetta and it seems like Pontiac was trying to emulate the high tech cockpit in the Berlinetta and other GM models. Love your perspective on this era of auto history!

On my 1986 Grand AM, that rising bar gauge was the speedometer and it used a simple needle to indicate rather than LEDs. It was automatic and I don't remember if it had a tach.

I always thought the exterior of these cars were a little on the funky side, so having such a wild interior actually makes sense! A very cool piece of old school tech.

Yea. I did enjoy this video. And thank you for taking the time to make it. I believe most people, including myself think of these cars similar to fly-over country. It’s nice to see them remembered.

I have never seen that iteration of the Fire dash.....very cool and as always a great video!

I used to have a 1986 Pontiac Grand Am just like the red one but mine was black. Also, my dash looked like that one only it had a digital odometer. I was 20 back then and had a lot of fun with that little car. wish I still had it. I kept it in perfect condition.

There used to be an abandoned grand am near a house I rented. All the gear had been stripped, yet digital clock had been left in the dashboard cavity. The clock still works more than 30 years later.

The 1986 6000 luxury came with a trip computer, digital dash and full informational computer. Very nice car. 😊. My first love in driving

That subaru was a wild car. My girlfriend at the time, had a brother who owned one.

My dad had an '87 6000 STE. It was definitely futuristic on the inside. Also one of the few cars of that time to have ABS brakes. It was very expensive to fix when something went wrong though.

Another fascinating video enjoying these interesting facts.

About the switches near the steering wheel, look for pictures of Citroen GS, -CX, -BX... They started it in the mid 70s.

It was a sharp looking car at the time. It stood out in a small parking lot. The owner was an ultra calm dude who never beat his car and he drove it for almost his whole career.

Thanks, enjoyed the video, I sure miss some of those cars, that Grand Prix was something else... granted it had nothing but electrical problems, but a hoot to drive

I find it interesting how those standard Delco ETR radios all looked similar but sounded different from one make to the other.

Pontiac was my favorite GM brand.

The reason why it looks so funky it was designed by engineer to be used by an engineer.

What is funny about 10 and 2 is when you see a clock or wristwatch for sale in a catalog. The hands are always at 10 and 2. Fun trivia for the day.

American cars had amazing exterior body lines, interior I guess was inspired by sci fi movies and their control panels.

Pontiac should not have been discontinued. They were great cars.

I love Allen keys, I think it all started in Milton. I recall a competitor at the time was perfecting a perfectly smooth round key, seed money was raised but the company later shelved the idea claiming they had issues with the tool that would just spin in the bolt head. None of the investors😢 were reimbursed.

My buddy had a gta trans am with the digital dash and i had an 89 s10 blazer with the digital dash. They were awesome it felt like the future

Adam, Top notch, as always. A lot of these videos are right in my wheelhouse. As a mid eighties though to mid nineties GM mechanic, flat rate, these videos bring back a lot of memories. Good, bad and in some cases downright ugly. I still cringe sometimes looking back. Thanks for providing the nostalgia. Keep up the good work.

Fun vlog Adam...I still think by 1984 Pontiac 6000 STE cockpit was like the control panel on the Starship Enterprise!

The 85 you featured in the video looks nearly identical to my 1st car. Mine was an ‘86 with the 3.0L V6. Black with Carmine red interior. Drove the wheels off of it, rebuilt the engine and the transmission. Sold it 6 years later when my buddy’s Z24 became available. Last Carfax entry on the VIN (which I still have committed to memory) shows a title transfer in 2005 and nothing after that. It has likely rusted away unfortunately.

I miss my '94 C4 LT1. The dash had enough electronic gingerbread to appreciate.

I liked the dashboards of the original Ford Taurus and the Merckur Scorpio the best from that era. The GM dashboards were flashier but the European style Ford dashboards usually had more logical layouts, with fewer buttons and unnecessary small controls.

4:30 We used to _appreciate_ that the radio was "standard." It meant I could rip it out and put what I _wanted_ in there instead.

Had an 87 grand am with 3.0L. That engine took so much abuse from us teens at the time, eventually the oil pump went out at 350,000 miles. The transmission was ran dry countless times from various issues and kept going somehow. Muncie trans was bulletproof.

I miss then the unintegrated radio Era a little. When it was simple to put a good radio in the car.

What was really interesting was when they started to go bad and had their weird shorts with all kinds of blinking and gauge movement The 80s was a great time for auto tech

Bonneville SSEI probably had even more buttons than the STE... also should have mentioned the Berlinetta, and in the firebird and camaro, the protruding shelf was to keep the instruments from reflecting on the sharply angled expansive glass

Love the old digital dashes

I remember seeing a Lincoln MkVI with the digital dash and loved it. I have two now amongst many other digital dash cars. I think the Seville and Eldo had the first digital dash’ for GM. Aston Martin Lagonda also.

Great post .i had 73 red pont lemans.w.white interior good old bench seats ( my fav kind) 4dr .till parked overnite got hit n wrapped round tree stump..i still hav guilt , 30 yrs later..,shuda saw stump n anticipate what to come ...

1986 crt screen in Buick Riviera was insane

My aunt had an 83 Supra that I drove to college back in like 04 had a digital dash similar to the 300ZX one.

Thank you Adam. I recall the critics calling the speedometer the "hockey stick". They redesigned that cluster and it was replaced with analog gauges with circle gauges. The Grand Am eventually got some power with the Quad 4 and a turbo 2.0 that was used in the Sunbird GT. This car was a seller and carried the Pontiac brand for years. I do appreciate you sharing the design proposal as well. it was high tech looking. I thank you for sharing the Pontiac 6000 STE interior. That car was running close to a Bonneville SSE at the time in terms of features and more at the time. The 6000 STE never got a powerful engine until it became Grand Prix STE in the 1990's. The steering wheel started being used in 1983-1984 time frame. I know because Bonneville LE and Grand Prix LE used it too. I liked that four spoke design they used during that time. Out of the three N Bodies, Pontiac had a stronger styling theme and it sold. People thought the Calais was going to be the winner. It was not. It is interesting the Grand Am got rid of the ribbed cladding before the G6 arrived. The Grand Am had Oldsmobile Alero side cladding after they dropped the Alero.

nice video. Funny about that Subaru cluster is somewhat replicated by the Hyundai Ioniq-5. it has the same horizon type. pretty cool all around with these old, "future displays"

My Mom had a 1985 Grand Am. I can't recall what instrument cluster config was on it though. It was the red color one in the video. It was the first car I drove. My aunt had a blue one.

I'm so glad we're going back to digital gauges, I preferred them from the start.

Chevy did kind of one up them though, the digital cluster in the ‘88-‘90 Beretta GT was pretty sweet. Vertical bar graphs with an information display you could change.

I bought new a 1987 Cavalier Z-24 that had the full digital instrumentation. When the digital dash failed under warranty, the RPMs was the only thing displayed. The first trip to the dealer an electronic part was replaced but the RPMs at 60 mph was not the same as before. The second trip to the dealership I was told the electronic part was mistakenly installed for the four-cylinder not the 2.8 L V6. After that the digital instrumentation worked fine. After the factory warranty expired, other electronic gremlins stalled the car multiple times, needing a tow to the repair shop. GM growing into the computer age, sometimes causing pains. 🤷‍♂️

Nice 😊

A friend of mine named Allen was a computer Guru and designed a computer chip for his 85 Grand Am he had that Duke a Hoppin Lol 🤣 you could feel it when he nailed the gas 😂

The most unique Pontiac digital dash of the 1980s is the one that came on the 1987-88 Trans Am GTA. If you watch episodes of ‘The Office’, Dwight Schrute’s Trans Am GTA has the digital dash in it.

That red Grand Am in the video was a hot looking vehicle for the time. When launched, this was a very talked about car.

I do miss these dashboards. I wish they brought them back rather than the Analogue style.

I swear that my uncles Grand Am or Prix had a stupid, anxiety causing feature: gas gauge was in reverse of convention, with full on left and empty on right.

The absolute madness of an 8k tachometer in a car with an Iron Duke, lol. First time you saw all those LEDs light up would also be the last!

I had an 80's Grand Am. Unfortunately I can't remember what the interior looked like since it's been so long. I do remember that it was a fun little car to drive. And pretty good looking with the black paint and gray cloth interior

**Correction** the digital Speedo with the Hockey Stick Tachometer never made it to production. The first production dash you pictured, with the Hockey stick Speedometer and no Tachometer was the only option for 1985 and only available for 1 model year - in 1986 the dash was redesigned

We build excitement......PONTIAC!

I had a 92/93 regal that had a high tech gauges plus it was powered by 3800!

I loved those cool lights in the Pontiacs back in the late 80's. The Grand Am steering wheel seemed lame though. Plus it's the first and one of few steering wheels that made me laugh when pulling the horn pad off and finding a huge weight hanging by rubber mounts to help quell torque steer. First time I saw one was when a customer came to the shop with one still under warranty that had a plopping type noise/feel when turning. Removed the horn pad and there the weight was with one of the small rubber mounts broken. We all got a good laugh out of that one in the shop.

Still enjoying my 87 Fiero GT with the five speed. Would you believe everything still works. I must have got one of the good ones. The dashboard and gauges still have that great orange glow at night.