Not everyone is happy when certain vaunted car names are revived on vehicles that they deem less than worthy. Few K5 fans or former owners of Mitsubishi’s cool Diamond-Star coupes were happy with the new Chevy Blazer or EclipseCross models. Even the frumpy old slant six Dodge Dart resonated with buyers far better than the short-lived front drive sedan from a few years back. However, for today’s Pontiac Pthursday we’re going to revisit what might be the worst resurrection of a great name with a rather subpar subcompact; one that should have easily been a winner.
Let’s go back to the famous Pontiac TV spot. If you’re a millennial or younger you’ll probably cringe at this television ad from the late eighties, but you have to admit that the sight of manual shifters feverishly grabbing gears and oversteering black Firebird GTAs or Fieros going nearly airborne (what? No “do not attempt”?) makes you want to go out and find a surviving example RIGHT now and RIIIDE.
As you watch the commercial numerous times, you start to notice one car that’s a bit of an interloper. No, it’s not the Grand Am or the Sunbird Turbo; that fun J-car had a 165 horsepower turbocharged motor that could let anyone know what the meaning of “torque steer” was. No, the car I’m talking about is that little hatchback you see in small snippets. Right before it appears, a “Le Mans” badge scrolls across the screen. Are you telling me that hallowed nameplate was put onto a lowly econobox? Yes, and it’s worse than you think.
We Never Got A Pontiac Pickup Though
You wouldn’t darken the door of a Sushi restaurant expecting to get decent fajitas, would you? A store that specializes in skis likely won’t be a go-to for mountain climbing gear, right? That seems like basic logic that car companies should have followed as well. Poor sales of cars like the Mazda 929 luxury sedan and Subaru SVX GT car proved that some segments of the car market are pretty much out of reach for certain automotive nameplates. However, this common sense didn’t apply to a lot of car brands in years past. At one point, General Motors had four key car brands, and even though Chevy, Pontiac, Olds, and Buick were each aimed at very different markets, they all just had to have something to sell for everyone. Pontiac was a sports coupe and mid-sized car juggernaut, but their dealers demanded an entry-level econobox to fight the similar products from, among others, competing GM brands. And you wonder how it took them so long to go bankrupt?
In Pontiac’s case, the little cars it received were clones of the ill-fated Chevrolet Vega and Monza, but later Pontiac did finally get their own version of the ‘Vette. Sadly, it was the Chevette that graced Pontiac showrooms as a model called the T-1000 starting in 1981. Beyond the badges and grille up front, it was every bit identical and as miserable as the Chevrolet edition of the Shove-It; a car seemingly ten years behind the times when it was introduced in 1976.
When the Chevette finally bit the dust after 1987, Chevrolet found far better replacements with Isuzu and Suzuki-made subcompacts that were legitimate competitors to Mazdas and Nissans. Pontiac took a different path for 1988; one that might have looked good on paper but in reality barely cleared the very low bar set by the T-1000.
The Renault Alliance Was Car Of The Year, Too
Automotive awards are occasionally accused of being hogwash, but it is worth noting that the European Car of the Year was supposedly decided by a group of pesky automotive journalists. For 1985, the winner was a General Motors vehicle: the new Opel Kadett, also sold in the UK as the Vauxhall Astra.
One of the most aerodynamic subcompacts of the day, the new Kadett was a surprisingly true-to-the-concept production version of the stunning 1981 Opel Tech 1 show car:
Unlike the often-lambasted Motor Trend Car of the Year, the European title is decided by a team of sixty international journalists and won in times past by things like the Porsche 928 and NSU Ro80. You have to figure that if the little Opel took the title, it couldn’t have been that bad. Vauxhall’s version was well received, according to AROnline:
The initial verdict was promising, if not euphoric. Motor, in its pre-launch August 1984 twin test between the 1300L and VW’s (Golf)1.3GL, praised the Vauxhall’s extra cabin and boot space, smoother ride and impressive refinement at speed. ‘Almost two inches more front legroom than the Golf, a bigger boot and markedly better refinement…’ the magazine reported, while noting that the Astra’s lighter steering was less precise when pushed. In practical terms, it was ahead – in driver feel, the VW still had the edge.
Tests of the Opel version yielded similar opinions, and ultimately the Kadett became the second-best-selling car in Germany, right below that venerable Golf.
Imported to North America, you’d assume that the Kadett would have been a worthy competitor for other subcompacts but German labor costs and an unfavorable dollar-to-Deutschmark exchange rate put paid to that idea. No, GM would import the Korean-built Daewoo clone of the Kadett to the Brand of Excitement and plaster on the name of legendary Pontiac: the LeMans. Such blasphemy.
Sold Its Seoul
It’s hard to imagine with the likes of Genesis today, but in the late Eighties, the quality of Korean-made imports was probably better than that of a Yugoslavian car, but still more than a bit lacking. Even if you gave a Korean factory a car to build that was crowned “Car of the Year” when assembled elsewhere, the product emerging at the end of the line had a good chance of being less than stellar (Hyundai Stellar pun not intended). For the Pontiac LeMans, that’s exactly what happened.
The German styling was still rather fetching for a subcompact even three years after the world had first seen the LeMans, but while it looked good from afar, it was far from all good. The structure was anything but VW-tight, and fit and finish wasn’t up to Japanese levels. You can see that the overall design isn’t that bad at all, but cheap, brittle plastics dominated the interior. That upholstery and a lack of color choice added to the depressing environment that could have easily been elevated for not much extra spend.
In this Motorweek test, you can see that any of the “Car of the Year” worthy handling somehow got lost on the trip to Korea and back to America, particularly the slow steering.
Look at how it almost spins out in the slalom test!
The motor isn’t faulted much in this test by Our Hero John Davis, but it’s worth noting that this early test car boasted an Opel mill; later Korean-built engines might not have lived up to the promise of the German four.
While the Opel and Vauxhall versions came in a wide variety of body styles, like wagons and even a convertible, Pontiac only sold the three-door hatchback and four-door sedan.
The sedan, according to the ads, offered more trunk space than any other Pontiac. Even the Caprice-based Parisienne? Really? If so, that’s impressive.
General Motors did offer a LeMans in the Kadett’s hotter “GSE” trim level, which included Recaro-like seats, body-colored fittings, a spoiler, 14-inch wheels, and a 95-horsepower Australian-built two-liter engine similar to what was used in that year’s Sunbird. This thing’s specs promised it to be a GTI fighter with an aero body, but with the lack of refinement and poor execution, the ingredients didn’t add up. Also, at around $11,000, the GSE ended up with a sticker price that was more than the larger Sunbird or, unbelievably, a Honda Civic Si. Now, nobody paid sticker price for any of these cars; the LeMans was likely heavily discounted from the start, and nobody got out of a 1980s Honda dealer without getting gouged for thousands (and trust me, it was worth it). But it was obvious that the GSE wasn’t competitive.
Regardless of these reservations, the styling and spaciousness of the LeMans won over 100,000 buyers in 1988, but it wouldn’t last. The car’s tendency to fall apart became apparent early on, and American GM executives were supposedly at odds with Daewoo’s seeming inability to resolve these quality issues. By 1990, sales had dropped below 40,000 units, and the GSE was discontinued. Pontiac and especially Pontiac’s dealers had all but given up on the car, as only around 19,000 found homes in 1992 and a mere 8,000 in the next and final year of the Daewoo-built LeMans.
If you’d like to buy one today, I’m not sure why. My guess is that if you left one on the street with the keys in it, you’d come back to another one parked next to it. In doing image searches for this LeMans, the images I saw were either from a brochure or of a derelict example sitting in a junk yard; my usual prompt of “car for sale” yielded little. To be fair, most examples of econoboxes of this era have been used up and thrown out by now, where a several-hundred-dollar repair rendered them as write-offs. Still, these early Korean imports seemed to end up as doorstops much earlier.
Replace The “A” With An “O” And You Have It
You can’t fault Pontiac for trying; if sixty European journalists select something as the best new car of the year, you’d think it couldn’t miss. Sadly, the little LeMans just closed out two decades of subcompact Pontiac stinkers.
Ah, but if you’d given up on tiny Pontiacs, you’d be in for a surprise a few years later. The 2002 Vibe showed that GM’s excitement division could make a hell of a little car, with a lot of help from Toyota.
Pontiac Points: 25 out of 100
Verdict: No
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My first-ever new car was an ’89 LeMans GSE in silver. I was reading a lot of Euro car magazines at the time, and I was into the Kadett E/Astra, so it beat out my other finalists, an Escort GT and a Nova Twin-Cam (I know, I know).
Every bad story you’ve heard about these is true. Mine broke three speedometer cables. The headlamp switch failed. There was about a three-month stretch when I spent more time driving a Quad 4 Grand Am loaner than my own car. And this was in the first two years of ownership.
That said, it was quick for an ’80s crapbox, and the seats were comfortable, but I traded it in three years later on a Saturn SL1 and never looked back.
Weird little kid me loved the styling on these, especially when compared to the blobby “bubble cars” that Ford and co were putting out a few years after. My aunt drove one for years and I always enjoyed seeing it. I have a vague memory of riding with her to the movies in it once, but it could have also been their Beretta
I read a post from an automotive journalist way back in the day that when they debuted that music video for the first time at a General Motors company event with dealer heads and other higher ups, the response was so enthusiastic that the audience wouldn’t let them move on until they played it again.
Weren’t these garbage?
I doubt it will go past even 10k miles.
Back then, it would probably have been better actually sourced from France, rather than trying to make it sound French with a lot of L’s in the advertising.
I remember buying a used car guide and seeing these lost over 30% of there value in the first year. That was based on MSRP, but how big could the discounts have been? Nearly any loan on these was upside down after a few payments.
In Canada, these things were sold under the short-lived ‘Passport’ label that GM used for captive imports from DaeWoo and Isuzu, and called it the Passport Optima. A good friend’s parents bought one when we were 16, and while I’m sure I rode in it a few times, it was absolutely forgettable. I have only two distinct memories of that bland blob of a car.
The key was apparently interchangeable between some individual car. My friend’s mom came out of a shopping mall, unlocked the car, started it, and was about to drive away when someone came running and screaming at her. It turns out that it was an identical Optima parked two spaces away from her own car.It made one hell of an impact when my buddy lost control on a gravel road and drove it at speed into our canola field. I’m not sure what the crop damage came out to, but it definitely totaled the hell out of that car.
“it was the Chevette that graced Pontiac showrooms as a model called the T-1000 starting in 1981.”
Liquid metal is so expensive to maintain.
When I was a kid in the 90’s, a friend’s dad had one of these and used it to tow a boat (16-footer thereabouts).
My old college roommate bought one of these brand new to replace his beloved 80 something Civic 2dr hatchback that was rear ended/totaled by drunk driver. It was between this and and the little Dodge Colt. He couldn’t afford another Honda. We voted for the Colt. He bought the LeMans in sharp looking bright light blue metallic. Trouble soon thereafter. Was 5hrs into an 8hr trip when the oil light came on. He was freaking out. Turns out it was a bad oil sensor.
Around 12k miles, he started noticing a clunking sound from the back when he hit the brakes. Rear shoes where so far out of adjustment, they were ineffective. Stopped much better after that.
“Poor sales of cars like the Mazda 929 luxury sedan and Subaru SVX…”
You’ve never been to Japan, have you?
When I lived there in the early 90s there were Mazda Luce (plural) everywhere.
Sure, they were outnumbered by Toyota Crowns – but for a small company, they made a good showing for themselves.
As far as the SVX – it was a halo car. Like the Mazda Cosmo, Toyota Soarer and Nissan Leopard.
They were uncommon, but only intended for small production runs and showroom excitement anyway.
So if you’ve built them, the cash is flowing, and you can do RHD versions for other countries too – why not bring a few over to the US to show off a bit?
As far as the Daewoo LeMans – the less said about it the better.
I’ve been to Japan, but I was really referring to the US. My parents actually bought a 1989 Mazda 929 new and I remember it being a pretty rare car then (but not as rare as the beautiful one that followed it that sold even worse).
However, they are both examples of cars that were highly atypical for their respective brands and, planned or not, they were never going to be big sellers.
Vauxhall Astras became police cars in their thousands in the UK, in case you needed another reason to dislike them.
Yeah, but the GTE with the 150bhp “red top” engine was awesome.
Pontiac was displeased with Daewoo’s quality control. There’s the pot calling the kettle cracked.
I actually love the style inside and out. Too bad the reliability and handling were crap.
I was disappointed by the LeMans, the Cadillac Catera and the Saturn L series. Each time GM started with a good European Opel, and made a crappy American or Korean car out.of it. The only successful import job were the final Saturns that were pretty much left alone apart from Federal emissions and bumpers. Ford did a much better job with the Contour, retaining most of the Mondeo goodness. Fortunately I spent the late 80s in a VW Scirocco and was spared this turd
I test drove one of these heaps of shit back in the day. They made the GM J-Body cars look really good by comparison.
The engine was a gutless 2v SOHC single-point/throttle body injection version of the GM Family 1 engine. The automatic was the old GM 3 speed and the brakes were mediocre.
The only thing it had going for it was that it was cheap. Not cheap and fun… just cheap.
The Ford Aspire looked like a rehashed version of this. Both early South Korean built poo. I often wondered if Pontiac would have stolen the Canadian Firefly name and stuck it on this if they would have been more accepted. Calling this a LeMans was more insulting than Chevy slapping the Nova badge on their Toyota Corolla clone in the 80s. I mean, the first GTO was based on a version of the LeMans, wasn’t it? I can’t put my finger on it, but these cars just look cheap and disposable.
These were absolute turds, but that didn’t stop a guy at my high school from making awesome J-turns in the school parking lot.
The T1000 was actually slightly more refined than the Chevette – a bit more sound deadening insulation and less exposed painted sheet metal inside, in favor of more plastic and padded trim (there was still quite a bit of exposed sheet metal, just less of it)
My first real job was slinging rocks and dirt at an engineering test facility. It was animal house, the worst pit of unprofessional conduct. People throwing stuff, pranks, immense creativity with depraved language, you name it. And at the center of it all was Joe the electronics tech. Joe was the best guy, keeping it clean and sane in the middle of all that bad behavior while also keeping the sensors working. And he bought a new ’88 Pontiac LeMans.
Gawd we teased him. I used to jump on top of it, shouting insults and oaths in my best French guy from the quest for the grail impression. We would leave dirt molded like dog turds around it, obvious metaphor was obvious. But he simply smiled and said it was the best new car he could afford.
He drove the snot out of that LeMans for a good long time with that same smile on his face. Joe passed away a few years back, and I was so glad to have had his friendship. And of course we told some LeMans gags at the funeral.
My grandma rented a brand new 4 door Lemans on a trip once. All I recall is even as a kid it had rattles all over, was loud and the one back door was so hard to latch when closing the door we were afraid to use it.
These were hot du du when new, cannot recall the last time I saw one on the road. Maybe early 2000s?
“Hot du du”. That is awesome.
This was one of the cars on which I learned to drive stick – a friend’s car, and what I remember most was it was of course the bright red hatch version and also..no tach. Common at the time, there was a blank but hash-marked circle where it should be with a Pontiac arrowhead in the middle. Sporty.
Looking back, not a terribly inspiring car, but it was better than another friend’s Renault Le Car. Beggars can’t be choosers I guess. The LeMans did look 80s cool from some angles though.