Coming up with two cars that have something in common is sometimes tough. Often, I’ll find one car that I really want to write about, and then struggle to find one that goes with it in some way. For today, I found two that I liked – and then discovered they had a common thread I wasn’t aware of. So that will be the theme for this week: cars with one arbitrary thing in common.
On Friday, we looked at two somewhat expensive playthings, and it seems not a lot of you warmed to the idea of an ancient British car equipped with a fussy and high-maintenance Japanese engine. I’m shocked! Well, not that shocked. Besides, a Honda CRX that clean these days is a rare thing indeed, and hard to pass up, even if the asking price is a little steep.
For me, it’s the CRX, hands-down, every day and twice on Sundays. No way in hell am I going anywhere near that Spitfire. I admire the work that went into it, and I am happy that it exists. But I do not want it.
This week, I’m going to find two cars each day with some number in common. It might be as obvious as price, or as obscure as wheelbase. Today’s metric is peak horsepower, a number that advertisers like to bandy about, but sometimes doesn’t have much meaning in actual driving. I’ve heard some old-timers say, “You buy horsepower, but you drive torque.” And of course, even that isn’t the end of the story, because power-to-weight ratio matters, as does gearing, as do a hundred other less tangible aspects of a car’s design. Be that as it may, the engines in both of today’s cars are rated at the same horsepower: 135. Let’s take a look at them.
1978 Pontiac Grand Prix – $4,999
Engine/drivetrain: 301 cubic inch OHV V8, three-speed automatic, RWD
Location: Whites Creek, TN
Odometer reading: 144,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
In the mid-1970s, the penny finally dropped in Detroit: If you aren’t selling enough small cars, maybe you should make the big cars smaller in order to meet the new regulations. Most mid- and full-sized cars were a lot bigger than they needed to be, anyway. A new era of downsizing was ushered in. In 1978, GM’s A-body platform, including this Pontiac Grand Prix, received the downsizing treatment. Gone was the majestic but heavy “Colonnade” styling, replaced by a sharp-edged design that was more with the times as well as being a foot shorter and several hundred pounds lighter. This body style proved popular enough to stick around for nine model years.
GM was already making moves towards shared “corporate” engines for all divisions, but in 1978, each flavor of A-body coupe could still be had with its own division’s engine. For Pontiac, that meant a 301 cubic inch version of its V8 that, when equipped with a two-barrel carburetor, as I suspect this one is, makes 135 horsepower. It’s backed by a three-speed Turbo-Hydramatic transmission, though I don’t know whether this is the reliable TH350 or the weak and failure-prone TH200. I suspect it originally came with the latter, but after all these years, there’s a good chance it has been swapped out for a TH350. It’s a one-owner car, so the seller should be able to tell you.
No proper ’70s cruiser is complete without a jewel-toned velour interior, and this Pontiac does not disappoint. It has a big split bench seat so soft you’ll sink into it, a column-mounted shifter, and that cool Grand Prix dash with all the round gauge holes. I think this is a base model, or at best an LJ, so most of those holes will be filled with idiot lights instead of proper gauges, but you can’t have everything. Some of it is faded, and the dash has a cover that’s probably hiding a few cracks, but overall it looks good inside for a car this age.
It’s clean outside too, and it has all the accoutrements befitting a personal luxury coupe from the Carter years: a landau top, fake wire wheel covers, a hood ornament, and a flip-open cover hiding the trunk keyhole. This stuff was the very height of sophistication in those days. A car like this meant you were somebody – maybe not the boss, he drove an Eldorado – but somebody.
2013 Fiat 500 Turbo – $4,500
Engine/drivetrain: Turbocharged 1.4-liter DOHC inline 4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Murfreesboro, TN
Odometer reading: 122,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Fiat sold a ton of cars in the US in the 1970s as well, but left our shores in 1983 in a flurry of rust flakes and broken timing belt debris. It returned in 2012, after purchasing a stake in Chrysler, with this car: the adorable retro-styled Fiat 500. It’s not exactly a paragon of reliability either, but it’s a lot better than the old ones were. And it’s so damn cute you can forgive some failings, like a puppy that pees on the floor. You want to be mad, but you just can’t.
This one ups the fun factor by adding a turbocharger to Fiat’s 1.4-liter MultiAir four-cylinder, bringing the output up to the same 135 horsepower as the Pontiac’s wheezy old V8. It drives the front wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox and produces one of the best four-cylinder exhaust notes of recent years. This one has quite a few miles on it, enough to have ironed out any early quality bugs, but not so much that stuff will have started wearing out. The seller says it runs and drives great, and gets great gas mileage.
The inside of the 500 is a lot more stylish than most small cars, with bold red accents breaking up all that modern dark gray fabric and plastic. This is about the best shot of the interior we get in the ad, but it looks good in there to me. The air conditioning works, and it has heated seats for winter driving, too.
Outside, it’s all nice shiny black, hard to keep clean, but impressive when it’s all polished up. I’ve never seen a 500 with these Panasport or Watanabe-style wheels on it before; they suit it well, and show off the red-painted brake calipers, which I believe are factory.
So there they are, two cars with the same horsepower rating that couldn’t be more different. One is lazy and comfy, the other frenetic and high-strung. Either one will get you where you want to go, but as always, it’s how you get there that matters. Which sort of journey interests you more?
Fiat all the way. I have 0 love for those bloated, inefficient American barges, and doubly so after learning that’s the *cut-down* iteration of one. 135 HP from a V8 with a three speed sounds so so miserable.
If that’s your choice today, remember to factor in a gallon of gas every 8 miles you drive into the price.
Fiat all the way!
Fiat please, too much of a used up rattle trap breaking bad vibe from the roach. I’d have to shoehorn myself into the fiat and drive shoeless but it’s got to be better than the used up not so Grand Prix.
That Fiat is full of problems. So bad that the Double Iron Dukee is the better choice.
I voted for the white car, and of course an LS swap is possible if 135 hp isn’t enough 😉
I love PLCs, but this one is a bit of a stinker. The 301 is probably the worst malaise-era smogged engine, and certainly the worst Pontiac V8.
And while I’m scared of the reliability on that Fiat, I’d be smiling at least while it’s running.
Seriously, can we stop with these old wives tales. Modern Fiats are perfectly reliable. The 500 beat German and Japanese vehicles in the ADAC class A reliability reports. These aren’t the 1960s high strung pseudo exotic Fiats masquerading as affordable blue collar cars.
I feel like ‘More reliable than a Volkswagen or Nissan’ isn’t what it meant in the 1960s, either.
Yeah, being “more reliable than the Germans” is not exactly bulletin board material.
And which Japanese brands? I doubt any Fiat could beat any Toyota on reliability.
Unless said Toyota is actually a Subaru or BMW!
Modern Fiats are perfectly reliable once the factory bugs are excised. My step dads had a nasty habit of quitting randomly, usually in an intersection. Once that was fixed its been pretty good with the exception of the absolutely miserable quality of the interior materials. I’ve never had a seat armrest shatter before even when abused. The silk screening on the radio is gone, even the paint is gone. That interior makes a package of toys from Dollar Tree look like quality.
That said.my ’81 X1-9 was shockingly reliable. I think that had a lot to do with electronic ignition and EFI.
The Pontiac encompasses malaise era so well. Maybe aside from the taillights, there is almost no distinctive feature about this car that makes it stand out — and as such it’s also a mid-level trim on a mid-level car from a mid-level (if “exciting”) brand. Even to a malaise-era enthusiast, this might be too milquetoast. Which…maybe makes it more interesting to a malaise era enthusiast?
Now my mind is melting a bit. Anyways, the Fiat is a lot better.
Power-to-weight and a manual transmission? Gotta have the Fiat.
Yeah, the Pontiac will surely outlive the little Italian lump, but at least the Fiat driver will be having fun until the inevitable day of disaster.
That italian girl that smacks you into the face in front of your friends? You still want her.
(because you secretely know you deserved it, and smile quietly)
Nope. She can be someone else’s main character drama show.
The Cinquecento will be 10X more fun to drive and probably 5X safer in a collision. But I already have a Euro hot hatch. So…
…I’ll take the lazy, malaisey Grand Prix and cruise around to old man car shows on the weekends. Just need to score some white New Balances while the cyber-Monday deals are still going.
One is a cramped, unreliable 2-doors sign-of-the-times trying hard to profit from a modest heritage, donned with questionable -yet popular- wheel choices, that will make reasonable people frown upon you.
The other is a delightful Fiat.
That Fiat must be fun to toss around. So I looked up the torque specs on both, the Pontiac makes 240 ft-lbs (actually surprised me!), the Fiat makes 150. Still picking the Fiat.
That was easy, the Fiat all day.
BOTH of these are ALMOST my previous cars. I had a 77 Grand Prix, and a ’13 Fiat 500 Abarth. The Abarth was probably the most fun car I’ve ever owned & after 77K miles the window regulator and front axles were the only issues I ever had. Tony apparently fixed it.
I’d really consider that Fiat for a winter beater.
(EDIT damn those wheels look good. I wonder if he found the finicky 4×98 pattern or used “wobble bolts” for 4×100?)
Tony himself came to fix your Fiat?! What a lucky devil!
I’m not going to fit in that Fiat. That’s OK, it will be broken most of the time. I’ll cruise the Pontiac and tell myself I’m going to LS swap it, but I never will.
“I’m not going to fit in that Fiat”
We can get some Vaseline and a shoehorn and MAKE you fit…
I’m sure we could, but I’ll pass on that. I don’t mind some malaise in my life.
The Pontiac is too boring for consideration over the finicky but fun Fiat.
My aunt’s 1980 GP was basically the same car but with the 3.8 V6 and bucket seats. It started to fall apart pretty early on but most of the failures were cosmetic and she kept that damn thing until 1998 as her go-to-work beater. It drove itself to the junkyard.
The Fiat is obviously going to be a better performer with the 135 HP, but that doesn’t mean that I want it. Nope, I’m an A-body guy and would love to open the comically heavy doors, pump the pedal twice and turn over the strangled V-8 just to not hear anything satisfying from the exhaust. I know, it seems like I’m ditching on it, but I’m not…these were the cars that were absolutely everywhere in my youth, and I kind of miss them. They were uncomplicated (apart from the vacuum leaks), didn’t ask for much, and were cheap to fix when needed. One thing I would absolutely do with this one is to swap the tires out for a proper set of whitewalls…that’s the look, baby.
I’m with you, but I’ll hang those wire wheel covers on the wall, and throw on a set of Cragers with raised white letter BFG Radial TAs.
These were everywhere in my youth as well. That was enough to never consider anything from the Detroit 3 malaise era again.
That era put plenty of loyal customers off US cars forever.
Hmmm. Let me think about this one…
I picked the Pontiac, just so I can start doing the G-body shuffle. There are a TON of bolt-ons to make it dance. That price is outrageous, though, as evidenced by it still being for sale almost a month.
The 301 is… less desirable, but fortunately a 350 bolts right in!
I bought my daughter a 2013 Fiat 500 for my daughter as her first car. We got it with about 3k miles on it, and it gave us 80k trouble free miles! However, it wasn’t the Abarth, so I don’t know if it would be similar.
Daughter’s car sits at 165k miles with just one bad window regulator (driver’s side). She must roll the window up and down a lot.
I know there’ll be a lot of Malaise Era enthusiasts/apologists down here…but…uh…small car, manual, 8-spokes.
Fiat. Very easy for me. In fact almost custom picked for me.
I mean, it may be slow and handle like a barge, but at least the fuel economy is bad!
The Fiat is an easy win today, I’ve been regularly tempted to pick one up as a commuter cause they’re so cheap.
You think you hate it now, but wait till you drive it!
You mean you didn’t order the metallic pea green?
Thanks so much for making the Monday after thanksgiving such an easy choice. Fiat all the way.
Which makes BETTER use of 135hp? The Fiat, so I picked it. However I’d rather have a malaise era bucket than a tempermental Italian hatch.
So our choice is 135 hp in a small and fuel efficient commuter car or 135 hp in an old dinosaur that should be melted down so that new and much better cars can be made?
I like a bench seat. But only a mother could love that Pontiac. The more you look at it, the more disturbing it becomes.
My mom loved her 70 Pontiac she had for a while. Red with white leather interior. She then figured out that is was not great for 4 kids and a few dogs.
I had to go Fiat. That Pontiac doesn’t scream malaise, but says it quietly with a sense of resignation.
The Fiat might be temperamental, but it is not malaise-y.