For your consideration today, I have a pair of General Motors coupes with some strange similarities. Both were owned by elderly women from new, both are from orphaned brands, and both just need someone to love them and treat them properly. Which one would you give a good home to? Let’s check them out and see.
But first, there is the small matter of yesterday’s scruffy Toyotas. This wasn’t much of a contest at all, as it turns out; not many of you wanted anything to do with that beat-up Lexus LS 400. I don’t blame you. The Previa was just too cool; how else are you going to brag that you drive a mid-engine, forced-induction, all-wheel-drive vehicle without spending supercar money?
Oh, and I should have mentioned, because the ad did, that the Previa is being sold because the owners are moving overseas. That’s all. No one is trying to ditch it before something catastrophic fails. It’s just not worth shipping a 30-year-old van to their new home.
I thought I had today’s cars all figured out. It was going to be the Geo versus something else, but then Matt forwarded me the ad for this Pontiac from member phyrkrakr, and the more I looked at the ad, the more parallels I could draw to the Geo. It was too good of a pairing to pass up. Maybe it’s time to set up some kind of shitbox hotline email for suggestions. (I know there’s a channel on the Discord, but I never seem to be on there.) Anyway, for today, we’re good to go with a couple of grandma-owned GM two-doors. Let’s check them out.
1990 Geo Storm – $2,150
Engine/drivetrain: 1.6-liter OHC inline-4, five-speed manual, FWD
Location: Redondo Beach, CA
Odometer reading: 58,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
If I told you a car was “low mileage” and “elderly owned,” what sort of car would you picture? A Buick of some description, probably, or a nice simple Plymouth or something. What you probably wouldn’t imagine is this little red number. The Geo Storm was the sportiest member of Chevy’s captive import family in the ’90s, and probably mostly sold to younger buyers. But this one is owned by a 92-year-old woman who recently hung up the keys after putting just 58,000 miles on its odometer.
This is the base-model Storm, with a single overhead cam engine that sends 95 horsepower to the front wheels through a five-speed manual. So not exactly “go granny go,” but quite a bit more amusing to drive than a LeSabre or something. It runs and drives exactly as it should, according to the seller (the owner’s neighbor), and has no mechanical faults. With such low mileage, though, I have to imagine it could use a little exercise; it has probably spent the last 36 years puttering around the same neighborhood.
It’s mostly in good condition inside, but there is this big tear in the seat bolster. The owner likely had some trouble getting in and out, which accelerated wear on the fabric, and once it wore through, it wasn’t long before it looked like this. But if that’s the worst of the wear, that’s not bad at all. It has air conditioning, by the way, but the seller says it “needs a charge at minimum.” At least they’re not trying to downplay what it might need. The door locks are also “wonky,” whatever that means, and the radio is dying.
The paint is pretty faded; I get the feeling this car was parked outside. But there isn’t any rust except on the steel wheels, and those are easy to clean up and repaint if you wish. Otherwise, it should polish up nicely with a little time and elbow grease.
1997 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP – $1,500
Engine/drivetrain: Supercharged 3.8-liter OHV V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Sedalia, MO
Odometer reading: 130,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
This Grand Prix is also a one-owner car, owned by an elderly woman who passed away. “Her grandkids had it for two weeks,” the seller says, “and then we took it away.” That explains a lot about this car’s condition. I have a feeling that it was a lot nicer before those fateful two weeks. Now, it’s banged up, dirty inside, and the old owner would probably be appalled. But if you prefer to look at it from a glass-half-full perspective, because of what the grandkids did, it’s a lot cheaper than it might have been.
It’s a GTP model, with the 240 horsepower supercharged 3800 engine, which I think is part of the problem. Of course the kids got in trouble with it. You can’t trust young drivers with powerful cars and expect things to be hunky-dory. The good news is, it takes longer than two weeks to do any lasting damage to a 3800. The 4T65E-HD transmission may have suffered a bit, but I’m hoping it had good regular maintenance before all this.
Inside, it needs a good cleaning, but it’s in good shape. The GTP came with all sorts of bells and whistles, along with leather seats, which show a little wear but nothing serious. The seller does say everything works, but I think it’s worth verifying that.
One word adequately describes the outside: Ouch. The photos in the ad are not all that good, but we get the general idea. It’s dented on both sides, some of the plastic cladding is coming off, the windshield is cracked, and one taillight lens is broken. The damage is repairable, but is it worth bothering? Apparently the seller doesn’t think so, which is why they’re unloading it cheap.
Neither one of these is what you’d expect an older woman to be driving, really. One is a base model of a sporty economy coupe, and the other is a factory hot rod. It would be interesting to know why the original buyers chose them, but I’m afraid that curiosity is going to go unsatisfied. All we can do now is look at the condition they’re in, and choose which one we’d rather have. So what’ll it be?
It’s really sad to see what the grandturds did to the Pontiac, but I still chose it. The engine alone would be worth $1500 to somebody. The Storm is interesting in that it was purchased by a 56-year-old. I can’t imagine my mom buying a manual transmission car with manual windows when she was 56. And seeing the seat bolster made me think ingress and egress were rough for her. My sympathies.
This is the GTP you throw the smaller supercharger pulley on, not the fancy museum $11k+ Regal in the other article.
That 4T65-E is closer to its last shift than its first, so let it go to Valhalla under mucho boost.
Repair the worst of the body damage just to keep the questions away, drive it in winter, city park it, whatever. Buy a roadside assistance package and enjoy the supercharger whine and fry the front tires until you get permanent neutral.
For $1500, why not?
So it’s Radwood or LeMons today, eh?
Darty little time capsule I can enjoy for a month or two, have the seat repaired, and shove into the shed ’til spring, or winter beater that’s both pre-wintered and pre-beaten?
The Geo’s less likely to get me pulled over, and it’s far less likely to contain a substance that’ll get me into real trouble. I could sell it as something other than spare parts in a year or two, too.
Besides, they’re neat.
You know you’re shooting a lot of age related cracks about the Storm.. Remember this is a 36 year old car. So “grandma” was only 56 when she bought it. I was 48 when I bought my WRX and 59 when I bought the GTI..
Back in ’91, I had a coworker who bought a Storm as a new car. It was perfectly adequate, but not much more than that – never really liked the seating position, even as a front seat passenger. What happened to that (likely) previously fine GP is purely criminal. Whatever punishment came to those grandkids isn’t enough. I can’t be party to those shennanigans, so the little Storm it is.
After reading about this engine in the Regal GS, I was excited to see it in this Grand Am, which was one of my Favorite GM products of the 80’s and 90’s. But that car is looking more spent than just two weeks in the hands of hooligans. The interior is okay, but I believe that plastic cladding is coming off because the brackets are rusting. The seller gets points for including that picture, but loses points for repeating themselves in the ad and quoting incorrect performance figures.
Geo Storm for me. I always loved how they looked. But having said that, I know the parts for these will be expensive and sometimes unobtainium.
Still… it gets my vote for the looks, the novelty and the manual transmission.
If I had something to put the 3800 into I’d take the pontiac. Being that I have enough projects I think I would opt for the Storm.
Yeah if I had a Fiero laying around waiting for an engine swap I would have voted for the Pontiac to pull that 3800 SC as they fit right into the fieros but since I do not yeah….. That geo is in much better shape and not from the rust belt.
Geo Storm – that’s a heck of a price for a young-at-heart li’l runabout. Though if I had a 3800 swap project I’d definitely snap up that Pontiac and use it as a parts runner until the fateful day.
The Geo is clearly the better choice as far as offering a sensible, reliable transporter of bodies. And it looks a hell of a lot better than the Pontiac.
But I can’t resist the horsepower. I wouldn’t really want either of these, so I’ll take the one that will be more fun for a short period of time. Going with the less sensible choice today.
Both are cheap enough to grant a BOTH option. But if I can only pick one, then I’m going with the low mileage red sample. It’s just too good to pass up
These cars are NOT ideal examples of the genre, but two-door cars often look a lot better than their four-door counterparts. -Capt. Obvious
Storm today, easy choice…
Pontiac looks like the grandshit kids found an old bottle of Granny’s meds under the seat and tried to make some memories.
And folks wonder why we never had kids?
BTW for those who may not know, Dolly did her own cover of Tom Petty’s Southern Accents song. The video is available on You Tube, and filmed in Tom’s boyhood home. It’s a really gut ripper, and a beautiful tribute to Tom who has been gone almost 9 years now. That woman was pure magic in a world full of turds.
Even now it’s hard to believe how we were blessed by these two great souls.
Gonna miss you Dolly, and thank you.
BTW been watching two beautiful butterflies flit all over the back yard this morning.
Almost feels holy in it’s significance…
Enjoy those butterflies! My neighborhood butterflies have dwindled since a few years into the first Trump presidency. I believe that’s when Dow was allowed to use more aggressive pesticides.
It’s a wonder anything survives these days.
Back in the day I had a Storm, but the hatchback version. Bought it new, when I was fresh out of college. Cost $10,000, and I probably overpaid. It got great mileage, but that’s about all I really remember about it. It was an okay car 35 years ago, but I’ve no interest revisiting it.
Also of note, it was perhaps the only vehicle sold in America that used its particular tire size (at the time, anyway), so the replacements cost way more than they otherwise should have.
Why not both?
I’m going to have to go Geo, simply because the damage to the Grand Prix is more than I care to deal with these days. Also, manual versus 4T65E-HD, which despite the -HD, is made of glass behind the blown 3.8L.
Sadly, this reminds me of my own grandmother’s car. She had a pristine mid-80s Olds Cutlass Ciera that she put maybe 500 miles a year on over the twenty years she had it. Always garage kept, flawless condition, but used regularly enough that everything worked on it. I asked for the car when it was decided she was done driving, but instead it got handed over to one of my cousins who was consistently bouncing between rehab and jail, and within a matter of weeks the car was totaled. I don’t have any love for the GM A-bodies, but that particular car deserved better.
Storm as a cheap commuter. It is a simple and straightforward car that gets 29 mpg.
The Pontiac is the wrong car for someone on a budget looking for a cheap family car. As others noted the transmission is a liability and 19 mpg running premium is going to hurt at $5.45 a gallon.
I’m not sure if grandma did any of the damage to the Grand Prix and should have stopped driving sooner or the little bastard grandkids did most of it. I guess if they “took it away from them”, then probably the grandkids. Bummer.
I’ll take that Storm and enjoy it. I’ll try and source a seat first and then call an upholstery shop. Buy a new radio and honestly just enjoy it as a commuter.
Grand Prix is far and away the better car here, but being a midwest thing with over 100K on the clock those plastic body molding doe nothing but bad for the vehicles when the salt hits the roads. the Storm is at least something I could probably easily resell for 5K around the midwest because of miles, Trans and Cars and Coffee attractiveness.
If you need a cheap daily beater that Grand Prix is great deal. The kids at least didn’t have it long enough to trash the interior with spilled food and tacky shit from Pepboys. As for the exterior, I’d take off my glasses before I get in so I see nothing but a blur of silver.
That Storm is a little time capsule. It’s probably due to my cold northern locale, but I haven’t seen a surviving Storm or Impulse in ages – they all rusted to nothing up here. It’s a great little reminder that we used to have fun, affordable small cars. Even with the SOHC engine, it’ll be a blast. I’ve got an upholsterer in the family, so the seat will get taken care of, then it just needs a new stereo and probably a fuse pulled to turn power locks into manual. Who needs power locks on a car you can reach across?
Then again, as someone else said, that supercharged 3800 is worth $1500 all on its own. Maybe we need a ‘both’ button this week.
I’d honestly like to have both, but condition makes the extra $650 for the Storm the best money you’ll ever spend. It’s a shame the grandkids ruined the Pontiac.
I’ve always dug the mini-Camaro look of the Storm anyways. It’s worth patching up the seat and fixing up a bit on wonkiness.
I was thinking it looks like the result of a stormy love affair between a Camaro and a Probe.
I can see that.
I still like it.
Love the storm, but 3800. I have never owned one.
Those Supercharged 3800s used to eat transmissions. I’ll weather the Storm in the Geo.
1998 former owner here. Absolutely. I would have been on transmission #3 by 117k miles if I didn’t just cut my losses and move on. The car was still in excellent shape, body and interior. It would have financially unwise to have dropped another few thousand into it. 1990s GM products were unpredictable in what could suddenly happen next. $$$
I loved the bodystyle, and the 3800 is arguably one of the best domestic V6s ever made.
But all of that means nothing if it’s attached to a box of neutrals.
Guessing tmy ’99 Intrigue likely had the same transmission. Got a “bulletproof rebuild” done at 110k, and it needed needed another one when I traded it in at 175k.
Forget the rest of the car, that supercharged 3800 at 130,000 miles is worth $1500 all by itself. Remanned versions go for twice that. What did SWG get for his Buick that he sold to the Fiero guy?
This is the way. Buy the Pontiac, find something else to stuff the 3800SC into.
A Fiero would do nicely.