"And you know what that means." On my '91 Sunbird (first car! so it seemed like a good idea at the time) that meant the alternator quietly dying on the drive back from school and the car limping to a stop in the middle of an intersection. That built some excitement, all right.

"We! Build! Exite! -Ment!"

Best reading of a slogan I've heard in some time.

But again, yeah, too bad these were horrid cars. Of course, that could be said about virtually everything the General built back then.

Our family had two previous (rear drive) Grand Ams, a '74 4-door and a '79 coupe.

The FWD one seen here took all the flaws of the previous-gen GA's and stuffed them into one craptastic little package.

Ugh. I had an '89 Grand AM in college. 5 speed Quad 4.

I replaced 2 head gaskets, a crank position sensor, and fuel pump within 2 years.

LOL, that guy picked up a classy hooker in his Grand Am

I had a '93 Grand Am (GT!) with ye olde Quad 4. Head gasket goes like clockwork at 100k.

And nothing builds excitement in a commercial quite like the sporty "slide the gearshift into P" stop.

I was expecting to hear:
"In a world, where everyone drives a Grand Am..."

Sweet! My first car is on Jalopnik! That, sadly is the best thing I can say about it. Mine was an '88, got it used w/ 55,000 on the clock. I racked up 50,000+ miles on it and blew through two complete exhaust systems from the cat back. It seemed they were held on with the bare minimum of hangers. Oh, and minimum rust-proofing. Plus no one has mentioned the simply God-awful paint on these cars. Mine feature the from-the-factory pitted decklid and then decided to shed the paint off of it's roof a couple years after I had it.

And I thought all of you sporting the Quad 4 we're damn lucky. My car came with ye olde "Tech 4" also known as the Iron Duke, a push rod 4 cylinder. Relatively problem free, but very slow.

And it looks to be filmed in Seattle (some nice Highway 99 shots in there).

I liked the "Get On Your Pontiac and Ride" commercials. Also, the "Lemme Tell Ya" line from the first front drive Bonnie commercials was also good.

Hey--I'd take a 1984 Phoenix over a 2005 Grand Am.

The old X-body was fun.

Does anybody remember Patrick Stewart doing the voiceovers for Pontiac?

Poor guy. Pouring that rich baritone and all the feeling into it that he can, you still don't believe him when he says "We build excitement."

Mr. Crusher, set a course away from this career-ending fiasco! Engage!

@evoCS: I had a Chevy Celebrity with the Tech 4. Throttle-body FI, woo hoo! I also bought a 89 Grand Am Quad 4 for $900 that had 185K miles and a fresh head gasket. What could go wrong?

500 miles later I pull into the shop for a diagnosis on what was probably a failing torque converter. I look in the rearview and white smoke is gushing out the exhaust. Yep, head gasket. I drove it directly to the junkyard and it just made it. Exciting!

@brandegee: Nice to see the Tech 4 appreciated by another! My next car also had an appetite for head gaskets. First year Neons are apparently very fond of chewing through those as the miles rack up. I went through 4 on mine (not counting the one it obviously needed when I donated the car).

Gah, also had a Celebrity, though I try my best to forget. One of the bigger POS cars I've owned, which is really saying something. Little beater threw a rod on I-4, which was the last straw. Gave up and sold it for $300.