Fancy-Pants GM A-Bodies: 1985 Pontiac 6000 STE vs 1993 Cutlass Eurosport

Welcome back! Today we’re saluting one of the unsung heroes of General Motors history: the humble front-wheel-drive A platform. We’ve got two upscale models to look at, one US-market Pontiac, and a not-an-Oldsmobile from south of the border.

Yesterday‘s pocket rockets were somewhat of a foregone conclusion; the MR2 would have been a lot more desirable if not for the seller’s mishap. Hopefully they learned from it, and won’t ruin any more cool mid-engined sports cars. It’s probably not the only reason the 323 GTX ran away with the win, but it certainly didn’t hurt.

The Mazda would be my choice as well. It’s rare, cool, reliable, and practical. I’m not crazy about the paint job, but I could put up with it for a fun little rally hatch like that.

General Motors cars, the old saw goes, run poorly for longer than most cars run at all. The implication is that they don’t run well from the beginning, which I disagree with, but GM vehicles of the last half-century do seem to have a sort of “just keep going no matter what” spirit. The whole lineup has a similar feel to it, but when I think of a GM automobile that just won’t die, the first vehicle that comes to mind is the midsize front-wheel-drive A-body, produced for fourteen years, and still not an uncommon sight on the roads. I found these two low-mileage examples, in the fancier trims, for reasonable prices. Let’s take a look.

1985 Pontiac 6000 STE – $3,000

Engine/drivetrain: 2.8-liter overhead valve V6, three-speed automatic, FWD

Location: Hendersonville, NC

Odometer reading: 70,000 miles

Operational status: Runs and drives, but “needs some work”

“A Car For Every Purse And Purpose” was GM’s slogan back in the Alfred P. Sloan years. Cheap or expensive, plain or fancy, GM had you covered. The slogan went away, but the attitude remained. When the A-body came out in 1982, it was available in a wide range of trims, from four different divisions. This 6000 STE was the top of Pontiac’s range; it came with a multi-port fuel injected 2.8 liter V6, bucket seats, four-wheel disc brakes, and tighter suspension than the standard 6000. It was also available with a five-speed manual, but I’ve never seen one; every STE I’ve ever encountered had an automatic, including this one.

European sports sedans, from BMW and Audi and others, were all the rage in the mid ’80s, and GM intended the 6000 STE to compete with them – hence the upgraded suspension and brakes. Nobody cross-shopped this car and a 528e, of course, but that was the hope. This car also marked the beginning of Pontiac’s “button era”: just look at all those Tic-Tac-sized gray rubber buttons on the dash. It also, of course, has a digital dash.

This one has only 70,000 miles on it, from a single owner. We don’t get a lot of information on its condition, only that it “still runs” and “needs some work.” That’s useful; thank you. We get only a few photos to go by, as well. It looks good cosmetically; both the interior and exterior have held up well, and I suppose any mechanical woes can be repaired pretty easily.

Pontiac sure did put a lot of lights on the front of its cars in the ’80s. From the outside working in, those are low beams, high beams, and fog lights. The fog lights were exclusive to the STE; Pontiac did something similar with the top-of-the-line Sunbird, if I remember correctly.

1993 Cutlass Eurosport by General Motors – $2,800

Engine/drivetrain: 3.1-liter overhead valve V6, three-speed automatic, FWD

Location: Victorville, CA

Odometer reading: 94,000 kilometers

Operational status: Hard to say, actually

“This guy has lost his mind,” you must be thinking. “That’s an Oldsmobile if I ever saw one.” Well, yes and no. In the US, this car would have been called the Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera International Series – but this car was not sold, or built, in the US. It’s a Mexican model, sold through Chevrolet dealerships, and known only as the Cutlass by General Motors. This is the upscale model, the Eurosport, a trim level usually used by Chevrolet in the US.

The badges aren’t the only difference between this car and its US-market counterparts. It’s a two-door coupe, a body style not sold in the US after 1991. It’s powered by a 3.1 liter V6, unlike the US International Series models which received a Buick 3.8 liter, and while we got an overdrive automatic transmission in the Ciera by this point, the Mexican Cutlass soldiered on with the same old basic three-speed. You could also get a five-speed stick, but who knows how many were equipped that way?

It’s hard to ascertain its mechanical condition; the ad is translated from Spanish, and not well. Between the Spanish and English text in the ad, I think what the seller is saying is that it has had two owners, has new tires, and has some sort of mechanical problem with the engine. I’m not sure whether it runs and drives or not. Cosmetically, it’s a little rough around the edges, but basically intact, and the interior looks pretty nice.

Curiously, while this car was not sold as an Oldsmobile, I do see that it says “Oldsmobile” on the dash. I guess they imported the dash panels from the US, and didn’t remove the badging.

GM gets a lot of flak for badge-engineering their cars, but honestly, if the bones are solid, who cares what name is on the trunk lid? The A-body was nobody’s idea of a performance car, or a luxury car, but it was good, solid, comfortable, reliable transportation. Either one of these would be a hit at Radwood, of course, but they could also be useable transportation. So which one will it be: the all-American four-door, or the south-of-the-border coupe?

(Image credits: Facebook Marketplace sellers)