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OESN'T LOOK like the average car -- looks more foreign," says a Massachusetts welder. What he apparently doesn't realize is that Pontiac went to an awful lot of trouble to give that impression.
      Neither this owner nor (judging from responses to our survey) most other Grand Am owners realize that Pontiac has spent considerable time and money to make this a genuine American grand touring car in the European tradition (see What makes this American gran turismo car European? page 52). Pontiac's effort has apparently been lost on all but a handful of Grand Am owners.
      Too few buyers understand that General Motors "went European" this year with four of its A-bodied intermediates: the Grand Am, Chevy's Monte Carlo, Buick's Regal and the Olds Cutlass Salon. All four try to capture the Continental gran turismo flavor. They offer the nearest thing to sports-car handling ever put into American cars of this size. Handling in each case comes via finely tuned suspensions and chassis set up for steel-belted radial tires (standard equipment), good disc braking, quick steering, plus stabilizer bars front and rear.
      The car magazines have all called the Grand Am "Detroit's Mercedes." Despite stiffer-than-normal suspension, Pontiac engineers have given the Grand Am a comfortable long-distance ride. Its stylists reached for European verve inside and out, with luxury touches and tidbits not normally found in U.S. cars -- adjustable lumbar supports inside the front seatbacks, for instance, or the dimmer switch in the turn signal stalk, plus a very British-looking instrument panel with instruments set in real mahogany.    NEXT >