Ever dated twin sisters?
I managed the automotive equivalent of it this month when I went out on the town with the Pontiac Grand Am and Oldsmobile Alero, twin daughters of Mr. and Mrs. General Motors.It was an interesting experience. It showed me that while beauty is only skin deep, sometimes that's deep enough.
My first date was with the Grand Am, which I shall call Stella. Stella was painted a rather garish gold color (not the silver hue depicted in the photo) and she had body cladding everywhere -- very showy, very extroverted. As my grandmother would say, she was "no better than she ought to be."
Stella's gimcracky and doodads were meant to impress but struck me as a bit tawdry, especially in the daylight. Stella looked best at night under soft light.
But she was fast. Oh, yes, she was quick off the line and would pass almost everything on the freeway, her Ram Air induction system wailing like a banshee, while she made a spectacle of herself.
When driving Stella I generally avoided making eye contact with my fellow motorists.
Two weeks later I dated her twin sister under the skin, an Olds Alero that I gave the nom de auto Laura. Laura came from the same gene pool as Stella, but it's obvious they were separated at birth. My guess is Stella grew up in Las Vegas while Laura was reared abroad. Maybe Munich.
Stella's styling cues seemed to derive from Cher or Madonna. Laura favored Grace Kelly or Catherine Deneuve. Her finish was an elegant onyx black, unadorned by such affectations as spoilers, wings, strakes and "ground effects" body cladding.
That's not to say Laura was a plain Jane. While her styling was understated, she had more pizzazz than most of her competitors, such as Toyota Camry, Dodge Stratus or Ford Contour. And were it not for her low $20,000 price tag, we might be comparing her with those well known marques from Germany.
Stella and Laura had the same power plant under the hood, but Laura seemed slower than Stella, both off the line and in passing. I suppose the Pontiac's Ram Air induction system made the difference.
While plenty of guys would rather date Stella than Laura, you've probably figured out which of them I'd take to the prom -- especially if I had to bring her home to meet Mom. Sure, Stella is more exciting, but I'd never ask her hand in marriage -- or even a 36-month lease.
Which is why I'll devote the rest of this review to the Olds. She's more my kind of girl.
The Alero debuted last fall as a 1999 model, a considerably tamed production version of the Alero concept car displayed at auto shows in 1997. It replaces the venerable Cutlass, once the best selling car in America.
And along with the Olds Intrigue, Aurora, Bravada and snazzy Silhouette minivan (the movie theater on wheels), it pretty much completes Oldsmobile's re-invention of itself from a marque favored by middle-managers of a certain age, to what the company hopes will be a much younger demographic -- for example, the 20-somethings who favored Oldsmobiles back in the '50s and '60s, before Pontiac took over as GM's hot-rod division.
Comparing the Alero with the German imports is not as big a stretch as devotees of those marques might think. It's very taut, well put together, firmly suspended and takes corners at speed quite nicely. The only thing missing is a 5-speed manual transmission option. Only a 4-speed automatic is available, so far, but it's a good one as auto-shifters go.
There are two engine choices for the Alero: a push-rod 3.4 liter V6 (my tester's motivation) and a high-tech 2.4 liter four-cylinder with twin overhead cams and lots of valves that revs like crazy and develops 150 horsepower, only 20 fewer ponies than the V6 (but with a lot less torque, the stuff that makes a car feel strong off the line).
The base GX coupe and sedan start at $16,325 and come with only the four-banger. The GL coupe and sedan ($18,220 and $18,655, respectively) offer the four as standard equipment and the V6 as an option. The top-line GLS (my tester) comes only with the V6.
Its base price was $20,875 and had NO OPTIONS! The $525 destination charge put the bottom line at $21,400.
That price includes a large array of goodies that are normally high-priced options on American cars, including power windows and mirrors, AC, ABS brakes, leather seats, steering wheel and shifter, 6-way power driver's seat, remote keyless entry, 16-inch polished aluminum wheels, fog lamps, split folding rear seat, tilt steering . . .
There's even traction control and a tire monitoring inflation system and you go 100,000 miles between tuneups. We're talking serious value for money here, folks.
Fuel mileage for the GLS is rated at 20 mpg in city driving and 28 mpg on the highway.
E-mail (max@desnews.com) or fax 801-236-7605. Max Knudson's car column runs each Friday.