The General built cars based on the front-wheel-drive A platform (no, not that other GM A platform) for the 1982 through 1996 model years, with the profoundly unmemorable Chevy Celebrity as the most numerous type. Of all the millions of these A-Bodies that roamed American roads, the most interesting was the Pontiac 6000 Special Touring Edition, a sporty sedan version made to compete with the growing menace of speedy German and technology-stuffed Japanese machines. I managed to find an extremely rare early 6000 STE in a California boneyard in December, so let’s take a look.
The Pontiac Division was on a roll by the middle 1980s, reacquiring some of the old youthful-performance luster it enjoyed during the heyday of John DeLorean’s rule in the 1960s. This was a time when a Ypsilanti transmission assembler could become a Knight Rider star and then feature in a cheesecakey Pontiac calendar, and it seemed possible that Pontiac would soon strike fear into corporate hearts from Yokohama to Munich.
Of course, that all fell apart soon enough and the Pontiac Division spent the 1990s becoming decreasingly relevant, finally getting stuffed into The Crusher in 2010 after a long downward spiral. But the 6000 STE, for all its weaknesses, was one fascinating machine. Its dash bristled with dozens and dozens of bewilderingly tiny buttons and switches, and the instrument cluster looked like a video game. Take that, Nissan Maxima and Mitsubishi Tredia! Best of all, Pontiac ignored complaints from befuddled customers who couldn’t figure out the controls in the early 6000 STEs and doubled down by installing even more buttons to the later models. Even the very weird Subaru XT couldn’t out-science-fiction the late-80s 6000 STE!
The interiors appeared to have come from futuristic orbiting palaces built by a superior intergalactic civilization… that is, a superior intergalactic civilization that prized Michigan petro-velour and a tan-to-burgundy color palette above all other considerations. This one features lovely gold-and-plum upholstery and trim, which has held up very well after 37 years of California sun. Naturally, the 6000 STE came standard with air conditioning, power everything, a nice audio system, all the stuff that cost extra in most Detroit sedans of the time.
While it had the gadgetry and econo-plush interior to compete with Nissan, Subaru, and Mitsubishi, the 6000 STE’s true rivals hailed from Europe. To beat BMW and Audi, the 6000 STE needed power and plenty of it. For 1984, that meant the high-output version of the 2.8-liter V6 engine, rated at a pretty decent 130 horsepower. The BMW 528e had a mere 121 horses that year, while the Audi 5000 Turbo got the same 130. Sure, The General’s 60° V6 had pushrods and— for the 135 horsepower 2.8— a carburetor, but horsepower is horsepower (to be fair, the 528e annihilated the 6000 STE on torque, with 170 versus 145 pound-feet). The 6000 STE got a stiff suspension, quick steering ratio, and sticky 195/75R14 radials as well, and I’m just sad that Audi 5000-versus-Pontiac 6000 STE chase scenes didn’t become a staple of cop TV shows (the 5000 did become a staple of the TV news, however).
Unfortunately, lots of BMW and Audi buyers insisted on three pedals in those days, and the only transmission available on the ’84 6000 STE was a decidedly antiquated three-speed automatic. Later on, the 6000 STE got an optional four-speed automatic and even optional all-wheel-drive, but the primitive powertrains hurt sales just as much as they did with the Buick Reatta, Oldsmobile Troféo, and Cadillac Allanté.
Of all the GM A-Body sedans of 1984, the 6000 STE was by far the most expensive. The Celebrity sedan listed at $7,881, the Olds Cutlass Ciera Brougham was $9,712, the Buick Century T-Type was $10,674… and the 6000 STE cost $14,428 (about $39,805 in 2022 dollars). Meanwhile, a new ’84 Nissan Maxima cost $11,399, an Audi 5000S was $16,480 ($22,250 with turbocharging), a BMW 528e had a $24,565 MSRP, and— if you were willing to live with two doors instead of four— a new Ford Thunderbird Turbo Coupe and its 145 overhead-cam horsepower listed at just $12,354.
These cars do have a small-but-maniacal following today, so I expect that this one will have been stripped clean of STE-specific goodies by the time you read this.
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I never realized how small the font was on those radios and HVAC controls, until now. Almost makes today’s display menus look user-friendly.
having owned an 86 STE, and currently own a 77 Chevelle… these things are a lot closer to you than newer cars. And once you get accustomed to the pattern, are easier to set with your eyes on the road, rather than flipping through menus.
The 77 I forget how close the windshield is to the dash and when pointing things out the window to passengers, always smack my hand on the glass. the STE wasn’t much different in depth.
You have an Audi 5000? I have a Pontiac 6000, it’s 1000 better.
Yeah, well, I’ve got a Saab 9000, beat that.
Seriously though, I remember a kid back in the day who told us his ’72 Oldsmobile 98 was “seventy better” than my buddy’s ’79 Chevrolet Camaro Z28.
Damn! I’ve been bested. Now no one will take my Pontiac 6000 seriously.
My grandfather had a ~1970 Olds Eighty-Eight, except in 1987 when I was still young enough to not understand, I saw the placard on the dash and wondered why his brand new car looked so old.
Back in the day when I was about ten, I was riding my bike behind a buddy in his driveway. I got too close, and bumped the rear time of his Schwinn Apple Krate stingray bike and almost wiped out. I remarked how the bump didn’t even jar him. He said confidently: “This is a racing bike. Their made for that!”
@Detroit-X: I lusted after the Apple Krate at our neighborhood Schwinn dealer when I was kid. We were, sadly, a Huffy family.
I had neighbors who owned a Rambler Classic 440 and a Dodge Polara 500. We inquisitive youngsters figured out that they weren’t the engine size but the model and trim.
“You have an Audi 5000? I have a Pontiac 6000, it’s 1000 better.”
Ford Taurus SHO beats both of them 130 hp.
I have a Pontiac 1000. My God! Do I now have an inferiority complex!!!
Not helping that is I couldn’t afford a Pontiac 1000. (It’s a step up from Chevrolet for movers and shakers, you know). So I converted a Chevette into a Pontiac 1000 from junkyard parts. Except the rusted floorboards, of course; I used a discarded real estate sign to patch that.
I have a 6000 SUX and you can all suck it.
That was built on a Colonnade chassis—if you look close, you can see the dashboard of a 1977 Cutlass in some of the shots.
The interior is in remarkable shape and the body is as well except the front and driver’s side fender. Some of the body damage could have been done at the salvage yard. This car is starting to be of interest to some collectors but I would say from the interior and the body that this was an older person’s car most likely the original owner who died or was put in a nursing home and the family called to have this car hauled away and possibly donated it to charity. I am willing to bet this car still ran but family members were not interested in it. If that was the case and it was in good condition it is a shame that a car collector didn’t get it.
84 was the last year of the carbureted 2.8 HO, so I imagine the goofy Varijet was troublesome.
There was some sort of a TSB on the carbed 2.8s to correct a dangerous cold stumble, sometime in 1990, maybe. My Dad had a 1986 Century Limited equipped thus.
Unfortunately, that TSB came a year late, and by that time, after having had Mr. Goodwrench fire the parts cannon at the issue to no avail, he had already defected to the Honda camp. This from a former Oldsmobuick guy to the end!
Perhaps the original owner went blind, and couldn’t drive anymore? (Hair gel accident? Poked himself with a gold chain??)
“The interior is in remarkable shape ” from months of plastic protection wrap from being at the dealer being repaired, not driven… ha ha
Where are all the push buttons on the center on the steering wheel? I thought all STE’s came with those. I had a 1988 Bonneville SE with the radio controls in the center of the steering wheel. Anyone who saw it thought it was cool.
The buttons on the steering wheel came in ’85 or ’86. A friend of mine had the ’83 and it didn’t have the buttons or the digital instruments.
I always thought these looked much nicer with the flush headlamps starting with the ’86 model. An interesting fact, although I wonder how many were ever built, is a 5-speed manual was optional on the ’87 (and maybe ’88) models.
There was one tall button that activated the airbag, maybe?!
I have an old Honda.. my airbag doesn’t have an activation button. It’s on a timer.
Timer? Not a voice recognition indicator? “OH GOD NO!”
Damn voice activation stuff doesn’t work anyway in Hondas—third Accord equipped such, and it blows!
At least the Siri functionality built into CarPlay is OK.
86 was the first year for the SWC. I had an 86.
I remember Car & Driver reviewing this thing and just gushing over it. A few months later in the letters to the editor, they got flooded with complaints about the car simply not being available anywhere on dealer lots. One guy put it eloquently – said that after being informed that no STE’s were available, the salesman herded him over to a large number of the lesser model LE – which he dubbed the “Leftover Edition”. Tragically hilarious.
The great press was why I bought an 84 in white over grey. Paid list price. The upholstery was leather/suede similar to hush puppy shoes. After a year the sun damaged the top of the rear seat. If you ran your hand across the top of the seat suede dust would become airborne. The build quality was bad. The bottom of the rear passenger door was misaligned and road spray/debris from the tires would hit the exposed edge of the wheel arch. Rusted bare metal was exposed before I realized what was happening. Depreciated faster than a silver bullet. Handled and stopped decently. Distinct exhaust sound like a motor boat. Overall somewhat better than the average GM cars of the day.
“Overall somewhat better than the average GM cars of the day.”
I appreciate the irony of this punchline. While many cars from this era make me nostalgic, it’s never about owning them–paying to repair them.
Better than any 1984 Chrysler. Fight me – lol.
The only car I ever bought new was a 1984 Chrysler, a Laser Turbo (a clone of the Dodge Daytona Turbo). I was happy enough with it, 142 HP was good for its day. But then, I’ve never driven a Pontiac of that era, so I cannot judge.
The car magazines comparison tested the 6000 STE, Lancer ES/LeBaron GTS. The Pontiac got the nod by a bit. I think they also compared it with the stretched K based Dodge 600 ES turbo.
That’s Light Briar Brown, or as I always called it, “Champagne.” Having had a base Sunbird Hatch of this model year in this color with a brown interior, you might be right about the seats being gold, though I couldn’t remember seeing one like that; I wonder if those were light burgundy or dark brown which faded, though I would have expected the dash to have faded to white from the burgundy. I seem to recall a Century Olympia version in these pages which had an identical color difference inside.
Actually the closer I look, that dash was all dark brown—the seats are faded to gold.
These were so cool, especially the late model run with the Euro style headlights and the kinda sorta monoblock wheels. At least that’s how I thought they were when I was 17.
Looks well cared for. I don’t see any scented tree hanging from the mirror or a bunch of stickers. Hindsight I would have picked the Maxima for less money really like that generation of Maxima and I believe it was built in Japan.
The whole reason to buy these was the Knight Rider grid-of-buttons steering wheel. This one is from before either that steering wheel or the addition of fuel injection to the V6, so no sale.
What a piece of garbage…..the 70’s and 80’s WERE NOT the pinnacle of American Automotive excellence.
I was a production group leader 1979 to 1988 Oshawa plant one Chassis final assembly .. I remember the 6000 STE quite well .. . We ran the “B” Chev/ Pontiac till late 84..So i’m thinking it would be 85 -86 ?? when we switched over to the “A” unibody ..with the STE circa 1986 ???
Part of my job as group leader was to baby sit the very rare manual transmission jobs ( maybe two per shift ?) when they came through my group .. As such I know that at some point the STE was equipped with a manual shift ..Maybe they were just ran as export only. ????.But I do know that such a thing did exist .
I didn’t realize that the STE originated in 1983..I thought it was 1984. Orwell or Van Halen references aside!
Ah you built my 86 STE then, it was an Oshawa car (the maple leaf sticker on the door jamb) and it was sold in Waco TX, I then bought it 13 years later off the original owner.
Yup ..,.That was one of ours ! Glad to hear it found a good home .
This was when GM had just bought Ross Perot’s technology firm, EDS. The strategy was to fill the higher-line cars like this one with intimidating-looking tech so that buyer would think the whole car was really sophisticated. As you can see, the resulting controls were about as usable on the road as a 2022 GTI, and for pretty much the same reason.
If they REALLY wanted something across the Sloanian hierarchy with a platform, they should have used this and not the J-Body as the basis! Unfortunately it took GM too long to get these to where they were really good, and of course, by that time, Ford had beaten the crap out of both GM and the 50,000 K-derivatives at Chrysler! (Then of course they rested on their laurels!)
Recovering 6000 STE owner here… I leased a new STE in 1986 from Palm Pontiac in Fort Lauderdale. My dad tried to talk me into a Cutlass Supreme Brougham coupe (w/T-Tops!) but no.. sophisticated car guy that I was I took the advice of Car & Driver and others and insisted on the Euro Pontiac. What a disappointment. Failing A/C, leaky headlights (Halogen!), squealing belts, a 3-speed automatic that shifted like John Force’s funny car. The car was pathetic and the dealer experience matched it. I will say it had some pretty comfortable seats and the Delco cassette stereo rocked for a factory item but the rest of the car frankly sucked. I put 70k miles on it in 3 years and was ecstatic to write GMAC a check for the over-mileage allowance when the lease ended. The basic concept was a good one, but the A-body platform was built to be a 9k Celebrity, not a 16k BMW chaser. Typical ’80s GM assemble quality meant the already shoddy engineering was assembled with zero care and the dealer experience was miserable. A few years later I ended up with a used Celebrity Eurosport, despite being the same car as the 6000, it did not pretend to be anything other than transportation, which it did adequately. It proved the old saw of “you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”
Bad faith has always been a cornerstone of GM’s decline.
17-year-old me thought that these were the pinnacle of automotive design. Then I bought a Honda Accord and never looked back.
My high school English teacher had one very similar to this, but his STE must have been a year or two newer. It had a steering wheel with many buttons, and I think for that reason it was broken into and stolen (presaging airbag theft perhaps?).
Yes, the model was so special that we just referred to it as the STE, and left off 6000. That moniker was reserved for lesser models.
I can still hear the bleat of that V6, a very unique sound. At the time, it looked pretty cool and “European” with its amber rear turn signals. Again, another half-baked GM product of the era. It seems the business model of GM at the time was “how can we drive away as many customers as possible so they never come back?” Just sad.
GM is doing the exact same thing today. The only difference is that GM has only 13.3% of the market today. When the 6000STE was introduced, GM had 35% of the US market!!
GM never learns from its own history.
My high school English teacher had one very similar to this, but his STE must have been a year or two newer. It had a steering wheel with many buttons, and I think for that reason it was broken into and stolen (presaging airbag theft perhaps?).
Yes, the model was so special that we just referred to it as the STE, and left off 6000. That moniker was reserved for lesser models.
I can still hear the bleat of that V6, a very unique sound. At the time, it looked pretty cool and “European” with its amber rear turn signals. Again, another half-baked GM product of the era. It seems the business model of GM at the time was “how can we drive away as many customers as possible so they never come back?” Just sad.
From what I see a Regal T-Type started at $13K. I know you gen-X hotshoes were all about the jinba ittai but I’ll take the Turbo Regal.
Similar to the Turbo Regal, I almost bought a (1981?) Century Turbo Coupe. Boy, was the brochure nice; that guy in the pictures surely got all the girls. The CTC caught my attention with its acceleration, price, and practical, four door, turtle-car-shape. It was almost a Saab 900! Color: Cinnabar. And I liked the small town dealer too (destroyed by GM decades later).
Applied at GMAC for financing.
Applied at my credit union for financing (a backup strategy; stupid kids should always have a backup strategy).
Went back to the dealer. Learned GMAC turned me down. I had no credit record (a kid, but earning great cash).
I ignored the suggestion from the dealer to have my father co-sign.
I kept the check to pay in full for the car from my credit union in my pocket.
And this was during a downturn, where GM needed to sell cars.
I told the dealer that GM (the company), and GMAC could SUCK IT, and I kindly walked out.
How about the LeSabre Sport Coupe?
youtube.com/watch?v=YFlgVRdSO-s
Oooh. Forgot about that. But I did have a ’89 LeSabre T-Type. A UAW guy let me drive his back in the late 80s, fresh off the dealer lot, he never knew me, never met me, saw me, because I had a boner about them. My manager set it up. I bought a beat-up one 20y later, had to get out of a noisy VW, and I loved it. Didn’t mind fixing it. 238K. Miss it.
“From what I see a Regal T-Type started at $13K. I know you gen-X hotshoes were all about the jinba ittai but I’ll take the Turbo Regal.”
1984? I’ll take the Hurst Olds w/T-roofs. Wait a few years and then park the iconic ’87 Buick Grand National next to it or if we’re dreaming then spring for the GNX. The G bodies were some of the best cars from GM during this time and are still highly desirable today based on the money they bring if they haven’t been molested.
I like design and interior. But what was the problem with GMs unwillingness to develop new DOCH EFI engines? DOCH I4 could easily replace those antiquated pushrods V6 engines. They did not have experienced engineers? They could hire some from Europe or ask Japanese company like Yamaha to develop engine. Or Porsche. But falling farther and farther behind? It does not make sense.
Pushrod engines are not necessarily a bad thing. The 2.8 liter V6 used in the STE was still a relatively new engine, having been developed for the x cars. It was fuel injected on later STE’s. Remember the Corvette is push rod as are all GM trucks and Ram V8’s They are as durable and powerful as their Ford counterparts
I inherited a 2005 Grand Am with the pushrod 60-degree V6. The motor was the best thing about that car, smooth and torquey. But yeah, GM shoulda just bit the bullet and licensed FI from Bosch instead of screwing around with TBI for a decade. And yes, the Iron Duke 4 should have been replaced with a modern mill by the very early 80s.
That 2.8 had an odd sound when in workaday cars like my Dad’s 1986 Century (last year with a carb), but in sportier models like the Beretta GTZ and the like, that “tuned” warble from the exhaust wasn’t fooling anybody!
Dad had one of these (FWD) briefly, adopted after his parents stopped driving. I remember us having it, but little more than that. I recall that it wasn’t as fun as his previous X-11. (After having a slew of insane muscle cars, this was his personal malaise period. He now drives a manual A4 Avant, special ordered with cloth interior!) It was replaced with an S-10 4×4 with the same 2.8L V6, but manual trans. SO slow.
I prefer the 1983 edition of this car (first year for STE, second year for 6000) because that was the only year the STE had analog gauges. They glowed a lovely red at nighttime (not the orangey-red of later Pontiacs). The automotive press of the time had three complaints with them: (1) the speedometer was horizontal, which they considered non-sporty for some reason (probably because it was far more common on American cars than imports), (2) there was no tach, and (3) some of the auxiliary gauges (oil pressure, temperature, voltmeter) were closer to the passenger than the driver. The new-for-1984 digital dash fixed the tach problem, left the auxiliary gauges in their odd position, and made everything else less attractive and harder to read.
Standard seat upholstery in the early STEs was cloth, but suede surfaces were optional. I also remember a built-in air pump in the trunk – this car could inflate its own tires if need be.
MY mother owned a 1985 Pontiac 6000; it was a decent enough automobile with the exception of the radio controls-I never saw so many tiny buttons in my life and I never could figure them all out. Maybe Pontiac designers though all the buttons made the car look more sophisticated. What ever happened to ON-Volume and Station dials?
The Delco stereos got a bit more complicated—there was a small power button in the lower-center, and unmarked preset buttons with a separate Set button (which could get you an extra two presets per band if you pushed two adjacent preset buttons at once after hitting Set).
I think the ETR stereos from 1984 and back actually worked like a “normal” radio where you rotated the Volume knob all the way to the left to turn the thing off. (I honestly don’t remember!)
This was the era that I lost all interest in GM cars and so did my mother. My mother went from a 72 Cadillac Sedan Deville to an 84 Chrysler 5th Avenue and my middle brother went to a Mustang convertible. My wife and I bought a series of Fords and it wasn’t until 1999 I bought another GM which was S-10 extended cab pickup which was one of the best vehicles I ever owned. I had that S-10 for 20 1/2 years and gave it to my nephew. I now have a 2012 Buick Lacrosse and love it but it will likely be my last GM. I wasn’t even going to buy another Ford until I ordered the Maverick. Looking back if I were to have bought a new car during this era it would have been the Accord, Maxima, or the Cressida.
Wow. Looks like the equalizer even had its own equalizer. Very hi tech.
A friend and neighbour was a GM ‘fan boy’ back then. I was driving a Honda Civic. He got a Celebrity Eurosport. I upgraded to a new 1986 Accord Sedan. He swapped the Eurosport for a 6000 STE, a ‘drivers car’.
You can guess which car required the least amount of maintenance/number of repairs, and which held its value better.
He has driven nothing but Hondas this century.
The 6000 is another reason why ‘automotive journalism’ is widely regarded as an oxymoron. And why a ‘Truth About Cars’ independent site was required.
Grandma had the Oldsmobile permutation of this A-body (Cutlass Ciera)
What’s funny is you almost have to buy a six figure flagship luxury sedan to get a smooth ride like that in today’s car market.
I actually liked what GM was building in this era. Good car that gave a long service life and was exactly what customers wanted.
GM V6s had the world’s worst exhaust note at that time. Bluh-bluh-bluh-bluh-bluh-bluh. When you stepped on the gas the sound went to BLUH-BLUH-BLUH-BLUH-BLUH-BLUH without any real change in acceleration because those things had no power. Just got louder and more annoying. GM called it performance tuned. Anybody with a brain in their head called it pathetic. A foot long hunk of bicycle inner tube stretched over the exhaust tip or a loose exhaust shield would’ve sounded better.
A lot of people think GM blew massive amounts of market share during the 70s oil shock. It didn’t. Their share went from 51% in 1963 to 44% in 1974 — which wasn’t bad. It managed to keep it around 44% until 1985 or so — then garbage like this drove it off a cliff to 35% in 1987. Now it’s down to 17.5% — where it first hit around 2012.
That thing can’t be turned into scrap fast enough.
Yes GM’s market share was a downward spiral after people bought these A body cars along with the X and Js even though those sold well they soured many on GMs. GM spent massive amounts of money developing these platforms then cost cut them. Also the time it took to develop these platforms and manufacture them. When these platforms were developed it was during a time when the foreseeable future there would be gas shortages and higher energy prices. It took GM, Ford, and Chrysler longer to bring their cars to market than the Japanese which had been making more efficient cars for their domestic market. To get a better overview go to Rare Classic Cars which gives a more indepth history of what happened during the Malaise Era. The person who has this site is an ex-GMer.
That guy has a pretty cool YouTube channel. The first video of his I viewed was the ’70 Caprice Classic 4-door. One of my favorite cars when I was a kid.
Really like all his cars especially that 70 Caprice which I remember well when I was in high school. He has some really cool Mercuries.
These things were the hot setup when they came out, improved (styling- and feature-wise, anyway) as they went along, and were loved by the enthusiast mags.
And yes, the body-on-frame RWD A-Body platform was rechristened the G-Body in 1982, when the FWD unit-body A-Body platform debuted.
We had a Pontiac 6000 station wagon with the vomit inducing backward facing 3rd seat. . It had some pretty good get up and go for a wagon but those tiny buttons were absurd. What idiot engineer thought those tiny control buttons were a good idea?
We sold quite a few of these when we had our used dealership back in the 90’s and early 00’s. I remember only one that had a carburetor and believe it to have been a 1984. The rest were 85-87’s.
The 87’s switched over to the gen II 2.8 V6’s which were great little engines that could pack on 200-300K with no sweat and the 3 speed, although low tech, was also a very sturdy unit with the main fault being the lockup torque converter solenoid. These cars also had 4 wheel disk brakes and had far better/sharper handling and braking than normal A-body cars of the time. The only issues I recall having with a few of them were the typical A-body morning steering sickness on left turns which we remedied with Trans X and fresh fluid and a few minor interior items. They seemed to be overall pretty reliable otherwise according to the folks we sold them too and several actually came back to buy another for their college kids or as a second car. They were a success for us!
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