1987 Pontiac 6000 - As Good As it Got

 

Couple of weeks back when I visited Cleveland Pull-A-Part for parts for my wife's car, my thought was that after I got what I needed, I'd spend some time perusing the sea of cars I found interesting on the sprawling, ankle spraining gravel yard. Ha. As if. Had I known they'd be as a scarce as they were, I would have taken more pictures of this 1987 Pontiac 6000. Yeah, that's how bad it was that something like this would be one of the more compelling old wrecks out there. As it was, I paid little attention to it. 

In an attempt to bulk up my photos, I found this snowy shot of it on Pull-A-Part's inventory page. Pretty neat they do this sort of thing although they don't update these pictures nor keep tabs on what may or may not still be on a car. You could try calling and ask if someone could run out and check if this or that is still on a car, but they have a skeleton crew running the joint so unless it's a really slow day for them, that's not likely to happen. Best bet is to find something on their website and take your chances when you get there that what you need is still available. Keep in mind, though, nothing like getting all the way there and finding what you need is gone. Trust me on that one. Good times. 

Pontiac introduced these cars in 1982, and I wanted nothing to do with them. I saw them as another wave of relentless General Motors downsizing that resulted in boring, soulless cars. Forget the fact all of them were infinitely better transportation conveyances than what they replaced; I can't think of one downsized GM make and model downsized between 1977 and 1986 that was an aesthetic improvement over what it replaced. 

Critics loved the V-6 powered 6000 "STE" or "Special Touring Edition" of these cars that Pontiac rolled out in 1983. David E. Davis, the famous "Car and Driver" editor and founder of "Automobile" magazine claimed it was the best car built in America at the time. High praise from Mr. Davis who, in my opinion, could be unfairly harsh towards The Big Three and a Half at times. As luck would have it, our '87 here is not in "STE" trim. What's more, it's saddled with a "Tech 4", inline, 4-cylinder engine. This is as gutless a mill as there ever was, most it ever made was 110-horsepower. It's not all bad, though, despite sounding oh-so-agricultural and shaking like a paint shaker, it's a damn near bulletproof little engine. No doubt one of the reasons this 6000 lived as long as it did. Pontiac built these 151-cu. in. or 2.5-lier engines from 1977 through 1993. Colloquially known as "Iron Dukes", from 1982 to 1993, "Dukes" with throttle-body-fuel injection were labeled as "Tech 4's". 

Pontiac replaced the 6000 with the 1988-circa Pontiac Grand Prix although through 1990, both models were on showroom floors at the same time.