Disclosure: This site may receive compensation when you click on some links and make purchases.

2k Mile: 1989 Pontiac Turbo Trans Am

I always liked the Buick Grand National but in the 1980’s I wish they put that engine in a sportier car. Well, Pontiac got together with Buick and delivered. This Pontiac Turbo Trans Am is a near perfect example of the 1,555 Turbo Trans Ams built in 1989. The car was designated as the 20th anniversary car because it commemorated the 20th year since Pontiac introduced the 1969 Pontiac Trans Am. This car is listed for sale here on eBay with a Buy It Now Price of $79,900 but the owner also has an option for someone to make a best offer. The car is located in Woodbury, New Jersey and there are 13 days remaining in the listing.

The tan leather interior is perfect with no signs of any wear. Basically, this is a new car and it’s new owner will be transported back to 1989. The car is optioned well with power windows, power locks, air conditioning, automatic transmission, cruise control, tilt steering and AM/FM radio. The car is being sold by a dealer. All 20th Anniversary cars were white with a tan interior in 1989. The odometer shows 2,392 miles.

The Buick 3.8 liter V6 engine is the same motor used in the GNX and conservatively rated at 250 horsepower and 340 lb ft of torque. It was one of the fastest Trans Am built to date and rivaled the quarter mile times recorded in the 1973 and 1974 Super Duty Trans Am. The best 0-60 times were recorded to be 4.6 seconds and the best recorded quarter mile time was 13.4 seconds at a top speed of 153 mph. The car was touted as the faster US production car in 1989 because the Corvette ZR1 was not considered a production car.

There were actually a few hard top and convertible 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Ams built and two other 20th Anniversary Turbo Trans Ams were said to be built that were not painted white. About 40 hard tops (no T-tops) were produced and 3 convertibles by ASC. This car has been saved for posterity and will likely end up in a collection somewhere.

Comments

  1. Avatar nycbjr Member

    My eyes are watering, 79k!!! Woah

    Like 14
    • Avatar TimS

      Amen to you and Hoss. I love all Trans Ams and have wanted one of these for years, but it would never be worth $80k. For that kind of money multiple other classics could be bought, enjoyed, and sold at a loss for the next fun toy.

      Like 4
  2. Avatar Hoss

    WOW !!! $80,000 !!!! What are they smoking ?

    Like 24
    • Avatar Orlando

      The same thing the Buick grand national/GNX owners are smoking. These turbo Trans Am‘s are limited in production And have a lot going for them.

      Like 4
    • Avatar PairsNPaint

      The tires?

      Like 0
  3. Avatar Jim in FL

    The money may be freakish, but that is one gorgeous Trans Am. I loved the late 80’s front fascia and the cream colored paint with gold wheels looked perfect on these. In 90 or 91 they changed the fascia and it threw off the muscular looks for me.

    I had no idea the production numbers for these were so low. I had the good fortune to prep the one that our dealer received. It was pretty fast, even with an automatic.

    Like 8
  4. Avatar theagent39

    A dealer with extremely unrealistic knowledge of this car, he will lucky to get much less than half his asking price for this low demand car.

    Like 5
    • Avatar Motorcityman

      Wrong.
      One of the fastest TAs EVER and like New with only 2,000 miles, He probably won’t get 80K but he’ll get more than 40!
      These r collector cars to TA aficionados.

      Like 2
      • Avatar Keith

        They were the Fastest T/A ever built from the factory. A 69 Ram Air 4 with a 4:30 gear would have been the second fastest if you could get it to hook at the line

        Like 1
  5. Avatar Mark

    This car will be sitting a while.

    Like 2
  6. Avatar Howie Mueler

    Low miles with a high price.

    Like 2
  7. Avatar John Oliveri

    It’s really not a Pontiac, so for a purist, it’s really not that special,

    Like 0
    • Avatar Motorcityman

      How is it not a Pontiac??

      Like 1
      • Avatar John Oliveri

        Buick motor, Pontiac last built a 400, in 78

        Like 0
    • Avatar Keith

      The last 400 V8 Pontiac motors went into the 4-speed 79 Trans am’s. But they built the Pontiac 301 v8’s for a few more years.

      Like 0
      • Avatar John Oliveri

        I know, I went to buy a 79 new, told if automatic either 301 or 403 Oldsmobile motor, I bought the 2 tone blue Grand Prix next to it with the 301, at least it was a Pontiac, a 301 Trans Am was a joke, even with the Turbo

        Like 0
  8. Avatar Keith

    I had ordered one of these and had it flat bedded to the house from the dealer. Pontiac really screwed up on this car because they had said it would sticker at $24,999.00 but when it showed up at the dealer it was $31,223.00 I almost walked away but hung in there for a year with nobody wanting this car at that price. The dealer I got it from had 6 of them come in and ended up sending 4 of them back to the zone office to go to somewhere else.Sold it to fund another project and lost a bunch of money but that can happen to the best of us. Was a scary fast car and with one of the GN strip computer chips installed it clicked off a 12:98 at 115 mph run.

    Like 7
  9. Avatar Patrick Anderson

    Low mileage but unless this has been disassembled completely and every seal and gasket replaced this is likely to drip fluids and shed plastic bits like a syphylitic leper.

    Like 2
  10. Avatar Texas

    All that money and it has a CASSETTE player? Steering wheel controls, T-tops and NO door cup holders? My lowly 84 had the cup holders and the CD player …

    Like 1
    • Avatar Motorcityman

      Real drivers don’t give a rats ass about cup holders.

      Like 5
      • Avatar jwo

        Not true.

        Like 0
    • Avatar theGasHole

      Your 1984 car had a CD player? Maybe, but not from the factory. The first car to offer that as an option was an ’87 Lincoln Town car.

      Like 0
  11. Avatar RSparks

    The GTA styling is one of my favorites from the 80s. GM had it together with this and the Iroc Z and this with the V6 turbo is the kind of oddball performance car I would go for. Definitely rare and fast but not worth $79k by a long shot. The 63 Ford Galaxie R code 427 that was on here a couple weeks ago bud up to $65k and didn’t sell should have been $165k using this for comparison. I do love it though and again, would drive it like I stole it.

    Like 0
  12. Avatar David Harold

    Your CD player was aftermarket. GM did Not offer a factory CD player in 1984…not until 1989.

    Like 1
    • Avatar John Oliveri

      Or if he bought it used, someone swapped in a factory CD into the slot, Plug n play

      Like 1
  13. Avatar Melton Mooney

    Watch out everybody! Here come the thirdgens!

    Like 1

Leave a Reply to Hoss Cancel reply

RULES: No profanity, politics, or personal attacks.

Become a member to add images to your comments.

*

Get new comment updates via email. Or subscribe without commenting.