Pontiac’s 6000 was a variant of the front-wheel-drive mid-size cars offered by General Motors in the 1980s. Its cousins within the other divisions were the Buick Century, Chevy Celebrity, and Olds Cutlass Ciera. I have to admit that I had all but forgotten about this series of cars, and yet one of the 6000’s models would receive repeated recognition from Car & Driver magazine. This 1985 example is described as a one-of-a-kind car as it has a 350 V8 under the hood, which was not an option. It’s located in Mahopac, New York, and available here on Facebook Marketplace for $7,000 OBO. Thanks, Rocco B., for this interesting tip!
The 6000 was built between 1982-91 in a variety of body styles, including a 2-door coupe, 4-door sedan, and 5-door wagon. It would become popular with Pontiac buyers, being their best-selling model in 1984. And it would be the last Pontiac automobile to carry a numeric designation for its name. The sporty version of the car was the 6000 STE (Special Touring Edition), designed to compete with some of the European imports.
Across the car’s 10-year production cycle, a variety of powerplants would be offered, primarily V6 engines. In 1985, “standard” 6000’s would have a 2.8-liter V6 with a 2-barrel carburetor that was good for 112 hp. The STE would have a fuel-injected version of that engine producing 140 hp. There is no STE badging that we can see on the seller’s car, and he doesn’t mention if it’s an STE, but it does have “Formula” decals. The bottom line is we’re not sure what engine was in the Pontiac, to begin with, but it’s no longer there.
The seller says that this car was a custom build by one of GM’s engineers and finds itself with a 350 V8 for power. We don’t know what modifications it may have taken to get the engine installed or what kind of output it displaces. The car looks good inside and out, although it seems more like a rolling jukebox by the number of speakers located throughout.
We’re told the seller would be willing to take an interesting trade, whether it be on two or four wheels but doesn’t say what might float his boat. He’s the second owner of the Pontiac and reports the mileage at just 3,000 (maybe that’s the mileage since the V8 was dropped in). Do you remember the Pontiac 6000 and what would you pay for one? NADA isn’t optimistic about what one’s worth, even the sportier STE.
This definitely didn’t start out as an STE. The STE came with bucket seats, console, power windows, locks and driver’s seat and most of all the steering wheel with every control imaginable.
I believe this was the inspiration for the new one previewed in ROBO COP;
they called it the 6000SUX
I had a 1987 6000 STE (black with grey below lower beltline) back in 1989-90 while back in college and that steering wheel and dash were way before its time as I often would recall my STE when I had my 2012 Toyota Prius from 2013 until 2019.
Strangely all these years later I do wish I had held on to the STE as an example of vehicles at their time.
My new Pontiac 1984 6000STE had a split bench seat. Also the STE was the only model to have that unique electronic dash.
I had a 1984 6000 LE with the 2.8L V6. It ran good but I couldn’t keep hubcaps from flying off of it.
Another fun thing, you can place a small mirror on the dash below the speedometer. It gives you heads up display.
lol, I had a 84 6000 le also with the 2.8. Constantly lost hub caps. Mine was a station wagon. It lasted a long time but was not a very good car.
I had a 1994 Lumina, and IT kept losing hubcaps.
Good luck changing those firewall-side spark plugs!
Had to laugh at this…even on my ’88 6000 with the V6, some lazy mechanic skipped right over the rear plug nestled under the HVAC stuff on the passenger side firewall. Can’t imagine what this would be like!
The weak link on these cars was the automatic transmission. So I would be hesitant to mat the loud pedal. I worked at an Olds dealer and we had a transmission tech that had rebuilt so many of this transmission that he could rebuild one while the transmission was still in the car! (no torque converter service however, which was rarely an issue) I was audited by GM when the punched time on the warranty repair order was way short of the “normally” imposssible to achieve time. Luckily, we had one to repair on the same day the auditors where there. They could not believe their eyes or their stop watches. (the tech never had one “come back” with an issue)
I hear you. I built a V8 Fiero about 20 years and made the mistake of keeping the TH-125c, albeit getting it rebuilt and strengthened with the parts that were available. It lasted about a week.
A 4T80-E or at least a 4T60-E with a stand-alone controller should be the minimum to use in an application like this.
This was only true of the 4 speed automatic THM440 was used – which was in 85 and 86. By 87 they had the problems worked out and they were fine (it was then renamed 4T60). the 3 speed THM125C transmission did not have issues. The THM 440 was offered as an option with the 2.8 V6 and 3.8 V6. The 2.5 4 cyl got the 3 speed automatic.
The engine photos show it sideways-what kind of transmission does it have then since it’s apparently still a front wheel drive? Changing the plugs etc. might be a pain in the neck but what a cool sleeper.
Kudos to the GM guy that built it!
Article states that it was originally a 2.5 Iron Duke with a TH125 three speed automatic. The transmission is still in there. Hmmm.
Looks like an L03 motor, which would have been 190 HP when it was new. Even if it’s still stock, it probably makes that little car scoot!
Correction: L05 engine. L03 was a 305.
Correction: It’s an L05. The L03 was a 305.
Would it have been too much trouble to remove the battery cables and shut the hood?
When I read about this I laughed! Seriously, a 350 in one of these?? It would have to be super fast! I bet it would be super nose-heavy though. Like 75% of the weight up front – I’m not sure what the handling would be like with that big engine in it!
I’m surprised they shoehorned a V8 sideways into this. I was half-expecting them to convert the car to rear-wheel drive. That would be something to see! And probably far too costly.
Engine block length probably wasn’t much of a problem, as these had a transverse I-4 in the base models, and the higher-spec models had a V-6, albeit with a 60° bank angle vs. 90° for the V8, so the head width may have been the tricky bit to fit, of course along with mating a transmission to it.
I seem to recall the beater 6000 I once had with the I-4 was plenty roomy underhood, so maybe fitting the V8 was not as much of a challenge as we might expect.
Cool car, I just hope the GM Engineer included a notebook with all the modifications and specifications taken into account regarding the build.
That car was built in Uniontown, Pennsylvania!
Should of used the Pontiac 600STE AWD version
Now that would be nice
Would like to find a STE AWD for myself
Can’t remember last time I saw one but always wanted one
I ran a parts store in the 2000s when a fellow came in and wanted a fan belt for his Pontiac goolee. I was having a hard time understanding what kind of car so I said show me. We walked outside to see his Pontiac 6000 LE. Became a standard joke when we heard of another…
I wonder if anyone’s ever replaced that last 0 with another 6, turning it into a Pontiac GOOGLE.
I bet the horn doesn’t work.
The transmission is the big question here- even the 4t65 had trouble holding up behind the LS4 5.3 in the w-body impala ss/ grand prix GXP, although that put out way more power than this would if it is really just a bone stock L05
Original 6000 ste is still on my bucket list to buy. I’m surprised this swap wasn’t done sooner. There are several kits out there to swap gm small blocks. Cadillac northstar, buick 3800 and 3800 sec engines into the back of fieros and they fit just fine. Since the rear engine cradle in the fiero is pretty similar to the cradle used in the GM x cars, and A cars such as the celebrity. 6000, cutlass ciera, and buick century it was only a matter of time.
V8 archie offers and sells the v8 fiero kits so I see no reason why this wouldn’t work in the X or A cars, albeit at the front end.
Not into some of the sellers gee games and audio equipment but neat car nonetheless
Did I mention I hate autocorrect. I meant gee gaws and 3800 sc supercharged engines
Guy I rented from in N.Wis. had this car, only a V6, it was an awful car, but to be fair, it had a jillion miles. ’85 seemed to be the height of the electronic dash nightmares, and the warning lights blinked like a Christmas tree, nothing worked, never knew if it would start, finally, the rear axle rusted clear of the car, thank goodness. This one has me baffled. Why anyone would do this to this POS is just another example of the crazy world of classic cars. They lined these up at monster shows for a reason.
These were ho hum cars, but the torque steer must be out of this world. Biggest question is why?
I could be wrong, but didn’t Cadillac have a SBC for an engine in FWD configuration at about this time? Could it be that all the parts were swapped from a crashed Caddy? (maybe and including the engine cradle/subframe?)
Just a thought.
It was they’re own design, a 4100 (4.1 Liters), then 4500. Doesn’t look anything like this. The first two years after graduating high school (88-90) I spent working for a 10 minute oil change, I got to see a lot of these.
The 6000 STE was car of the year for one of the car mags (not sure if it was car and driver, motor trend or road and track), IIRC. It may be hard to believe now, but think about the crap Detroit was pushing out back then. My brother had one of the STEs and it was actually a pretty decent car until the digital dash took a dump on him and it was going to be more than the car was worth to replace it. This was at about 100,000 miles when the car was about 10 years old.
Had the newer 2 dr Century version of this. 3800 V6. Bought it for $200 from a friend to get it away from her ancient Mother-in-law (that was beginning to “park by sound”). Never had a FWD car before, nor a GM…other car was an RX7. White, black vinyl top, and that maroon plush interior these seemed to be noted for. Actually smooth and fast. Drove it out to Albuquerque NM and back from Chicago without issues. Later did have to replace battery, alternator and belt, and a couple tires. Likely as it was driven so infrequently by prior owner.