There’s a long list of cars I never thought would be “collectible,” but am regularly reminded that clean, original examples of any car – especially those of low production – have inherent value. This 1987 Pontiac Sunbird Turbo GT convertible is one such car. It was sent to us by a Barn Finds reader who found it here on eBay in Chandler, Arizona. This is a no reserve auction and after 39 bids the current high bid is $3,500.
You may find this hard to believe, but there were 3 official generations of the Pontiac Sunbird. Probably even harder to believe is that the Sunbird was around for 19 consecutive model years, from 1976 to 1994. The 2nd generation, like the one listed here, was available in almost any body style you could imagine – coupe, convertible, sedan, station wagon, and hatchback. The Turbo GT convertible seems to be the rarest of the bunch – while actual production numbers conflict depending on the source, it appears the consensus is no more than 1,600 were ever built.
I don’t keep up on my Pontiac Sunbirds, but this is the one of the cleanest I’ve seen since they were still in production. The seller purchased it in South Dakota from the original owner in 2014 and it has covered just 45k miles since new. The seller refers to the exterior as “not perfect” and mentions surface corrosion, but no rust through. They continue to say: “paint on the car is ‘checked’ and faded but it is super straight with no dings, dents, or major scratching.” While the black and gold paint looks decent from a few feet, from that same distance the top looks like it could use a replacement. The Cooper Cobra Radial G/T tires look right at home wrapped around those classic 1980s Pontiac wheels.
The tan cloth interior presents well but would benefit from a deep cleaning. There’s noticeable wear on the outside of the side bolster on the driver seat. The dash is cracked and the floormats don’t match. There’s a full console with, in true 1980s GM fashion, buttons galore.
A 2.0L turbocharged inline 4-cylinder powers this Sunbird. This turbocharged version was rated at 165 HP – 69 HP more than the naturally-aspirated 2.0L. Power is sent to the front wheels by a console shifted automatic transmission. While it looks like there’s quite a bit jampacked into the engine bay, it’s been kept pretty tidy over the past 33 years.
I’d consider the Pontiac Sunbird and its GM J-Body siblings throwaway cars. Thankfully the 2 owners of this one have not treated it like that. While there’s probably not too many people actively seeking a 1987 Pontiac Sunbird Turbo GT convertible, would this be a car you’d consider adding to your stable?
The seller might regret the no reserve auction because this isn’t going to bring a whole lot of money. But a very nice example. Almost for sure than nicest still in existence.
A friend of mine had a two-door sedan version of the same car he bought new. His was red over black though. I drove it several times and I remember it was very quick. Those Brazilian 1.8 L 4-cylinder turbos were surprisingly quick.
If this was a two door and not a convertible I might seriously consider it.
One of the best of the era.
Better have it pointed straight when the boost comes on, cause they torque steer like mad.
Prefer the red/blue color combo but this is sharp.
Wanted one badly with a 5-speed at the time!
I had a 1989 Chevy Cavalier convertible for a couple of years because my cousin passed away and left it in my driveway. It wasn’t a great car but not being a convertible guy, it afforded me a chance to live with one very cheaply. I had a 30 mile drive to work and it was relaxing to get into the car on the way home, hit a switch and lower the top, and have some fresh air for the drive. I put about 25K miles on it over two years and a guy bought if off me to be his toy. It reminded me that there are plenty of car people out there that don’t have even 10K to buy a toy car to enjoy. This is a good value in its price range, in my opinion.
Looks far better with the top down than with it up! Three box design at its purest. This is a nice ride, three years after this came out I dove in and bought my Beretta GTZ with the turbo Quad 4 and learned all about torque steer.
My College roommate and myself would head out once in a while to drive some fast cars. Back in the eighties, the salesman would just give us a dealer plate and let us be on our way. We drive one of these, and as afore mentioned, the torque steer was the worst I have ever experienced. I always drove and my friend was gripping the dashboard more than once. We came back about a half an hour later minus the dealer plate. It must have blew off during our drive. He was not amused.
If the definition of rare is, I have never seen one, then this is a rare car. It is probably about a 1/2 an hour from my house. However I think it will be considered a rare car to me.
I bought the SE 5 speed coupe version of this car new. I haven’t see one of these with this front end in many years.
I want this so bad you have no idea.
yeah, i’m tempted too.
thank gosh it doesn’t have a manual or i’d be sweating right now
Most likely a chick (woman’s) car when new. I think $3500 is a fair price where it’s at now. The seller should be pretty happy if he actually ends up having an actual bidder at the end……instead of a ghost.
Had GM stuck with installing a turbo on a 4 cylinder and actually working out the issues they might have been a contender in the tuner wars. The Quad 4 was really an awesome engine. But again GM turned their back when it came time to fix the head gasket issues.
Being rare doesn’t always equate to value. Being a running 1.8 turbo and needing parts in the future may be tough. For that reason I appreciate that it is clean. I would hower prefer someone else to own and maintain
The sticker under the hood says this is a 2.0L turbo, not the 1.8L.
Sho ‘nuf, I blew the head gasket on my Quad 4, but in truth I worked that motor pretty damn hard for 77k miles in less than three years. When I used the dead Beretta as trade-in for a Sonoma Cyclone the Chevy dealer probably already had sourced a new Quad 4 to go in it then sat it out on the front line of their used car lot. The car was immaculate outside, inside there was a wrinkle in the Recaro driver’s seat and many of the plastic parts around handles, switches and the parking brake had broken off.
I had a black and red hardtop version of this as my first new car out of college. Bought it right off the showroom floor!! It was a dog in 1st gear with air condition on until the turbo kicked it, then hold on!! It was a really fun driver until I smashed it into a jersey barricade taking an exit ramp way too fast. It was never the same after it came back from the body shop.
Very unusual to see one with this front end and sort of bizarre styling but neat cars anyway.
Call the Seller and ask he/she what they want for the car. If they are on another Planet, don’t go near it. If not, buy and enjoy.
Love the colors, this is a rare bird indeed. Paint checking can be a bear to correct and it is horribly obvious with black.
In hindsight, these two-tone paint schemes were pretty awesome. Far, far away from what we see on new cars today. I had an 82 Olds Firenza (!!) which was two-tone gray and silver. Ironically that would fit right in today in the sea of cars in these colors.
The outside 2 tone is good but the godawful 20 shades of puke beige are just too much for me !
I purchased a loaded 2000 sunfire gt with 120000kilometers for $1200 canadian dollars 4 years ago and it is still going strong , it needed basics as any used car , tires and battery were new and are still going …cheap convertible to own and operate
Nice car and probably the best 4-seat convertible you’ll find for under $4k. Replace the top and tires, get the AC working, treat as the cruiser it is and hopefully it should last a long time. Wish more sellers would follow this seller’s lead and provide a first rate description and pics for their cars. Tired of seeing cars selling for 10 times this that the sellers don’t provide 10 percent of the info this seller did.
A quick glance at those aluminium wheels reveal that this Sunbird didn’t fly too far south. This car doesn’t appear to have escaped some road salt. An in person inspection would be well advised prior to any serious bids.
Judging by the optional equipment content on that car, it almost certainly started life as a “Product Evaluation Vehicle” (ordered and driven by a Pontiac zone employee, then resold to a dealer through a GM “Brass Hat” auction). No dealer would have stocked a J-Body with that level of content, and very few retail buyers would have ordered everything but the kitchen sink, either.
If any of y’all decide to take a flyer on that one, throw a new timing belt on it first thing, unless the current owner can tell you exactly how many miles are on the existing belt. Those 1.8 and 2.0 liter OHC engines are dead reliable — unless the timing belt breaks, and they have a lifespan of just over 30,000 miles. That isn’t an interference engine, so timing belt failure isn’t catastrophic, but that’s small consolation as you’re walking to wherever you were going when it broke.
Phil, what equipment do you think is rare for this car that would make you think it wouldn’t have been ordered by the dealer?
Miguel, a lot of the Sunbird GT convertibles ended up as PEP vehicles anyway, because the price was high for a car in this segment of the market, so placing them into zone service got them produced and eventually into dealer inventory at less than invoice pricing.
Then there’s all of the gingerbread options on this car that generally weren’t ordered on J-Bodies: power locks weren’t commonly stocked on cars in this segment back in that day, with power windows being even more rare. It can’t be told from the pictures, but that car may even have a power driver’s seat — available but almost never ordered on anything lower than a loaded N-Body (Grand Am), and that high-end AM/FM/Cassette radio with Equalizer seldom appeared in anything less than a loaded mid-size car. But, when a Pontiac zone employee that was accustomed to driving loaded Bonnevilles, Grand Prixs, and Grand Ams was told by the Car Distributor that “Your next car is going to be a Sunbird GT convertible.”, they loaded them up the same as they did their larger, more expensive cars.
you may be correct as my dad drove one for awhile one summer almost identical to this one (memory is solid gold with tan top but could be wrong) as a company car.
i just remember wanting to head for the nearest ditch when the boost came in strong in first gear!
Had this exact car but with blue where the gold is. The GT package, the turbo, and paint scheme were very nice for that time, and it turned a lot of heads around northern VA and DC.
The big problem with these is the heads cracking, and mine was no different. It used to billow huge puffs of white smoke from the tailpipe with the cracked head before I finally fixed it. Then it lost oil pressure which caused me to ditch it.
A surprisingly strong motor with a terrible and weak head design.
I can’t imagine the set-up that it must have taken in order to dip the entire car into a huge vat of Armor-All. Unreal.
Laughing at your comment Jcs. I agree, some “detailers” get a little overzealous in their use of the product when preparing a car for sale. I once bought a truck at a dealer who told me to return later to take the car home because their shop wanted it cleaned for its new owner. It had a manual transmission and they used Armor All judiciously on all the pedals—my foot kept slipping off the clutch and brake driving that thing home!
Correction, Is this CAR still for sale?
I still have one sitting in my garage. Black over dark gray metallic. I LOVED that car and may still get it running again some day. Replaced the motor twice because I beat the heck out of it! Needs an engine, turbo and probably transmission, but very good condition other than that.
First new car we owned as a married couple was an 85 Sunbird wagon with the 1.8 brazilian engine with the 5 speed. 38mpg, room for 5, and plenty of zip. Drove it for 129,000 Michigan miles and it still looked like new when we sold it 12 years later. I still have my 101,000 mile 89 Sunbird GT Turbo convertible, that still drives and looks like new. You take care of it, it takes care of you. Torquey steering, you get used to it. Upgraded the turbo, no lag. Gets a lot of thumbs up still, because you don’t see many on the road. Only 3263 GT converts built in ’89.