PROMESSE GRAND; Pontiac's GXP shows potential.(Auto File)

Few cars passing through our test fleet have produced as much mixed reaction as the Pontiac Grand Prix GXP. On the one hand, most of us generally look forward to playing with the amount of power put out by an engine like the GXP's meaty 5.3-liter Displacement-on-Demand small-block V8. However, we usually prefer to feel those ponies run through the rear wheels. And for good reason. As is the case with Pontiac's top-o'-the-line midsize sport sedan, the fronts simply cannot handle that amount of power and still perform steering maneuvers with any semblance of proficiency.

On the drag strip, we realized our best times by simply stepping off the brake pedal onto the gas and modulating the resulting wheelspin to avoid melting the tires completely. There was no avoiding the torque steer that followed, but attentive hands kept it somewhat manageable, at least in a straight line.

The car exhibits quite a bit of torque steer, in fact, even when going straight ahead on a flat road. Any semi-enthusiastic engagement of the throttle seemed to cause the front wheels to lose their ability to direct the nose even reasonably well. The car felt like it wanted to point in several directions at once. It wasn't unmanageable, mind you, but it was highly annoying.

Repeated braking, even from modest speeds and using moderate force, produced a surprising amount of brake odor. We found this a bit surprising given that the Grand Prix uses fancy cross-drilled rotors all around; clearly the quality of the brake pads used in GXPs doesn't match that of their rotors. Even so, the car ate up just 121 feet to come to a stop from 60 mph, which matches that of the long-term BMW 545i in our fleet.

The steering wasn't quite as direct as we'd like in a car with sports-car pretensions. It felt vague on center, even when driving on city streets. And on the skidpad the front tires would grind away with excessive amounts of understeer.

The car does have a fairly firm ride on the freeway, without being excessively bumpy. Not much road roughness comes through as there is a decent amount of road isolation. And unlike a couple of owners we heard from, our test vehicle showed no body or interior panel rattles on even the worst sections of freeway. The car felt fairly tight and well put together.

Then there's the issue of styling. We like the clean yet sporty exterior design, its vaguely coupe-like silhouette, the V8 telltale quad tailpipes and the integrated fog lights. But we found too much going on inside the car, with its mishmash of surface shapes and materials. There's some high-quality vinyl in the interior but also some cheap plastic, like that used for the hood over the instrument binnacle. There are also at least three distinct metallic treatments applied to various bits and pieces, and some details-such as the viewing angle of the center-placed Driver Information Center that produced glare no matter the ambient light conditions-have been seriously botched.