STYLE AND SUBSTANCE; Pontiac's Grand Prix gets a healthy dose of good looks-and power.(News)

Byline: NATALIE NEFF

We may have to wait a few more years for a truly all-new Grand Prix, but at least Pontiac is moving in the right direction with the 2004 model. With its cleaner body and swoopier shape, this Grand Prix moves away from the plastic look that Pontiac passed off as ``sporty'' in recent years and baby steps closer to the crisp vision it's been hinting at with its last few show cars.

To start with, General Motors' ``excitement'' division has continued to erase most of the annoying cladding that once coated the car, replacing it with tauter body panels and fewer but more distinct details. The doors now feature a creased, arcing line over the rocker panels. Pontiac calls it a ``Coke-bottle'' design cue, and while we don't necessarily see that, we do prefer the look of a stamped body panel to bolt-on plastic.

Perhaps more refreshing is that Pontiac is not shy about acknowledging that it's beginning to pursue a ``cladding-free'' approach to styling-an implicit admission to the weakness of its most recent practices-saying the car's looks ``point to a new, modern era of Pontiac design.''

``[Grand Prix] builds smartly on the classic `less is more' philosophy underpinning Pontiac's contemporary design direction,'' says the car's designer John Manoogian, director of GM's premium and midsize luxury design team.

Beyond its cleaned-up sheetmetal, Pontiac also gave the car a new profile by moving the base of the backlight rearward by four inches and emphasizing the car's rear haunches. For a long time the Grand Prix has been known for what Pontiac calls a ``wedge'' shape, but the changes result in a sleeker, more pronounced coupe-like silhouette. ``We wanted to make the profile of the car look like a runner crouched in the starting blocks or a cat ready to pounce,'' said Manoogian.

It does cut a sharp profile, particularly for a four-door sedan.