The Pontiac Sunfire, born a few years before the Firebird’s ultimate demise, was Pontiac’s attempt to combine a family based compact with performance enthusiast styling. Looking back on Pontiac’s past accomplishments it would be easy to assume that the idea of the Sunfire would be an instant success; but the Sunfire never reached the popularity of its predecessors, the Firebird and Sunbird.
As Pontiac prepared to Step out of the muscle car realm and into the sport compact line; 1995 was the opening year of the Pontiac Sunfire, which was the combination of the family oriented Sunbird merged with the sporty feel of the firebird, thus the name of “Sun-fire”. Right off the bat the Sunfire enjoyed some success, but there was obviously something lacking… power!
The next year rolled around, and the biggest change for the 1996 Sunfire was the higher out-put 2.4 liter engine that put a little “fire” back into the “sun”. The 1997 Sunfire waved goodbye to the manual shift convertible in exchange for the standard automatic version, and the convertible Sunfire became an easier vehicle for almost anyone to drive.
A weak starter relay for the 1998 Sunfire was the biggest complaints as far as Pontiac Sunfire repair goes. Overall the Sunfire had very little design flaw over its relatively short amount of time in production. The 1999 Pontiac Sunfire saw very little change, as Pontiac was preparing its customer base for the all new styling of the 2000 Pontiac Sunfire. The 2000 Pontiac Firebird saw lower body side trim, a reworked nose, leather wrapped steering wheel, and monsoon audio system, and opened a line of Pontiac Sunfire aftermarket parts that seemed designed for the true enthusiast.
Horsepower rose from 140 to 150 hp as the 2002 Pontiac Sunfire would be the best performer throughout its lifetime in production. Unfortunately, the front fender for Pontiac Sunfire never received proper badging to differentiate the higher horsepower edition, which was sadly only overlooked by the general public, and would soon be dropped off its line of optional equipment.
Only a year later, the 2003 Pontiac Sunfire dropped the 2.4 liter 150 hp versions, and did not change anything else on the basic line up. The 2004 Pontiac Sunfire once again stayed much the same for the next year, even though it would appear by its popularity that the Pontiac Sunfire was in the need of something different to bring back its weaning interest.
The 2005 Pontiac Sunfire was the last year of production; but it went out in style with a new exterior sport package, 16” wheels, chrome exhaust tips, and firmer suspension package. If Pontiac had tried to bring about more changes such as these awhile back along with decent horsepower numbers to live up to its name; perhaps the Pontiac Sunfire might have had a longer shelf life. It is a very fine line to combine the unique needs of a performance sports car with that of a family economy cruiser. Generally the two should never be set side to side as their base customer expectations will never be completely met; and this is exactly what Pontiac found out while toying with the Sunfire concept.
It is highly doubtful that the Sunfire will ever be back in the line up in the years to come, but it is still not a bad purchase with its simple mechanical concept and readily available parts. The Pontiac Sunfire also has impressive fuel economy that is still well within today’s standards, and at least enough horsepower to cruise the highways with relative ease and passing ability. A Sunfire is without a doubt a reasonable vehicle, at a reasonable price, and would be a reasonable decision for almost anyone.