Yeah, the 5 mph bumper rule went in effect for the front ends of ll passenger cars sold in America in '73. It usually made for some really ugly cars at first, until the stylists could integrate
them into the overall designs. The Grand Am was a little different, it had the whole nose made of soft Endura plastic. It worked pretty well...I heard several stories of fender-benders involving them where the other vehicle would suffer damage that cost several times as much to repair.
The bumper and the grille were separate pieces, and were designed to "give" in a low speed crash.
The Grand Am, like all the other GM intermediates, was scheduled to be introduced for the 1972 model year, but the big GM /UAW strike early in the year set things back. The bumpers werern't nearly as pronounced on the few prototype pics I've seen, mostly Cutlass Supremes, but the cars were clearly designed with the '73 and beyond bumper rules in mind. I thought they looked better with them than without.
Also, the Grand Am stole a lot of thunder from the Grand Prix for a couple of years. This kinda rankled some GM types, and the car seemed to be downplayed after the first couple of years.
Dan
