Yes my GTA is a GTA, but it just hit me today that I don't have a cool GTA steering wheel. Was it a savings option to have a regular leather wrapped steering wheel in a GTA?

 

Is your car an '89? Does it have the stereo buttons on the wheel? If not, someone has changed out your wheel, probably with the stereo.

 

If your car didn't come with the steering wheel radio controls , its perfectly normal then.

My 87 GTA (steering wheel radio didn't start until 89) has a leather steering wheel, but I wouldn't call it "base", since I've seen other versions of steering wheels.

 

Well it's not a 3-spoke wheel with the GTA badge in the center. Other than being leather wrapped, its the same wheel that was in my 1st firebird, an 1989 V6. And according to the SPID, the car didn't come with steering wheel controls.

**EDIT: I also noticed the horns don't work when I'm driving the car, yet last night with the car off, the horns worked fine. Any pointers?

 

'87 was the only year GTA's with the three spoke, '88s and '89s had the stereo buttons, and then '90 had the airbag.

I think you're describing the four spoke one that was also used in the Grand Ams. My best guess is someone changed out the stereo, and since the steering wheel buttons became useless they changed the wheel too.

 

But the Steering Wheel controlled radio wasn't standard equipment in GTAs, so a "simple" leather steering wheel could have come standard in a 89.