In J P Cavanaugh’s recent post about the oddly proportioned long-tail 1962 Pontiac Star Chief, some commenters wondered how the interior appointments of the Star Chief compared with those of Pontiac’s cheaper bread-and-butter Catalina, something the weathered survivor pictured in that post didn’t clearly reveal. I was curious too, so I decided to do a comparison between these stylish Kennedy-era full-size Pontiacs — including the big Bonneville as well as the Catalina — to see what the Star Chief really offered compared to the rest of the Pontiac lineup.
1962 Pontiac Star Chief four-door sedan / Motorcar Studio
Middle-tier models often have it rough: They have to be nicer than the entry-level version, but not SO nice that they eclipse the flagship or make it irrelevant. It gets even tougher in a four-model lineup like the 1962 full-size Pontiacs: A Star Chief wasn’t a price leader like the Catalina, and it wasn’t the flagship — that was the Bonneville’s job — but it also couldn’t be the stylish, sporty glamour leader, since that was what the new Grand Prix was for. It strikes me as a recipe for an identity crisis.
1962 Pontiac Star Chief four-door sedan / Motorcar Studio
In 1962, the Pontiac Star Chief was essentially a de-trimmed Bonneville, sharing the flagship’s 123-inch wheelbase (3 inches longer than the Catalina or Grand Prix) and 218.6-inch overall length (7 inches longer than the Catalina and GP). The extra length was all in the rear, giving the Star Chief almost 5 feet of rear overhang (59.9 inches, 4 inches longer than a Catalina or GP) and 20 percent more space in the already massive trunk.
All of the extra length and longer wheelbase of the Star Chief (top) was aft of the rear door, making it 7 inches longer than the four-door Catalina (bottom) / Motorcar Studio and AutoHunter
To keep it from stepping on its brothers’ toes, the Star Chief was only offered in four-door sedan or four-door Vista hardtop forms. (There had been a two-door hardtop a few years earlier, but it was dropped after 1960.) The sedan listed for $3,097, $301 more than a Catalina four-door sedan, while the four-door hardtop started at $3,230, $294 more than a Catalina Vista.
1962 Pontiac Star Chief four-door sedan / Motorcar Studio
Most 1962 full-size Pontiacs had 389 cu. in. (6,372 cc) V-8 engines. If you ordered Hydra-Matic — as 95 percent of 1962 buyers did, despite the $231.34 price tag — the Star Chief engine got a slightly warmer camshaft that gave 283 gross horsepower and 413 lb-ft of torque, compared to 267 hp and 405 lb-ft for a Hydra-Matic Catalina. (The Bonneville came with the four-barrel version of this engine, with 303 gross horsepower; you could order this engine on a Catalina or Star Chief for an extra $35.40.)
The Star Chief version of the 389-2V V-8 had a hotter camshaft than the Catalina, giving 283 gross horsepower / Motorcar Studio
With the bigger cars, you also got a different transmission: Where the Catalina and Grand Prix used the unloved three-speed Roto Hydra-Matic, the Star Chief and Bonneville used the older, heavier, but sturdier and more efficient four-speed, dual-coupling Super Hydra-Matic. The iron-case four-speed automatic was responsible for much of the 100 lb weight difference between the Star Chief and Catalina.
The four-speed Super Hydra-Matic weighed over 200 lb, compared to 132 lb for the three-speed Roto Hydra-Matic / Motorcar Studio
In addition to its added emblems and exterior chrome, the Star Chief included a couple of items of equipment optional on the Catalina, including a Custom steering wheel, deluxe wheel covers, two-speed wipers, an electric clock, and an extra ashtray. These features accounted for about $52 of the Star Chief’s higher price.
Deluxe wheel discs were standard on 1962 Star Chief / Motorcar Studio
Comparing the Star Chief’s interior trim with that of the Catalina is a little complicated because you could order the Catalina with the Ventura Custom Interior, a $118.36 option package that essentially replaced the previous Ventura series. The Ventura interior didn’t include the additional Star Chief equipment (you still paid extra for a clock, for instance), but it made the Catalina a closer match for its big brother in interior richness.
1962 Pontiac Catalina Sport Coupe / Mecum Auctions
To illustrate the interior differences, I found two 1962 Catalinas for comparison. The Mandalay Red Catalina pictured above has the standard Catalina trim in cloth and vinyl. This car has the rare and expensive 421 Super Duty engine, four-speed, and aluminum body panels, so I assume the original purchaser wasn’t interested in unnecessary frills. The Bamboo Cream Catalina Vista four-door hardtop pictured below has the Ventura Custom Interior package. (The exterior shots of this car are poor, but I had trouble finding four-door models with good interior shots.)
1962 Pontiac Catalina Vista / AutoHunter
The Cameo White Star Chief sedan has red all-Morrokide vinyl upholstery, although the Star Chief was also available with a combination of “Pyramid Pattern” cloth and vinyl.
1962 Pontiac Star Chief four-door sedan / Motorcar Studio
For further comparison, I also found a 1962 Bonneville hardtop with tri-tone cloth and “Jeweltone” Morrokide upholstery:
1962 Pontiac Bonneville Sport Coupe / Mecum Auctions
How do they look inside? Let’s start with the door trim:
1962 Pontiac Catalina, standard trim / Mecum Auctions
1962 Pontiac Catalina, Ventura Custom Interior with Morrokide upholstery / AutoHunter
1962 Pontiac Star Chief, all-Morrokide upholstery / Motorcar Studio
1962 Pontiac Bonneville / Mecum Auctions
The vertical white slash on the door panels seems to have been a feature of the Ventura Custom Interior on Catalinas. The Star Chief retained the slash, but it was color-keyed rather than white; the Bonneville had a different door trim design.
Inside, all four of these cars have the Custom steering wheel, which was a $14.52 option on the Catalina (and included in the Decor Group option on Catalinas).
1962 Pontiac Catalina, standard cloth-and-vinyl trim / Mecum Auctions
1962 Pontiac Catalina, Ventura Custom Interior with Morrokide upholstery / AutoHunter
1962 Pontiac Star Chief, all-Morrokide upholstery / Motorcar Studio
1962 Pontiac Bonneville, cloth and Morrokide upholstery / Mecum Auctions
1962 Pontiac Catalina, standard cloth and Morrokide trim/ Mecum Auctions
1962 Pontiac Catalina, Ventura Custom Interior with Morrokide upholstery / AutoHunter
1962 Pontiac Star Chief, all-Morrokide upholstery / Motorcar Studio
1962 Pontiac Bonneville, cloth and Morrokide upholstery / Mecum Auctions
Although the wood isn’t easy to see in the above photos, the Bonneville dashboard had polished walnut and brushed stainless steel trim rather than painted surfaces. It also included a padded dash (a $16.14 option on the Catalina and Star Chief):
1962 Pontiac Bonneville with walnut and stainless steel trim, plus optional Wonder Bar station-seeking radio / Mecum Auctions
As you can see from the photos, even the base Catalina was no taxicab special, although the Ventura Custom Interior was a definite upgrade. (It was also a worthwhile investment: Even on a three- or four-year-old Catalina, you’d get back about $75 of the $118 price at trade-in time!) The Bonneville was a good deal flashier — maybe too flashy — in keeping with its higher price. (A Bonneville Vista four-door hardtop listed for $195 more than an equivalent Star Chief hardtop.)
1962 Pontiac Catalina, standard cloth and Morrokide trim/ Mecum Auctions
1962 Pontiac Catalina, Ventura Custom Interior with Morrokide upholstery / AutoHunter
1962 Pontiac Star Chief, all-Morrokide upholstery / Motorcar Studio
1962 Pontiac Bonneville, cloth and Morrokide upholstery / Mecum Auctions
Rear passengers rode in style in all four versions, but the longer-wheelbase Star Chief and Bonneville had no advantage in rear seat room. (The Star Chief photo below suggests that it did, but that car’s front seat is just pushed farther forward — the AMA specifications show that the Catalina, Star Chief, and Bonneville all had identical rear legroom.)
1962 Pontiac Catalina, standard cloth and Morrokide trim/ Mecum Auctions
1962 Pontiac Catalina, Ventura Custom Interior with Morrokide upholstery / AutoHunter
1962 Pontiac Star Chief, all-Morrokide upholstery / Motorcar Studio
1962 Pontiac Bonneville, cloth and Morrokide upholstery / Mecum Auctions
While the AMA specifications credit the Star Chief and Bonneville with 19 percent more total trunk volume (and 22.6 percent more usable luggage space) than the Catalina, both trunks were vast:
1962 Pontiac Catalina Vista four-door hardtop / AutoHunter
1962 Pontiac Star Chief four-door sedan / Motorcar Studio
The Catalina outsold the Star Chief by almost 5 to 1 in 1962 (204,654 cars to 41,642), and it’s not hard to see why: It had better proportions, a wider selection of body styles (including six- and nine-passenger station wagons as well as two-door hardtop, convertible, and sedan bodies), and the same array of engines and options. With the Ventura trim option, it was just as plush as the Star Chief, and had just as much passenger space, even if the trunk wasn’t quite as enormous. In retrospect, the biggest selling point of the Star Chief was the older four-speed Super Hydra-Matic transmission, which Pontiac wasn’t keen to promote — you had to look very closely at the 1962 brochure to realize there were two different Hydra-Matic transmissions — although it was definitely worth having.
1962 Pontiac Star Chief four-door sedan / Motorcar Studio
However, you could also get that on the Bonneville, which had a more glamorous name, more features, a significantly fancier interior, and a more powerful engine. Although the Bonneville was more expensive, it too outsold the Star Chief, 97,772 to 41,642.
Ultimately, I think the Star Chief’s USP was too much a ’50s holdover, a throwback to cars like the 1950 Buick Super 126, which had made its mark by offering more metal for the money. Buying a Star Chief was a way to get a Bonneville-size car for not much more than Catalina money, but even the Bonneville was beginning a commercial decline by this point, and these models’ larger size offered no particular practical or aesthetic advantage. Pontiac would go on to bigger things in the next few years, but their ’60s success was built on the smaller, more stylish Catalina, Grand Prix, and midsize Tempest/Le Mans/GTO — the hapless old Star Chief was Pontiac the old-fashioned way.
Related Reading
Car Show Classic: 1962 Pontiac Star Chief – Does This Color Make My Butt Look Big? (by J P Cavanaugh)
Car Show Classic: 1962 Pontiac Star Chief – If You Can’t Decide Between The Bonneville Or The Catalina… (by Tom Klockau)
Curbside Classic: 1966 Pontiac Star Chief Executive – Executive Privilege by Jason Shafer)
CC For Sale: 1959 Pontiac Star Chief in Sunset Glow–Dream Pontiac! (by Stephen Pellegrino)
Curbside Classic: 1957 Pontiac Star Chief Catalina Coupe – You Take A Little Chevy, Add A Little Bit Of Olds… (by Laurence Jones)
Curbside Classic: 1956 Pontiac Star Chief – A Place To Make A Change (by Jon Stephenson)
Curbside Classic: 1955 Pontiac Star Chief Coupe–Endangered Species (by Stephen Pellegrino)
Vintage Car Life Road Test: 1965 Pontiac Bonneville Vista – “Excellent Within Reason” (by me)
This was an interesting comparison. I had not known (or remembered?) that there was a Ventura trim package on the Catalina – that would have really made the slice of the market exclusive to the Star Chief really narrow. I think that was a problem in many brands of the time – they subdivided their line into too many parts, chasing that extra sale.
On the transmission, the Roto-Hydramatic had been brand new in 1961, and GM probably thought of it as an improvement. At least it was more modern. But only in hindsight did it prove to be a problem. I remember two of those cars – a 61 Olds owned by my Uncle Bob and Grandma’s 64 Catalina. Both of those cars were gone by 6-7 years old when people complained of jerky shifting.
From my experience, I cannot even remember seeing a base Catalina; they all seemed to have the Ventura interior (and exterior trim) with that lovely Morrokide upholstery. The base Catalina was essentially equivalent to the Chevy Bel Air and existed for old-school Pontiac cheapskate die-hards. The whole appeal of Pontiac was to optimistic folks who were attracted to the comely looks as well as the nice interiors. And that Catalina with the Ventura package was the sweet spot by far, in the full size segment.
On the other hand, the Star Chief made no sense at all given Pontiac’s youthful up-and-coming image. It only appealed to a certain older man whose mind set was still in the pre-war era, when cars were segmented by wheelbase and interiors tended to be on the drab side. It was an anachronism, and I have a hard time understanding why Pontiac kept making it (and the Executive successor) for so long. I guess it was to help amortize the costs of the silly elongated rear end and wheelbase extension, even though there was zero benefit from it. It really contradicted DeLorean’s anti-big car leanings.
The Star Chief, like the base Catalina, were scarce on the ground, as their sales numbers show. Buying a Pontiac at this time, when its image was on the ascendancy, was a statement for the many first time buyers of the brand, and they were not going to buy a cheapskate version.
I had an Olds with the Roto Hydramatic.
A shop said “they just do that”.
It was annoying but acted somewhat similar to a later Ford with the AOD. It locked up in OD.
It was the same size car and ran about the same also.
the white Pontiac in front of the stone wall is located at Hugh Howell Rd Stone Mt. Ga . Myself and Phil Bonner took pictures of his Restored T-Bolt there to duplicate the first ones taken in 1964. there is No Mistaking that wall. J. Woodard
Picture of 1962 Pontiac Star Chief four-door sedan trunk with case of motor oil:
Boy, does that bring back memories. I had an ’83 Cutlass Supreme with the 231 V6. GM must be notorious for oil leaks. It would gush a quart of oil every 300 miles. Got to the point I would buy a case of oil like in the photo. Each tank of gas was topped off with a quart in the engine. Yet, only gave up on the car when the A/C gave up the ghost. Had it for 13 yrs.
Good analysis of a dubious strategy.
The underhood picture puzzled me at first. Why do the wheel wells look like curved head pillows? The design must have been a clever way to accomplish two competing goals. Straight wells wide enough for the engine and accessories would prevent the wheels from turning. So the wells exactly accomodated the wheels from lock to lock, while making room for generator and power steering in the indented middle.
The fact that the rear corner of the C-pillar is positioned significantly forward of the center of the rear wheel makes this car look “somehow” odd.
At least, it does to me.
Thanks for this comparison – it really places into context the market dynamics faced by car buyers in the early 1960s. GM was at or near its peak then, and thus could afford to offer so many trim and mechanical variations on the same basic car, even when the projected sales volumes were relatively low. Further, the exact equipment on each individual car could significantly impact its price and appeal, so buyers had to be very careful when placing their order, with few probably as picky as the CC commentariat here (myself included).
With respect to Pontiac, the interior photos here underscore my image of the brand as a flashy car for blue-collar strivers. The exterior lines of the Catalina are relatively clean and handsome, contrasting greatly with the rampant excess of the models GM had built just two years before. That alone would have sparked my interest as potential car buyer in 1962, and, merchanical differences aside, would have put the Catalina near the top of my consideration set, ahead of the more expensive Star Chief and Bonneville, with their awkwardly long rear overhangs, and anything from Oldsmobile, which, among all the GM divisions, seemed to have the hardest time giving up excessive ornamentation that reached a peak in 1958 (such as the aluminum side trim defiling that Starfire featured in your essay yesterday).
The interiors, however, seem to have taken longer to adopt a sleeker, simpler, and, in my opinion, more attractive clean-lined aesthetic, which perhaps reached its fullest flower in 1965 across all GM lines. While Pontiac certainly wasn’t afraid to use color, a little more restraint in choosing the fabric patterns and ornamentation, and standardizing padded dashes would have gone a long way toward duplicating the sleek profile projected by the exterior styling.
What this article conveys is the point that a Catalina buyer wasn’t giving up much if he opted for the Ventura interior trim package versus a Star Chief, or even a Bonneville. Just as the extra money for a Star Chief or Bonneville didn’t necessarily improve the exterior looks, the same maxim implies to interior styling – the extra cost did not yield better looking upholstery, though it did include some useful extra equipment, such as the dash padding. Too bad one couldn’t specify the better transmission in the Catalina, even as an extra-cost option. Further, if one could afford to pay for a well-equipped Star Chief or especially a Bonneville, a mid-range Buick LeSabre might have been a more tasteful, less awkward-looking, and satisfying choice at something close to the same price.
I just noticed: even the Bonneville didn’t have the Impala-type door armrests with the integral pull-up door handles. A bit odd.
One irksome thing about full-size Pontiacs of this vintage, as with Olds as well, was the positioning of the remote controlled outside mirror. It was so far down the fender to be useless, with the control awkwardly on the dash, not the door. The standard mirror was positioned near the wing vent, a far better location. Also, the other GM offerings, with the exact same bodies, had the remote control mirror on the door near the vent. Go figure.
I’m surprised that the Catalina hardtop with Ventura trim did not have chrome interior window frames. I recall a friend’s father’s 1965 Catalina Ventura had them. Perhaps they were added to the Ventura package in later years.