The day of this particular Monday morning’s commute to work started out uneventfully enough. After a somewhat busy Easter weekend, I found myself on my morning Red Line train – a little tired but mostly rested, fiddling with my smartphone and catching up on social media, my Flickr page, and Curbside Classic posts I had missed over the weekend. I had no idea what was waiting for me after I deboarded at the underground Jackson station and walked westward. As I have a weekly conference call every Monday morning at 8:30, I usually stride very purposefully and with laser-like focus with the intent of getting to work with enough time to make my cup of hot tea before the call starts. As I approached the intersection at Clark Street, I spotted something old, American, and beautiful standing at the curb.
Note the custom license plate up front. I actually like that it was a Catalina and not an upmarket Bonneville. Look how this car is tricked out: deluxe wheel covers, a stand-up hood ornament, and a landau roof in a hue that complements the body color very nicely. Somebody actually ordered the low-line Catalina and said, I’m going to put so many options on this!, instead of just purchasing a Bonneville. This car was one of just 5,410 Catalina two-doors produced for the model year, starting at $6,020 (about $21,000 / adjusted for 2016). The more expensive ’79 Bonneville two-door started at $6,593 (almost 10% more) – and it went on to outsell the Catalina coupe that year by a ratio of over 6:1.
Pontiac’s B-Body four-door sedan (and even the wagon) was a far more popular body style than the two-door in these years. You could still get the Pontiac 301 V8 in a Catalina for ’79, which was good for 140 hp in base form. In a recent QOTD in which readers were polled as to which 1977-1990 GM B/C-Body we would buy if we could go back in time, the name “Catalina” came up exactly just three times out of over 160 responses. I still really like this one, though, both on its own merits and also just for existing.
Yes, indeed – this is a bona fide Catalina, and not a Bonneville, as evidenced by that (blurry, sorry) fender badge, front grille pattern and taillamp lens evident in the shot below. It’s a shame about that rust. The thing that always struck me about this generation of Catalina is that the name of this entry-level, full-sized Pontiac seemed completely at odds with my mental image of the beautiful California Channel Islands this model was originally named after. We have discussed “name debasement” pretty comprehensively in this forum, so to be clear, I understand this nameplate had once been attached to a genuinely glamorous automobile in the 60’s.
When I was growing up in the 80’s, though, I didn’t associate the “Catalina” name with a big Pontiac as much as I did a reddish-orange salad dressing that my mom used to serve when she was being fancy. How I had wished this Catalina coupe was the color of that dressing, but I still find the rich buttercream shade of this car really appealing. I have come to identify it in my own mind as “Klockau Cadillac Yellow“, as it just screams late-70’s luxury. Oddly enough, though, when researching the official, “factory” name of this paint color, the one offered on the ’79 Catalina that looked closest to that of our featured car was “Montego Cream”, which is a shade that looked slightly darker, richer and browner on the page from the brochure than what we see here. This car’s finish looks closer to the “Yellow Beige” offered on the ’79 Buick LeSabre. This car might have been resprayed earlier in its life.
I find the premise of ordering the strippo model and gilding it with options completely fascinating. I can actually kind of understand the thought process behind this. Let’s say the original owner wasn’t so hung up on the “Bonneville” name and being able to lay claim to owning one. Let’s suppose he or she had a thing for full-size Pontiacs, and really liked the look of the downsized 1977 – ’79 models, but wanted a few toys on it and didn’t want to spring the extra dough for the Bonneville.
I’ll confess to having bought off-brand clothes that mimicked the look of popular styles when I was a teenager. Nobody needed to know my “Major Damage” jeans were just a rip-off of the popular, urban “Get Used” distressed-look denim. They looked just as fly (to me, anyway), and I then had allowance money left over for a movie after hitting the mall with my friends. It made total and complete sense to my young, cheap mind to buy a trendy-look pair of discount-branded jeans instead of just a nice, respectable pair of stonewashed Levis. In the same vein, I’m guessing the look of this full-size Poncho spoke more to the owner than what it was called. And as many broughamophiles will tell you – sometimes you just gotta put the landau on it.
Downtown, The Loop, Chicago, Illinois.
Monday, March 28, 2016.
Because it is no longer possible today (mostly), articles like this suggest that every buyer custom-ordered his/her car during this time frame.
Not so. Even in the 70’s, dealers stuffed their lots with acres and acres of dealer-ordered cars, and most people bought what they found on the lot. Perhaps Pontiac was giving dealers deep discounts on Catalinas because they weren’t moving as well as the Bonneville, and the model-specific parts were backing up.
Some dealer ordered this Catalina in an inoffensive color and loaded up, and parked it on the lot, perhaps hoping to move a potential A-body customer up a notch “for only a few dollars more per month”.
Indeed. Out of my multiple collection, only one was a customer order and it sat for a year because the person probably backed out. Its rare too. Its one of only 388 75 4 door Mercury Comets ( out of 31,080 built) to come with the base drivetrain. And the only one of those 388 to be ordered with factory AC!.
I’m sorry, I don’t agree eggsalad. Maybe in larger states the dealers would take a risk and order an odd-ball equipped car like that Catalina for their inventory, but here in R.I. when you saw a car equipped like this, you instantly thought custom order. Back then no dealership wanted to sit on a loaded odd-ball model, especially a loaded low-end Catalina coupe. I’ll bet my life on it that this car was a special order back in the day. I had several relatives that worked in auto sales back then and they often told me about how picky a customer would be about certain options. The smallest shift in price meant everything to customers back then. They would refuse to take a car if it had even one option they didn’t want, or vice-versa, and often the dealership would have to eat the cost of that option to make the customer bite. Sometimes cars would sit just because they had a little too much or not enough equipment, so dealers didn’t want to risk having that happen and instead would order mainstream/popular models with the most popular options. Seeing that only 5410 Catalina coupes were built in 1979, this car definitely did not fit into that group. Buying a car was VERY different from today, with option packages and such. My great Uncle that worked for a Pontiac dealership for 49 years told me what his dealership used to do. They would try to order the most popular models with what equipment they felt the customer would expect in that model. They would also use GM’s recommended list of popular options for a particular model when ordering to help them. That way the dealerships wouldn’t get stuck with an odd duck on their lots. That was saved for when a customer wanted to special-order.
I am not getting where this is a loaded up car. Those look like standard wheelcovers to me. Those, along with whitewalls, landau vinyl roof and pinstripes, were pretty normal then. A loaded up catalina would have had the nice wheels and fender skirts (still not that uncommon) along with power windows and drivers seat.
This car looks like a pretty run of the mill Catalina, to me.
Sorry if my choice of words to describe that Catalina wasn’t the best, JP. Maybe “nicely equipped or optioned” may have been better than loaded. My apologies. A Catalina coupe was still a pretty uncommon sight back then, with only 5400 being made. And then, how many of those were built with that Landau roof option? That Landau top option was the much more expensive choice of two vinyl roof treatments that were available on the Catalina coupe (which was very rare to see with the Landau top and opera window). Those deluxe wheel covers were optional (although very common). And according to my Pontiac dealer’s guide I do not see fender skirts available as an option on a Catalina. How many Catalina coupes do you honestly recall seeing in general, let alone with that roof option? I can’t recall seeing all that many!
Perhaps I was wrong on the fender skirts, and I cannot say on the vinyl roof style. I was not (honestly) paying that much attention to these when they were common. Where those wheelcovers really the optional ones? Gad, what were the standard ones, because these aren’t much. 🙂 I remember the finned wheelcovers and the Pontiac 5 spoke wheels as being relatively common upgrades.
I remember riding with Mom in a test drive of a nice 74 LeMans sedan. Nice color combo, and even the “Custom finned Wheelcovers”. After a bit, the salesman sheepishly added “but no air.” Mom was Owddathere. It hit me that air had become so common in that class of car by 1974 that I had not even looked to see if it was there. It was a strangely nice car to have been ordered without. Likely either a paperwork mistake or a special order that fell apart.
Believe it or not JP, they were extra! On a Catalina you got the police car style little mini dish hubcaps with the Pontiac logo on it! No full wheel covers standard on a Catalina, no sir! Crazy, huh?
In fact, my great Uncle that worked at the local Pontiac dealer for 49 years told me about the lowest optioned car he had ever ordered. It was for an older gentleman, and he wanted only a rear defroster and AM radio on his new Catalina sedan. I always saw that car in my home town when I was a kid. I think it was a 1978. It was black with tan vinyl interior, and it had those tiny little hubcaps! He kept it in great condition. It was one of those cars that you saw all the time and then one day you realize it is simply gone.
OK, so those were the first upgrade wheelcovers (over the little dog dishes that were almost never on the lot). The typically equipped GM car of that era (to my memory) was V8, auto, whitewalls, wheelcovers, AM/FM, a/c, tinted glass and a vinyl roof/vinyl side moldings. Cars equipped like this seemed to make up 90% of dealer inventory in the mid 70s.
Yes JP, that sounds about right for the typically equipped GM car of the day. I still think the Landau top on a Catalina is rare and would not have been ordered by the dealership for regular inventory. Just my hunch.
Ford has a similar shade called Antique Cream. I always found it a pleasent color, just like this one. That spot ‘o rust ain’t no big deal. Just about all my oldies have something similar. I call it patina. That’s why they’re Curbside Classics, not show queens. I do like this Pontiac. I’d buy one like it in a heartbeat, as long as the price wasn’t to outrageous. Nice car.
These Pontiacs had more of a “retro look” to them than the other 1977-79 B bodies, in my eyes. Maybe that was why I liked them then. The heavy chrome treatment given to the grilles and the taillights and the optional fender skirts sort of reminded me of Pontiacs of the 1950s. All that was missing was the Silver Streak. 🙂
It looks kind of plain-Jane to me compared to the mid-1960s Pontiacs.
Color chips in brochures are only an approximation of the actual color. Hard to tell what that chip would look like in broad daylight in actual paint sprayed on actual sheet metal.
Age, sun exposure and 40 years will do that to a paint color.
Buick had a similar shade called “Colonial Cream” in the mid seventies.
Respectfully, I am not getting the “Why not just buy a Bonneville ?” confusion.
There are many reasons why someone would forgo a Bonneville for a Catalina: the right color, the looks, the equipment level that was just right, the price [we are all price sensitive in the closing room ], the deal, financing, availability of the Bonneville. Perhaps it was felt the Catalina was simply cleaner looking than the Bonneville.
Actual customers are not as free handed with their money as the internet crowd. Checking every option box on a manufacturer’s web site is fun, but reality is a whole lot different.
In the 60s a full size Chevrolet could be had a hundreds of thousands of possible combinations without any two being the same. This was less the case in the 70s, but explains a lot of the “oddly optioned” cars seen.
Since the OEM’s bought paint from outside suppliers, I wouldn’t be surprised if Antique Cream or Colonial Cream or the color on this Pontiac are actually the same paint formulation.
That’s all legit. In terms of “why not get a Bonneville”, I think Dave B.’s comment below kind of sums up what I was thinking when I was writing this piece. The lower-level Catalina really looks decontented from the Bonneville, versus, say, the difference between the Impala and Caprice. To gild a Catalina just kind of seemed futile, but I completely understand your point about price-point and people’s budget. I was also saying I understood why a buyer might choose the lower-level vehicle and then add visible niceties to it.
I like this Catalina, but it sits in stark contrast to this beautiful, elegant ’77 Bonneville Brougham I photographed about three years ago and featured in a short piece here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake/cc-outtake-1977-pontiac-bonneville-brougham-coupe-bonnie-goes-shopping/
The buyer may have felt the Catalina already had enough chrome, and that the Bonneville looked overdone.
Perhaps the buyer wanted a full size Pontiac with the V6 engine — (I’m assuming the Bonnevilles had the 301 V8 as standard). This car reminds me of some very heavily optioned ’73 – ’76 LeSabres, Deltas, & Catalinas equipped with their respective base 350 engines.
Joseph,I laughed kindly when you mentioned having a cup of tea because I always associate US citizens with drinking coffee.Catalina also was a famed airplane which was used in Sydney,Australia,which could land on water,Sydney Harbour.
Joe isn’t the only tea drinker from the US! I like mine sweet and at room temperature. Ice is taboo with me.
The smell of coffee is a great promise but the taste definitely does not deliver!
Jason, I’m with you – the smell of coffee is fantastic, and I do like the taste, but I have had some bitter blends that weren’t so great. Not to diss Aldi, but I’ve had both really good and horrible coffee from there. Some things are worth the extra cost.
I love tea. I periodically switch my caffeine source from coffee to tea and so on, but my dad (who spent part of his childhood growing up in London) was a tea drinker. I rediscovered tea some years back when I was out of coffee and had a lone tea bag in the cupboard. I like it hot and unsweetened.
My favorite B-body of that period. I just think Pontiac did a great job of straddling the Brougham/Sportiness line while still giving a nod to the heritage of the brand. I prefer the Bonneville only because I’ve always thought these coupes looked great with the fender skirts, which I presume weren’t available on the lower-end Catalina. These are just pretty cars. They have a quiet presence.
We always just called this “used car yellow” – it seemed to be the preferred color for hiding bondo. I don’t have production figures handy, but the downsized Pontiac ‘B’s were sales laggards compared to their corporate cousins, much like the colonnade ‘A’s had been. 5,410 is a low number for a mainstream model like this in what was a very good sales year for the industry.
It is kind of funny how you see soooo many more 88s, LeSabres, and Caprices running around (well, you used to) than these. It’s the same thing with the Grand Prix v. Monte Carlos, Cutlasses, and Regals. After such dizzying heights, it seems like Pontiac lost a bit of their magic through the ’70s and ’80s. I still like this car though; that’s what this website has done to me. 🙂
The Firebird and downsized Grand Prix more than made up for however modestly the Catalina and Bonneville were selling. It was still a helluva great time to have a Pontiac/GMC franchise.
I would think so! Firebird sales kept going up and up throughout the ’70s, and either way, you’re selling enough cars to make it worth your while.
I find it fascinating that the Firebird (along with the Grand Prix) carried the day for Pontiac in the late 70’s, but was of no sales significance by the time it was phased out after ’02. I always liked the looks of the last Firebird, but sitting up front in the passenger’s seat with that terrible catalytic converter hump under my feet just killed the fantasy.
Bonnevilles and Grand Prixs were quite popular back then. They sold great! Not so much Catalinas. They looked more “stripped down” for some reason in comparison to the LeSabre and Delta 88, more on the Impala level. In fact, the GM hierarchy had Chevy then Pontiac followed by Olds and Buick. Perhaps the reason for the weak selling Catalina – one would either buy an Impala or step up to a Bonneville.
To be honest, the vehicle that caught my attention is the Fuso Canter reefer, parked behind the Pontiac. I shot a 2013 Canter recently, as used by the shipyard nearby.
These light Japanese (although Fuso is owned by Daimler Trucks) cabover trucks have become thin on the ground here. How are Fuso and similar Isuzu trucks doing in North America ? I can imagine these are popular city-delivery trucks and I wonder if Toyota (Hino) and Nissan also still offer trucks in this segment.
Didn’t know Fuso was owned by Daimler. It’s been a few years but I thought I read that Mitsubishi and Daimler “called it quits” about the time Daimler split from Chrysler?
I would guess Isuzu is doing better than Fuso in the states, but both SEEM outdone by Freightliner and Ford. Most Isuzus seem to be older models….BICBW, and I’m sure every one will tell me if I am.
Thanks. According to the German Fuso website Daimler bought 43% of the Mitsubishi Fuso shares in 2003. Since 2011 Daimler owns 90% of the shares.
Joseph, you have amazing luck finding great vintage cars in Chicago. I never see stuff like this in person…
I actually think the car is Montego Cream. My grandmother had a ’79 Grand LeMans in that shade, and this Catalina looks to be the same light yellow.
Nice find – definitely unusual with the landau option on this model. The soft yellow color looks great to me on the downsized B’s. At least the rust on the door is repairable.
I can think of 2 reasons why the Catalina got only 3 of 160 responses.
1. The Pontiac 301 engine. In road tests, in whether in full size or midsize cars, it came off as slower and thirstier than the Chevy 305
2. Styling imo weakest of all (Chevy best, then olds)
This era of Catalina reminds me of the 1971-1974 era Mercury Monterrey. The big Mercury looked great in full-gingerbread Marquis trim, but awful in more basic guise. This big Pontiac was a looker as a Bonneville, but even this optioned up Catalina looks pretty awful to me.
Both the Catalina and Monterrey had something in common – the rear wheel openings were designed with fender skirts in mind, and the lines of the car just don’t look right without them.
It’s not impossible to build a car with optional skirts that looks right either way. Among several, the 1965 – 1966 full size Pontiacs looked great with or without them.
A Catalina I love……..
Nice to see a VK/AF rear.
I owned a 79 Catalina Landau coupe back in the late 90`s. Having owned one they have always been on my radar. Even than, besides mine I`ve never seen another Catalina coupe with a landau top. It had to be a very low production option on Catalinas. I like these cars , my summer driver is still an 81 Bonneville coupe.
Yours was a sharp car! Wow – great color combo, wheels, etc. It must really have been a standout when you had it when it was about 20 years old. And kudos to you for snagging the last model year of Bonneville coupes.
Cool car, Jeff. That Landau roof was extremely rare on the Catalina coupe. The Landau option was $298.00 which was big money back then for an added appearance option. I think if someone was buying a large Pontiac coupe they were going to spring for the Bonneville. I also think a dealership would not have ordered an oddity such as a Catalina Landau coupe for their everyday inventory as it would have been very risky. Dealerships do not like to take risks with inventory, at least all of the ones I have worked at!
That’s like $1,100 / adjusted – no small change!
Exactly Joseph! The strange thing is that back then you could order a lot of smaller creature comfort-type options totaling $300 that really could make your car so much nicer, such as a tilt steering wheel, luxury steering wheel, delay wipers, digital clock, cruise control, gauges….I think that those options all together totaled close to $300.00! So for just a Landau vinyl top to cost that much back then, you can see why it was possibly such a rare option.
Nice catch Joseph, and a reminder me to post my recent sighting of Vauxhall Ventora FD!
Nice catch of a very uncommon car! That looks like a very similar color to the original shade on my ’79 Malibu, which was called (depending on your source) “yellow beige” or “light yellow”. I wouldn’t be shocked if it was the same color with a different name across the Pontiac fence (and Buick and Olds and even Cadillac, all the divisons seemed to have it).
At the height of the Brougjam era, mid-late 70s, Detroit had managed to persuade many that vinyl roofs, hood ornaments, and white walls were essentially, so they charged a lot for these options.
The only option that was even more of a price gouge were radios: $70 for AM, $140-$160 for AM-FM, $250-400 for AM FM stereo with tape….
Interestingly, between 1976-78 and 79-80, the price of optional engines went from being a relative bargain to relatively expensive.
Well part of the reason for that engine price increase was to help meet CAFE standards. The OEM hoped to discourage you from buying the bigger engines. In fact they raised list prices on full size cars more than compacts also for the same purpose. The LTD went up $847 from 78 to 79 (although part of that was to recoup development cost) while the Fairmont only went up I think (my books are at home) $189.
And your right about factory radios. They were grossly overpriced. For the cost of a factory AM radio you could almost buy a AM/FM 8 Track player from Pioneer. I had a 79 Thunderbird that was ordered radio delete (am was standard equipnent) that cut $79 off the base list price.
Just 5410 2 door Catalinas produced in 1979, you say – I didn’t know that!
Yet I’ve owned 2, and still do own one strikingly similar to the car in this post.
The colors is, in fact, Montego Cream as GN stated – mine has been repainted but I bought it with the original paint and had it repainted the same.
The other, which I owned first, was Jadestone Green, and both were 2 doors without the landau roof. The beige one was restored as a tribute to the green one which got destroyed by a tornado on the first date my (then future) wife and I had.
Very similarly equipped, each had/has a 301 2bbl and cloth interior.
The 301 gets a bad rap, in my opinion, even in Pontiac circles. I’ve had good luck with these. As far as power, Pontiac tended to use lower ratio rear axels than Chevy so a small bore 2 barrel wasn’t as quick off the line but does great on the highway.