Last Thursday I found myself needing to pick up some parts that were in Minneapolis, which is a little more than an hour away from here. My faux Touring Sedan was looking a little schizophrenic in its unfinished state, but mechanically it was sound enough to drive – so I decided to kill two birds with one stone (put it through its paces / take advantage of its fuel efficiency) and take it on its first out-of-town trip.
As I was doing the slow-and-go on eastbound 694, I spied this blue ‘bird slowly working its way through traffic alongside me. So I grabbed my camera.
Unfortunately a side-shot wasn’t possible, but I was able to get this close-up. It looked and sounded a little rough, but it was still chugging along – gotta give credit where credit’s due. (Curiously enough, the lot that sold it was once a client of mine. I vaguely remember seeing a car like this in their inventory around 2006 or so – perhaps the same?)
Seeing this car reminded me of a similar one I once owned…
Some vehicles (like the Cherokee) I buy with plans – or hopes, at least – of hanging on to. Others (like the Cutlass Supreme) I buy with the intention of using for a few months, then selling for a profit. But once in a while, there’ll be a car I buy strictly to resell. Something which I have absolutely no use for, but that is undervalued by its seller. Perhaps it’s being presented incorrectly, or offered by a seller that doesn’t understand it, has unrelated issues causing them to need it gone, or what have you.
This would be one of these cars. It was a 1994 Sunbird convertible. It had two owners, zero rust, 61,000 miles, and one other interesting feature the blue one above lacked: a turbocharger.
The red powdercoat finish on the valve covers, and the long red pipe feeding the intake, are dead giveaways.
In all my days of scouring the junkyards, I’d only seen two other 122 turbo fours – one in a earlier Sunbird ‘vert, the other in a 1990ish Grand Am – so I knew it had to be uncommon. And when I saw how nice everything on it was, right down to the tires, I couldn’t pass it by. Sure, the vinyl top was in tatters – but who cares? I gave the man his $500 and went to fetch my trailer.
After getting it home, I proceeded to clean it up and take a few pictures. This was clearly a car which had been parked winters and garaged when not in use for most of its life. The more recent owner had parked it outside, though, which had been the cause of most of its problems. But even so, it did clean up reasonably well (Yosemite Sam floormats notwithstanding).
Arrest-Me Red + raised white letters + the whirr of a turbo. Tempting, but it’s still a Sunbird.
Convertible Sunbirds and Cavaliers were a pretty common sight in the local boneyards, so I put a new top on my shopping list ($75 if I could find a decent one). I figured if I found one by the time the new title arrived I’d ask $1500-1600; if not, I’d just put it out as-is and ask $1000. Keeping it any longer than that was not an option, as I had to give up precious garage space to keep the rain out of this roofless wonder in the meanwhile.
Interior after a light cleaning. The gray cloth reminded me of what they put in third-gen Firebirds.
At about the three week mark the title arrived. I had been unable to find a top that wasn’t ripped in that time, so I ended up punting it for $1000. It was scooped up within hours of my advertising it.
But as always, Murphy’s Law was in full effect. It was only three days later when a 1994 Cavalier with an almost-new parchment colored top arrived at the local U-Pull. I sent a note to the buyer informing him of such, but he must have had other plans; the potential donor was crushed a month later with top intact.
Still have my 1984 J2000 (aka Sunbird) Convertible- nearing 300,000 miles and still runs great, and look sharp. Love driving it as much as my new Volt.
Beautiful. Great care given, evidently! Love the color.
Wow, that is a sharp looking ‘Bird. I prefer the pre-88 rear end like yours over the one above.
I think we are going to need some more pictures of yours pretty please.
Thanks for complement-
I have owned many high-end cars- Cadillac STS, Volvo Bertone..etc and still love the way this car drives. Passengers have even commented on how smooth the ride is and very quiet with the top up. Had it since 88 (high school) and never a problem. The clutch made it to 220,000 miles and I drive it like its a sports car.
Latest project is a 1988 Oldmobile Trofeo Convertible with the VIC system. Real nice car
Please Do a write up n that Trofeo Convertible , I’ve never seen one. Pictures Please!
I’ll post some pics when I get back home.
Finally getting around to giving it a refresh. Body and drivetrain is perfect..
Got an entire new interior.. Just need to have a new cloth top and paint and it will be very cool.
The company that did all the 86-2001 eldorado’s did 8 Trofeo’s.
Mine in the only one I have seen or found on the internet.
Unlike many conversion, this one does not looked “chopped”. … The belt line sweeps all the way around the body smoothly.
Picks Friday
Thanks
Happy to…How do I do That?
This want it looked like when I first got it.
It now has a new gray interior.
the make over starts next month
starting to put the gray interior in
!
That Trofeo looks AMAZING!
Why the hell this wasn’t produced is a damn shame, and I pretty much hate the Trofeo coupe (no offense to anybody who likes them, in all honesty). It makes the Cutlass Supreme droptop seem pathetic, really.
Now i’m curios as to what it looks like with the top up…
A Trofeo vert? This I gotta see.
the original 25 year old top is looking pretty sad and shrunk so it now looks strange. The most expensive part of the restoration will be having a top made.
all lights on
I like that front end with the “six light” look, I thought that was a kinda cool styling touch that Pontiac was playing around with in the 80’s, I almost came close to buying one of these, but it was the old lady version of the convertible, with whites and wires.
it’s driven all year round
Nice. I picked up an ’85 Turbo convertible at the impound auction many years ago — it was an automatic & had a hole in the block — the Turbo had been removed at some point.
It did not survive which sucks — it was a really nice-looking car and it had red interior and slats in the hood. Oh well.
Wise words from a local: If you find yourself on 694 again Keith, the Camden Bridge is way faster, even though there is a dozen stoplights and a 30 mph speed limit.
Here’s mine, it’s off to hibernate for the winter on Saturday morning.
Here’s another view
I had to work in Hawaii when these cars were the default rental choice of every rental car agency on every island. Lord, I sat in dozens! I thought we couldn’t have gotten any cheaper until the Metro convertibles came out. That – I refused to take under any circumstance.
Best thing about the Sunbird was the stereo that was loud enough to drown out the rattling. That, and when the fleet of X-Cars imploded along the roads, these cars arrived to take up the slack and weren’t as bad as the Citations, Phoenixs, Omegas and Skylarks. They weren’t any good, but they were better than those POSs!
And those interiors! Mousefur would have been better. I can’t remember these interiors being anything but gray felt over lawnchair-quality seating. Saturns were just as bad. During this era, you had to struggle to get away from those cheap gray interiors in GM cars. The red dirt on Kauai and on Molokai wrecked the gray mousefur carpeting in these cars and just stained the heck out of them. You can see in the photo of the red turbo that the carpets took on a dingy brown color that we couldn’t shampoo out.
But being convertibles let us charge real money for cheapy rides that looked swell in honeymoon photos. The Sunbirds weren’t as cheap looking as they really were and that was a pretty good deal for the thousands upon thousands of these cheap convertibles that filled every road between Lihue to Hilo.
Finally, these cars had the god-awful GM passive safety-belt system that was an embarrassment to engineering and to safety in general. We had quite a time trying to remind our staffs to buckle the cars because as soon as a renter opened the door, they were confronted by two stupid seat belts that prohibited easy entry into the front seats. And quite frankly, how the hell did GM get away with putting seat belts into cars that wouldn’t keep Gumby in the front seat in an accident in which a door opened with those kinds of pss-poor seat belts? Isn’t the purpose of seat belts to keep passengers in the seats? How could that be possible with seat belts that are attached to the doors and stretch out to open when the door opens? Craptastic!
When I see these cars, I think of cheap rentals for honeymooners!
Cant recall ever seeing one of these. Cavaliers? unfortunately yes we have those badged as Toyotas mostly worth basicly nothing Ladas are an easier sell but without a roof I could see that selling its a good way to amortise the tooling but they shoulda picked on a better car initially. Some J cars were quite ordinary dynamicly but very robust, my father end for end rolled one over a bank he was unhurt the car was toast it was an Isuzu Aska badged as a Holden Camira for the NZ market only its photo is on wiki they got it from the cohort, my dad was on his Hwy one commute hit a patch of diesel on a corner went backwards thru a wooden barrier end end for end a couple of times then stopped he climbed out retrieved his briefcase from the wreckage and hitched a ride to his morning job, he ordered a new Comodore that day no more FWD until Chris Amon sorted out our Coronas and tempted him back
Yeah, I rented a red convertible (non-turbo) for a week when in Maui in 1990. Normally, I’m among the first to throw rocks at GM when given the opportunity, but I really enjoyed the Sunbird during the time I had it and thought it worked great. Eventually, I bought a new 1995 Grand Am and have mixed thoughts about that experience. So maybe owning one of these Sunbirds wouldn’t have been for me, but I sure liked it in Maui.
Is it true that you have to be careful when parking on an uneven surface with one of these, since the body structure will actually flex enough to keep the door from opening or closing? Or is that just an urban legend?
I do remember a guy with a late eighties Mustang GT convertible that freaked out when we jacked it up to put a tire on and he couldn’t open the driver side door. I thought it was funny at the time, he thought we had screwed up his car. We let the jack down and he opened the door with no problem. Yeah, different car I know but that reminded me of it.
more cars are like this than you might suspect.
I had a 97 Lesabre the, when jacked up to replace/rotate tires, became difficult to open and close the back doors.
I’ve hear that Saab 900’s will crack windshields if jacked up incorrectly for tire changes. Just what I’ve heard, so don’t shoot the messenger.
I’m curious as to what you were driving? Looks like and Oldsmobile C/H body?
Good eye! It is indeed a C-body Olds.
My cousin buys a Sunbird GT in 89 or 90 and I could swear the way it was ordered was as a turbo but with the turbo deleted for credit. Experts weigh in please on if that was possible. It had all the show without the go, especially with the 3-speed auto. It had a factory CD player too that I recall being separate from the head unit because that space was still being occupied by a cassette player.
Yes, you could get the GT without the turbo.
My ex-stepsister’s bf helped her order a red ’87 or ’88 Buick Skyhawk with the “T” package and domed turbo-hood — minus the Turbo. I was only fifteen or so at the time and don’t remember much about the car other than its cool pop-up headlight doors, alloy wheels, fog lights, and automatic transmission.
It had to be a rare car with that cool hood; I do remember the BF stating they had to do something odd with the ordering to delete the Turbo without deleting the special hood. His father was a Buick Executive and had pull — pull enough that even the son got a new company car ever year … which was of course a Grand National until the GNX came out.
I gotta ask: is this car significant because it’s a 90s Pontiac Sunbird that is NOT owned by a 17-year-old girl?
Someone abandoned a Sunbird convertible like that near the local garbage dump a few years ago. When it first showed up the top, windows, and body were intact – couldn’t tell about the interior because it was filled with junk up to the beltline. By the time it’d sat for a week the top was slashed and a couple of the windows were broken. I suspect it truly had been someone’s hard-luck car, because after it had been towed to an impound lot which was situated below grade on the outside of a curve, someone ran off the road on the curve and his 3/4-ton pickup landed right on top of the Sunbird.
I have always wanted a J body convertible. My preference would be an 1989 or 1994 Cavalier Z24. The 89 must have a digi dash. The Sunbird has an awkward dashboard and the Cavalier’s high back buckets always looked better. Although the Sunbird GT’s in 93 with quad headlights were lookers.
Took an ultra clean 87 Z24 ragtop one in on trade in the late 90’s, it was probably the nicest one of those, it had 24,000 miles.
From what I understand, that Z24 convertible was an incredibly rare one year wonder for California only (before the aero exterior redo of 1988).
The featured convertible is the same color as the one I traded for several years ago.. My car is not a convertible but has the 3.1 V6 & 5-speed combo. I’m not as wild about these as the 1st-gen jobs but the V6/5 speed combo would have made for a real fun car. This one has a spun bearing and quite a loud knock.
What’s odd is that it was ordered with white vinyl interior — I’ve seen this on a few convertibles but never the closed model.
If you look closely, you’ll see a real oddball in the background, closely related to one of today’s outtakes.
That blue is so 90’s it should go to Lollapalooza. Grand Am in the background?
Yes: ’73 Grand Am sedan. Ascot silver, black top, oxblood interior. Sad.
Ah, memories. For some reason I remember the two rows of Sunbird sedans at the local Pontiac dealer in 1995-96, fresh from the lease and rental fleet, in all different colors. I believe all were special priced at $7990 or something. I was tempted, but I went down the road to the Ford dealer to check out his row of off-lease and rental ’94 Tempo’s because they were cheaper (duh). Ended up buying a nice, almost new ’95 Contour.
Here’s my baby – a 3.1 liter 1994 Pontiac Sunbird convertible – all white with leather seats. Runs great at 110,000 miles. While it stays in the garage quite a bit, we still drive it. Hope to garage it come the first of the year, get classic car insurance and keep it for years.