(first posted 12/15/2015) Elderly socialite Bonnie glided through Chicago’s city streets to the Magnificent Mile to do some shopping. Looking resplendent in her original Bahia Green finish, she noted just how many things had changed in the Michigan Avenue retail district since she had first come here in the 1970s. Are these curbside parking spaces getting smaller?, she thought to herself, noting that it’s not quite as easy to parallel park her full figure into one of these spaces as it used to be. When she was young, she would regularly receive compliments for looking so light on her spoked wheelcover-shod wheels and whitewall tires.
Settling into a spot between two anonymous-looking compact imports, she thought to herself, Is this what kids are wearing, these days? They have no style, whatsoever. Who can tell them apart? Happy to be in the city from the suburbs for the first time in years, her Pontiac 350 V8 purred contentedly for a few minutes as she idled in her asphalt berth. The cool Chicago air blew into her (fender) skirts, making her suddenly remember just how much she appreciated the warmth of her heated garage. No matter. Poised like royalty, she now momentarily basked in the glow of attention from the man with the camera across the street who had taken notice of her.
As photographed by the author in the Near North district of Chicago, Illinois, on Saturday, April 27, 2013.
Related reading:
- From Robert Kim: Vintage Review: 1977 Pontiac Bonneville Brougham;
- From Richard Bennett: CC Capsule: 1977 Pontiac Bonneville Brougham – This Grandma Had Class; and
- From Tom Klockau: Curbside Classic: 1979 Pontiac Bonneville Brougham Coupe – Who Needs A Cadillac?
“Is this what kids are wearing these days…”
Joseph, you have captured what has gone wrong with cars since Bonnie was born. Good job, and has always great picture.
That’s a beauty, and nicely photographed too. I would look so good in that car…
Great shot! That Pontiac almost looks photoshopped in. One of these things is not like the other . . .
:-/
Insightful.
Such an elegant, mature beauty. Who wouldn’t want to squire her to Bloomie’s for shopping and then to lunch? Seriously though, it’s been ages since I saw a B body of this vintage in such remarkable shape. Someone really loves her, although having great genes doesn’t hurt.
Right! It’s so apparent she is indeed the object of someone’s affection. I think this find might have been more special to me only because compared to the other B’s from the other GM divisions, the Pontiacs have been the hardest to come by. There will be donked-out, bent glass Impala & Caprice coupes for decades, and I’ve more than a few LeSabres and even some Delta 88s, but few Catalinas and Bonnevilles of this generation.
‘Tis the truth.
I park my Town Car and my ’65 Galaxie wayyyyyy out at the end of the parking lot to avoid the “downsized”, painted slots.
Yes, I understood when spaces got narrower in the 80s as cars got smaller. but then once the Suburbans and F150s came to dominate, parking places remained sized for Horizons and Chevettes. Not cool.
In Southern CA, the designated “compact” spaces, which outnumber regular spaces, aren’t even big enough for an Isetta.
I spend a lot of time looking for parking spots on the end so that I can scoot over a little on the end of the line to protect my flanks. My wife likes it since she gets let out at the door. I even do this with rental cars.
That is such a beautiful car.
I agree completely. Love the green color and love the premium wheels with whitewalls. I tell you, Bonnie’s looking good for her age.
That Pontiac simply exudes Class. She carries a lot of chrome, but does it well and with a kind of consummate grace that its more-common (in more ways than one) cousins from Chevrolet did not. I hope she still gets the kind of love now, as she obviously did two years ago.
The anonymous lumps to the front and rear will be forgotten and ignored at half Bonnie’s age. They are appliances. They are “its.”
Bonnie is a CAR. Bonnie is a “SHE.”
My thoughts exactly.mit looks like one nice car parked between two washing machines!
I completely agree, and beautifully stated. I was thinking about when the Hyundai Sonata on the left and the Toyota Corolla on the right were new about 15 (?) years ago, the Bonneville would have looked to some like a hopeless anachronism. Guess which car had the last laugh? 🙂
I do have respect for both the Sonata and the Corolla. My brother had a Corolla for years which provided years of trouble-free duty. It’s just that neither of those two cars elicits any emotion from me.
Some car fans/purists think the ’77 GM B bodies are “too plain”, but compared to a Hyundai it’s a ’59 Caddy.
How dull and anonymous those Japanese things look in comparison. Of course, they never break down, never rust, never need gasoline or oil or tires, will keep you young and glamorous forever etc., etc.
What a beautiful old Pontiac.
The ’77s were in my view the best looking of the downsized years. The ’77 Bonnie had those extra ribs on the turn signals and taillights. The DeVille had the ’69-inspired taillights. A lot of those little details were taken away even for ’78.
And the ’69 fin lights were a throwback to the original ’48 ones. I wonder why they changed the rear bumper for ’78-9. They also dropped the door reading lights on the Fleetwood.
Such a beauty. Make mine with the largest Poncho 400 4BBl V8, suspension upgrades and the terrific Pontiac snow flake alloy wheels. That would be a keeper.
Wikipedia says it offered both the Pontiac 400 and the Olds 403, presumably not in the same years. I wonder which was the better engine.
There’s no need to put down others to bring something else up. We can appreciate all cars for what they are.
If the shoe fits…
Joseph, what a stunning photo shoot. That black and white is breathtaking! That Bonnie looks better than ever, too. I’m sure that back in the 70’s and 80’s it more than likely blended into the landscape with all the other similar cars, but today it just stands out looking majestic and elegant as ever. Fantastic job making a beautiful car look even more beautiful!
Thanks, Tom! I agree that it’s cars like these that used to be everywhere that grab my attention first when I spot them in great condition in the wild.
Beautiful shots and car. I would have ordered it in two tone green with no vinyl roof, but still…
There sure seem to be a lot of nice looking older cars trolling around Chicago. Surprising to me given the rust belt geography. Anyway, beautiful car. I love the coupe roofline it shares with the Catalina and LeSabre. In the fantasy world where I was ordering one new, I think I would get it with two tone, no vinyl roof, rally II wheels and not green. But I still love this one!
I personally prefer modern cars and consider many chariots from the 80s and 90s modern classics HOWEVER. The style of this Bonneville is undeniable. Thanks Joe for posting.
Who said cars from the 70s Malaise Era couldn’t be beautiful? GM hit a home run with the downsized B-bodies in 1977!
Great write-up, Joseph… from the CAR’s perspective. Excellent.
My Dad had one of these, only his was an 80 or 81, before they downsized the Bonneville name to a smaller car, and soldiered on to the end of the B-Body’s run in 1986 with the “Parisienne” nameplate. His was like a coppery-gold color if I remember it correctly and was a really beautiful car, until it got taken out on Falls Road in Northern Baltimore County by of all things a Chevette that had crossed the centerline and hit my parents head on. Fortunately, they were ok, but the Bonnie’s life had ended prematurely. That car was soon replaced by an A-Body 1986 Grand Prix in Blue over Silver two-tone. That car was really pretty too. They’d be the last Pontiac’s in my family until I purchased a 1997 Grand Prix GTP… in a green similar to the subject car…
This coupe is another excellent design from Pontiac, it has very nice proportions and proper details and I can imagine it would be as nice as the Bonneville two decades later.
Interestingly, the engine in my car first appeared in a later Bonneville than the subject car, the Bonneville SSEi… That was a really nice car, and the car you see in the picture, actually debuted in 1995 as a concept car with the Bonneville’s engine. They called it a Grand Prix GTX, with 300hp & 300 ft/lbs, but when the actual car (the GTP) hit the market in 1997, they’d watered that down to 240hp with 280 ft/lbs. it was still a really fast car.
Still a great looking design nearly 20 years later. My one and only new car was a ’97 Grand Prix GT coupe in the same Dark Teal Metallic as the one in the photo. I put over 80,000 miles on it in the two years I owned it (traveled extensively for work in those days) and the only issues were a burned out fog light a week after I bought it and a power steering hose that had developed a pinhole leak shortly before I traded it off.
Not only do they still look good (the cladding on even the GT/GTP was considerably toned down from the typical ’90s Pontiac), but there are still a ton of them on the road and often in much better condition than the average ’90s/early ’00s beater. The survivors around here (STL area) typically have either minor or no rust. Quite a feat for the Midwest!
Thanks, Retro-stang Rick! I’ll bet your ’86 G/P was a looker. I remember seeing that particular generation in the paint scheme you described, and it was among my favorites of the G-Body coupes.
I loved the way they used a wide body strip on the 85’s and 86’s to morph the two-tone look from one color to the next. My Dad’s (now that I think about it, the car was an 85… The 86 had different taillights and a third brake light in the back window) was blue on dark blue on top, and silver on the bottom. A friend of mine we ran around with back in the day (ironically another Mustang guy) had an 83 or 84, which did not come in that paint scheme. His dad owned a body shop and he worked on cars (and customized a few). He painted that GP a beautiful candy apple red on top, and silver on the bottom (like my Dad’s), but instead, SPRAYED the morph between the two tones. That car was gorgeous.
If your pictures were any more vibrant, one could hear the 350 in the Pontiac idling and preparing for departure.
Thanks, everyone, regarding the photos and post. I felt that Bonnie was too beautiful not to share.
The Corolla and Sonata aren’t exactly spring chickens themselves,
I’ve never appreciate one of these quite as much as today, thanks to these shots.
Growing up there was a newly-minted attorney living the end of our street who had a two-tone brown and tan ’78 (maybe it was a ’77) Bonnie Brougham coupe with the classic Pontiac Rally II wheels. I’ve appreciated them ever since. Much plusher than a Caprice but just as understated.
Great photo and what a clever write-up for the car. You’ve really breathed a lot of life and emotion into what, to many people, would just seem to be another boring street scene. I love that car!
Fantastic photos as usual, and what a great Bonneville. That green really suits it and the car has obviously been cared for and cherished.
I’ve always been a fan of the ’77-’79 Bonnie. This coupe is really sharp.
Before expanding the lead photo, I thought it might have been one of the rare ones to avoid a vinyl top. Quite a few Broughams had the heavy handed coach vinyl roof – whatever they called the one that used filler panels to create a big C pillar. This simple body colored top seemed a bit silly to me back in the day is it was barely noticeable.
Vinyl or not, I’d be delighted to have this in my driveway. If I were in a mod mood, I’d be temped to pull the vinyl and swap the wires for the Rally II wheels. The subject does have the dual body colored sport mirrors – a nice touch.
The bump to a black and white photo suggests how sharp this car would be in black.
Awesome writing, Joseph! It’s funny how great that old Bonnie looks in comparison to the two jelly-bean cars she is surrounded by! How much we have forgotten about making cars look sexy, in trade for fuel economy? I love seeing the old BEAUTIFUL dinosaurs making common cars look just so…..plain, and unworthy of respect from a TRUE car-guy’s viewpoint. I would park my 79 NY’er Fifth Ave closer to those jelly-beans, but I value my sheetmetal! I park way back in the lot. Besides, some exercise is good at my age!
Well, at least those other cars were not beige, for a change.
Pleased to meet you again Bonnie, I hope your doing well – is she getting shorter in her old age? Those now distinctly middle-aged cohorts of hers too. It must be the huge boots the kids all wear now makes them so much taller than they have to be.
“looking so light on her spoked wheelcover-shod wheels and whitewall tires.”
Yes!
Bring back the wheelcover-shod wheels and whitewall tires !
Joseph,
Great essay, great pics! I remember reading this essay the first time, but back then I didn’t comment.
This brings back lots of memories. Back in ’77, my grandparents neighbors brought a brand new Bonneville 4 door sedan. I happened to be at my grandparents house the day they brought the new Bonny home. It was beautiful, in that popular buckskin tan color, with a matching vinyl interior (bench seat with pull down armrest). The car had something I never saw on another one. It had a white canopy style vinyl roof that only covered the portion of the roof over the doors. The vinyl was contoured to the roof, kind of like the way the mid 70 Mopar coupes had them (Duster, Charger, etc). I’m sure it was a dealer installed roof, as my research never showed this as a factory option.
It’s interesting to note that the interior of the ’77 Bonneville was not as fancy as it was for ’78, when it adopted the interior from the Bonneville Brougham.
Of course, being of Italian descent, my grandma opened the back door and though a handful of change in the car (an Italian tradition for good luck and safe travels!)
Oh I like it!!
Gorgeous car. Note the front wheels turned to ward the curb. A habit formed by drivers trained to avoid a car rolling back or forward, hitting the curb, stopping the car before any incidents. I wonder how many drivers know of this practice, today?
When I see a car like this, I think GM should have killed Chevy, not Pontiac.