Tatras have been found on the street, but the near-mythical Pontiac Grand Am has thus far eluded the Curbside Classic sleuths. I haven’t seen one in ages, and none of the rest of the gang has yet to encounter one. But prolific Cohort poster William Rubano has, and we can’t let it go by without proper recognition. Well, that would really require a full-on CC, but there’s just not enough of this elusive bird caught to quite justify that today. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time…
Now if I had been Mr. Rubano, I would have pulled one of my notorious U-turns and chased down this rare bird. I’m not second guessing; just saying. And when someone does catch up with one, and gets a full set of shots, I will give it the treatment it so deserves. In the meantime, we’ll have to content ourselves with Tatras and such.
Well caught!They’re pretty rare in the UK,don’t recall ever having seen one at a show though I see plenty of the opposition.Were they a poor seller in America?
Growing up in Chicago, at that time the world’s largest car market, these Pontiacs were incredibly popular. While the Cutlass was the number one brand in Chicagoland and the US at that time, the Pontiac was another GM superstar in this class.
Pontiac was what blue collar and lower management fathers drove. It was considered a step up from Chevrolet and due to it’s success during the 1960s as the “Wide Track” sporty GM division, considered sportier and a tad more upscale from the Chevrolet.
When fathers traded in their 1960 Pontiacs, they often bought these in two door, four door and wagon styles. There were a lot of 1960-era Pontiacs for GM to coax into these colonade coupes, sedans and wagons.
Pontiac’s demographics didn’t change. As the US shifted from factory work and meanial office labor, the brand didn’t evolve into another market. Pontiac drivers remained with the brand, but there are only so many previous Pontiac drivers, young hairdressers, mobile house renters, and mail room clerks by 2009 to keep the brand alive. Retired factory workers who drove the brand to success during the 1960s and 1970s, retired to Camrys, Corollas and Accords.
These cars were popular.
Thanks for the info,shame Pontiac was allowed to just die.It seems they were never the same after DeLorean went to Chevrolet.
Yes it was!
Pontiac was a respected and historic brand!
Some facts and anecdotes with a slightly less political bend.
For eight decades Pontiac was a key part of GM’s very successful five brand line-up, designed to be a stair case of success for it’s buyers. Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac.
Pontiac was GM’s third best selling brand behind Chevrolet and GMC when it was discontinued in 2009. A lot of people didn’t want to see it go, but GM knew that only during it’s bankruptcy reorganization would it be able to cut it’s dealer franchise numbers like it wanted to. Among GM’s problems was a too large dealer network. That was one of the bigger reasons why Pontiac didn’t make the cut. Sort of a now or never decision.
GM made it’s mistakes, but at the recession in 2007, it was still making roughly the same number of cars it did during it’s hey day in the early ’60’s. It just didn’t have a 50% + market share in the U.S. anymore. In the early ’60s it had only two major competitors in the form of Ford and Chrysler.
In any competitive environment, someone will bring a fresh view, and no one will hold 50% share indefinitely. You can argue GM had at least seven major competitors in 2007, but was still the largest automaker in the world with numerous very popular products.
GM generally had the highest buyer demographics for years. Followed by Ford, Chrysler, and AMC.
On the more anecdotal:
The first Pontiac I recall was a ’69 – ’70 GTO bought new by the attorney that lived behind us. His wife drove a Cadillac. He moved away to a much bigger home and his next cars were high end Oldsmobiles. All GM brands.
There is a house trailer park near our airport. I’ve seen mostly the same trailers there, some dating to the 1950’s, since the early 1970’s. Very old used cars sit beside these homes. I’ve never seen a fleet of near new Pontiacs or any other brand outside.
Government regulations have had some bone headed affects on vehicles, but some companies (Chrysler – who’d a thunk?) did a remarkable job integrating stronger bumpers. They probably weren’t the best idea on some levels, but they did get the industry and the public to move toward crashworthiness as a serious topic. And today’s cars are remarkably safer.
And, at one time in the U.S. there were some decently paid factory workers, and some probably did treat themselves to a popular new car. I don’t see a problem with that!
Nice way of stereotyping every Pontiac owner on the board. Nothing like being called white trash in way too many words, trying to look PC and sophisticated I’d guess.
I liked Pontiac. I’ve rented more than a couple house trailers. My neighbor and another friend are hairdressers. I also know a few extremely sophisticated wealthy individuals with PhDs who loved Pontiacs and would be driving them today if they were still being made.
My observations were based on what I saw growing up in Chicagoland at the height of Pontiac popularity, and what I saw over the past ten years. There were simply not enough die-hard Pontiac buyers, nor younger buyers with the taste and income necessary to continue buying Pontiacs to keep the brand alive.
Both my hairdresser friends had Pontiacs and loved their added style over a Chevrolet. They saw Buicks and Olds as old people’s cars, and Chevrolets as beneath them. The mail clerk I know also loves his Pontiac. None of these people are white trash to me.
It’s not stereotyping when it is based on experiences and facts.
How many people were disillusioned by trading their trusty and stylish ’68-’72 GM A-Bodies for the comparatively bloated, rusty, and unreliable Colonnade barges? Those cars were designed for an ever expansive America with .40/gallon gas and no fear of OPEC. Not to mention they didn’t gracefully adapt to the more stringent safety and emissions standards, but then again what did?
Still, GM did move a LOT of Cutlasses, Chevelle/Malibus, LeMans, and Century/Regals not to mention the Grand Prix and Monte Carlo personal luxury “G-body specials”. And when they downsized the mid-size lineup in ’78, people still kept on buying most models like no tomorrow. I know the new LeMans and Grand Prix were the weak sisters of the bunch and the aeroback Century and Cutlass for ’78/’79 were a sales fail. But the rest of the Cutlass lineup was a smash hit, as was the new trim and rather European Malibu.
“Were they a poor seller in America?”
The Grand Am itself (I think the commentary above is more about Pontiac in general) could be fairly described as a poor seller. It was only built for three years, 1973-75, before it was dropped. As alluded to elsewhere in the comments, it then inexplicably returned for another three years from 1978-80, selling even worse than it had the first time. I guess the Grand Am and Chevelle Laguna were supposed to have a “Euro” feel to them, but in hindsight it seems strange that GM expected anyone looking at a premium European sedan to be interested in these cars.
Pontiac as a whole had slid from its ’60s peak but was still fairly popular in this era.
What’s special about this car? How does it differ from other Colonnades? The Enduro-shnoz? I do like the color.
+5 Enduro Schnoz.
The interior also included buckets with a Volvo-like lumbar adjustment, a GP dash with genuine African Crossfire Mahogany trim (1973 only AFIR), and the dimmer on the turn-signal stalk.
I remember them as being quite talked-about in the Autumn of 1972.
What makes this car appealing is that it was the epitome of the Pontiac look in this size and class. The rubber clown nose was an extra cost step to make the stupid park bench Federal bumpers less disgusting in appearance. Other GM colonades settled for being cowed into these ugly bumpers, but the Grand Am and the Laguna showed the market that with a little extra coin these butt ugly ram rods could be decorated into a less hideous sight.
In 1973, Americans saw their favorite cars beaten with an ugly stick, courtesy of Nanny politicians, and the Grand Am was one of the only cars that year to give us any hope that cars could still look good even after Washington’s half-wits jack with them.
What the hell did we get out of these nasty bumpers anyway? Who drives five miles per hour and into a flat fixed barrier? Once these ugly bumpers were actually used in a fender bender above five miles per hour, the costs of repairing the car’s front end was exponentially more expensive because of them. Just another stupid Federal regulation meddling bureaucrats crapped out to make themselves feel smarter than everyone else.
Yeah – this particular car is special.
Can’t you give the political ranting a break? It’s made me wish Paul provided us with an ‘ignore’ option.
I’ve already deleted one of his today elsewhere. This one is borderline…you do have the option to ignore it 😉
Paul, please stop this fool from posting. He has already been banned from TTAC.
I know that facts don’t mean much to this type, but it was largely the insurance industry that lobbied for the 5 mph bumpers and the auto industry that claimed that they cost a zillion dollars to repair.
My experience as a taxi operator showed the large bumpers saved a lot of money in the long run. What would require a new bumper cover today wouldn’t even faze a battleship bumper.
Insurance lobbies in the pockets of nanny politicians — Chicken or the egg really 🙂
Personally I’d rather have a scuffed up urethane bumper than a steel girder hanging off the front of my car.
Well, now I feel bad.
Sorry for the rant guys.
Thank you Paul for the needed deletions.
I will try harder to keep this blog rant-free.
Like it or not politics and the car business are intertwined. At least he didn’t blame it on any one party 😀
It also had a pretty decent suspension set up for a big 70’s midsizer, it was fairly nimble, GM sort of pitched these and the Cutlass Salon as the next evolution of the mid size muscle car concept, a more luxurious almost personal luxury style muscle car, instead the market went the other way and the broughamier, softer versions of the Colonnades took off, like the Cutlass Supreme.
I’ll take a Grand Am over a cutlass any day. The rear end of the Grand Am has to be viewed to appreciate how radical the design was. An amazing lost child orphan, the Grand Am is.
Holy Urethane, Batman! I have likewise not seen one of these in eons. Any Pontiac colonnade, for that matter, and having grown up with one (albeit a Luxury LeMans) I would surely notice it.
I didn’t care that much for these then, like them better now.
The collonade Grand Ams were never my taste either, but the downsized ’78-80 version with the 4-barrel was a really nice package. Despite their many shortcomings, I still have a soft spot for that generation of A bodies, and the Grand Am would probably be my first choice from among all of them.
+1 on the 78 – 80 version.
I agree on the small versions. They were the red-headed step-child on dealers lots of the day. I was a lowly inventory checker, and these always had the triple digit “in stock” asterisk. I guess most buyers of the day opted for a full-on Grand Prix for about the same money. The V8 four barrel Coupe was a real sleeper of the time. My first company driver was a blue ’78 with radio delete. Complete gauge package, console and buckets with the handling package and a rear sway bar. I had died and gone to heaven after the labor-intensive cars of my college years. Always a soft spot in my heart for the Pontiac Malibu cousin. Did the Chev version have a 350 as an option?
The post ’77 Malibus were available with the 350 but I believe one of the caveats was that it had to be ordered with the B4C police package — which could be had on a 2-door as well as the 4-door.
I don’t where the B4C code comes from. Everything I have ever heard or read refers to Police Packages as 9C1.
Having said that, yes, from 1979-81, a 350 was available, with dual exhaust, no less.
The RCMP Drug Squad in my home town had a couple of these in the 2-door. It was hilarious because anybody
in the know would take one look at the twin pipes on this
so-called “undercover” car and the jig was up.
“Police cars” are so obvious to any one “in the know”, its hard to imagine that they catch any criminals.
TYPO, excuse me. Got my codes mixed up.
What a sighting; the best looking car of all the colonnades. One of the best looking GM intermediates, ever. The 73 GTO NACA scooped hood is the cherry on the cake. Beautiful car in a great color.
If you can find one ( no matter how rough) buy it. An under appreciated design. See the rear end of a Grand Am for the subtle shaved curvaceous sex appeal. Want to turn heads? Resto mod a beater Grand Am.
I purchased a 58,000 original 1975 Grand Am in 2007. It’s in the process of a partial restoration (paint and interior). Yes indeed, if you can find one snatch it up. But be warned, parts are difficult to find.
Early this year JPCavanaugh did a CC on the 1976 Chevrolet S-3 Laguna. That particular model debuted in 1973 also with a flatter urethane nose than the Grand Am but by ’76 it too had a slope. IMO the Grand Am always looked better.
It was also around that time Pontiac introduced “radial tuned suspension” denoted by a badge on the dashboard. GM did make the attempt to create better handling cars in an awareness of the foreign invasion – offshore brands other than Volkswagen. Recall also the F41 and FE3 suspension packages first available in the 70’s.
My father is a staunch GM fan and had his share of Pontiacs over the years. My first memory of an automobile is his 1959 Catalina 2-door hardtop. The body color was amethyst sunset (a very reddish violet) with a white roof (what little there was of the roof on that model). I even remember the dark tinted band along the top edge of the windshield – necessary because the glass wrapped so far up. He very much appreciated the better handling the Wide-Track had over other GM brands and the competition.
He is also someone who appreciates good handling cars. He bought a 1967 Cadillac which came with bias ply tires. He immediately had a set of Goodrich radials mounted and changed the factory Delco shock absorbers with a set of Monroe-matics. Of course my mother thought that was ridiculous but realized what Dad did in his own garage was his business.
Ironically, just when GM did start to pay attention to the handling performance of its cars, Dad went “foreign.” The change probably had more to do with the first oil embargo than anything else. In 1973 he replaced my mother’s 1965 Buick Skylark with a Volvo 144. When I realized he could have purchased a new Cutlass Supreme for the price of the Volvo I thought he was ridiculous (I was in junior high at the time). Two years later he replaced the Cadillac with a year old BMW 3.0. Then I thought he was a genius.
How on earth did he go from a Caddy to a Bimmer? He went to the Cadillac dealer where he bought the ’67 one day with the intent of buying another Cadillac (since the first one was such a great car for all those years). The salesman was the cousin of a friend of his and knew Dad liked “performance” cars. One 20 minute road test in the BMW was all it took. As far back as I can remember Dad always said he thought GM should bring the senior Opels, i.e. Diplomat, to the US to compete with Mercedes, BMW, and Audi. Instead they slapped roll bars and quicker steering on a LeMans.
I found that the older I got, the smarter my Dad became. In Portland, the Cadillac store in the suburbs dualed with BMW. Guess which franchise is the sole tenant of that real estate today?
What a catch! There goes one of my future articles… or maybe not, since mine was a ’73, and this looks to be a ’75 from what of the grille details I can make out.
If that’s the original Endura nose, I’m at least doubly impressed, as that would have to be one of the finest examples still in existence. But with the (likely not original, but possibly) NASA hood and nice shiny paint, I wonder if that fascia might be a fiberglass repop.
Either way, great find! I’ve only ever seen one ’75 in the tin. Not something you see too often, if ever.
Here’s a factory pic with a NASA hood, but I believe it was tied to the 455SD, which was planned for production in these but never made it.
It’s NACA, not NASA (not trying to be an ass).
The 73 GTO came with the NACA hood standard. I assume they are actually the same hood?
This is…and will be open to continued arguments. Even the experts on the Pontiac Forums continue to bicker about NACA versus NASA. Some Pontiac literature has ‘NASA’ spellings — that’s as far as I’m going with this one. There are valid arguments on both the NACA & NASA side…some have become quite nasty so I’m indifferent.
What I can tell you is that the ’73 hood is unique as it has vent slats over the wipers while the ’74-’75 and “replacement hoods” (when they were available) were the non-vented style. They’re very cool!
I was afraid I might start the NACA/NASA bickering! Personally, I’ve seen it both ways in different places.
As I understand it, if the scoops are functional, it’s either from another model or a repop; but if they’re non-functional, it could be original Grand Am. (Not counting non-production stuff)
Can’t recall where I read/heard that, but that’s the rule I’ve always went by. Not that I get many chances to apply it!
+1 on the vent slats. My ’73 wore all its original tin, and it had slats. My buddy’s ’75 had none.
NACA is correct as these air vents were developed by NACA not NASA. The confusion stems from the fact that NACA was NASA’s predecessor. The following excerpt is from Wikipedia:
“The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) was a U.S. federal agency founded on March 3, 1915, to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research. On October 1, 1958, the agency was dissolved, and its assets and personnel transferred to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)”
It might be argued that Pontiac pulled a Chrysler-style move when they brought out the arguably better looking Grand Am at the same time as the frumpier colonnade GTO. I wonder how many potential GTO buyers went with the Grand Am, instead, handily stomping the GTO in sales, in the same manner that Duster sales virtually killed the E-body Challenger/Barracuda which, in turn, did a good number on Charger, Super Bee, GTX, and Roadrunner sales.
The next (and last, for decades, anyway) year for the Goat, it was demoted to an option package on the compact Ventura, and was gone until resurrected off of the Cavalier-shaped Aussie Holden Monaro in 2004. Sales, again, were tepid, and the GTO would be gone for good after the 2006 model year.
According to Jim Wangers, the endura snout on the Grand Am was originally supposed to be the big, new talking point for a revitalized 1973 GTO. Pontiac instead decided to create a new, more import-oriented addition to its intermediate line-up. The GTO languished for a year and then was transferred to the Ventura line.
I remember reading that same anecdote from Wangers. OTOH, switching the GTO brand to the compact Ventura was logical. By 1974, the musclecar market had evaporated except for two vehicles: GM F-body ponycars and Chrysler A-body Dusters. So, rather than slap the new Grand Am front end onto a car that no longer sold, they went with the ‘Euro’ angle and gave the GTO name a last-ditch attempt on the Ventura to try and grab some of that compact, Duster 340 market. Considering what the Cobra name had become on the Mustang II, the Ventura GTO wasn’t that bad.
The point is, it’s unlikely that a 1973 GTO with the Grand Am front end would have been any more successful than the standard colonnade GTO.
I always hear of the tale that GM never made any SD Grand Ams. Growing up in Vancouver, we lived in West Van, which oddly enough had its fair share of oddballs, cars and folks…although with the means to buy what they wanted. I distinctly remember seeing many many times a white GA ( a 74 or 5) with the ducts and red and blue stripes, with SD455 decals on the front fenders, below the marker light IIRC. This was in ’78 to ’83 and I saw it many times through those years, later to track down the owner to try to purchase it, but never did. My bud had a ’75 GP, and I had settled on a ’74 Luxury LeMans, so we all loved colonnades, and this legendary car existed, and was purchased at Royal Pontiac at Park Royal in West Van. Later I found all about how rare cars existed in West Van as a bud asked me to help him buy a ’69 Barracuda Formula “s” with the 340 auto from the original owner ( lady). Sadly, the car was high mileage, and a bit rusty, but buy it he did, and it STILL wore its rare alloy wheels ( yes the recalled ones ). I saw it years later after he sold it at a car show, and it recalled many fun trips up the Fraser Canyon to Kamloops…So, back to the SD455 GA not existing, dont be so sure!
Pontiac fans are lucky in that have PHS available to verify it.
Likewise GM Canada has historical documentation available too. Without a VIN of course, it’s impossible. Chalk that one up as a “definite maybe”.
Some magazine (High Performance Pontiac, perhaps?) ran a story years back about a guy who built his own “SD” Grand Am from a mix-n-match bunch of NOS GM parts. Supposedly all the stuff was available under one name or another, if you had the bucks to buy it all.
This isn’t the article I was thinking of, but it is another case of a 455 Grand Am wearing incorrect SD stickers: http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/features/hppp_1006_1973_pontiac_grand_am_455/
My guess would be that some Firebird or GTO met an early death, and became an engine donor for that Grand Am. Or that someone was just sticker happy.
Stickers do not make it a Super Duty. I have chatted with Jim Wangers about the SD Grand Am myth. One was produced by Pontiac as a test mule. It was returned to Pontiac afterwards. They were never for sale to the public. Even the 73 Super Duty GTO never saw the light of day.
Growing up, one of my neighbors bought one of these…..1977 Can Am. Awesome car, wasn’t super fast, but the exhaust note was awesome 🙂
Those Can Ams are rare. I saw one in the Pontiac museum this year.
These are rare. I’ve seen probably two at most among the literal thousands of early 1970s Pontiac intermediates in my lifetime.
I know a guy that still has the Can Am he bought new in early 1977. I was 14 at the time and thought it was one damn hot looking car.
I’d never heard of the Can Am til my brother snapped one at a show on holiday in California a couple of years ago.It looks a lot more interesting than the Plymouth Volare Roadrunner that was parked next to it.
Buddy of mine had one of these in the ’80s. White. 400, 2 barrel. Great looking car that handled quite well if I recall correctly. Not very powerful, though. And it used a ton of gas!
The Colonnades made ugly El Caminos but beautiful looking coupes. What a find!
The Grand AM’s were all about handling and sportiness. Think of the Grand Prix SJ but in a Lemans body with a specific front end and you’ll get the idea. Most seem to be equipped with the 400 Pontiac motor and bucket seats were the order of the day. The 78-80 versions varied from year to year. The 78’s came with a 301 and buckets std. The 79 came with a 231 V6 and bench seat. The 80 came with the special W72 301 4BBL, the most taught suspension tuning yet and a full level of sport with bucket seats, gauges, dual exhaust outlets and a 2.93:1 gear replacing the 2.29 and 2.41 gears from before. Also worth mentioning was that the 78 and 79’s were offered in sedans like the Colonnades but for 1980 it was a coupe only and a very striking one with the optional snow flake alloy wheels.
Two of my friends factory ordered 1978 Grand Am 4-door sedans. They both had cloth bench seats. The brochure appears to indicate that buckets were optional. Very nice cars: good ride, good handling, great dash design.
http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/NA/Pontiac/1978-Pontiac/1978-Pontiac-Brochure/1978-Pontiac-13
In January 1974, at 11 years old, my friend and I went to the first ever Harrisburg Auto Show. Two cars still stick out in my mind from that show – the Ford Mustang II (brand-new that year) and the Pontiac Grand Am.
The Mustang II was notable because it seemed incredibly luxurious for a small car. And, of course, it was a Mustang, and every 11-year-old boy knew what a Mustang was, and even had an inkling of why a downsized version was such a big deal.
The Grand Am stood out because of the exotic front end with the flexible snout, which was heavily advertised in 1973. It was, along with the Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon, America’s answer to those even more exotic import sedans. (That’s what the issues of Motor Trend in the library at Nancy Grayson Elementary School said.) I remember pinching the snout on the display cars.
Two other memories from that show:
Collecting brochures from various foreign makes not seen too often in our small town.
Sneaking into the Pennsylvania State Police tent and briefly watching one of those gorefest documentary-style films of real accidents designed to scare you into obeying all traffic laws.
Whenever I see a first-generation Grand Am or Mustang II, I always think of that show, which was the very first auto show I ever attended.
I loved these!
It was sort of a reverse engineered GTX. As the GTX was decontented to a Roadrunner, the GTO was decontented in 73, and the Grand Am was an even more upmarket GTO to fill that void. Yet it was more sporty than the Grand Prix. They made a big deal about the radial tuned suspension on the Grand Am. And the standard tach, 400, wood trim, etc. it seemed a sophisticated American car. There was still considerable performance cache in the Pontiac brand with the 455 SD, Trans Am, GTO and Grand Am, even after most companies abandoned any such concept as “performance”.
I don’t usually pick nits but the ’73 was actually no less a GTO than the ’72 other than being on the new platform. The ’73 GTO included the T-code 400-4bbl, dual exhaust, rear stabilizer bar & probably a few more things I’m forgetting.
The ’73 Grand Am was definitely a bit more plush and its standard equipment did include bucket seats (with adjustable lumbar wheels that the GP wasn’t available with), console, GP style instrument panel with Rally Gauges/Clock, and those cool custom finned wheelcovers.
The ’73 Grand Am’s standard drivetrain was a 400-2bbl with single exhaust and THM400 automatic transmission. Dual Exhaust, 4bbl, 455, 4-speed, and tachometer were optional; I’m not sure if the 4-speed was extra-cost or not though. When the tach was ordered, the clock was relocated to the console under the radio.
Oddly enough, the identical tachometer setup was not available on the Grand Prix until 1974 which sucks for me! Telltales/Clock were standard in the ’73-’77 base GPs. Rally Gauges/Clock were optional on the J and standard on the SJ. The rare tach cluster was optional on all GPs from ’74-’77 but quite rare.
Back to the Grand Am….
The 6.5/7.4 Litre engine callouts are located on the LH side of the rear decklid on the first-gen cars. I prefer the ‘merican “400” and “455” callouts on the ’73 GTO fenders personally and wonder why they were that way — The original ’64 GTO emblem read “6.5 Litre”.
Maybe it was just the one I saw, a strippo 73 GTO, while the earlier GTOs seemed more loaded up and plush relatively. And even the basest Grand Am was very well trimmed.
Also the 73 GTO lost it’s Endura bumper, contributing to it’s minimalist look.
Strickly my impression of course!
Next goal is to find a 4-door version running… They built a handful of 4-door 4-speed cars. The 4-speed was not available behind the 455 though.
I seem to recall a road test of the 4 door 73 Grand Am. The Honeycomb wheels made popular on the Trans Am and GTO gave it a great look. That 4 door performance car might even be considered the forerunner of today’s 4 door Charger, Pontiac G8, Impala SS and Chevrolet SS. The later Pontiac 6000 STE was more a competitor for the Euro sedans. This Grand Am with V8 power was a different animal.
Jeez, I’m just commenting all over the place today.
I have actually seen ONE – and only one – 4-door Grand Am. It belonged to a customer of mine. ’74 or ’75, I forget which. Mighty clean, but low optioned. Bench seat, 2-barrel 400 if I recall, automatic. I originally questioned its validity since it was wearing a LeMans nose, but the other details seemed right – he just didn’t have enough of the Endura nose left to work with, and so took the nearest thing he could find.
It was utterly unattractive to me with the extra doors, wrong nose, and lo-po motor, but it was a runner and a driver.
He must have tried for three years to unload the thing. It was on craigslist what seemed like forever, through various price drops and trade requests. I don’t know what ever became of it, but I suspect it’s probably still out there, somewhere, and for sale.
In about 1999-2000, I saw a rusty but complete ’75 Grand Am sedan in traffic several times. It was a dark bronze color, had Rally IIs and the correct nose. Probably gone by now, but at the time, I did realize what a rare car I was seeing! That is the one and only Colonnade Grand Am I’ve ever seen in the metal.
A 1974 Grand Am coupe, with the 400/4bbl and the 4-speed stick, is my dream classic car. Hell, even with the slushbox, even a sedan, even the 78-80… I love 1970s Grand Ams, they are all beautiful! And it is nice to know they can back up their beauty with gorgeous interiors and good (for its era) handling!
I love the early Grand Ams but its a Collannade so that means that no matter what I would love it, lol.
I remember in the mid 80s when I heard the Grand Am was coming back and when I finally saw the production model in 1985 (?) how disappointing it was. I guess I was hoping for something Grand Prix-based like the 73/74s.
Its funny though, the 1985 and up Grand Am was the first successful Grand Am that lived beyond one generation.
And providing economical, reliable transportation for America’s Meth Heads ever since.
ROFL
I’m sure a bunch of enthusiasts will say the GTO and Trans Am are hotter, but I always liked the Grand Am. Was partial to them because of the sleek Enduro front end, and also the nice interior. While I could be mistaken, I’m fairly certain I, too, have seen at least one white 455SD badged Grand Am out in the real world in the late ’70’s.
Also recall seeing at least one white Can Am in the late ’70’s.
Wiki: “Nevertheless, the Super Duty was never actually offered for public sale in the GTO. Also, eight 455SD Grand Ams were also built for testing and eventually all were destroyed as well.”
But who knows???
Kind of like the unicorn W code 427 68 Mustangs!
that nose leaves me with a question mark but that’s a pretty cool car, especially in that burnt orange shade ! To me Pontiac made some of the most beautiful us-cars ever in the ’60s and in the early ’70s, but looking back at when i was a young boy in the ’90s buying car magazines showing news from america Pontiacs looked like big molds of power rangers-style plastic and they sucked, big time…still i felt very sorry when they pulled the plug on the marque
I’m the 3rd owner of an unrestored, unmolested, original 1975 Grand Am Collonade Coupe. It had 76,000 actual miles on it when I bought it back in 2002. It is white with an unusual interior- Oxblood red with white bucket seats and white rear seats. Looks really cool with the two-tone interior. The only mods I have made are adding Rally II’,s and changing the 2bbl over to a correct Quadrajet 4bbl complete with the correct air cleaner. Bonus was finding the 4 bbl. Intake Manifold off a ’75 Grand Prix. So actually, all the dates match up! A/C blows cold, Cruise control works, and even the 8-track player in it works! The last icing on the cake was taking off the single exhaust and putting a custom Flowmaster System on it with Trans Am/Can Am style chrome splitters. It still has it’s original GM laquer paint albeit with some patina. It was a Montana car so no rust ever- which is rare in a Collonade. In the Midwest they rusted out FAST!
It’s nice having a car that not too many people have ever seen! Still has it’s original Endura nose. Lots nowadays have the FiberGlass replacement snout.
Nice car. That two tone interior may have been a Pontiac thing. My mother’s 74 Luxury LeMans sedan had the same thing – a maroon interior with white seats. I had always wondered if there was a matching car with maroon seats in its white interior, but I have come to understand that this seemed to be a special order from the factory rather than a dealer swap as I had guessed. I never saw another like ours.
I think you may be right about the interior- my dad had a new ’76 Catalina 2-door hardtop that was this funky metallic lime green color, white vinyl top, and it had a two-tone green/white interior. Green dash, carpet, package tray and white seats and white door panels. My Grand Am actually has red door panels. The only white are the seats. Maybe that was how they did the A-bodies then. Still kinda cool. I remember Dad’s Catalina was quite ‘glaring’ inside with all the white panels and seats!
I can tell you that not all A bodies got a white interior by putting white seats in a colored interior. My stepmom had a 74 Cutlass Supreme that had a full white interior, only with blue dash and carpet (can’t remember about the package tray). Rest of the interior was white (door panels, headliner, plastic side panels). Where earlier white interiors usually came with black dash/carpet/seatbelts, GM was doing green, blue or burgundy dash/carpet/seatbelts with the white interiors. So, your dad’s Catalina sounds like a normal full-white interior, with the green trimmings.
Our Pontiac was the oddball – it was a garden variety full maroon interior, only with white seats instead of the maroon ones. I have heard two or three other stories here about similar Pontiacs from that time period.
Thanks to Kevin Marti we now know that no 427 68 Mustangs were built. I think only 7 or 8 Cougars were made with ‘ em. Also my 74 Mercury Montego bought new by my dad has a gold/white interior in vinyl. Seats, door panels, headliner, and most soft trim is white while everything else is gold. Out of 20,511 2dr Montego Mx Broughams built that year, 2764 were white and 102 of those used our interior code (H8) which is called ” white vinyl bench seat with gold appointments”. Also, does anybody know why white interiors were only available in vinyl and not cloth? Ford at least only offered white in vinyl only.
“Also, does anybody know why white interiors were only available in vinyl and not cloth? ”
My God, man – the white vinyl was hard enough to keep clean. I cannot imagine how awful white cloth would have looked in car upholstery after about the first year or two.