(first posted 8/27/2013) She sat staring at the lightly traveled highway, looking rather lonely on a warm, overcast summer day. It was an experience she had not endured previously, although she knew the intent; this process just didn’t get any easier, especially with age.
For a girl with a few years about her, she knew time and relationships had been kinder to her than most. There was a little bit of rust beneath the chrome of her wheel arches as well as some chipped paint, both the automotive equivalent of laugh lines. Given her life, she wore them with pride.
The old Pontiac sat there for all to see, unashamed and proud. Much like the virgin bride presenting herself to her husband on their wedding night, she had nothing to hide and lots of love to give.
As she fretted about the next unknown chapter of her life, she recounted the various escapades and adventures she had provided. The trips to the Gulf Coast, New England in the fall, up Pike’s Peak, and along the Natchez Trace Parkway. She knew some kept other, sportier Pontiac’s as toys and to race; having been born a Grand Ville convertible, she was the queen bee of the Pontiac family in 1973. Her owners had always been sophisticated and mature, treating her as a precious jewel and never as ordinary transportation.
While she had been bought and sold several times, each successive owner still treated her with the dignity she thrived upon. Such treatment was always rewarded with eagerness from her 7.4 liter V8. Her affinity for drink was never a serious repellent for her owners. Everything has its vice.
Sitting in the grass, facing the highway, she was experiencing a definite worry she had not really experienced before. Perhaps it was age induced, as some girls tend to have diminished physical charms after a point; she was hoping her new suitor would realize the true charm and beauty that only comes with age.
Beauty comes from within, as exterior beauty fades like the morning dew. Inner beauty is the marathon runner to the sprint that is exterior beauty.
The Pontiac had not seen another one like her since having been born four decades ago. She had seen some over the years that looked like her, but nothing with a soft top. A rare bird, this Pontiac, one of just under 4,500 ever to grace the highways of North America. The old girl had been born during the last days of the convertible, but what a last hoorah it had been. Her Chevrolet, Buick, and Oldsmobile cousins all seemed to hog the limelight; she was somewhat like the middle-child, the one so vital and often overlooked.
She started to gaze out at the anonymous cars on the highway. All such blandness in blobbish packages, with few possessing any scintilla of personality. Her gaze then turned to a smug grin, knowing how very few of the cars she was observing would make it to twenty years of age unscathed, let alone forty. How few would see the tenures of eight United States presidents. How so few would be exposed to the cultural changes that only four decades can bring about. How so very few would be viewed as something unique and special, not just a transportation appliance.
It was with restrained amusement she greeted the camera wielding gentleman. As he was digitally devouring every square inch of her body, she realized something good could come of this. Stand straight, shoulders back she said to herself, remembering what a previous owner had said to some long ago passengers.
As the picture taking continued, she was feeling more proud than she had in years. As he drove away, one could sense a radiance reinvigorated from where it had been only a half-hour before.
Well done, Jason. Certain cars really do seem to exude some kind of personality, and you have tapped into this Pontiac’s.
I am on record as being conflicted (at best) on these B body cars of this generation, but of all of the convertibles, I have always liked the Grandville the best of all. I always loved the odd combination of sport and elegance of the Pontiac Rally wheels with fender skirts.
I recall reading here before that the GrandVille was a B body with a stretch, that made it sort of a hybrid between a B and C body. I never understood this when I was younger, but somehow always realized that the Grandville was unique.
As a lazy adolescent in the hot summer of 1973, I would sometimes sit inside the air conditioned house watching daytime game shows on TV. One of them (I forget which, but I think Wink Martindale was the host) offered a row of new Pontiacs as a grand prize. Only one of the cars would start, and if the contestant picked the car that would start, he or she won it. There was always a GrandVille convertible in the row. The show host always pronounced it Grawwww Veeeel. His pronunciation irritated me – Dude, it’s not a French car. It was kind of a stupid name, when you think of it – a Broughamified Bonneville? Or the size of a large European house? But it was the 70s.
The show was Split Second hosted by Tom Kennedy? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_Second_(game_show)
That’s it! After I posted, I wondered if it wasn’t Tom Kennedy instead of Wink Martindale, but I would never have guessed the show’s name. I had forgotten about it completely until I saw this car.
Ah, yes…Tom, the forgotten Kennedy.
Actually, he was no Kennedy. (Good thing for him.) He was born James Narz, whose older brother Jack was also a game-show host – one of the few lucky ones to survive the scandals of the late 1950s. Jim changed his name to avoid confusion with his older brother.
Wink Martindale was hosting Gambit in 1973 on CBS. That show that gave away Pontiacs almost exclusively was Split Second, hosted by Tom Kennedy on ABC. Other game shows that gave away new Pontiacs in 1973 included Let’s Make A Deal by Monte Hall (see previous post on this subject) and The New Price Is Right, hosted by Bob Barker, on CBS – and there the Pontiacs were usually high-end models such as Grand Safari wagons, Grand Prixs or Grand Villes as part of their showcases – most of the pricing game cars then were low-line Chevy Vegas or Novas, or AMC Gremlins and Hornets though an occasional LeMans or Ventura was featured. And Truth or Consequences broadcast in nighttime syndication was still on during 1973 and hosted by Barker despite his new gig on TPIR, gave away LeManses and Venturas.
We have a winner!
That was Tom Kennedy on Split Second who featured a row of Pontiacs as new-car prizes. Pontiacs were also popular prizes on Let’s Make A Deal with Monte Hall – and there, announcer Jay Stewart had a penchant for describing the Grand Prix as “Pontiac’s Wide-Track Luxury Sports Car”, Grand Am as “Pontiac’s Wide-Track Euro-style Luxury Sport Sedan,” and Grand Ville as “Pontiac’s Sporty Wide-Track Luxury Car.” And Jay describing the options on cars in Pontiac-speak like a carnival barker noted features such as variable-ratio power steering, Cordova Roof, Four Hundred (of Four Fifty-Five) Cubic Inch V8 engine, Morrokide interior with nylon loop carpeting, Cushioned Steering Wheel and Rally II Wheels.
I do not ever remember seeing a Pontiac convertible of the ’71 to ’75 era. Odd. The others are still relatively easy to find – a ’72 Olds convertible last week and a ’75 Buick convertible yesterday. There are still a handful of the Chevrolet convertibles running around town here on warm days. But never a Pontiac.
Only GM could have successfully named a car “Big House”.
Actually, they didn’t. Grand Ville means big city. Big house is grand maison. Sorry to be pedantic, but some of that high school French sticks with me forty odd years later. 🙂
Thank you. I was thinking “villa” instead of “ville”; either way, that’s why I like coming here as there is always so much to be learned. 🙂
Then Jason maybe you’ll forgive me for adding my froggy 2 cents here (thanks for a great writeup by the way), but I think the coolest thing about this particular name is that, strictly speaking, it means nothing.
It was possibly supposed to mean “Big City”, but with “city” being a she in French, then “Grand Ville” should be “Grande (NB. with a -e at the end) Ville”. As such, “Grand Ville” just looks like a typo :-). So I think it’s a pure creation, straight off the mind of some office guys in Detroit whose deadline was coming dangerously close, looked into the Pontiac toolbox, found “Grand” and “Ville” and glued them together and – voilà!
Which is fine by me. Heck, we’re talking about the early 1970s here. I think it makes the whole car even cooler. Non-apologetic and everything, like only US cars from a certain era could be. God knows I wouldn’t have much grammar on my mind if I could step into a time machine and walk into a GM showroom in 1973.
Canada also got a Pontiac called the Grande Parisienne, meaning “A large Frenchwoman.”
But at least this time GM got the “e” on Grande right.
When the Toronado came out the nearest the magazines could figure was it meant “floating bull”. Apparently one of the meanings for Caprice was “a freak of nature” In my restoration/detail shop I always got a smile out of the “oriental” Top line Cadillac. Seems the car washes were regularly breaking the “d” off Fleetwood, making them a Cadillac Fleetwoo.
There is a Grandville, Michigan. It’s on the western side of the state, near Grand Rapids. And near me…
I’ve wondered if there was a connection…
And during the summer of 1973, each of the 3 networks had game shows on their daytime schedules – most giving away lowly Chevy Vegas as new-car prizes. At CBS, they were The Joker’s Wild (Jack Barry), The New Price Is Right (Bob Barker), Gambit (Wink Martindale), the $10,000 Pyramid (Dick Clark) and the short-lived Hollywood’s Talking (Geoff Edwards) which was soon replaced by Match Game ’73 (Gene Rayburn). At NBC, Concentration (Bob Clayton) ended in March and was replaced by Baffle (Dick Enberg) and Sale of the Century (Joe Garagiola) by Wizard of Odds (Alex Trebek’s first U.S. game show), The Hollywood Squares (Peter Marshall), Jeopardy! (Art Fleming),
The Who What or Where Game (Art James) and Three On A Match (Bill Cullen). ABC’s game show schedule included Password (Allen Ludden), Split Second (Tom Kennedy), Let’s Make A Deal (Monte Hall) and the Newlywed Game (Bob Eubanks) – ABC’ cancelled The Dating Game (Jim Lange) during the year and replaced it with The Girl In My Life.
Very nice. Beautiful factory wheels, still wearing whitewalls, looks like she’s ready for a Sunday drive. Love the car names from back in those days too.
Nice and that’s from someone who isn’t a full size fan (though this site is doing it’s best to convert me).Could the battering ram bumpers be changed for early ones or is it a legal and mechanical no go area?Who needs a Caddy when you could have had a Pontiac and a few bucks change?
The bumpers can be attributed to the 5 mph crash safety standards that were being implemented in that time period.
Yeah the bumpers make me laugh I’ll show you guys a stockcar with 85mph bumpers when the season reopens you guys know nothing of crashing into things , we do it for sport and the cars run year in year out not once like a demo derby.
The thing is these bumpers are unique to the front end of the 1973 car, the earlier non-crash bumper 71-72 cars had a totally different front end.
You certainly could do it but it is much more involved that unbolting these and bolting on another set as Carmine mentioned. A lot depends on the exact car in question though as different mfgs dealt with it slightly differently.
In 1979 a regular customer at my restoration shop had a ’73 “woody” wagon, fully decked. A car went across the road and hit it head on when it was parked. He liked it well enough to restore it but wanted a ’71 front end. From our standpoint it was easier because it had been wrecked, we replaced the front section of the frame and all sheet metal from the windshield forward, he also changed the color from tan, to dark gold. He had it detailed regularly and still has it.
I like the perspective from the car’s point of view! Of these B-body convertibles, the Delta 88 is my favorite, but the Grand Ville is a close second. I love the body lines, its sculpted “shoulders”, and the grille is especially interesting. These would be cool summer cruising cars.
This is why I love this site,I’ve never seen a Grand Ville at shows or in a magazine.I stopped buying my regular classic magazine because of the endless tri 5 Chevys,68-70 Chargers,early Mustangs.Nothing wrong with the cars,America’s best cars which I would have if I could afford them but seeing them month after month was getting a bit boring.Thank you Jason
i dont shoot tri 5s for the cohort page for the same reason Gem sick to death of them seen one seen them all.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a tri 5 Pontiac in a show or magazine which is a shame as they were a good looking car.I walk past the tri5 Chevys and the usual suspects at shows in search of more interesting cars.
Pontiac did have a solid lineup back then, but this car reminds me of the schizophrenia occurring in the Excitement Division. First, you had cars with great ‘race’ names – Trans Am, Grand Am, Can Am, Grand Prix and even Bonneville (because of the salt flats). Then you had destination names, like Catalina, Ventura, Phoenix and the like, which conjured up early 60s images of luxury (like Chevy did with Malibu and Monte and Chrysler also did well with some of their names).
And then…there’s this: Grand Ville?
I mean, I do get it…Grand and Ville are both part of the Pontiac lexicon…but, it’s neither sporty or a destination. Reminds me of Toyota naming their cars Yaris and Venza because a computer program told them they sound really nice.
All I can say is that GM was big enough that they could still get away with stuff like this back in the 70s, but they could never [successfully] do that again.
I’m with you on the goofy name. It reminds me of when an old TV show needed a fictional airline for a character to fly on. For some reason I remember “Trans Pan Airlines.” Makes no sense, but who’ll notice? I did, for no good reason.
Trans American?
Ha…was Trans American the one in “Airplane”?
Yep.
The film makers actually licensed that from a cargo carrier…
Or Trans Global?
I always liked BoB Newhart’s “Grace L. Ferguson Airline and Storm Door Company”
Maybe they were hinting at DeVille with what I consider the short nickname for a Grand Bonneville, GrandVille hence no space?
the same year, 1971,that the grandville convertible appeared deville no longer came in a convertible…. hmmm… was pontiac trying to fill the gap ?
In March of 1973 she Ordered a Black Thunderbird, unimpressed with the ’73 Pontiacs.
I remember looking at red and White ones in Blauvelt Pontiac, while my Mother’s 63 Grand Prix was worked on.In March of 1973 she Ordered a Black Thunderbird, unimpressed with the ’73 Pontiacs.
thus also passing on a new 72 gold with black vinyl topped coupe deville that had not sold. under 6.300.
Can’t get off on it. To me, the Grand Ville was the start of Pontiac’s slide to oblivion.
Let’s see, we just spent the last fifteen years turning Pontiac from a barely noticeable old man’s car into GM’s performance division. “We build excitement” and all that. Now, with the 70’s on a lurch, and the actual performance cars evolving down to smaller bodies let’s completely kill off any performance aspirations or image for the big car and turn it into a big, soft, ponderous barge for fat guys in polyester pants, with all the taste of a burned tongue. And, while we’re at it, take the vaunted Bonneville name and move it into second place, replacing it with a clone of Oldsmobile or Buick. Aka, broughamize it!!!!!!!!
While always constrained by the corporate bodies, up until this point Pontiac had managed to (very successfully and well) fake that they were building a different car from the rest of the GM. With the Grand Ville, the slide had started and Pontiac was just going to become yet another clone of something else in the GM lineup.
It wasn’t all that far a slide from Grand Ville to G3. And a pretty straight and steep path. Nothing like killing off one of your bigger successes.
JZ DeLorean was moved up to Chevy in 1969, so Pontiac lost their main booster.
New manager was just an average GM guy and wanted Pontiac to match whatever Olds/Buick was doing. I dont know the name, but read a story about how he killed SD455 at last minute, except for Firebirds.
F. James McDonald replaced DeLorean in 1969. McDonald went on to Chevrolet in 1972 just before the 1973 models came out, he was replaced by Martin J. Caserio who came to Pontiac from GMC Truck. One of the first decisions Caserio made was to refuse to release the Super Duty 455 engine option planned for the 1973 GTO, Grand Am and Firebird Trans Am and Formula even though it had already been approved for production and met all 1973 emission standards – both U.S. and California. Caserio did later relent and permit the SD to go into production later in the model year – but only in the Firebirds, not the mid-sized cars. It was also Caserio who pushed and approved downsizing of the 1974 GTO from a mid-sized (LeMans) to a compact (Ventura) – a backward step as the ’73 Colonnade intermediates were much more modern than the Nova body/platform which dated back to ’68 – the ’73 Goat was no longer a hardtop but did have frameless doors and windows, the ’74 had frames – the ’73 had a double-shell roof, the ’74 did not – the ’73 had front disc brakes standard, the ’74 had small 9.4-inch drums – the ’73 had full body on frame construction, the ’74 was unibody – the ’73 had full coil suspension, the ’74 had multi-leaf springs in rear – the ’73 still had 400 and 455 engines, the ’74 only a 350 – the ’73 had round gauges well laid out for optional instrumentation including a tach, the ’74 had a horizontal speedometer and a small optional tach with the gauges requiring a floor console. About the only favors to the ’74 GTO were that Pontiac went back to Hurst shifters for manual transmissions after going to the Inland shifter on ’73s and the fact that a Radial Tuned Suspension not offered in ’73 was optional in ’74.
You forgot to mention that the lady wears a front bumper that makes her look like she is wearing a african lip plug.
She’s still FINE as can be.
Unfortunately, lip plugs were all the rage that year. 😉
I like the wheels and Jason’s writeup more than the car.
As Syke gets at, the 71-up BOP barges looked like carefully decontented Caddies. Not ugly, and I have a soft spot for the Buicks in particular, but each brand was less distinctive than they’d been in the 60s.
Cars sure do have their own personality, and I think you captured this ones perfectly.
Three days ago we got a call to pick up an 88 Mercedes 300 es that had sat for sale in some guys driveway for a while. The car did not run and looked sad and dingy on the outside but its chocolate leather/mb tex and wood where in almost ne condition with only a small scuff on the driver seat bolster. It was at least worth seeing what was causing the no start issue. Ten minutes later we had it down to the fuel pump and had it on order. Onec we got the fuel pump up and into place and some fresh gas in his gut the old boy fired right up. We backed it out into the light of day and it seemed as if the old fellas demeanor had changed from gloomy and cranky looking to a swell and smug look. I cant believe somone would get rid of one of these cars for scrap without even investigating its issues. Everything works and it is as clean or cleaner than a five year old chev. I wish I wouldnt have been so busy that I blanked on taking a few pics. Sorry for the thread jacking.
Canada’s third richest man, Jimmy Pattison, keeps a red 1975 Grand Ville convertible that he still drives around town. Intersresting that a billionaire chose that as one of his main rides, though the I can see why as it is the most distinctive of the B body convertibles. It must be a reminder that he built his fortune on a GM dealership, though tellingly he got out of being a GM dealer in the ’90’s I think.
Teddy “Chappaquiddick” Kennedy had a 73-74 red Grand Ville ragtop too……
This is a very nicely done CC. Good job and well written from a different perspective, Jason.
As an owner of a 1973 Buick Centurion convertible is it nice to see other family members still hanging around. This one looks to be in nice shape as well.
A few comments on the Pontiac vs. Buick looks.
I don’t know why the front bumper on this Pontiac looks so damn huge. No way mine protrudes like that on my Buick. I’m not sure if it’s the Buick grille or other front treatment but somehow the Buick designers managed to lessen the impact of those 5mph bumpers much better than the Pontiac designers.
I don’t quite know if the Pontiac designers were going for rounded or squared off looks? Round in front, square down the back end. At least my Buick has nice flowing lines front to back that makes it look somewhat lower to the ground.
The Buick front end grille beats the pants off that Pontiac. Ditto the rear end.
So, you’ve got a “fast” Pontiac front tied to a frumpy Cadillac bustle. And onto that you glue the great sport side mirrors (the passenger side was an option!)
It does look like they put a bit more thought into the interior with the nice door pulls that even my “upmarket” Centurion doesn’t have.
The only way to see these cars is on a clear summer day with the top down and the body-color hard parade boot installed.
Your comment finally made me understand why the Pontiac convertible always stood out so much. It is where the rear quarter window beltline transitions to the rear deck. On every one of the B bodies except Pontiac, the beltline finishes in a slow but increasing curvature upwards that comes to a sort of a point where it meets the “c pillar” of the convertible top. The Pontiac, on the other hand, has a gentle, flowing kickup that looks much more like the quarter panel treatment on the Eldorado ragtop than on any of the other B bodies.
That Chevy/Olds/Buick beltline works well with a 2 door hardtop roofline, but is awkward with the convertible. The Pontiac’s beltline was simply made for a convertible.
By the way, I agree with a lot of your points on the grille, bumper and taillight details. The Pontiac taillights are quite uninspired, and the grille is a mite weak for a Pontiac. From 1971-76 I jump all around the B/C body divisions as to which has the best front or rear treatment in any given year.
Interesting: one of my favorite parts about the ’73 Grand Ville is the taillight design. I like how Pontiac “louvered” them and was able to incorporate the reflex into the entire lens itself, avoiding a separate cheesy-looking reflector that nearly all other cars had (and ALL cars have now). Shining your headlights on these taillights causes the entire unit to shine right back at you.
Separating the backup lights into the rear quarter extensions cleaned up the rear even further and I can tell you that having the backup lights there made them very helpful in seeing what’s behind me when I back up at night. Having them mounted on the tips also alerts other drivers when I’m backing out of a parking space.
Pic is not one of my cars but shows the look well. Too bad Pontiac didn’t use the hinged arrowhead over the trunk lock like they did on the ’73 Grand Prix! I guess it would have mounted too high and looked awkward.
I think a lot of Pontiac problem stems from the fact that for most of it’s existence it truly was a Chevy with heavy makeup. by the time they got to use some of their own body panels they really didn’t know what to do so they ended up with a bit of a design by committee look. In my mind Olds suffered from that quite a bit too since Buick got to dictate the basic design and Olds often had to figure out how to make something that worked with the Buick’s doors but still look different. For this era the Buick is my favorite by far, the Chevy tolerable but for that distant 3rd and 4th place slot it is a bit of a toss up between the Olds and the Pontiac, though I’d probably choose the Pontiac in this case.
One thing to keep in mind is that this Pontiac is the top of the line model while the Centruion was the middle model since GM didn’t see fit to tool up for a C-body convertible.
Nice write up on a still pretty decent looking car. Depending on how it runs, the price seems right, even very good. Good friends growing up were a Pontiac family, and some Catalinas and Bonnevilles were in the mix. ’73 was a return to fender skirts for the top Pontiac after a two year absence. I’m not a fan of the really bad fake wood on the door panels. Make my convertible a ’71, ’72, or ’75 and I think you get a better interior.
I had always wanted a 4 door hardtop and a car with skirts. An opportunity came up in my college years to get a really clean and low miles ’72 Grand Ville 4 door hardtop. No skirts, but I did buy it and had it from about 1988 until 1993.
All documentation I can find calls the Grand Ville a B body. But, you could have sworn the ’71 and ’72s were an attempt to throw a C into the Pontiac line up. The Grand Ville used a 126 inch wheelbase these years, and shrank back to a Pontiac full size line wide 124 inch base in 1973 (except wagons at 127 inches). Electra and “98” C bodies were 127 inches. Apparently the Grand Ville convertible in ’71 and ’72 was about as close to a post ’70 C body convertible as GM would ever come.
Other “C” characteristics in ’71 and ’72 were a roof / greenhouse on the hardtops that seemed to have been pulled straight off the Electra, and two versions of the 455 were the only available engines.
As some others noted, the Grand Ville name wasn’t the greatest, seemed out of step with the performance oriented names, and was kind of a generic broughmy thing. It’s not a surprise that they quietly killed the name after 1975 and repositioned Bonneville back at the top (a rather rare move of a name going back up a line). That did give Pontiac a nice clean set of names for the important 1977 downsizing, and the names worked quite well.
I think Pontiac wanted to maintain the 1961-70 (1959-70?) distinction of longer- and shorter-wheelbase cars that had Bonnevilles and Star Chiefs/Executives on a longer wheelbase, with a longer trunk, relative to the Catalina and its variants (wagons excluded). But I don’t see why the decision was taken to invent the Grand Ville name for 1971 and relegate the Bonneville to being a Catalina with a little extra trim. Someone must have successfully argued that a different roof and greenhouse required a new name, but I don’t see why it couldn’t just as well have been called Bonneville. Perhaps if De Lorean had stayed at Pontiac, this would have happened differently. (Of the five years of GV production, I’ve always thought the ’73 had the most elegant tail treatment.)
I recall also that the car was introduced with what became a stupid Pontiac advertising tradition: “The first Grand Ville” (more recently seen as “The first G6,” etc.). There never was a second generation of any car name introduced in this way, was there?
I’m not old enough to remember “the first Grand Ville” as an advertising slogan, but of course I remember “The First Ever G6” as a campaign for a car that was way overhyped for what it delivered…as if we were all sitting around saying, “you know, if we just had a G6*, everything would be perfect!” My reaction was, “Pontiac, just go ahead and call Enterprise and tell them you have a whole pile of them ready for their fleet.”
*Even if you take into account the coincidence between the Pontiac model and the Gulfstream jet…the two demographics didn’t coincide except possibly in Pontiac’s wildest dreams.
Pontiac had been lobbying for a C-body car for several years, but it was always squashed by the senior divisions not wanting yet another C-body car competing with theirs, the compromise was the stretched B-body Bonneville in the 60’s and later the B-body with a C-body roof Grand Ville, the broughamy name scheme was coming in just at the right time, remember that the muscle car thing was dying in 1971 and it would be all over within a couple of years. Performance big cars were really dead by the end of the 60’s.
I’ve seen several of these early-mid ’70s Grand Ville ragtops locally over the years – which is amazing, considering this is Minnesota. Never realized they were that hard to come by.
Sadly, though, all but one one of them had been “donked” by idiots who couldn’t find a Caprice and so settled for a Pontiac. The sole remainder was spotted heading home after Car Craft this past year – with the top down, FOR SALE in the windows, and a fresh cheap paint job. I suspect the driver was also the seller… even in the few seconds I saw it (going the opposite way on the freeway), it screamed Bondo.
Someone above me mentioned the convertible Centurions. Never seen one in the tin, but I did narrowly miss the chance to buy one this spring. Supposedly a real barn find – all nice and clean, straight save for the fender-bender that resigned it to the barn twentysome years ago, for $2500. Funds being tight and play-time even more so, I dragged my feet for a few days, just long enough for someone else to beat me to it. Just another “one that got away”… still wonder if it really did live up to the description. Hopefully it found a good home.
A perfect tribute to the “full figured” ladies of chrome & steel who still grace our roads and highways…so as you drive down the road of life which would you prefer…a well engineered machine designed to transport the massess…OR…a car with character…and that of course is the heart & soul of Curbside Classics….
Thanks for the great read; as usual.
Great looking car. That being said, if only GM made it at 3/4 scale with more sophisticated body and chassis. “Ain’t broke, don’t fix” mentality killed GM slowly over the years. Luckily the high tech industry didn’t share that conviction, otherwise we will still be using, umm, PC Jr.
What you see above is actually Iteration #5; one of the first one’s was called “If It Ain’t Baroque, Don’t Fix It”.
Thanks and got to go back and read that.
Great read!
I always had a thing for these Grand Villes, I remember going to some friends of my parents house, they had one of these parked on the driveway on the side of the house, I don’t recall seeing it when we go there, but I remember turning the corner and the motion sensor light kicked on suddenly illuminating this big burgundy over white Grand Ville convertible, it was of those images that just sticks in my head forever.
Great story, I can easily imagine that grand old dame thinking that way about herself. I usually hate fender skirts but here they make the car. Color is perfect too. Well done.
The name came from a combination of two cars attractions being hinted at in attendence here; The Grand from elegance of the Grand Prix with sporting Nature, -Ville, it was above and beyond the Bnneville upon which it was based. It made perfect sense.
Most famous owner of a Grand Ville was Jimmy Hoffa, right when he disappeared. I still remember it was a 74 model, and was shown in news stories.
Maybe there are two guys buried in one of these!!
It is a good color combo and does look to be in great shape, if the mechanical are good then this could be quite a deal at that price.
She is not gonna like hearing this, but I do not particularly care for 1969/1970-1976 GM Fullsizers though the wagons get a pass. They just do not carry their weight as well. If I had to spend my money on a B-Body I would avoid those 7 or so years I mentioned above.
I’d buy it, but I’d like it in a darker color. I actually think the Grand Ville is one of the better looking 1971-76 GM big cars, I think I like it in sedan form best.
The Grand Ville I always think of is the one in the great crime flick “The Seven-Ups” driven by the baddies in the car chase also involving Roy Scheider. The bad-guy driver is the one from “Bullitt” just with longer hair.
Best scene: Police are gaining on the Grand Ville (I think they are driving little Galaxies), so the driver accelerates up a parallel street past them and merges with them precisely coming down the hill. The Grand Ville socks the squad cars right off the road and just keeps going.
As Miss Daisey once said, “we couldn’t keep it because we couldn’t afford to feed it!”
shows dramatically.
But, of the 71 – 76 Grandville grills, I’d have to say:
> The ’71 is gawdawful
> The ’72 is meh (as Chicagoland said, this ‘…matched whatever Buick/Olds did…’)
> The ’73 is Broughamy ‘n Busy
> The ’74 is ‘throw-Cadillac-eggcrate-on-it-see-how-that-looks’ designing
and the ’75 is the cleanest with that cross hairs grill.
1971? Really? I kinda like it, its the most over the top front end of the series, those grilles that stretch nearly the width of the car. The 1972 is pretty handsome, Grand Prixesque? The 1973-74’s are my least favorite, the 1975 is sort of like a sporty Cadillac front end of the same vintage.
I think her name should be Blanche Dubois, always relying on the kindness of strangers, and carrying a faded grandeur where ever she goes!
Love it! I hope to find a two- or four-door hardtop for CC someday.
I agree with Junqueboi; I find the ’73 rear styling very attractive. Simple and elegant.
There was an old guy here in Ga that passed away a few year ago that was buried in one of these (a two door hardtop I believe) because he love it so much. Just goes to show…
I saw that! I think it may be on you tube? It actually was a 73 Catalina. Dark green
I normally prefer the 1971-72 version’s of the B/C body cars due to the smaller bumpers and the powertrains not being fully smogged out, for Pontiac I thought the 1973-74’s were the best looking of the bunch styling wise, I thought the 1971-72 Pontiac front end’s were a bit too bland looking.
What a difference a decade makes. The 1963 was the Belle of the Ball. Nuff said.
Great writing Jason.
70s era B Body convertibles always remind me of this song. And vice versa.
Very handsome car, beautifully articulated in a well woven story. Great find, and hoping good fortunes found it with a new purchaser.
Nice Jason!! you brought back memories of my 73 Grand Ville sedan. I had a maroon one. I used to drive it to work in NJ from NYC. Great car and reliable. One rainy day as i was taking my cousins to the airport on the Jackie Robinson pkwy the defroster went out and my cousins were making a lot of noise i did not notice that i had veered slightly to the right and grazed the railings on the pkwy, when i got to the airport i was really upset and no one cared about my maroon beauty. thanks i really loved that car!!
Great story. I can’t help thinking that such a Grand Dame deserves a better advertisement for her wares than that graffiti writing on the windows.
I liked the Blanche DuBois reference above too.
Our ‘72 Grand Ville convertible. Picture taken last Thursday during one of our Easter-roadtrips with «The Old Chief.»
We live in Fredrikstaf, Southeastern Norway, close to the Sweden border.The vintage petrol station is located in Ed, Sweden (Dalsland area).
Our Grand Ville came from Georgia in 2004. Had one owner back there, the car was sold when he passed away. 67 000 miles, one repaint done after imported to Norway, in original color (either Limefire Green or Springfield Green, not sure how to find the name/number).
In our area, Pontiacs are particularely beloved among US car enthusiasts. There are one 71 and one 73 Grand Ville convertibles in good shape, in addition to our.
Fun fact: Premium plus gas costs around $8 per gallon here – so we perform respectful driving 🙂
A nice old Pontiac! According to Paintref.com (and my own experience) your car is Springfield Green (GM code WA4232). Oldsmobile called it Pinehurst Green when my mother bought a new Cutlass that year. It was also Seamist Green at Buick and Gulf Green for Chevrolet. That color was just stupidly popular in 1972. I didn’t like it much then but like it a lot better now.