What can be said about the Pontiac Parisienne which Tom Klockau hasn’t said already? The Pontiacs are his favorite ’77-’90 B-bodies, and this 1986, with its ’81 Bonneville rear end and generous specification, shows why. With the B-body LeSabre and 88 gone after 1985, whoever bought this must’ve figured this to be the best way to get a fancy RWD GM sedan (Fleetwood Brougham excepted, of course). Good thinking on his or her part, as Pontiac would switch to the H-body the following year.
When the Excitement Division did Broughams, they did them differently. This Pontiac Parisienne only looks like it has a vinyl top; good thing, too, since one would clash with the sporty “aero” mirrors. Rounding out the fancy schmancy look are the hidden key hole on the trunk, skirts over the rear wheels, opera lamps on the C-pillar, brushed trim on the B-pillar and chrome rocker panel cladding.
Actually, it’s rare that I ever see B-bodies so decked out. As I’ve said before, I always appreciate when people tick off all the boxes on the options sheet; there are enough examples with hard bench seats. Can any of our resident B-body experts point out other rare options?
Oh-em-gee you guys, is this a factory Astroroof I spy? Yes, if you notice the chromed pull on the sunshade and color-keyed plastic trim around the glass panel, it would appear to be. A real shame that the headliner is in such sorry shape, because this is otherwise quite a charming interior, clearly demonstrating a ’70s Detroit interpretation of luxury.
Almost makes you forget the Caprice dashboard. The ’77-’81 Bonneville had the best dashboard seen on this platform, in my opinion, but unfortunately its tooling wasn’t dragged out for the Cheviac, nor was the front end (though I actually prefer the Parisienne’s to the Bonnie’s).
Maybe as we affectionately call the Bonneville Bonnie, we can call this the Perry. I can’t start a car company like my neighbor urged me to do when I was a young child, so this will be close enough. My tastes don’t necessarily run Brougham-y, but when they do, this more restrained approach works nicely (and I’ve always enjoyed Canada).
If ever a car should go by my name, I demand that it have four map lights like this Pontiac, and an intact headliner.
With its historic registration, perhaps this Perry’s interior will receive the necessary attention. He’s in good shape, otherwise.
I wonder how many “are you interested in selling your car?” notes this guy has in the glove compartment.
A fine specimen and I wonder what the owner is like. He/she obviously uses it but the velour inside looks like brand new as does the paint. So careful about the car but smokes inside of it. Even with the windows down one stray cherry and that velour is permanently scarred!
Recent acquisition perhaps? Or someone that just truly, truly enjoys using their car? Check out that incredibly comfortable driving position.
Does anyone know if that bodyside molding is factory? It looks like it’s sloping uphill a bit.
It is factory, but perhaps was added after the car was new. Either that, or Herb down at Eversham Pontiac had a few too many beers on the job 🙂
And here’s a fun Quad-Cities dealership fact: The dealer in Moline was Perry Snower Pontiac-Buick-AMC. It became Key Pontiac-Buick-AMC in the early ’80s and is today Key Buick-GMC-Dodge-Mazda. They sold Pontiacs right to the end. I remember seeing Colonnade Grand Prixs and Regals in the ’80s with chrome “Perry Snower” dealer badging; one of those cars lived fairly close to my house.
That’s a nice one, will always love B-bodies. Ironically I was in the market for one of these a few years ago when I grew tired of my ’83 Bonneville, much like the original market probably did. I was driving my Caprice prior to that and bought the ’83 to save on gas but came to loathe the small size. Ended up selling it and getting my ’83 Olds 98 in retaliation, bigger than both cars.
Why was it so hard for the US automakers to build cars in those days whose headliners stayed affixed?
Headliner droop was endemic in A- and B-Body cars of this period, going back to at least the ’78 and ’77 redesigns, respectively.
The headliner was backed with foam rubber that, as it aged, dried out and turned to dust. Parking in the sun was most likely the catalyst that triggered this transformation.
I used the thumbtack method to minimize the droop in our ’79 Cutlass. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.
Yes some upholstery thumbtacks would give you a “quilted headliner” to match your button tuff-ed interior. My sister used this method quite well in the 1982 Celebrity that I passed down to her.
Upholstery thumbtacks! Or an Arrow stapler. I used that on the sagging headliner of the 1979 Cadillac Eldorado Diesel that my Dad gave to me when he got tired of putting $35 fuel filters into it.
Used to be that you could buy OEM-style headliner material at the fabric stores. The price was pretty reasonable, too.
An afternoon to take out the headliner’s backing shell, plus a couple of yards of material and some 3M spray adhesive and this CC’er would be good to go.
Replaced headliners in my ’89 Beretta and my wife’s 86 Celebrity wagon. Helped on a couple of other projects, too. Looked good as new, and a side “benefit” of the adhesive was that “new car smell” until after a couple of good, hot afternoons.
Briefly considered doing this on the side, but never followed through.
Ditto on my 86 Marquis wagon. I made the mistake of driving with the windows down one day and down it came. I tried the cheap route on the spray adhesive, but that turned out to be a short-term fix that I had to do over. The 3M product fixed it permanently. I was able to re-use the original material.
VW’s of the 80’s had the same problem, 3M spray glue would work for me until the first really hot day, or driving with the windows down on the freeway and then down it would come. I found a U Pull replacement and about 3-4 years later the same thing happened. Maybe if I had removed all the old adhesive and crumbling old foam it would have held. I finally gave up and peeled off all the old liner and rattle canned in grey the cardboard. It looked pretty good and no more sagging. I used the vinyl type spray and removed the headliner from the car so I could sand off the old foam and adhesive and get a good, even coverage.
wow what an awesome car….these are what first introduced me all things brougham……astroroof is a sweet options combined with the vinyl delete….I hope this car gets saved
It may already be saved; it has a “historic” license plate on it.
There was one of these on a lawn in my street I assumed the wire wheel setup was an elcheapo accessory now I’m wondering maybe it coulda been a stock survivor, shame really I’ll never know coz once the grass reached bumper level it vanished along with its owners, pre CC so I didnt bother shooting it.
Not a CC?? For shame, Bryce! 😉
They haven’t made any new ones in this millennium.
“When the Excitement Division did Broughams, they did them differently. This Pontiac Parisienne only looks like it has a vinyl top;…”
The other B bodies offered painted roofs too, not just Pontiac. Lots of LeSabres, 88’s, Caprices, and C bodies were painted like this too.
The 83-86 Parisienne was another “look alike; me too” GM badge engineered product. Not as good as the 77-81, and far from the Wide Track days. The 1987-91 had more Pontiac character.
I agree its very cool to see optioned- up versions of these as opposed to the more common strippers.
The sunroof here was a very expensive option, rarely ticked off on the order sheet. However – The sagging headliner was NOT an option.
Do I see Marlboro packs between the seats? Although it will let go sooner or later anyhow, I have long held the theory that smoking accelerates the decline of headliner glue adhesion, in GM products anyway.
Either that or global warming.
I love these B-bodies & you totally had me until I noticed the packs of Marlboro cigarettes on the seat. That interior, being cloth, probably smells like stale ’80s bowling alley.
You would never get that smell out unless you gutted the interior or re-upholstered every bit of fabric in there. Gross. It takes away the “old car smell”
Oh such memories. My mother traded in her Volvo 242 on a brand new 1980 Bonneville, and then 4 years later ‘moved up’ to a new Delta 88. The floors in the back seat, and the seat itself, lent itself very nicely to playing with Matchbox cars on long road trips. Come nap times, since I was the older brother, I always got to stretch out on the seat, and relegated my little brother to the floor. The other vivid memory I have is the very audible “whooshing” sound when the secondaries on that Q-Jet would open up. It didn’t really go, but it sure sounded like it was going to.
My first car was almost one of these…exact same model/interior/paint. Oh, how I wish for what could have been…
OLDSCHEVIAC!
I had never noticed this before, but I’m fairly certain that the bulk of the door interior panels are from the 1977 – 1985 Olds 88, door panels that I believe lived on in the Olds Custom Cruiser wagon through 1990.
I’m not sure where the casket door pulls came from. They are not Olds 88.
The tufted seats are not familiar. They look different from the ’81 Bonneville, but don’t look Olds or Chevy either. Perhaps Buick LeSabre Limited? That could make it a BUOLDSCHEVIAC. Even sweeter if the door pulls are Cadillac!
They are not. The Oldsmobile Eighty Eight had different “brougham” and base model seats. The 1985 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Brougham LS used 1982-1984 Oldsmobile Ninety Eight Regency Brougham parts( the back up lights, the b pillar, the seats, the grille( 1980 and 1983-1984) and wheels ). The door pull handles( casket handles) you refer to are from the 1980-1981 Bonneville Brougham as well as the seats, rear styling, wheels and other things. The front end is from Chevrolet Caprice as well as the Instrumentation panel.
1981 Pontiac Bonneville Brougham:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDqDk1q1GZE
1985 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Brougham LS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSwIkMRU8pg
1985 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale Brougham:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEa9nAfrtKU
The 1985 Buick LeSabre Limited and Collectors Edition used Park Avenue seats:
I wasn’t sure if you had a conclusion on the bulk of the door panel, but from the videos and my picture of the interior of the ’84 Olds 88 Royale Brougham it sure looks like the Parisienne uses the basic Olds 88 door panel with a different door pull. As you note, the front clip and the dash are Chevy except for some trim details.
Folks, it appears we have ourselves an OLDSCHEVIAC………
The lower end Parisiennes used a different door panel. The one’s on my old ’84 look more like Chevy. My care was a base bare bones model.
When Canadian Pontiac could no longer use American Bonneville trim after it was discontinued starting in ’82, they mostly used Chevy parts, but for the Parisienne Brougham they used the seats and inside door trim from the top of the line Olds 88 model. In the mid-’80s when they revived the ’81 Bonneville rear sheetmetal, they also went back to a slightly toned-down version of the ’81 seats and door panels.
Tu-tone, on a car!
Nice find Perry! I have been looking for a 1985-86 Parisienne to give the full CC treatment for some time, but no luck yet. I do see a gunmetal gray one occasionally, but it’s always on the move. I think it is the same one I did an Outtake on last year: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-outtake-a-brougham-in-the-night/
But, my first choice would be this…
…with this interior. Love the burgundy/burgundy color combo!
That’s a great exterior pic. These look much better without the upper body side moulding. It was always too high and gave the car slightly odd proportions. The rear wheel opening (without the skirt) was a notch too high for such a traditional profile. That really made the usually skirtless Catalina a bit awkward. But, without the moulding, the car is very much the classic American profile.
I think you’ve mentioned it before, it is a shame they didn’t bring back the Pontiac front clip and all the interior bits – especially the dash. The ’80 – ’81 is a great looking car.
Thank you for the follow up story. It was great to see this story with more information. There were wheels this car offered that you did not see often. It was offered on Grand Prix and Bonneville during this time as well.
This was the wheel on this Parisienne:
http://www.2040cars.com/Pontiac/Bonneville/27-000-mile-pontiac-parisienne-brougham-all-original-garage-find-508761/
I also learned something I did not know too. I thought all Parisiennes were offered with the 305 Chevrolet V8. Not so.. I saw and know of some that came with the Oldsmobile 307 V8. The car in the video is not a Brougham.
Here is a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY1ahcpZO1o
This one has the famous Pontiac turbo finned aluminum wheels and a pinned up headliner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsZ8UYCvghQ
This car also used the Oldsmobile/ Buick exterior mirrors too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na3bKhbs62A
Thank you for this feature.
I’ve seen a number of online claims of 1985-90 B-body models that were listed as having the 305 coming from the factory with the 307 instead, or vice versa. I get the impression that there were occasionally times when only one of the two was available at a particular factory, and all models got whichever engine that happened to be, regardless of whether the model in question was listed as having that engine
It’s hard to get me to shut up when we’re talking Parisiennes; but I always loved the two-tone Pontiac offered on these cars, with the contrasting color running from the hood to the roof (’77 Bonnie shown).
Darn, now I can’t decide between a ’77-’79 coupe or an ’80-’81 coupe!
Come and live in Australia, Tom. Every Pontiac was a Parisienne.
The ’77-’79 looks much better.
I’m partial to the ’77-’79 because of my nitpicks noted above.
These were comfortable cars. I almost bought a coupe when they were new but went for a Riviera instead. I am sure the RWD Pontiac was the better car.
“Cheviacs”? Really?
It’s pretty fair. GM went to the parts bin to pull this together.
The term is most often applied to full-size Pontiacs sold in Canada (and also exported to some other British Commonwealth countries) prior to 1971. Those cars had exterior sheetmetal that resembled their U.S. counterparts, but were much more closely related to full-size Chevrolets beneath the skin. Strictly speaking, that isn’t what this is. But it’s pretty similar in concept, and the term is especially apt when you consider the Canadian origins of both the Parisienne model name and the decision to keep selling what was basically a badge-engineered Caprice when the “real” Pontiac B-bodies were dropped after 1981.
Another car that takes me back to my 5th-6th grade days (mid-1990’s) as the Safety Patrol car door opener. The one I remember was sort of a mint green-ish color, with no shine whatsoever and driven by a younger girl’s grandmother.
I can’t remember the last time I saw one that wasn’t all Donk’d out……..
I like this car. Though I agree with tom the 80 coupe is the best looking one there was.
Glad to see the write up on one of these, I had a feeling it was coming soon. As of last year my wife was the proud owner of an ’86 Parisienne, after her grandfather passed. Right now it’s at the shop getting its 307 reworked and some other odd bits fixed. We have never been much of GM family, but if it had to be I’m glad its a B-Body. I really underestimated them. This summer we hope to make a trip from WV to Maine in the Parisienne, wish us luck!
Having owned a ’76 A body with the 350 and an ’82 B body with the 307, I can tell you first hand there is a world of difference. If any car is waving and shouting for a crate 350 transplant, it’s yours. You’d own the car for life.
Thanks Dave B, and I agree a 350 would really wake the old girl up! As for owning the car for life, our house seems to be the place where CC’s have found the fountain of youth outside of Oregon. I swear people drop them off like unwanted kittens, thinking we will take care of them. We do 🙂
For those of you who like the Bonneville from 1980-1981 very much, there is a 1:43 die cast model. I own one. Here is a link of images to it from many sites:
https://www.google.com/search?q=neo+1:43+1980+Pontiac+Bonneville&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=WrEjU6iAN-qK2gXx-YGYAQ&ved=0CCUQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=754
They can be found on many sites for sale.
This site did an article about it:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/mini-cc-alert-baby-1980-pontiac-bonneville-brougham/
Make mine an Aztek. Seriously, I love the diversity of taste here at CC, but I just don’t get this. And I look longingly at certain B-body Chevys and most B-body wagons. But not this, no way.
Thanks for the great outtake Perry – my family bought a brand new ’85 when I was a kid and it was just the best ride ever. It was a base model with the 305 but it did come with the chrome cladding from the factory, and it looked terrific in two-tone silver (top) and grey (bottom). Pretty easy decision for Dad to make – he brought the family to the dealership with him, Mom saw one on the floor spec’ed out just as I described, and said to Dad “I want THAT one”. Had to be factory ordered and 2 months later we had our beloved Parisienne for 14 years and over 100k miles with minimal rust…still miss it to this day!
A good friend of mine owned one of these, which was white w/a blue vinyl top. I think he had a base model because I don’t remember the seats being like the ones pictured. The headline was intact ;-)He liked it a lot until he got rear-ended & screwed up the seats & then the transmission went, forcing him to get another car.
1986 was the last year for the rear-drive Pontiac Parisienne sedan (and Bonneville G) as both were replaced by the FWD Bonneville in 1987. The Safari wagon continued until 1989 (with the Olds 5.0L V8). Also in 1986 Chevy started selling the Caprice Classic Brougham to fill the void left when the full-size RWD Buick and Oldsmobile sedans were discontinued.
I always thought it was odd that the B-body Safari was not continued into 1990. All the other B wagons–Chev Caprice Estate, Buick Estate Wagon, and the Olds Custom Cruiser–were.
You are correct. Pontiac Parisienne filled that void of the departed larger Buick and Oldsmobiles initially. Then Chevrolet filled it with Caprice Classic Brougham and the Caprice Classic Brougham LS with its formal roof line and more luxurious interior and features:
Brougham LS CC here: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1990-chevrolet-caprice-classic-brougham-ls-embarrassing-fwd-cadillacs-since-1987/
Classic ride. I’m partial to mid-1980s GM because my first car was an ’86 Celebrity CL 2.8 V6 (A-Body). My headliner sagged just like that Cheviac’s.
Is this vehicle still available? Contact me 3103450591
Just now saw this–love the two-tone! Plus vinyl delete and astroroof (the one may have presupposed the other)? One rare car. The two-tone was quite common on the 83-34 Parisienne but quite rarely seen on the ’85-’86 Nice find!
Anyone interested in buying my 1980 Pontiac Parisienne?
If you’re a sucker for wheel skirts like me, you’ll love her at first sight!
Original 118,340 km
Original GM Oshawa Gold paint
Chev 305
You can see some pictures of her on kijiji
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-classic-cars/london/1980-pontiac-parisienne-trade-for-travel-trailer/1258262765?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true