I had to share this wonderful ’65 Bonnie recently posted to the Cohort by channaher. 1965 may well be the best year ever for Detroit iron (or is it ’55?) but the ’65 Bonneville–nay, all biggie ’65 Ponchos–are my favorite car of the year. And in red and white? I’m smitten.
Shame there was only one shot, but I’m grateful for even the single view. Thanks for the eagle eye in traffic, channaher!
Those long coupes with fender skirts are beautiful.
Sexy, too bad they don’t still make big coupes.
Yes, ’65 is possibly the best looking year for Pontiac, although I think you could also make a pretty good case for the ’59s
G.G., I agree, 58, 59, 63, 65 and 66…those are my favorite years (I like the 54’s too, but can’t get past the limited and ugly color selections available on the Starchief Catalina…If I’m going old I’m only getting top of the line!)
Both good looking cars for 59 and 65.
They would if there was still a market for them . . . .
Would be nice if they would maintain their lights. I hate burned out or missing taillights. And on a car that is this much of a classic (I agree with you on the Pontiac ’65s), that is an egregious error.
It’s been awhile since I’ve been around a ’65 Pontiac, but I think the brake lights were seperate from the marker lights/turn signals on the models with the 3 lamp lights. If all this car is doing is braking, which is likely given the yellow light, the lights you see are all that should be lit.
no more egregious than the Sienna next to it with the acres of red plastic and nothing behind it. Or the new Regal that has little bitty brake lights and huge running lights.
I’m drooling right now…! Sure old cars were quite low, that minivan makes a nice contrast !
This Bonneville really brings back memories of the ’66 Catalina 4-door that I had in the late 80s and early 90s. Yes, I wish now that I’d never sold it, but it made economic sense to get rid of it at the time. I could steer that big barge with one finger. My favorite thing about that car was how well it handled, in spite of being such a big car. That “wide track” business wasn’t entirely P.R. bullshit. Of course, a contributing factor would be the fact that I did this thing that not many of us Americans know about, called “maintenance.” For example, when the lower ball joints went bad, I had them replaced. The same thing was done for the shock absorbers when those went bad. When the tires lost tread, I got new all-season radials all around. I can’t stress this enough. I really recommend maintenance:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maintenance,_repair,_and_operations
Maintenance is essential for reliable motoring, doesnt matter what you drive if you dont maintain it things break. I have a car with King Pin and Trunnion suspension its 54 years old and works fine but if I dont grease it I can expect to rebuild it for every 6monthly inspection, too much work for me.
There is a lot of truth to that. Aside from general longevity, you would be surprise how much performance you can pick up in an older car by replacing older components with high quality new components plus upgrades. On a car like that `65 Pontiac, radial tires, gas shocks, maybe even some upgraded bushings would do wonders. All while not decreasing ride quality appreciably.
Yup, that’s a big reason why my ’95 Explorer is still on the road with 312,000 miles, or my ’77 Chevy is still on the road, fix what’s broken or about to be and you shouldn’t have to stand on the side of the road waiting for the hook or wrenching on it.
Nice car no mistake rarely do I see a live one great find, Daytime, stopped, holding it on the brake only the stop lights are lit, situation normal. One of these used to pull a horse float past my house as a kid liked em then like em now no doubt they have faults dont care.
Pesonally, I find the 66 nicer looking. I had the Canadian version, a Parisienne with a 283 and a Powerglide. I spent a lot of money, replacing the sheet metal,and paint. I even had the Powerglide rebuilt,and a new crate motor from GM.installed.
My only mistake,was figuring that liberal amounts of oil spray would save the frame. It didn’t. Both sides of the frame rotted,right above the back wheel, I sold it for parts.
With todays restoration techniques, she could be better than new. I guess I shoulda kept it..
Man, that’s a sad story. Cars can be such heartbreaking money pits. My ’66 had a little bit too much power for my immature and impulsive right foot, and I got more speeding tickets when I had that car than I care to admit. I ended up replacing it with the most gutless car I could find, the ’76 Vega that Paul used the other day for that “Suddenly it’s 1998!” post. The only speeding ticket I ever got in the Vega was for doing 55 mph in a 70 mph zone. And before any of you ask, YES, I was on a downhill slope at the time.
You could have always put a 350 in it like so many others did and turned that situation around… Even making it decently streetable.
In the Vega? Oh, no way. A fellow I used to know who had both a V-8 Vega and a Cosworth Vega summed it up quite well: “It’s still a Vega.” Besides, I got a gutless car on purpose to remove all temptation.
Pontiac at its finest.
When I was kindergarten age, a friend’s mother was driving a maroon Bonneville 4-door. I don’t know for sure if it was a ’65 or a ’66, but it must have been a hardtop not a sedan, because I remember it being the most sleek and beautiful thing on four wheels. I can’t tell you what the other kids’ parents drove, but I remember that big Poncho vividly.
Big, hippy and voluptuous, the big Pontiacs of those two years are like rolling Amazons. Maybe that’s why so many men (and boys) are attracted to them.
I’m loving those hips! Nice find, Tom!
to quote SpinalTap: ‘How can I leave this behind’?
Pontiac’s from this era had some handsome exterior lines. I also think they featured the most handsome dashes of all the GM lineup; heads and shoulders above Cadillac.
Ah, the Pontiac dashboard, with the big “Catalina” in cursive script on the glovebox door… the honest-to-goodness battery gauge instead of an idiot light… the gigantic ashtray that rolled in and out on ball bearings… The shiny chrome un-ergonomic gear selector… That horizontal speedometer that went all the way up to 120… I”m missing my ’66 Pontiac. The only thing I didn’t like was the little blank-out panel with the Pontiac emblem on it, to cover the spot where the clock would be on a higher-trimmed model. My obnoxious brother used to always say that it was the gauge that kept me updated on what kind of car I had.
“that it was the gauge that kept me updated on what kind of car I had.”
Ha! “Yes, you are still driving a Pontiac.” I love it. By the 80s, they could have done it via synthetic voice, playing each time you started the car. 🙂
The “Catalina” script (or Bonneville in all caps, as in my ’66 that I drove for 18 years until ’92) was not on the glove box door, but on the big fixed plastic panel just above it.
Yeah, that’s right! I guess the memory has faded a bit. I’m gettin’ old…
Look at the hips on that baby! I’m in lust! 😛
Yes I’ve always been in love with this car. The Most Beautiful Pontiac.
1965 was indeed the best year for American cars. It may have been the best year for America period.
Again… yet again… nary a site of curb feelers.
Such a beautiful car, from any angle….back in the days where styling didn’t stop at the front header panel!!
The inop outer brake lights would drive me nuts if it were mine though.
Rte 236 is Little River Turnpike in Annandale, VA. I’m surprised this car never showed up at Cars and Coffee in Great Falls or at the Sully Plantation on Father’s Day. It’s a stunning piece.
Wow. Good eye. Upon closer inspection, that looks like Wakefield Chapel Rd. right next to Northern Virginia Community College. I wonder if the driver is a student there.
I wish I had a cool car like that when I was in college.
Location correctly identified, but after this the driver headed west towards Fairfax. I first spotted the “classic car in rush hour” along Braddock Road and caught up to it at the stoplight, but didn’t follow as I had other responsibilities.
From 1959 through the end of the 60’s Pontiac had hit after hit – looks, performance, engineering (well, some of it didn’t work but at least was innovative, e.g., the early Tempests). My personal favorites among the big ones are the 1963 and 1967 Grand Prixes – for the former, I’ll take one in midnight blue, for the latter, one of the rare convertibles in burgundy, please. The Bonnies for just about every year were terrific as well – with this one being among the most handsome.
Never had a large Pontiac, but my first car was a 65 Tempest. Worn and tired, teal and primer in color. All I wanted to do was replace it with a Mustang or something more economical. Strange, though, that it was much more pleasant to drive than anything I ever auditioned to replace it. I had finally made up my mind to sink some money in it, do a valve job or more to the engine, maybe a paint job. I was on my way home from work one night and it met an untimely death by getting hit in the left corner by a Plymouth Road Runner, driven by an uninsured idiot. The night this happened, I had parked at work by a parking lot light and was admiring the attractive lines and telling myself I had made the right decision.
*sigh*
My Dad was a Ford man so we had no Pontiacs (he did allow me to drive VWs in those days and later was one of the first to buy a Datsun but that’s another story). However, lots of friends and family had them and many were Tempests and I got to drive a lot of them, a real pleasure. A good friend bought new Tempests in 1963 and 1966, a Custom and then a Lemans. Both 326 +automatic. That was a fine engine and could really move that car along nicely. An elderly great aunt’s last car was a new 66 Tempest coupe with the OHC 6 – great little car. Then there was my best friend’s new 69 GTO – we were on top of the world cruising around in that fine machine. Really miss those cars.
My parents’ friend was a Pontiac dealer and we had two new ’65 Bonnevilles at the same time – I’m on vacation or would scan & post a photo – a white air-conditioned wagon with blue interior (there were no three-row Bonneville wagons that year, although the ’67 Executive wagon that replaced it was a three-row) and a slate-blue convertible. We only had the convertible a few years, but it was influential; I chose a ’66 Bonneville convertible when looking for a used car as an 18-year-old in ’74. Unfortunately such a huge car, after many years of deterioration, was impossibly huge (in several ways) as a restoration project and I sold it, along with parts-car pieces, more than 20 years ago; I wonder whether it ever was fixed up. I’d want the wagon again, certainly – the most beautiful wagon ever made.
So beautiful, certainly right up there with my all-time favorites! You can see the rear lights had 3 segments on each side in the ’65 Bonneville. IIRC, there were supposed to be taillight bulbs in all 3 segments, and brake lights in the outer and inner segments.
The mid 1960’s GM cars were a high water mark for style. Pontiacs were the best of the bunch. While the ’65-’66 big cars were great, my favorite is the ’66 intermediate Tempest/LeMans/GTO.