Today’s images were posted at the Cohort by nifticus392. Now, when you look at these pictures, do you see a nice Acadian? Or a weird Chevy II?
If you see a weird Chevy II, you may need to get the lowdown on this GM of Canada product from one of our previous posts:
Cohort Outtake: Why It’s An Acadian Canso Sport, Obviously, Along Some Other Cheviacs.
Cohort Pic(k) Of The Day: 1963 Acadian Beaumont – My First Introduction To Mutant Chevys
It may be my taste in style, but why do I find so often the Canadian styled versions of the U.S. car to be more attractive – specially in the 50’s and 60’s.?
Canada got triple not just two tone paint options which I feel work well with 50s cars.
I’m not feeling that with this car; the fake louvers on the front fender and the overwrought rear fascia are worse than the clean US version. The front grille does have a bit of interest.
The back end looks like it was lifted off a Ford Fairlane.
Also I don’t get why they tried to make Acadian a brand of its own. Had they stuck the Pontiac name on it, more success and longevity may have been seen.
As a kid I couldn’t pronounce the name, so I called these an “Ack-a-Dan.”
Both the Ford and GM Canadian products always struck me as having strange and unnecessary little bits of trim put there just for the sake of differentiation. In the above example, the grille looks good, I can easily see it as a runner-up choice to what that year’s Chevy II got. However the gill-slits behind the headlamps looks absolutely Pep Boys and detracts from the car.
On the rear end, the taillights work just fine. What they’ve done to the trunk like is a bit overdone, but not badly so, at least it doesn’t look as cheap and tacked on as the front fender treatment, and you need to do something to differentiate the rear from it’s American counterpart.
The fender gills do indeed look silly. The Mercurish taillights, however, are tastefully different from the U.S. versions. Or were these a design result of some sort of Commonwealth solidarity?
HR Holden similar not the same as a kid when my dad bought one of those I saw the lower details up close it was his first Holden and a giant leap backwards from the car he traded but he wanted a wagon and the place he worked had just become a Holden store so thats what he got. That model was a hasty redesign of the detroit designed previous model that set records for their ability to rust due to lots of unvented panels.
Beautifully equipped and beautifully maintained. This 2nd generation of Chevy II had a distinctly foreign flavor, more like GM’s Euro models, so it was especially fit for the Canadian treatment.
Those Euro GM cars (Opel, etc.) were influenced by this generation Chevy II, not the other way around. They look American; this does not look European at all.
Beyond everything else, it would be great fun to drive this around and answer questions with “It’s an Acadian Canso”, and then wait for the follow-ups, if any. I sense that this one would often dumbfound people here in the lower 48.
OK I know what the car is a friend on Waiheke island goes cruising with a friend of hers who has one I’ve seen pics of it, VERY rare here and her car is street rodded so has none of the tinsel and IMH opinion looks better but the same two door hardtop body maybe its just a lesser model.
I like this one .
-Nate
I see a lot of Opel in that front end. However, the rest of the trim differences from the standard Chevy II come across as rather fussy.
US spec cars did get 3 tone paint in the 50s. My folks had a ’56 Ford Convertible with 3 different blues on it.
While far from an expert on 60’s domestic cars, but with some knowledge, I see Pontiac more than Chevy at least on the nose.
Was there an Acadian version of the legendary 1966 Nova SS that came with the Corvette’s L79 327/350hp engine?
If so, that would be an interesting car.
The L79 was available in Canada in 1966. AFAIK not in 1967.
IIRC Chevelle, Chevy II, and their Acadian variants went down the same assembly line in Oshawa.