Of all the 1977-1990 GM B-bodies, from a brand perspective, the Pontiacs are the rarest. Never as popular as their Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, and Buick cousins, the B-body Pontiacs had the smallest annual production totals, leading to their hiatus from the U.S. market for 1982 and most of 1983. Despite their proportional rarity, is it merely coincidence that I keep encountering silver Pontiac B-bodies?
Just as a refresh, back in 2015 I came across this well-kept 1985 Parisienne Brougham at a car show. Call it a born-again-Brougham, the Parisienne Brougham was car sporting overwrought styling trimmings fast becoming dated and blasé.
In 2016, I stumbled upon this well-worn out silver 1978 Bonneville in an underground parking garage in downtown Boston. I was even skeptical to whether or not it was even in up and running condition.
Yet having parked in the same garage several times since then, I’ve came across it again in the very same spot, and as of February 2018 it sports an up to date inspection sticker indicating it is indeed mechanically running and up to Massachusetts safety and emissions standards.
Most recently, I came up behind this very similar silver 1979 Bonneville on Route 3. Being driven rather erratically if I might add, making me question its driver’s state of being, it surely caught my attention as for a moment I thought it was the same ’78 from Boston.
That one of course had green Massachusetts plates and this one’s taillight clusters date it as a ’79. Nevertheless, I seem to have a likelihood for coming across silver 1977-1986 B-body Pontiacs. When will the next one cross my path?
Photographed: Hanover, Massachusetts – September 2018
Related Reading:
1978 Pontiac Bonneville Brougham (2016)
I could think of worse superpowers than being able to tune into the last B body Pontiacs. Not many, though. ☺
I realize that I am in the minority here but I find these Pontiacs so much more satisfying than the Chevys. Yes, the chrome detailing is a little much in places, but the sculpting and the wheel opening shapes just work better for me.
This car showed that even in the late 70s GM was having trouble finding enough space in the market to have room for 4 flavors of this car.
My neighbor across the block back when I lived in Little Flower had a decently preserved but immobilized Parisienne in her driveway, I was half tempted to inquire about it. I was always impressed with how many old fullsize BOF GM sedans I’d see still doing daily duty on Indy’s East side. Often times in some state of donk-conversion, the most common half-way-done version was a lift kit and really fat sidewall tires and black steel wheels, but the owner was still saving up for paint and huge wheels.
Earlier this summer I snapped a pic of this early (77-79?) Box on my way down Keystone Ave. I think it captures the car-scape of the era well, the LX-platform Chargers taking the place of hood-cruisers from the B-bodies.
Loving the aftermarket rimz on the white Charger. Prepping it for the BHPH lot already. What a way to ruin a good looking car.
It is funny how in our area these GM B/C/D body cars have been almost universal in where and in what condition they are found. Until fairly recently they were found in areas of almost any demographic you could name. Just the other day I saw an elderly lady leaving the grocery store in a fabulously beautiful 83-84-ish Buick Electra 225 that I am guessing she has owned since new. It looks as good as anything you or I might be driving. And then there are the ones beaten to within an inch of their lives but are still getting someone to work every day, and those sitting in yards awaiting love and money that will probably never come.
The Pontiac Parisienne: The first serious indication that GM had too many brands, and needed to stop listening to dealer complaints so closely.
Imagine where Pontiac could have been if they had kept to the original plan (downsizing the Bonneville) but de-broughaming the lineup instead. Except that the dealers would have screamed even louder, because they can’t see past this week’s sales total.
Can I concur!
The Pontiac G3 and G5 (read: “Aveo and Cobalt with a split grill”) were a DIRECT result of dealer complaints. I was in the advertising business at the time and had a large multi-line GM dealer as a client. They perceived a higher average transaction price (ATP) from offering a Pontiac version as well as the Chevies.
That said, I think it’s a wonder Pontiac kept a distinct identity as long as it did. How many executives might have come through there completely blind to the history, or more importantly, why the “fancy Chevy” position worked in Canada but not in the USA.
I’ve said this before: after 1982, there’s not a single Pontiac that couldn’t have been repurposed as a Chevy.
Maybe the Fiero. I’ll allow for that one.
But Bonneville could’ve been given Chevy styling cues and become the Impala while Caprice remained on the B platform. The 2004-06 GTO screamed “Chevelle” (and some aftermarket company even created one!) although in the same breath I’ll give GM props for making the G8 look more like a Poncho. Yet in my mind, the Chevrolet SS is a recent validation of this point.
Now that Pontiac is gone, Chevrolet seems to have expanded in their direction. More reviews have suggested that Sonic, Cruze and now, even Malibu are either fun to drive or approach fun. Not quite a Mazda but better riding than a Mazda.
Sound a little like Pontiac?
Dealers. I really don’t like them.
If one can say that dealers were the reason for the badge engineered models, the only reason they had that power was due to the silly rules that keep consumers from buying cars and trucks directly from manufacturers. Had consumers been able to buy direct from GM, we would probably see just 2 or 3 brands. Chevrolet, for mainline, GMC, for trucks, and Cadillac, for luxury. There would probably be more distinct models and engineering based on where they fall in price rather than filling a niche for a dealer.
As much as I don’t really like Tesla, I love their sales model. I also like the idea that Volvo and a few others are floating via subscription. They are offering the car as a service. One monthly payment covers car, insurance, and maintenance. If the car goes into the shop, another one replaces it. Then, at the end of the subscription, the subscriber can renew and get a new car, truck, or SUV, and the old vehicle goes off to the secondary (used) market. Dealerships get the maintenance contracts for the vehicles under subscription, so they make money on the service end. They can also sell the used ones. Really, it makes much more sense.
JFrank, you just hit something I’ve never thought about. Why to we have to buy new cars from dealers? Why can’t we just buy directly from the manufacturers…?
Because dealerships have lots of political clout, and in fact many state legislators are car dealers.
Also I believe every state enacted franchise protection laws eons ago which give a franchise holder a lot of leverage against the franchisor/manufacturer. This recognizes that a franchise holder can invest scads of money into a business but is still very much beholden to a manufacturer. These laws were put into place to level the playing field between the two. Unfortunately in an era when direct or online selling is happening to everyone those laws tend to promote the status quo rather than help move everyone to a more modern system.
Same reason beer, wine, and liquor has to go through distributors. Legislation was written. That would imply that dealer associations have better friends in your state and federal congressional districts than the average consumer does.
In the end, dealerships make almost all profit off of two things: service and used cars. New cars carry little to no profit, other than from financing. The dealer makes money on servicing a car under warranty, and then in selling used cars for way more than they paid for it. Plus financing on a used car. Real salesmen work the used lot as that is where the margin really is, which is why the sleazy used car salesman stereotype is often true.
Allow someone to buy direct, and have a service department nearby that takes care of warranty issues, and see how much better it would be. New cars would be ordered to spec, allowing it to be matched to exactly what one wants, not what is on the lot. Financing would be a challenge for those with credit challenges, but perhaps a little restraint in financing would be a good thing. The downside is that it would take about 6 weeks to take delivery, but the wait would be worth it for most.
As much as I don’t like dealers, I also like knowing that every dollar I pay is making that car a little more “mine” with each passing month. I get to have my name on that title. I can’t stand the idea of “cars as service”. I guess folks of my generation don’t care about that though. Everything is replaceable. Why make an attachment to your car when you can just “borrow” another one when the going gets rough? I paid for the extra insurance on my new Mazda because I wanted peace of mind. If they were to offer me another Mazda3 and fix mine for someone else to drive? Oh hell no. It may be just a month in my possession, but it’s got my new steering wheel cover, my handcuffs in the rearview, my little speed sticker below the badge… Things I picked for MY car. I’m looking forward to the memories I get to make with it.
I paid for the extra insurance on my new Mazda because I wanted peace of mind. If they were to offer me another Mazda3 and fix mine for someone else to drive? Oh hell no.
I can’t make sense of this comment of yours. What “extra insurance” did you buy? And you think a dealer would let another client take home your car as a loaner if it was in the shop? Boy, that would create some potential issues if any shop tried to do that.
Or am I misunderstanding you?
Meaning, lets say my car was one of these “pay as go” cars, and it wasn’t really mine. I really don’t like the idea of it. I’d happily take a loner, but my point was, at the end of the day I would want my car back.
I bought the extended bumper to bumper warranty for the next seven years or 100,000 miles.
I don’t want to belabor the point, but I’m not sure what you mean by “pay as you go cars”. The only thing I know of like that would be a rental. A leased car is essentially “yours” for the duration of the lease; if you get it repaired or serviced, you absolutely get the same car back. I don’t know of any scenario where “your car” would be given to someone else to drive, and you’d be given another car to drive, except at a rental car company. But that gets a bit expensive for the longer haul. 🙂
Pioneer Fox, you are correct, subscription cars would be much less personal. However, it isnt much different from leasing, and many, many people care almost nothing about their cars. I didn’t say it was good for the enthusiast or everyone, but a subscription model is ideal for the great majority of people driving new cars, trucks, and SUVs.Plus, as with a lease, at the end of the subscription, you would almost certainly have the option of purchasing the vehicle outright if you really want it. People do that with leases. It gives all the benefits of ownership without the full price of ownership being financed up front. Plus, if you hate the car, you turn it in for another one.
Extra insurance on a Mazda 3? Have to go into my purchase but when offered I turned it down knowing what I know of the 3.
By the end (2009), with Pontiac Buick GMC as one dealer entity and Chevrolet and Cadillac as stand alone franchises (if desired), Pontiac and Buick could have differentiated themselves further. I say “could” as the whole scheme really didn’t get a chance to unfold and we have no idea how dealers would have reacted. I have a feeling that they still would have insisted upon “an Aveo with a split grille”, to get into that entry level market.
At the time GM had enough cars worldwide (if they could federalize them) would have given B-P-GMC different small cars than Chevrolet. I would have loved to have seen an Opel Adam come to the US as a Mini (and Fiat 500) competitor. No such luck.
Little would have changed with Great Financial Crisis and the Automotive Task Force making their recommendations. In their haste (IMO) to “fix” the situation, GM was forced to cut off their arm and Chrysler was fire-saled.
I agree, by the early 80’s, Pontiac dealers were mainly competing with Chevy stores and not bringing new blood to GM. The ’77-’81 Bonneville had character, but Parisienne was like the T1000, a “me too Chev-iac”.
At least the ’87 H body Bonneville had some character, compared to LeSabre/88.
I did (and do) rather like these big Pontiacs, but Syke is right. Was there ever really enough demand for a Chevrolet, Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac version of exactly the same car? Okay, not exactly the same car, but imagine if the money spent attempting to differentiate between them had been spent increasing the quality of the interior materials. Suggesting getting rid of the differentiations points out the absurdity of having four identical cars under different badges, so the next logical step is to eliminate two of the four name plates. This begs the question of whether it would have been cheaper (and better for GM) in the long run to have spent the money to kill Pontiac and Oldsmobile (although since I don’t speak Chinese, I’d have killed Buick instead) since history tells us they ended up having to do it anyway.
Ah, well, back to the point. I did think these big Pontiacs were good looking.
In the 60’s, when Pontiac was #3 brand, their full sized models sold well. But, this was when GM did a good job with differentiation.
Some [who were not alive back then] will say “why did they have duplication?”, but it worked from the 1920’s until the 80’s, when they watered down the brands.
I post this link in past but its worthy to share it again. For avarage person I think these two cars looks the same, despite its two brands. Still Pontiacs are rare in my country, I know only two B-body, 79 and 86 model year being used locally.
https://picasaweb.google.com/112030719289354524886/ParisienneCaprice2broughams?noredirect=1#6048667473427981570
I enjoyed my ’79 back in the late eighties. Took it over after my grandfather died – no one else wanted it. Rather a change after years of Chevette driving. Loved having a car with fender skirts.
I will join your minority view here – I think that the fender skirts work very well on these.
I thought that the 1985s looked too much like a Chevy in the front to even be allowed to claim itself to be a Pontiac. Also I thought the taillights on the 1978s to be rather clunky looking.
I did however admire the 1987-91s. A friend had one in grey and it was quite nice in profile. This pic of an ’89 is from the ‘net.
My Pop had an ’87 SE in black with grey leather interior, and it was a handsome car. Best of the H-Bodies in my opinion.
I used to think the original H body ones were ugly when I was a kid but I think they look pretty nice now.
That is quite a find on the road. I literally can’t remember the last time I’ve seen one of these Bonnies, on the road or otherwise.
Back in the day, I used to love to see them, as I was a big fan of the downsized GM B- and C-Bodies. There were a few of these Bonnevilles in my neighborhood as a kid: one was a ’79 sedan which sported the very handsome “snowflake” wheels, the other a ’77 sedan with the crazy striped “Valencia” interior. Love them or hate them, these Bonnevilles did have character and still managed to look different than their corporate siblings despite many common components.
Find one of these Pontiac unicorns! This is as rare as any B body gets from this generation. Canada only. One year only for the coupe, I believe. Not many sold.
Maybe a unicorn now, but back in the late seventies/early eighties these Bonnies were all over the place (at least in the Baltimore Metro area, anyway).
My Dad had an ’80 2-door coupe. Of the ’77-’79 sub-generation, the ’78’s taillights were my favorite, which is why I wished my Dad had bought an ’81 (same look) instead.
Even the ’82> downsized ones (aka LeMans with an new nameplate) were well represented in Baltimore. What I did not see a lot of were the late ’84 and up Parisiennes; by then, the car looked de-contented compared to the broughamier earlier models. Most folks around here just got the Chevy, Buick, or Olds B-Bodies by then instead.
I do recall the first Parisienne I ever saw though, and this may’ve been the biggest unicorn of all. I was walking out of a 7-Eleven and spotted one that had just pulled up in front of the store, done up in Maryland State Police livery. At the time Maryland’s finest were using the B-Body Impala or Caprice, but a Pontiac? It was like something out of an old Jackie Gleason movie…
I was talking about the specific 1982 Parisienne coupe that was a one year only model for Canada only. It used the Impala coupe bodyshell. I think only 1500 or so were made before the plug was pulled on the coupe. I would say that only a handful remain. I would say that made it a unicorn when new as well!
Methinks that subliminally you actually want one of these things. In silver obviously. Otherwise your mind wouldn’t keep pointing them out to you. Maybe you should just get two, one for parts. Start leaving notes with your BC on windshields, maybe you’ll get one traded in and double end the whole deal. 🙂
The psychoanalysis aside (I was a psych minor in college, lots of girls in the program), I’m finally warming up to these and B-bodies in general. I think I like the rectangularity of them and all the gingerbread isn’t bad either, it sort of works as a whole. Silver with a red/burgundy interior? I’ll take a ride when you get one!
I’m bothered by the grille on these, Pontiac and Oldsmobile seemed to have an internal struggle in the design studio about who should have a split grille, and even who should have a marker light between headlights, but the vertical slats Pontiac began using on the already boxy 1978+ Bonnevile blatantly channel the ‘70 442 grille. I don’t necessarily dislike the look mind you (I prefer it to the 77) but it really represented how inherently limited the sheer look is when trying to spread it across 5 divisions. I’m not crazy about the taillights and trim either, GM cars from this time period physically aged worse than anything they ever built. The tinny chrome moldings used everywhere oxidized to dull grey and unless meticulously cared for, building up a grime at the edges giving the cars a perpetually dingy and dilapidated appearance. Something every example featured has (minus the Parisienne).
“Pontiac and Oldsmobile seemed to have an internal struggle in the design studio about who should have a split grille”
True, look at the last 1999 H body Olds 88, it has a what I call a “Bonneville grille”.
Also, when Bob Lutz removed cladding from the last 2003-05 Grand Ams, they had Alero ‘swoops’ underneath.
Pontiac had the split grille in 1959 and used it fairly consistently after that. I remember when the 1985 Grand Am was released that the rags implied the grille mimicked BMW’s grille too closely. But, previous to that and long after, they had that split grille…
Oldsmobile started using their own split grille about 10 years after that, starting with the facelifted 68 Toronado, and from then on Olds and Pontiac styling seemed inverted. Particularly the full size line, 70s Deltas looked more like Pontiacs than Bonnevilles/Grand Villes, and vice versa. Maybe not so coincidentally sales shifted in Oldsmobile’s favor too.
And true, Pontiac didn’t abandon the split grille but it got highly toned down during the 70s, to the point of the split just being a thin chrome divider in the center of an otherwise single piece grille assembly. They even went with a cross hair motif at some point(which continued onto the H body Bonneville). The 85 Grand Am was notable at the time because for nearly 5 preceding years there wasn’t a Pontiac made with a prominent split grille with a body colored divider. Maybe the BMW connotation is unfair given Pontiac’s history, but the grille’s effective revival in the mid-80s when BMW was the “it” brand didn’t go unnoticed by critics of the time.
The other fairly consistent difference os that the Olds grille was always split by a fairly wide rectangular center while the Pontiac was most often seen (especially later) with a split in the shape of a tall and narrow triangle.
My Dad had a light green 1977 Bonneville Brougham, 301 V8. It was the first four door sedan I ever recall him having, having a long preference for two doors. It was very pokey vs the ’74 Grand Prix it replaced, but was impressive with its room, extreme quiet, and well-balanced ride and handling… for the time, of course.
I like these Pontiacs! As a classic auto collector and love cars in general 2 years ago I bought All Original 1977 Pontiac Bonneville 2 door coupe its base non brougham model brown exterior with cream color landau top and beige cloth interior has 8100 original miles with all documentation and manuals! 350 4b, tilt steering, power windows, factory am/ fm radio, factory ac just a beauty from the past!
In case you didn’t notice from the photos of the article, one of the peculiarities of Boston area traffic is legal breakdown Lane travel on certain highways during certain hours. I have reason to drive down there soon, which I dread. The place is nuts.