(first posted 9/16/2015) When I was a kid, I stumbled into an Acadian in Iowa once, and I thought I was having some sort of mild seizure or epileptic attack. But…but…that’s…a Chevy II! Why does it have that strange split grille and all that weird badging? Acadian? Invader? Then I noticed the Canadian plates, and I eventually figured out that Canada does GM cars a bit differently. Here’s more proof of that.
What I saw was one of these earlier Acadians; a ’62 or ’63 Invader. The Acadian was obviously a Chevy II badge-engineered so that Canada’s large Pontiac-Buick dealer group had a compact to sell, as the Tempest was off-limits, due to restrictions of the APTA agreements between the US and Canada. Since the Chevy II was made in canada (the Tempest wasn’t), the solution was…this.
And starting with 1964, the top of the line, analogous to the Nova, was called the Canso. And the Sport was obviously one half of the Super Sport; the better half. I don’t know if the Canadian Cansos got the same wide engine palette as the US Chevy II did, from the 153 four all the way to the 275hp 327.
nifticus posted some other fine Canadian Pontiacs, so let’s take a quick gander. This is a 1966 Beaumont Sport Deluxe. When the 1964 Chevelle came along, the Baeumont name, which had been the top (Nova-equivalent) trim of the Acadian line, was split off and applied to the larger Chevelle-based line. By 1966, the Acadian name was gone, and Beaumont became its own brand, so to speak. This convertible is presumably analogous to the Chevelle Malibu SS (if it has buckets). Well, except that there was no “plain” ’66 Malibu SS, only the SS396. So it’s either on of those. Or something in between. Or something like that.
Speaking of 396s, this 1968 Pontiac Grand Parisienne sports a Chevy 396 under it long, beaked hood. Since “true” Canadian Pontiacs were based on Chevy underpinnings and drivetrains (“Cheviacs”), the 396 was what one got if one wanted something a bit punchier than a 307? Or SBC 350? Still not enough? The 427 was also available, And this Parisienne sat on a Chevy 119″ wb frame, not the 121″ US Catalinas had. Oh, those poor deprived Canadians.
But doesn’t this fine ’65 Parisienne Sport convertible look good just a wee bit shorter? The later Pontiac Rallye wheels and beefy tires sure help too. I’m not sure if the 396 was introduced in Canada as a mid-year change too, but the Chevy 409 would have been the beefiest engine on tap until the 396/427 appeared.
So are the 2″ of missing wheelbase at the front? That’s what it looks like to me. Which means Pontiac had to tool up a whole new front clip for all of the these Cheviacs.
One last Cheviac: a 1960 Laurentian. In this case, the Chevy underpinnings make themselves more noticeable; or should I say less so, as these are lacking the distinctive US-Pontiac ‘Wide-Track’ stance.
I love these odd cars for Canada, specially when they have their own brand names. And the Acadian is special to me because it was also built in Chile! I’d love to see a the face of a Canadian car nut when visiting Chile and finding an Acadian… Although it’s very hard to see them nowadays.
If you want to know more about the Chilean Acadian, I translated a Chilean article on them, here: http://ripituc.blogspot.cl/2011/04/acadian-beaumont-made-in-chile-from.html
Beautiful looking car. I like the divided grille of the Beaumont Acadia. It makes our Pontiac grilles look less than attractive. I like the 1967 Beaumont Sport Deluxe. While it looks like a Chevelle, the grille makes the front end way more attractive than that of the Chevelle. 🙂
Yup, as I’ve mentioned this all looks perfectly normal to me. My first car ride was in a 60 Pontiac in Ma’s arms on the way home from the hospital.
As a kid we could never figure out how to pronounce Beaumont. Was it Bow-mont or Boo-mont, or Byew-mont?
Eventually we decided to pronounce it wrong on purpose, and upon seeing one would say “hey look at that bow-tiful byew-mont!”
… and don’t forget the Canadian Chrysler oddities, like the Plodge (Dodge front on Plymouth body). For some reason for a while we got Exner Plodges in Israel and not “real” Dodges; my father had one with the 250 ci side valve which I loved dearly. Only found out about its true origin many years later – not that it should make any difference, almost 50 years later, it remains a COAL for me….
I think getting Plodges instead of ‘real’ Dodges was standard for export markets. In the earlier fifties, we got Plodges in Australia. Then Chrysler Australia came up with the Chrysler Royal – a really bodged Plodge!
THose were exported to NZ to really confuse the issue we had Plodges real American imports and Royals quite a few Royals became ambulamces a couple survive.
I would enjoy living in Canada if they just has a little longer summer and shorter winter. Lived in Newfoundland in 65-66 and loved it. These Canadian Cheviacs went right over my head and that is probably because in our little corner of the island the cars had been mostly imported by servicemen. St. Johns (the capital) was 90 MIles of bad road from Argentia (the Navy base). I did ride in one cheviac quite frequently during submarine school in 66 as there were two Canadians attending with me. One drove a BelAir Cheviac.
Sometimes laws make for silly situations. When I came back to the states I bought a 66 VW 1300 Beetle. There were 1200s for sale in the same showroom that were identical except for the numbers on the back and the engine. It had the venerable 1200 that stopped being imported in 65. Considerably cheaper and if I had been staying for a couple more years I might have bought it instead. Differences were the high seatbacks and the seatbelts. Not smog control for the engine that one might imagine. Your article denoting the reason for the difference in the chevy/pontiac product in enlightening. Good story.
Well, Lee, sounds like the mild climate of Vancouver Island would suit you perfectly!
I sure loved it when I was there. We drove to Vancouver when we took the cruise to Alaska in 2002. When the ship returned to Vancouver we drove east and then down through Montana. Have to say that the western mountains were just as beautiful as I have ever seen. Vancouver was mild but the relief at that time was from summer heat, not winter cold.
Was shadowed by someone in law enforcement for several miles as we got closer to Albertville (IIRC). It turns out President Bush and a bunch of other bigwigs were meeting near the old olympic ground. My Texas tags drew attention from them. We pulled over at a roadside park and our shadow came over to talk to us. Military or Law Enforcement through and through. Guess he decided that a couple old folks weren’t a danger to the free world. We had no idea what was going on till the next day when someone told us why the skies were full of helicopters.
They were stripped down Beetles sold in the Canadian market for those who didn’t want the expense of the regular Beetle. The early ones were known as the Canadian Standard then later as the Canadian Custom. The later ones got closer and closer to the US spec cars as the years went on. I touched on it here in my COAL for a ’62 Canadian Standard. https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-european/my-ex-curbside-classic-1962-volkswagen-beetle-canadian-standard-another-canadian-market-oddball/
This explains why I’ve never seen an early Tempest, I never knew they weren’t available here. I’ve seen many Acadians and Beaumonts though.
When you look into the history of the Acadian Expulsion in Maritime Canada, the name “Invader” seems a little inappropriate. Not sure many people made that connection.
Wow, they really wanted to make sure it was well known these were Canadian models. The Acadian was named after Acadia, the original French name for the maritime provinces (of which Nova Scotia is a part of.) It’s funny that the top model was the Canso, a town on Cape Breton Island, in Nova Scotia. Hell, it was based upon the Nova. I see what they did there…
Thanks for that. I was aware of these Canadian cars, but always wondered what the names meant.
I don’t know what the model name is/was, but in the late 90s I saw 2 or 3 (Canadian?) Pontiac Corsicas. About that time I started seeing these Beaumonts and Acadians in Hot Rod-type magazines. I never really understood why GM came up with these different cars for such a small market, thanks for the explanation.
I have seen 1 or 2 Plodges on E-bay over the years. Amazing how well the front of a Plymouth (seems to) work on a Dodge.
And then there’s Ford Meteor brand of cars. Like these “customized” Chevys, the Meteors were USUALLY modified Fords…but sometimes modified Mercurys.
They were called Pontiac Tempests. The reason for these “low priced” Pontiacs to exist in the Canadian market was to give Pontiac-Buick dealers a low priced car. Dealers in Canada sometimes had to cover large areas, but with a sparse population. Canadians generally bought cheaper cars, and the low priced vehicles were a much larger percentage of the market share. Pontiac was traditionally more on par with the low priced makes in Canada. This is the same reason Ford sold the low priced Meteor through Mercury-Lincoln dealers.
Pontiac Tempest. Very lightly re-badged Corsica.
Looks a little slicker than the corsicas sold here for sure. Wonder if the Beretta had a Canadian variant with a similar treatment?
I didn’t realize the Corsica was that much cheaper than a Grand Am.
I’ve seen a couple of those in the States, despite the fact that I’m well south of the Canadian border…
Yes, I always thought it was confusing, that GM offered Canadian Pontiac dealers a clone to the Chevy Corsica from 1987-1991. That must have been confusing for the car buyer, to have both the Tempest, and the N-body Grand Am sedans to consider. Here’s another pic.
As shown on my photo, Canadians actually might have an easier choice for this compact market. The GM FWD L-Bodied Pontiac Tempest might appeal towards shoppers who were looking for a much upscale compact model might choose the Tempest. The GM FWD N-Bodied Pontiac Grand Am might be more the preference of a budget minded shoppers who just wanted a right size no frills car just to use for everyday driving. The Tempest at 183.4″ long was a bit larger than the Grand Am’s 177.” long but nevertheless both models share the same wheelbase and chassis so it can be said that the Tempest was a size compromise between the Grand Am and the 6000 Sedans. If someone wanted a two door coupe’ version, the only choice the buyers had were the Grand Am since the Chevrolet Beretta based coupe’ Pontiac had not offered. Unless they chose the Chevrolet Beretta coupe’ or even the larger but different GM FWD W-Bodied Pontiac Grand Prix coupe’.
Ford had two companion brands in Canada. The Monarch which was a Mercury body sold at Ford dealerships. The Meteor which was a Ford body and sold at Mercury dealerships for most of its life. It disappeared when the midsize Meteor appeared, came back much as before and then eventually became a Mercury model rather than a different brand.
There was also the one year wonder Frontenac.
Yup which from my understanding was available to both Ford-Monarch and Mercury-Meteor dealers from the pictures of dealership signs I’ve seen from the period.
We got Cheviacs here Canada being a British commonwealth country attracted less tax on imports so our CKD packs originated there, Commonality of parts helped too no reason to stock parts for another drivetrain when Chevy parts could be used on everything.
Cheviacs, regular Chevys and Pontiacs and the Acadian could be seen in Lendrums the London GM dealer in the 60s. We would often call in on a trip to London. My brother snapped a blue Laurentian at a car show in Australia a few years ago
Yours were more-Cheviac-than-Cheviacs. The Canadian-market cars always shared the current US-market Pontiac dash (at least up to ’77) as did LHD export cars; RHD cars used the Chevy dash of the first year of the model cycle (’59, ’61, 65 to be sure, maybe earlier and later as well) since RHD volumes were low.
Never knew about these before, I really dig the looks of the Beaumont. These remind me of the non licenced cars used in Grand Theft Auto games.
I remember as a kid seeing Acadians and Beaumonts in central FL in the late ’60s, mostly belonging to snowbirds who came down for the winter. I wondered whether they were oddly customized Chevy IIs and Chevelles – it took me a while to figure out that they were Canadian cars. Beaumonts had Pontiac dashboards and interiors and the hot version was called SD 396. I also remember seeing Grand Parisienne four-door hardtops with Grand Prix hidden headlights (’67-’68) and grilles.
The 1966 Beaumont Sport Deluxe was just a trim package option for the Beaumont Custom. The package included bucket seats, console, fake louvres on the fenders and other trim. Like early Impala SS cars, this option could be spec out with any engine including the six. In 1967, the 396 became standard, mirroring the Chevelle SS396. Later cars were labelled SD-396. Another interesting fact, the Beaumonts used Pontiac Tempest dashboards. The Beaumont lasted until the 1969 model year, when American Pontiacs started to be imported in 1970.
As far as the engines, the Canadian Pontiacs pretty well mirrored the Chevrolet engine offerings. The Acadian could have been ordered with the 350 hp 327 in 1966 or the 275 hp version in 1967. I’d imagine there were few takers and even fewer survivors.
Nope, the 396 wasn’t standard in ’67. You could get it but most were 283 Powerglides. There were even 6s around. In ’68 the 396 was standard and we got the big block hood as well.
That’s when the SD 396 moniker came along.
Some time in the middle of ’67 our unique Malibu SS, which was available with any Chevelle engine, was replaced by the Chevelle SS396 which was identical to the US version (and likely built there). But the Beaumont Sport Deluxe was always the more desirable car to us Canuck gearheads.
Nice catch, that was a typo on my part it should have read 1968 not 1967 for the 396 becoming standard. I was just trying to share with others that the early sport deluxe cars was essentially a trim package. Paul seemed to not really understand how 1966 Sport Deluxe compared to the US counterpart, so I posted the aforementioned info.
They did build SS Chevelles in Oshawa too, in fact the 1970 Canada SS Chevelles had a slightly different grille than the US built counterparts. The Canadian grille was all black while the US grille had the body coloured line in the center.
I attached a photo of a 1968 Chevelle SS396 body tag built in Oshawa.
Once in a while I’d see a Mercury pick up as a kid and though it was just a “Senior” brother to a Ford, like GMC/Chevrolet. Then my grandfather explained the whole Canadian / US car situation to me. I’ve been fascinated by the Canadian variants since!
As a little kid in the 1950’s I was totally car crazy and could identify practically every U.S. car at a glance. My young jaw dropped on a family vacation to Canada in 1957 or so (in our 1953 Pontiac Chieftain) when I spotted what I though was another 1953 Pontiac, but it had 1953 Chevrolet tailights! Peeking inside it had a Pontiac dash, but Powerglide instead of the Hydra-Matic dads car had. Talk about confused. It wasn’t until years later that I learned that Canada had unique models. On a visit to Montreal for Expo ’67 I was again fascinated by all the Strato Chiefs, Parisiennes, Meteors. Beumonts and the like.
My first experience with the unique Canadian cars was when I was going to school in Bellingham. Many Canadians come to the US to shop so it was quite normal to see a lot of Canadian license plates. Usually they were recent cars but one time I saw a Chevelle that didn’t look quite right. Getting a closer look I saw the Pontiac and Beaumont badges. After that I started looking a little closer and eventually saw many of the Canadian Pontiacs. We got Canadian TV which shed a little light, because the ads for both Chevy and Pontiac cars had the little CPC designation or Chevrolet-Pontiac Canada tag line.
We had a 69 Beaumont 2 door hardtop with a 307, like an earlier poster said the interior was pure Pontiac but the buttons on the seat belt releases had red Maple Leafs and the words GM of Canada. It would stall a lot when it was wet and cold and my Dad tried to get it fixed a couple of times but the problem happened on a Saturday in 1977 in front of the Pontiac-Buick dealer and the car was traded for a new 77 LeMans Safari.
Lots of Canadian Laurentians and Parisiennes in Niagara Falls ON in summer ’73. And hardly any Impalas.
And most were ‘base model’ post sedans.
And for your Canada-US history lesson, Acadia was a colony of New France encompassing parts of Quebec, the Maritimes and Maine. When the conquered Acadians would not swear loyalty to the British Crown, they were forcibly expelled from the area and many fled to Louisiana, where the name became corrupted to Cajuns.
I think there was a stop at Acadia National Park along the way. (Yes I know it wasn’t a thing yet, but there is some kind of historic connection like that.)
Interesting mash-ups. Like Vince said in Pulp Fiction, “they got the same stuff there as they do over here, its just the little differences”.
The cover car and that Beaumont ragtop are particularly sharp looking. Pontiac’s and Pontiac-ish cars’ styling cues tend to be a little more distinctive than Chevys which are usually more vanilla. Makes you wonder what else is different up there. Ive always thought the Fargo trucks (Canadian Dodge) were pretty cool. Again, nothing hugely different…but just enough to confuse those paying attention.
I’ve been living in Winnipeg for a month now and one thing this city really impressed me, the number of Classic American Muscle and Hot Rods on the streets, not only on the weekends but on any given day of the week. I believe I’ve seen more Hot Rods in one month living in Winnipeg than in seven years I lived in Atlanta GA.
Perhaps just because the winter here is so severe, the Hot Rodders just want to drive their cars as much as possible during the time the snow is not around.
Just one more thing, they drive them hard…
Welcome to Winnipeg, Rubens! One reason for the number of old cars here is that in past decades at least, old cars tended to survive forever because there wasn’t much salt used on the roads—as salt of course has no effect on ice when it’s 30 or 40 below, it’s not going to melt it those temps, so mostly sand was used instead. Unfortunately in recent years the winters have gotten warmer, and the city is clearly using a lot more salt—the coating of white on my dark blue truck after every slushy day is proof positive of that. I lived in Toronto for a long time, which of course is salt central and always has been—but people there who care about their vehicles get them rust-proofed every fall at Krown or Rust Check, which works remarkably well at keeping the tin worm at bay if you do it faithfully every year. Winnipeggers haven’t learned that yet—so I now see way more rusty vehicles here than I ever did in my 25 years of living in Toronto.
Just a wee “NS” correction….Canso is actually not in Cape Breton, but nearby.. It sits at the end of a long peninsula jutting out from the northeast mainland of Nova Scotia, into Chedabucto Bay, just south of Cape Breton. You really have to want to go to Canso to spend the hour or so driving out to the end of that peninsula….which is why few people go there….except for the Stan Rogers Folk Festival, held each year during the first weekend of July. It could be foggy, rainy and cool…..or it could be blue skies and spectacularly beautiful….one never knows…!!
Besides the town of Canso, however, there are also the Canso Canal, and the Canso Causeway, a rail/highway crossing of the Canal, built on a fill with a movable bridge that swings aside to allow water traffic to pass. The Canal separates the Nova Scotia mainland from Cape Breton Island.
The Canso Canal and Causeway aren’t even close to the town of Canso. From Port Hastings, NS, at the west end of the Canso Causeway, it is more than 100km to the town of Canso.
The origin of the name Canso does, however, arise from the location of the town.
“Canso” is Anglicized from the First Nation word “kamsook” which means “opposite the lofty cliff”, referring to the steep cliffs of Chedabucto Bay, north and across the bay from the town of Canso.
…More than you wanted to know!
And here I thought it was the Canadian response to GM in the States saying “Hey, you guys can’t do that to our Chevrolets!” 🙂
Great subject. A few corrections though. The Acadian lasted until 1969, and you could get an “SS” version in 1969. A virtual clone of the Nova SS. In Canada, there was a ’66 and ’67 Malibu SS model with the full chevy engine lineup. They made a few with 396s but most were 283 powerglides. The Beaumont “SD” was the same.
Most Chevy engines were available, though I never saw a factory solid lifter big block. All the 396s I ever saw were the 350/360 horse version and only a couple of them. You didn’t get the big block hood with a 396 in either car until ’68. A few ’66 Acadians were built with the L-79 and examples still exist. Again, 283 powerglide was most common it seemed. Most of our unique iron went away after the Auto Pact was implemented nut Cheviacs were an indelible part of my youth and were literally everywhere.
The Acadian actually continued until mid-1971, when it was replaced by the Ventura II. By that time, all of the trim differences from the Nova, other than nameplates, were gone (i.e.: grille and taillights were identical).
By golly you’re right. I grew up around these cars and I don’t recall ever seeing a ’70 or ’71. Learn something new every day!
When I was a kid, our neighbour had a ’68 Beaumont SD with a hi-po 396 and 4 spd tranny. It was beautiful, and moved like a cut cat. Later on another pal had a ’65 Pontiac Parisienne Custom Sport (which is what the red convertible is) with a 327. It also could move. Great cars.
There was also a Pontiac Acadian version of the Chevette when it first debuted. I seem to recall a commercial by Donny & Marie Osmond for it…?
The Canadian “Cheviacette” was sold in the US as the Pontiac T1000, “The Penny Pinching Pontiac”!
I had a co-worker who owned a mid 60’s Pontiac Parisienne in the 70’s-it somehow made it here to be sold as a used car in Washington state. He always liked watching the expression on the faces of service station attendants popping the hood and seeing a 283 Chevrolet residing in the engine compartment (instead of the expected Pontiac 389). Genuine head scratcher for those who weren’t in the know…
Growing up in the 80’s and well south of the Canadian border, I had no idea until one day in the library parking lot I spotted a Pontiac badge and “split” grille on a Corsica. Further investigation revealed it to be a Tempest. I’d never heard of that nameplate other than as a relic of the 70’s, but I wasn’t sure of the car’s origins until later.
Funny how these look so familiar and yet have small but vital differences, like they belong to a parallel universe… Always reminds me of Stephen King’s novels, where in multiple books characters end up in worlds parallel to our own, and a recurring vehicular “character” is a car that looks like a Honda Accord but is badged as a “Takuro Spirit”.
Also, almost forgot – there is actually a 1/64 Scale version of the Acadian Canso Sport, made by M2 machines. Happened to see it last year and had to pick one up–I thought it was very cool that they bothered to make it a Canso as opposed to a Nova. Pretty good detailing too.
That ’65 ragtop’s proportions are about perfect!
Consolidated built a copy of the immortal PBY-5A Catalina in Canada. They also called it the Canso.
Cheviac- Canadian Pontiac with the body of a Chevrolet
A term made famous, by the YouTuber, in 2003-6, “Dave’s Farm”.
I liked his vids, even though it was mostly Canadian hillbillies trashing old school 70s, 80s and early 90’s CCs.
What a waste, sometimes. 🙁
I’ve always been a fan of Cheviacs since I saw my first real close up one around 1973 when I was delivering papers in San Rafael, Cal. What I thought was some guy washing a new ’73 Catalina changed rapidly as I gained on the car and saw an orange SBC, Ontario license plates and a big “Laurentian” script on the side. Later on that same summer in town (delivering papers), I heard pull away from the four-way stop what sounded like a Chevy 6 going through the manual gears, only to see that it was a sky blue Pontiac 2-door post with “Strato Chief” in script on the front fenders (1963).
For pure novelty, I’d love a ’59 or ’60 Canadian Pontiac (wide body/narrow Chevy X frame) with the 261 Big Six (GMC/Chevy Truck). Powerglide’s OK, too!
Agreed! I owned a $500 beater ’60 Pontiac Parisienne for a while in the late ’80s—261 straight 6 and 3-on-the-tree. Although it was top-line Parisienne, it had zero options, no power steering, etc. etc. It was a chore to drive in every way, but an absolute blast at the same time.
Big block Cheviacs were not common in the Great White North, especially prior to the late 1965 auto-pact. Re: Tonawanda, New York, USA was where the big blocks came from and were subject to a large duty, hence why there were so few of them. I think 409 Canadian Pontiacs for each year of production they were available could be counted on two hands . . . .
I live in Washington state, just south of British Columbia (Canada). You’d think that we’d see some Canadian cars as well as those sold on my side of the border.
When I was a kid growing up in a suburb of Buffalo NY these various Canadian variations showed up without crossing the Peace Bridge. I think Plodges came in all sizes once compact and intermediates came out. I thought the mid ’50’s retrimmed Fords (whatever they called them) were the coolest ones.
Chrysler slapped together a Dodgsler for sale in the US in mid-1962, the Custom 880.
This is what I was thinking of –
1955 Meteor Crown Victoria (from when Crown Vics had actual crowns).
Growing up in Toronto in the 50s and 60s I was completely unaware of the differences between Canadian and US models. Now it is kind of embarrassing as I was very interested in cars and as a teenager read Car and Driver. It was when Pontiac OHC 6 was introduced (not in Canada) I realized what was going on.
I did have some first hand experience with a Beaumont SD 396. My widowed aunt had to replace her 62 Chevy II 6 cylinder station wagon, and somehow my cousins managed to convince her to get a yellow 2 door Beaumont SD 396. I am sure she did not realize what she had bought, but it was quite a quick car. I never got to drive but I did have a number of rides in it.
For a musical link how about “Acadian Driftwood” by The Band, a Canadian group that sounded as if it were from the American south.
I never realized before that there was a 1968 Pontiac fastback hardtop coupe with ventless side windows, the “Grand Parisienne Sport Coupe with Astro Ventilation comfort” (I checked the brochure at oldcarbrochures) as seen in the fourth photo above.
That window must have been manufactured for that model alone; it probably wasn’t worth doing in terms of sales. Photos of the 1968 ventwindowless Grand Prix and Caprice coupes with windows raised show that the rear edge of the glass was nearly perpendicular to the beltline, unlike that of the fastback 1967-68 coupes, which slanted rearward. So it’s not as if those windows could have been adapted from those models.
Some stuff was imported to Canada too. My 71 98 is from Winnipeg originally. Imagine the exclusivity what with the import duty and all.
What was the point of all these mashups? Sure looks like a lot of wasted money.
The point has been covered here many times.
Prior to the auto pact of 1966, Canada had high import tariffs for cars built in the USA. For that reason, it was cheaper to produce cars for Canadian consumption in Canada. GM could make money on the basic Chevrolet but tooling up for local production of Pontiacs and Buicks was not worth it.
Instead, we got the Canadian Pontiac, a car with Pontiac styling but a Chevrolet frame and running gear. As for the Acadian, same story. A small town in Canada usually had either a Chevrolet or Pontiac dealer, but not both.
When I was a kid, a Cadillac, Buick or Oldsmobile pre-auto pact was very rare. It’s one of the reasons I have so little experience with either Dynaflow or Hydramatic but loads with Powerglide.
Hello. Me again. I love this article. I just noticed a minor revision to make: (1) the Acadian, was built and sold (as its own marque, you are correct on that), from 1962 to 1971. For 1964-1965, the Beaumont was still an “Acadian”, although it was now a re-badged Chevrolet Chevelle intermediate. For 1966-1967, Beaumont was officially its own marque (I also just learned that). My Partner knows Canadian Pontiac very well. We worked on them in both an auto mechanic and boardroom capacity in his career. He still has his fist car, a 1964 Pontiac Laurentian 2-door “coach”, or, post sedan, in willow green, inside and out. He has fully restored it himself.
Paul, it’s my theory (and I know this was a discussion on another post but I’m repeating it here) that GM just dropped the U.S. Pontiac body as is onto the shorter Chevy wheelbase/frame—no tooling up of an entirely new front clip. Aside from the X-frame issue, it seems to me this would be an easy enough thing to do—folks wouldn’t notice if an inch was removed from the wheelbase at each end of the car. Of course it won’t look quite as nice, the way the wheels are positioned further back or forward in the fender wells, but hey—we’re GM, and we’re saving money!
I’ll post again these pics of a U.S. ’59 Catalina vs. a Canadian ’59 Strato-Chief, which to me seems to back up my theory quite nicely. But I’m happy to be proven wrong, would love to hear what the Cheviac experts in the commentariat have to say about this!
That’s the Catalina (the light blue 2-door). Here’s the Strato-Chief:
This isn’t really applicable here, but I finally turned up a simple of explanation of what Canada’s percentage-quotas were for materials & labor, mid-1930s to mid-1960s: