Any day that includes a father-son cruise in a classic, drop-top Pontiac is the best day of your life. I’ve always thought of the car hobby as a cool, low-key way for a father and his kid to spend time together. Even though my Liberian-immigrant father wasn’t much of a gearhead or car enthusiast, his ride was undeniably cool: a yellow, 1971 Plymouth Duster with a black vinyl interior, black tape stripes, three on the tree, and those cartoon dust-cloud decals on the front fenders and trunk. (Sadly, I’ve yet been unable to find pictures.) Dr. Dennis’ Duster had a clean, quiet, no-nonsense, masculine quality about it that was perfectly matched to my image of my father. I wonder how the kid in the back seat of this grand Grand Ville perceives this car as an extension of his pop.
And what a beauty this Poncho is, with those dual exhausts and wide whitewall tires. Frustratingly, my Encyclopedia of American Cars is in off-site storage, but internet research will confirm that of the four lower-tier GM makes, Pontiac sold the least full-size B-Body convertibles for model year 1973. I like the style of this Grand Ville at least as much as that of a same-year Chevrolet Caprice Classic, Oldsmobile Delta 88, or Buick Centurion. (I’d probably grab the Buick first as I am from Flint, and the Pontiac second.)
Going anywhere with Dad, whether to the hardware store or to his office at the university, would feel like we were on a mission. Going places with Mom could also be fun, but seemed somewhat pedestrian by comparison. Mom would take us kids to the grocery store, shoe shopping, to the library…fun stuff sometimes, but hardly the adventures of a Hardy Boys novel. But a trip somewhere with Dad usually felt more important. I can still see his serious face with hands at ten-and-four on the wheel, looking purposefully at the road ahead, with the occasional over-the-shoulder blind-spot check.
Unlike Dad’s daily-driven Duster, which was just a cool, older car by the early 1980’s, I’m sure this Grand Ville doesn’t come out of the garage that often, judging by its stellar condition. The idea is the same, though. Both cars enabled some quality time shared between fathers and their sons. Hopefully, the kid in the back seat will one day remember days like this particular Saturday, his dad, and this wonderful Pontiac with the same fondness with which I recall my own, late father and his yellow Duster.
Lakeview, Chicago, Illinois.
Saturday, September 21, 2013.
Related reading:
Curbside Classic: 1973 Pontiac Grand Ville Convertible – The Lady in Waiting
Great car, but please lose the cheesy non-stock tail pipes and wide whitewalls.
Agreed on both points. If I had to choose among any post-1967 large Pontiac convertible, I’d pick the ’73 Grand Ville (despite the front bumper); it has a lightness lacking in the ’71-’72 cars (maybe I’m just responding to the switch from block letters to script?) and its taillights and trunk lid are the most elegant of the entire five-year run of Grand Villes.
But give me a 1965-67 Bonneville convertible over any of these, please. I drove a ’66 for many years, and when I was a kid in single digits, my family had a ’65; these days, I’d prefer the ’67 for the energy-absorbing steering column, availability of factory 8-track stereo, etc. Dashboard uglification (to say nothing of the exteriors) started with the ’68s.
I agree as well. These are by far my favorite ’71-’76 GM full-sizers, and I certainly wouldn’t kick one out of my garage (quite the opposite), but give me a mid-’60s Bonneville any day.
Beautiful car. I love the final B-body ragtops.
I wonder how the Canadian Laurentian/Parisienne did vs the B-C-O (Buick-Chevrolet-Oldsmobile) counterparts in the Great White North during that same era?
The ragtop would have been sold as Grand Ville in Canada as well.
By 1973, there really weren’t any Canadian Pontiacs anymore. There was still the cheap-o Laurentian model, and it did pretty well in Quebec, which was thick Pontiac country. The last year the cars were really different was 1970, when the cars still had Chevrolet engines and, get this, Powerglide!
Great memories, and a nice catch as well. On this particular car, the open top relieves the over-rounded lines of the 1971-76 GM design, and it looks surprisingly sleek from behind.
The grille and face on these seems to be a (better looking) update of the 1948 Packard…this one looks like it might also have the red-dot wheel covers, suggestive of the red Packard hexagon.
Very nice catch of a classic ragtop. The Ville is Grand indeed! Hopefully that kid realizes how lucky he is to be able to spend quality time with his Dad in such a beautiful old car–maybe the Grand Ville will be his someday?
Nice car but my least favourite year of this generation, as it features GM’s first-year-bumper-regs freakout. You could sit a class of schoolkids on that chrome bench!
Love (obviously). Beautiful car and color combination (Florentine red/white). Stock tailpipes and a lower rear stance would make a good thing even better. It’s nice to see the owner chose to keep the original standard wheel covers.
Love the wheel covers (such a refreshing change from fake wires) – the wide whites, not so much. The wife of a friend of mine had a 1975 Grand Ville convertible, red with a white interior just like this one. The big difference was the rectangular head lamps on the ’75. Nothing else rode like a ’70s B body save maybe a Chris Craft of similar length.
Nice catch! I echo some others in that the high stance and the too-wide whitewalls detract a bit for me, but it’s not my car, either.
Alone among those B body convertibles, Pontiac got the beltline right with a gentle flow where the beltline kicked up a bit in the rear quarter panel. The others had a too-severe kink upwards that would have mated with the hardtop of those styles, but there was no hardtop here, so they just looked a bit off.
When I was a kid watching the game show Split Second, the final round consisted of 5 new Pontiacs. The contestant picked a car. If it would start (only one of the 5 would) then he won it. At home, I picked the Grandville convertible every time. Tom Kennedy always pronounced it “GrawwwVeeele”.
The illusion of exaggerated height is probably my fault, as I was going for a low, artistic angle of the three-quarter view. I do actually really like the wide whites and exhaust tips. It’s just enough jewelry for my liking without crossing over into gauche.
To me Pontiac was not the prettiest of the ’73 full size GM cars, but I wouldn’t kick this ouf of my driveway. I may be a minority, but I liked Pontiac’s return to fender skirts on their top cars after a two year absence. That front end is still a bit odd to me after all these years. The Grandville’s move to rectangular headlights in 1975 actually worked very well – and was probably the best looker of all the Grandvilles.
Car of the Day!
Thanks!
Great car and a nice catch of a moving vehicle. I don’t care at all for wide whites on post 1961 cars. For reasons I’ve never been clear on, the entire US auto industry switched to thinner white walls on new cars for 1962. It wasn’t a gradual shift. So to me, thin whites on any car from 1960 back look wrong the same as wide whites do on later cars. Especially on a 73 model that is so far removed from the wide whitewall era. In fact, being a 70’s car, it makes it look kind of pimpish!
Normally I’d agree with the crowd that wide whitewalls don’t belong on ’70s car, but I think it works in this case.
That front end (even the new bigger bumper) is clearly a throwback to the 1940’s, and when it is on a convertible in that deep dark red the wide whites just add to the retro theme.
I do like the ’73 Buick a lot, but wish they had made a LeSabre convertible rather than the Centurion. Probably would pick a ’71 or ’72 Delta 88 as the best of the bunch.
Cool car,my Dad made car trips in town an exciting adventure.He’d point out places he played as a boy,show us where was bombed during the war,tell us of local characters who lived in the area,what the shops were previously and where the old cinemas stood and what films he saw there.
He usually drove English Ford Zephyr 6s but had always wanted an American car.He was delighted when he got a Ford Falcon(the first of 2),not as glamorous as the Pontiac but with all the style of an American car and none of the bulk or thirst.He later had an Australian Valiant(Mum never got on with left hand drive when driving solo) and a Dodge Dart.
He also got a hearing aid beige Austin Allegro which he still kicks himself over
A tale of two very different 1973 Grand Villes – In 1982 I was a sophomore in “the” local Catholic high school – you know, the popular school with all the rich jocks? Well, I car pooled with a bunch of them in a brown 1973 Grand Ville sedan. It was originally the kid’s grandmother’s car and he got it after his sister drove it for a few years. That car was about 9 years old, with only about 50,000 miles on it, but to me it felt like it was ancient! And the kid driving it beat the living crap out of it, too. If a hubcap flew off he left it like that. If it got scratched he didn’t care. It was loaded, and I still remember the feeling of the cloth seats. They were like a shimmery linen, not the normal velour like you would imagine. I always felt bad for that car. I don’t think it lasted much longer than my sophomore year when it was eventually junked because he blew the engine. He treated that car like it was nothing – simply transportation to get him around, and he destroyed it to boot. Now I see a CC writeup with the red convertible and how proud the owners are of that car. It simply makes all the emotions flow, the past history I have of a Grand Ville and my life back in 1982. I am proud to see one left that is being enjoyed, granted it is a convertible. But even the car pool kid’s Grand Ville did not deserve such fate. So look at the difference – one Grand Ville driven into the ground, while another is cherished.
Wow, that was depressing, but it’s true. I know they’re just inanimate objects but it’s sad to see a fine machine get beaten to a pulp by someone who simply does not care.
I agree with Junqueboi – what a waste. A well-maintained car represents much more than the car itself. It also represents the care the owner bestowed upon it. To even semi-intentionally let a nice car get banged up out of apathy is like saying the previous owner cared about something that didn’t matter. And I can’t get behind that mindset. I’ll never understand kids that inherit nice cars (and other nice things) and abuse them out of a sense of disdain and bratty entitlement. (No offense to your friend, honestly – just speaking to what I’ve observed.)
I had the ’73 Bonneville in this same color. It was very powerful for its day. Seemed like it could pass about anything, except a gas station. Still miss it.