(first posted 1/22/2018) While Pontiac was selling Grand Prix coupes hand over fist in the 1970s, the related LeMans struggled mightily. For the 1978 redesign of the A-Body platform, GM had two challenges for the LeMans: firstly, to successfully downsize it without hampering its sales any further and secondly, to try and return the LeMans to the level of popularity it enjoyed in the late 1960s.
Alas, a return to the 1960s just wasn’t in the cards for the LeMans. The market had changed too much, with the oil crisis in 1974 and another one just around the corner. The late 1960s Tempest/LeMans line had benefited from the halo effect of the GTO, high performance being the fashion of the day. Now, buyers were more concerned with economy and increasingly enthralled by luxury accouterments.
As “upper” mid-priced brands, Buick and Oldsmobile more easily adapted to this changing climate. But Pontiac still had the hot-selling Grand Prix, so it was time to sprinkle some of that Grand Prix magic on the LeMans.
Perhaps the most apparent Grand Prix influence on the LeMans was in its interior. While the previous generation only used the Grand Prix dashboard layout in the top-spec Grand LeMans, all ’78 LeMans models now had the elegant dash of their personal luxury cousin. Outside, the new LeMans now had a more formal front fascia with an upright, chrome-laden grille and a prominent point to the nose—very Grand Prix.
Gone were the voluptuous curves the old LeMans had worn down its sides, replaced by clean flanks bearing the subtlest of feature lines. The rear deck of the coupe and sedan still sloped downwards but the LeMans’ hindquarters were now more upright and squared off. Despite these stylistic changes, the LeMans looked refreshingly different from the handsome ’78 Malibu it shared its platform with, the Chevy going for more of a crisp, sheer look while the LeMans retained some of its curves. Fortunately for Pontiac, the LeMans line wasn’t cursed with the Aeroback body style of the Buick Century and Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon—the LeMans arrived as a notchback coupe, a notchback sedan, and a wagon.
Like the other downsized A-Bodies, the ’78 LeMans was comprehensively trimmed. Depending on the model, it weighed around 500-900 pounds less than the ’73-77 Colonnade car. Wheelbase was down by just under 4 inches to 108.1. The LeMans was 5 inches narrower at 72.4. Total length was trimmed by approximately 10 inches on all variants.
Despite these cuts across the board, interior packaging was improved. Headroom was up by around an inch. Rear leg room was up by an inch in the sedan, two in the coupe. Front legroom was almost identical. The only noticeable decrease in interior space was a reduction in hip room by around 3 inches, due to the new LeMans’ narrower width.
Whether it was to mitigate the impact of this width reduction or for some other reason, the LeMans – even in sedan and wagon form – now had fixed side windows for the rear passengers, although there were swing-out vent windows. Pontiac marketing material touted this as an improvement, saying it allowed them to recess the rear armrests. While air-conditioning was becoming more and more popular, most buyers probably would have traded two inches in width for wind-down rear windows, if they could.
With less bulk to haul around, GM decided the LeMans didn’t need to have such big engines. The Pontiac 400 V8 was gone, while the Chevrolet 350 was available only until 1979 and only in the wagon. That left the carryover Buick 231 – with a standard three-speed, floor-shift manual or optional column-mounted three-speed automatic – and an optional Chevy 305. Less bulk also meant tighter handling, critics praising the LeMans’ driving dynamics.
Prices stayed largely the same as the ’77, except for the base LeMans coupe and sedan whose prices rose by a considerable $400. Atop the base model sat the Grand LeMans sedan, coupe, and Safari wagon; there was also a base LeMans Safari. Grand LeMans models had one of the decade’s subtler applications of the “loose-cushion” look for its velour seating surfaces.
Despite disappointing sales in its first iteration, the Grand Am nameplate returned. Although it once again had a unique front end, the new vertical slat grille wasn’t as daring as the first Grand Am’s prominent nose. And this time, the Grand Am was more closely aligned with the LeMans than before, sharing its engine line-up in its entirety (right down to the base V6) and featuring a standard notchback front bench. You could even get the Grand Am coupe with wire wheels and a vinyl roof.
There were some special features, however. The Rally RTS suspension was standard, including front and rear stabilizer bars. Power steering was also standard, while the Grand Am was the only Pontiac A-Body with an available four-speed manual transmission. This transmission was optional with both the 3.8 V6 and the Pontiac 301.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Grand Am sales were just as slow as before. Pontiac tried to reassert the Grand Am as a performance option for 1980, making power front disc brakes standard again (they had become optional in 1979) and ditching the bench seat, sedan variant, and V6 engine. With so few sales – 1647, almost a tenth of its debut year’s figures – GM saw no point in tooling up a new front end design for 1981 and the Grand Am was axed once again after a short, three-year run.
For the new LeMans’ debut year, sales increased by around 15k units to 95,833. The following year was even better, sales soaring an additional 35k units (or 40k if you include the slow-selling Grand Am). But while this may have seemed promising, Pontiac had done a much better trade earlier—in 1970, for example, they had shifted almost 200k Tempests and LeMans, not including the hot-selling GTO. And that was with the increasingly popular Grand Prix sitting across the showroom.
Unfortunately, Pontiac as a whole was suffering. The Firebird would have its best sales year yet in 1979 but come crashing down immediately thereafter. The full-size Pontiacs were doomed almost from the start, never selling as well as the other GM brands’ largest models. And lest one think the LeMans may have been under siege by the cheaper Nova-based Phoenix, it was selling in pitiful volumes.
The first year of the 1980s was a bad one for the domestic brands and Pontiac was no exception. Pontiac sales were down by a third in the space of just two years, Pontiac falling behind even Buick. LeMans sales were down by more than a third, recording a decline of around 37%.
For 1980, the new standard engine was the Chevy 229 V6, while the Pontiac 265 V8 became an option below the 301. The following year, the 301 was gone and the only V8 option was the rather mediocre 265.
Bigger news for 1981 was a restyled front end, a rather rakish face with a strong familial resemblance to the ’77-78 Firebird and the incoming J2000. Unfortunately, LeMans sedans received a new, more formal roofline that not only clashed with the aggressive new face but also made it look much more like GM’s other sedans.
This new roofline – mercifully spared from the coupe – presaged the LeMans’ new role for 1982. The last oil crisis had convinced GM that further downsizing was necessary and their full-size B-Body was on the chopping block. Pontiac’s B-Body Bonneville and Catalina, having been such disappointing sellers, were axed after 1981.
The LeMans sedan and wagon were given a nip-and-tuck and became the Bonneville Model G, assuming the mantle of Pontiac’s full-size model much as the Chrysler Fifth Avenue had been a repositioned compact/mid-size LeBaron. But strong sales success continued to elude the erstwhile LeMans, leaving Pontiac to reintroduce a B-Body, the Parisienne.
GM was realizing it wasn’t conservative sedans that would keep Pontiac afloat. After falling victim to a huge sales decline at the dawn of the decade, the new general manager, William Hoglund, saw to it that Pontiac once again capitalize on its former, sporty image. In the 1980s, it did so with great success, overtaking Oldsmobile and Buick and firmly ensconcing itself once again as the third best-selling brand in the US. The LeMans’ replacement, the 6000, generally sold better, even hitting a peak of 200k units one year. Perhaps it was the halo effect of the critically acclaimed 6000 STE, or the general success of Pontiac’s consistent and memorable “We Build Excitement” advertising campaign.
Perhaps more than anything else, the LeMans had suffered from Pontiac’s overall brand identity. Smokey and the Bandit was helping to sell Firebirds but much of the rest of the lineup was putting on airs of luxury, something Pontiac just couldn’t sell to shoppers as well as Buick or Oldsmobile could and did.
Luxury worked for Pontiac except when it didn’t as, while the downsized and more formal LeMans sold better than its predecessor, it still couldn’t match the sales tallies of the Tempest and LeMans of the late 1960s. Looking at Buick and Oldsmobile’s success, Pontiac executives must have been as green as this LeMans with envy.
Featured ’79 Grand LeMans coupe photographed in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY in 2014.
Related Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme Brougham – Adulting, 1970s Style
CCCCC #11: 1980-1987 Cutlass Supreme Sedan – The Oldsmobile Seville
Great find and thanks for highlighting a model I often overlook about compared to its platform mates. I forgot that the LeMans gained so much of its own rear sheetmetal. The sloped rear definitely looked much better on the coupe than the sedan. Pontiac’s struggles in the early-1980s only highlight the fact that by this point GM had too many brands selling similar flavors of the same car.
Yes, I had never paid attention to how much unique sheet metal these got. The rear quarters on the green coupe reminds me a little of the 77 Buick Riviera.
I never made that connection before, but wow there is a strong resemblance to the Riv.
My thoughts also.
What I remembered the most about the Pontiac advertisements in 1979 and 1980 was ‘More Pontiac to the Gallon’ and ‘More Pontiac Excitement Per Gallon’ (before that it was ‘More (Excitement) Per Gallon’. Even though at age of 12, I could see it wasn’t any exciting at all.
The color of the headline car was all over GM products in the late 70s, especially the 78-80 mid-size and full-size.
In 1980, car shopping with my dad, we walk out to the huge back lot of McNamara Buick-Pontiac on Long Island (little did we know that in 10 year, it would be a famous, er notorious, dealership…)
We found several new 1980 LeMans. One was unlocked. I asked my dad if we could pop the hood to look at the engine, he said “sure”.
We opened it, and there was a bird’s nest inside.
The late 70s…. you can’t make this stuff up.
He wound up buying a 4-cylinder, 4-speed 1980 Fairmont 4-dr from Ramp Ford, across the street. It cost about $5-600 less than a 3.8 V6 Auto LeMans
Well, that made for an interesting side read!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McNamara_(fraudster)
I read that too.
This came to mind
I wonder how much the McNamara story influenced the plot in Fargo. The timing certainly fits.
I remember this very well. I mean, there’s out of trust, and there’s out of trust.
Its a pleasant car to look at and G-bodies are fun cars to drive when desmogged and spec’d out the right way. A LeMans with a strong 400 or 455 would be a fun project.
I remember the ’78-80 LeMans was a pretty common car on the road back then but I barely remember ever seeing an ’81 with the quad headlights and the ’82-86 Bonneville taillights; that’s a rare car. It seemed like there was a Grand Prix on every corner though.
My third grade teacher had an ’81 Grand LeMans, in white with no vinyl roof. I always liked the nose styling but the formal roofline just didn’t work with it, and overall didn’t compare favorably to the previous “six window” look. She kept that car for a few more years into the 90’s (third grade for me was ’88-’89) and I believe she was still driving it my last year at that school, 8th grade (’93-’94).
IIRC, Pontiac made about 82000 LeManses for 1981, which isn’t horrible, given Pontiac’s downward spiral at the time, plus the recession. But in contrast, I think they sold around 120K of the ’78 models, 136K ’79s, and maybe 85K ’80s.
In ’78-80, the LeMans used a mix & match of 231s, 305s, and 301s, and the 265 was introduced for 1980. The 301 was banned in California, so they substituted 305s in that market, and some 49-state cars no doubt ended up with them as well in those “engine roulette” days.
Unfortunately, the 231 and 301 were pretty unreliable engines in those days, although the 305 was pretty good. The 265, while based on the 301, was improved. From what I’ve read, “It didn’t have enough power to hurt itself!”
For ’81, engine choices were down to the 231 and 265 in coupes and sedans, although I’ve seen one with a Buick 252 V6. The only way you could get a 301 was in a wagon. I’d imagine most buyers by that time were going for the 231, which still had its issues. So, coupled with the lower production when new, plus most of them having short-lived engines, it probably took them out of circulation fairly early.
Shame, too, because I thought the ’81 was a good looking car, especially the coupe.
This car hurts my head. For a division that claimed to build excitement, it somehow escaped this one.
These aren’t horrible looking, but bland. There is still much Chevrolet Malibu in the appearance and even the grille / headlight treatment looks way too much like a Chevrolet Citation. Swapping Pontiac and Chevrolet nameplates may have worked better for Pontiac.
Pontiac, as a divison, was too scatterbrained in the 1970s. The Trans Am was still sporty, living up to the old tag line, but what the heck was the rest of their lineup? As a child I had trouble seeing why Pontiac existed. And to think Oldsmobile croaked first.
“Pontiac, as a divison, was too scatterbrained in the 1970s. The Trans Am was still sporty, living up to the old tag line, but what the heck was the rest of their lineup? As a child I had trouble seeing why Pontiac existed. And to think Oldsmobile croaked first.”
That’s it in a nutshell. Chevy had their styling language down, Olds and Buick had the Brougham end of the market locked up. Pontiac didn’t know which direction to go. My own take was Pontiac was positioned to be GM’s BMW… but management was far too unfocused to see which direction to take the division.
The Firebird benefitted greatly from that beautiful 1970 body sticking out the ponycar decline. Had it been replaced or heavily restyled in the usual 4 year span, using the kind of language the rest of the lineup had begun using, well, Pontiac probably would have died much sooner.
It’s hard to pin down what that language was exactly, but on these the grille, side markers and taillights with their various chrome streaks echo back to 1950s Pontiacs, which isn’t a flattering comparison. Pontiac ideally should have evolved as a division to be a American BMW, but were hamstrung by bodyshells favoring Brougham garb in American dimensions, fitting for Oldsmobiles. It was always a consequence in platform sharing even at their peak, but in the 60s the whole industry was still fluid enough for a 206″ intermediate to have a label as bold as LeMans Sprint not seem ridiculous. Instead of showing the way forward for the brand with cars like that, they set the stage for the usurpers of the throne.
The sport/performance theme was hot in the 60s and again in the 80s. When that theme was in vogue Pontiac did well because they had begun cultivating that image in the 50s. But the 70s was the decade of the luxury brougham, and while Pontiac occasionally had some decent examples (like the 70s Grandvilles and Grand Prix) other GM Divisions did that better.
I wonder what was the rationale behind the fat, blunt grille divider Pontiac used in these years. The tapered center that narrowed from top to bottom was the thing that had come to define the Pontiac look more than anything. The front of the feature car is not unattractive, but it doesnt say “Pontiac” either.
Yeah, the ‘Bunkie Beak’ that had been a hallmark of Pontiac cars throughout the sixties seems to have morphed in the late seventies to a more Packard-like front end.
A big part of Pontiac’s appeal in those days was its limited use of applied ornament – as the LeMans at the top of the article demonstrates. Like Dodge, they did not wear their luxury trappings well.
Thanks for the memories!! i remember when these were in the showrooms. they were the sportiest looking of the gm midsizers(although i firmly liked the malibu best of all)and im surprised the grand am was such a slow seller. it was unique looking in the front and would later become the better seller of pontiac.
The malaise-era LeMans will probably be forever remembered best for being demolished by the bunches in “Smokey and the Bandit 2”.
They were non-A/C cars that got “accidently ordered” by an Arizona zone office. So says the story.
My first comment had a video clip of this embedded into it but I deleted it.
When I did my Smokey & The Bandit article a few years ago, these LeMans were to be rental cars in Pheonix but were delivered without a/c. Then the movie producers came along.
Many of them were wrecked in the movie.
The fixed rear windows, which I firmly maintain were Not A Big Deal in an A/C equipped car, would be Most Certainly A Very Big Deal in a non-A/C car in Arizona.
I had to ride in the back of my dad’s ’79 Malibu Classic company car with A/C, and I respectfully disagree. 🙂
I always found that scene an odd bit of product placement, I can’t imagine anyone walked out of the theatres wanting to go to the local
Pontiac dealer to look at the most gratuitously destroyed cars of the movie. At least Bufurd’s Bonneville and LeMans kept on going and going.
That was one of the classic scenes in what was otherwise a not so great sequel to the classic original, I find it interesting that Jackie Gleason drove a full sized Bonneville instead of the midsized Lemans like he did in the original.
Ironically, it wasn’t even the movie with the greatest amount of wanton car destruction in 1980 …
Movie makers sure hated cars.
What, you never crashed your hot wheels/matchbox cars into each other as a kid? These movies were big budget versions of the same activity. H.B. Halicki still has them both topped between Gone in 60 Seconds and Junkman, but judging by the collection of cars and car memorabilia he had, he would have had to have been masochistic to have hated them.
At the end of the day the Blues Brothers presented more positive exposure for the 70s C bodies than they ever deserved on their own. Smoky and the Bandit II, not so much, there wasn’t much boasting about cop motors, cop shocks and cop brakes before filming them getting punted by 18 wheelers in the desert.
One of the dumbest moves in the history of GM was that stupid fixed rear glass in the midsize sedans. I don’t care about the rationale of allowing more hip room in the rear doors, it still came off as a bait-and-switch.
As a kid, I had been intrigued by the “swing-out vent windows” in the brochure. Then we got to the dealership and I remember being shocked that that little slit of fresh air was all you got in the back seat.
We ended up trading in our ’72 LeMans for a Grand Prix instead. Still no fresh air in the back seat, but at least you got some sportiness. The dashboard Pontiac used in this class of car was, by far, the best out of all the intermediates. Much more attractive than the Olds and Buick versions and the multitude of round vents gave many options for directing the a/c.
As to the vent window in the back, I inherited a 1982 Cutlass from my grandparents that had them. Most people talk about how they suffered through them as kids. They wonder how the cars sold with that craptastic “feature” that denied the ability to roll down rear windows for ventilation. I know why they sold.
I never sat in the back seat, so I never gave it any thought. I doubt your parents ever sat in the back either. Out of sight, out of mind.
Thank the bean counters for that, just like the ‘vent windows’ in the rear doors of early run `81 Chrysler K Cars.They are so cheap, they reek.
Exactly. They sold at all because the person buying the car (driver) never had to endure the stifling penalty box.
At least when they switched all the sedans to the “formal” roofline, the vent window got moved forward into the door, increasing your chances of catching an occasional puff of air. With them back in the pillar on both these and the unfortunate Olds and Buick aerobacks, you were sealed in.
I do remember one friend of my mother’s saying she refused to buy one of these sedans because you couldn’t open the windows to escape if you drove in the lake… (lol).
It was to sell A/C, I think. But, also, they didn’t want to admit a mistake and change them.
Wonder of wonders, the X/A bodies had roll down windows!
Despite roll-down rear windows, pop-out rear sail windows were optional on the 2 and 4 door Citation hatchbacks (and maybe the notchback too?), even putting the crank to open and close them on the roof above the front headrest so they were reachable from either the front or rear seats.
FWIW, the fixed rear windows on the K-car only lasted one year (1981). The very next year’s cars had roll-down rear windows.
That’s one of the reasons I find the fixed rear windows on the ’78-’83 fascinating. Even thought consumers were supposedly vehemently opposed to them, GM kept the fixed rear windows through the entire six year production (and one model refresh), whereas Iacocca got rid of them quickly. I suspect that Chrysler was just following GM’s lead when the K-car was being engineered, and they changed it when it soon became apparent what a media fail they were for GM.
The whole rationale of the GM fixed windows offering more rear seat room was absurd, since the armrest indentations in the rear doors were too far forward (thanks to rear wheel well intrusion) to offer any kind of rear passenger elbow room.
The Vega’s engine failings usually gets the nod as the beginning of GM’s long downward spiral, but it seems like the 1978 fixed rear window intermediate sedan is more appropriate as it was a very noticeable, conscious effort by GM to not only cheap-out on the basic body design (as opposed to powertrain engineering) of a mainstream vehicle, but to encourage paying extra for A/C.
See, that’s the thing. I was too young to remember, but was it considered normal to not get A/C on a respectable mid-sized car in the late 70’s and early 80’s? Maybe it was different because I lived in the south, where the summers can get quite hot and quite humid, but having A/C was the norm on anything above an economy car, and not uncommon even there. We only owned one non-A/C car growing up (Dad’s ’83 Escort) and Mom more or less refused to ride in it due to the lack of climate control.
Yes, it’s still an aggressive cheap move by GM, but it doesn’t invalidate all the other good points of these cars. For me at least.
These were almost knew when I was five or six years old. Even then I remember them looking ratty and worn out, with very desperate looking people as the typical drivers.
It seemed like those were the exact same people driving them until the early ’00s when they disappeared completely. It’s really hard for me to visualize these cars looking “nice” off the showroom, just seems like they were made to be old and ratty.
My parents bought my sister a 1978 Le Mans 2-door in 1980 when she started college. I don’t remember how many miles the car had when she started driving but it was probably a low number. Dad wasn’t going to buy something that was worn out or in need of major maintenance.
The university was only about 70 miles from my parents’ home (all interstate) so Sis made frequent trips back to the neighborhood (free laundry at home, partying with friends, etc.). The Pontiac had the Chevrolet 305 with probably a 2.73:1 rear axle. It performed well for a malaise vintage car and never gave a bit of trouble. If there was one problem it was the number of speeding tickets my sister accumulated in her five years of college (four-year major in elementary education supplemented with a minor in party-ology).
I liked the look of the new GrandAm but bought a 1980 Phoenix notchback instead (special order from the dealer with V6 and 4-speed). It served me well for about 5 years then more or less disintegrated over about 4 months. By that time I was in graduate school and counting pennies but still needing reliable transportation. I bought an Isuzu P’up because it was the least expensive thing I could find that wasn’t a Yugo. My new bride and I put over 120,000 miles on the little truck with no issues. I only traded it when our son was born and we needed something I could get his car seat into.
Our family had a Colonnade Malibu as well as the Malibu of this era, and we can confirm that this version retained its interior space quite well. While hip room as measured decreased, the cushions in the Colonnade cars did not extend out to the door panels, while those on these cars did. So, in practice, you had just as much cushion, so just as much seat width. One of the times when GM practice and marketing were actually in line with each other. Our cars all had air conditioning, so we did not have to contend with the non-opening rear windows-I don’t recall ever opening those vents, anyway. I find it a little funny that we complain about these, while we readily accept the fixed windows in all the formal coupes of this era. Maybe it just seemed wierd to have all that side glass and not be able to open it. Today the kids in the back seat would not even notice, as they are so focused on what is happening with their cell phones and portable video games.
Once mid size coupe buyers “got used to the styling”, downsized Grand Prixs sold well. [At least around my region]
One could get a base GP for same price as Grand LeMans/Am. Get the car with image over the fancier mainstream model.
From the cowl back the coupes were pretty attractive, but the vinyl roofs ruin it, as the quarter window kickup gave it an almost sheer coke bottle look and and the slatted lights actually echoed the 66 GTO. I always thought it was a cool looking dash as well, with the full assortment of round gauges and matching vent layout, it’s not international looking, but it works. The front end however stinks, single square headlights never looked particularly good on anything, but these were among the worst examples. It looks purposefully watered down and clunky to make the better sorted out Grand Am more appealing(which to me looks like a XJ Cherokee), but 81 front end looked better than either one, they should have used that from the start, and it would have had better continuity with the 4 headlight Collonade Lemans.
I’m one of the few who really liked the ’78 Grand LeMans. It’s taken for granted now, but this was about the only car in 1978 that had integrated color-keyed bumpers that didn’t look like a chrome or black appendage, with a silver trim strip that continued from the bumpers across the entire car on the doors and fenders too. Very sleek. The grille looked interesting and fine to me, as did the taillights and the kick-up in the rear quarter window of both the coupes and sedans. As others have noted, the Pontiacs had by far the nicest dash of the new A body crop in 1978, and on bucket seat models had a center console that joined neatly with the dash. The Grand Prix got bigger, distinct armrests not used in any other model. For 1978 only, all the gauges were silver; later model years were black. Oddity: you could order both an analog clock (large round opening to the right of the speedometer) and a digital clock (above the glovebox) in the same car.
Never cared for the blunt frontal styling on the regular LeMans or the kicked-up rear side window line on the four-door sedans. The ’81 LeMans nose is interesting, but style-wise my pick of these Ponchoes would be the 1980 Grand Am. But what I’d really want is this…
That thing is sweet looking. The Grand Am nose was the best looking A-body nose from 78-80.
Creative sheet-metal swapping on A/G-Bodies could be an interesting story unto itself. I always liked the Monte SS front on a Malibu wagon.
Are you sure that isn’t a El Camino SS front? I don’t think a Monte Carlo front clip would mate with Malibu front fenders.
I once read in Collectible Automobile that the Monte Carlo clip is a smidge wider than the Malibu – not interchangeable.
I researched it a bit, and you can indeed fit a Monte front on a Bu, although it’s not a simple bolt on. Lots of body-lines don’t match up. Pretty much have to use the Monte hood and fenders as well, and even then there’s some body panel mismatch.
The El camino SS used a similar but different nose from Choo Choo customs, which is essentially a bolt on for a Malibu. You can still get them aftermarket.
All these years I thought they were the same.
The more you know…
It’s the El Grand Amino! (El Camino + Grand Am)
My parents bought a 1980 LeMans wagon new and it proved to be perhaps the best car they owned during the 1970s and 1980s. Underscoring Pontiac’s rather muddled market position during these times, I recall my father getting a great deal on the car at the end of the model year, with the Pontiac dealer very motivated to clear the rather full lot. In contrast, the busy Chevy dealer across the street wasn’t dealing on what little leftover inventory he had.
Though the base model with the V-6, our car was well equipped, dove gray with a split bench seat and attractive maroon cloth upholstery. The car was very space efficient, capable of moving three kids into college dorms, and more than up to all the minor hauling tasks we asked of it. Despite the non-opening rear windows, we kids found the LeMans to be vastly more comfortable than the awful Torino that it replaced due to a more upright seating position, better padding, and a lower beltline. Handling was reasonably sharp and the ride was far more controlled, with little porpoising over dips. Acceleration was adequate, but the car managed nearly 20 mpg in mixed city/highway driving, versus maybe 13-14 mpg for the Torino.
After a series of Malaise-y cars that were unreliable, uncomfortable, and short-lived, the LeMans proved durable and undemanding. My parents finally traded it in about 8 years later, with nearly 100k miles, setting a new family record.
I bought a used 4 door Grand LeMans in the early eighties. Mine was gold inside and out. My main reason for buying it was that it was one of the very few domestic built cars I was able to find in my small, rural, Pennsylvania town with factory A/C….that was also affordable.
On my test drive up the side of a mountain I engaged cruise control and that car took off. I had never driven a car with cruise control before and had no idea what to do. As the car passed 70 in a 55 zone, going uphill, I finally had the idea that I needed to put on the brakes.
Had the car for a few weeks before I looked under the hood. Mine had the Buick V6. I wasn’t aware that Pontiac had a V8 smaller than the 301. Was it one of those “sleeved-down” engines like Ford’s 255 V8 of the 80s?
Probably the biggest styling “faux pas(sp?)”, as far as I was concerned were the overabundance of blank circles/holes in the instrument panel.
Always liked the 1978-80 Pontiac Lemans’s a lot, they were one car I used to see often up until the mid 90’s and they’ve started disappearing from the roads, for some reason the 1981 Lemans looks too much like a Buick than a Pontiac and they were one car I rarely came across seeing even growing up.
I posted this picture last month to Brendan Saur’s article on the 1983 Malibu, but as LeMans sightings are so rare, I thought I should post it here. I took the picture in early November, 2017. This LeMans lives in the metro Boston area and is a daily driver.
That was my first car ever in the same light blue color. It was the upper Grand Lemans trim and loaded up with 301 4 BBL V8, automatic trans, A/C, cruise, tilt, cassette, passenger recliner, the interior luxury seat upgrade in a medium shade of blue plus a power trunk release, a limited slip differential and the HD F-40 suspension option coupled to the larger P205/74R14 tires.
My dad found the car for me in a nice neighborhood with a price on the window of 1600 bucks. It had only 66K miles and was really clean. But as I found out after driving it a few weeks there was an ugly little secret under the hood.
The elderly lady driver apparently didn’t think you needed to change the oil very often and it mostly went on short hops. The lifter tick at idle when the engine was warmed up should have been a tell tale sign even to my 16 year old eyes but alas me a dad were taken in by a pretty face (the Lemans in nice condition that is) and I bought it with my hard earned 1400 I offered them.
While the engine was running good it ticked like crazy at warm idle and a smell of burning emanated from under hood. It was quite fast for the time easily laying rubber, handled quite well and was supremely comfortable. I loved it to death. Then after a little excursion with a couple of friends with my foot the floorboards I brought the car home for the night thinking all was well. I went to start her up and heard a weird rapping noise that quickly turned into a knock. It was slight at first but go louder as the day progressed. Dad had me bring the car to a local shop and they dropped the oil pan.
It was full of oil sludge and the pickup was nearly 90% plugged up like a heart attack victim with only 10% of his heart left to pump blood. I got a quote of around a grand to change out the engine which I didn’t have. So they buttoned her back up and dad mom and I went back to the original owner’s house with the badly knocking 301 Lemans. The old lady came right outside with a weird look on her face and a minute later so did the husband. By the grace of god mom talked them into giving me my money back and taking back the car. I dodged a bullet for sure and learned to really check over the oil change intervals on every car since.
HOW could GM hit a home run with the “downsized” full sized cars in 1977; and a year later hit such a grounder/foul ball with the “downsized” intermediates?
The ’78 GM intermediates were a mixed bag saleswise. The A-special coupes (Monte, GP, Cutlass Supreme, Regal) flew out of the showrooms. The Malibu sedans sold well, the LeMans less so, and the wagons sold about as well as wagons typically did. The “aeroback” Cutlass and Century in both 2 and 4 door form were utter flops. When the fastback (but not hatchback) sedans were replaced with notchbacks two years later, sales took off. Dynamically, the downsized A bodies were a success – except for the silly fixed rear windows, they retained the look and feel of the larger cars they replaced as well as the downsized B/C bodies did a year earlier. Or at least they did until underpowered engines hampered them in later years, but that was an issue with the B bodies too.
The downsized E bodies for 1979 were also all hits and sales stayed strong through their seven-year run. After that, things at GM went downhill quickly….
The 77 Bs seemed to be the best of both worlds between the space of the previous big Bs and the dynamics and more modest footprint of the Collonades(relatively speaking). The 78 A bodies weren’t, they were lighter but not really remarkable drivers – I actually have read that the suspension geometry of these were retrograde from Collonades, which were strong handlers with the right boxes checked – and were too simarly sized(but tighter) to the cheaper and not much differently equipped or styled RWD X bodies, which were also good driving cars.
I think mostly though, the styling just didn’t work. Once again GM saw fit to use one large headlight per side across all divisions like the 73 As, breaking continuity with their immediate predecessors, but unlike the early Collonades where they were a neoclassical throwback on heavily sculpted bodies, these just looked plain vanilla, yet because of all the gingerbread 70s carryover, not as honest as Ford’s similarly plain two headlight Fairmont. The aeroback exercises did them no favors of course.
Wasn’t there also a significant price difference in the Fairmont’s favor, since it was meant to be a compact Maverick replacement?
There was; the Fairmont was a different class of car, competition for the Nova (’78-’79) and Citation (’80-’82). The Ford competitors for the A/G intermediates were the LTD II/Cougar in ’78-’79 (a lumbering antique in comparison) the Granada/Cougar in ’80-’82 (a dressed up Fairmont, but similarly equipped and priced) and the Fox-platform LTD/Marquis in ’83-’86.
The Ford Fairmont and Mercury Zephyr were garbage midsize cars…Those cars in sedan and wagon form had paperthin doors like a VW Rabbit, not only embarassing but unsafe.
At least the 1978-81 A bodies had thick solid doors, compared to the Ford Fox body sedan offerings. A little thicker in the Futura and Zephyr Z7 coupes, but not by much.
Also, the voltage regulators in those were a nightmare…Like playing roulette if your car would start or not. Lol
The plastic bumpers with the fake pealing chrome trim was the deal breaker for me so I bought the 78 Malibu classic . the dashboard in the Pontiac was so much better then the Malibu .my first car was the same as in picture one the 67 tempest , but without the lady
Several NASCAR teams ran the LeMans body style in the early ’80s. Cale Yarborough even won the ’83 Daytona 500 in a backup LeMans (his primary car, a Monte Carlo SS, was wrecked during qualifying after turning a lap of 200 mph).
My favorite Nascar of all time…
Bobby Allison’s 1981 Pontiac LeMans 🙂
Ha, My brother’s first car in high school, somewhere around 1998, was a 1979? Pontiac Grand LeMans with the 301. Beige and gold, it was a sharp car, and very plush and drove very nicely. It was purchased from a Depression era/Greatest Generation couple around the corner from us and came with sheaves of service receipts.
Sounds perfect, right? The problem with this was that yon Depression era thrifty forebears grew up with the motto, “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without,” and by the time they got round to selling something, it was Completely. Worn. Out. The reason the car had those sheaves of service records was that it was pretty well done for.
The car would only start and run consistently one day out of every four and spent more time on the back of a tow truck than actually going anywhere under its own power. It acquired the nickname, I go where I’m towed, and ended up making a Caribbean mechanic, George, probably enough money to go retire on the beach in his home country in great luxury and sip cocktails for the rest of his life.
The car ended up in a really glorious demise, committing Brunnhilde-style self immolation in front of Marshall’s on Buford Highway. Alex went in to purchase a shirt, and came out, and saw all these people standing around, and staring, and then discovered they were all staring at his car . . . which was on fire.
I dimly remember from a C/D review that these cars were considerably more expensive than their immediate Colonnade predecessors, which contributed to the fall in popularity. I think the LeMans/Malibu greenhouse was nicer with larger (fixed) windows than the Regal/Supreme and one of GM’s better designs. The LeMans was a nice combination of luxury and the Malibu styling.
These were great cars new and a leap forward from the bloated, cramped, and stylish Colonnades, but like any other car, they eventually wore out.
I had family experience with several ’78 era A’s. My cousin and his wife had a pretty early Grand LeMans wagon (purchased new), either dark blue or maroon with wood, as I remember. I remember her complaining about the transmission going bad and finding out that it was originally designed for much smaller cars (I believe it was a THM-200, originally designed for 4-cylinder cars). Anyway, they said the whole car was of dubious quality and I think they got rid of it within a year, maybe two.
Another LeMans of the ’78 era; my aunt bought an ’81 Grand LeMans sedan. It must have been very late in the year, because I always thought it was an ’82, but it was the 6-window style, so it must have been an ’81. I thought it was very good looking; especially the black fabric (corduroy?) interior with the wood-grain dash, full instruments, and all those round vents. Anyway, what a dog. It was slower than my parent’s Century (see below). She had one problem after another; as I recall, the AC went out several times, I think she had transmission trouble, I remember the suspension being weak and things like tie rod ends and shocks needing replacement, etc, etc. And this was an easy driving, school teacher, maiden aunt. Somewhere around 1987 or 88 she gave it to my nephew, who immediately started having problems with it. My sister and brother in-law blamed him for the problems, but I always thought the car was trouble prone.
Last, my parents bought a new ’81 Century Limited sedan early in the model year. They traded a ’76 Seville for it. My parents loved the look of the Seville and the notchback Century sure mimicked that look. Though a Limited, that Century was a V6. I really tried to like that car, but it always seemed like there was something annoying about it. It was loose and a little rattly. In a quest for good gas mileage it had narrow high pressure tires that kept the handling pretty tame (admittedly, I was still driving Opel 1900s). The “loose cushion” seats were more stylish than comfortable. Perhaps worst, the EGR valve repeatedly fouled. When that happened, 1) the car would hesitate and barely accelerate at low-middle RPMs, 2) suddenly pick up as the engine revved, 3) shift to the next gear and start the process all over again. On the other hand, when my parents would drive it to Florida from Maryland, my father said he got 29 MPG. Also, lest you think I’m anti Buick or American cars; my father also had one of the first FWD Skylarks delivered in the Baltimore area; a V6 Limited (AM Radio and manual windows!). Anyway, I absolutely loved that Skylark; It was fast, solid, handled, and I never had any problem with the brakes. I still miss that car.
My take on those A’s? I was a huge fan of small, light, cars. After the mid 70’s with fat ungainly colonade A’s and all the other fat GMs and Fords, when GM downsized the As, especially after the successful B’s, I thought they were beautiful (well, not the Aerobacks) and great designs. Unfortunately, my experience with them was that they were underdesigned with weak components. My favorites have always been the 2 door LeMans followed by the 2 door Malibu.
Come to think of it, another cousin’s wife had about an ’83 Century wagon. They kept it a couple years, but it compared badly with my cousin’s BMW 530 (no duh).
AND, in the late 80’s I worked with two guys; one owned about an 86 Monte Carlo and the other a same year Grand Prix. The guy with the Monte Carlo, who was in his late 20s, said the quality of his car was disappointing and swore off GM. They guy with the GP said his was okay, but I think the magic of that car wore off quickly.
My cousin had one with a 301 that he drove fast and hard. It was my uncle’s car. It was white and pretty stripped down like a government fleet car. He liked it because it was faster than aunties 77 Bonneville brougham. He got rid of the LeMans in 81 and got a Bonneville with an anemic 265 v8 and quickly traded it on a Mercedes diesel. The 77 lasted until the 90s when it was traded in a Lexus. The horrid 79 LeMans with non opening windows and blanked off guages and the turtle like 81 Bonneville made them never buy a gm again. The LeMans was ok looking if you parked an aero back next to it.
That looks somewhat like the north edge of Tompkins Square Park, and Kansas license plates on the car. That would mean somebody drove their LeMans on a 1500-2000 mile trip, a Curbside Classic achievement in its own right.
As anyone who’s been around here a while knows, I’m a fan of this era A-bodies mainly due to my long-term relationship with a ’79 Malibu. I did always like these LeMans as well, and I think GM did a good job of differentiating the styling from the Malibu while maintaining enough hard points to share things like doors. The “beak” on the LeMans was pretty distinctive, though the quad-lamp 1981 look said “Pontiac” more clearly. And while the interior trim bits aren’t of the highest quality and the THM200 trans can at times be problematic, the rest of the cars were solid and reliable.
There’s a ’79 Grand LeMans Safari in my old neighborhood in Richmond that’s still a registered driver, though I don’t think it’s a daily. I’ve never actually seen it move but it’ll be parked in different spots on the street and at times it’s not there at all, so it does get used at least periodically. As opposed to this Grand LeMans, which has been sitting in the same spot under the same carport since at least early 2004 (and probably longer). It already had a lapsed registration and a thick layer of dust when I moved to this Raleigh neighborhood in mid ’04, and according to this Google street view, was still there in February ’16 (no newer one available). Next time I’m back in town I’ll have to see if it’s still there; quite a fixture of the neighborhood it seems.
Regarding the small Pontiac 265 for the 1980 and 81 model years it may have looked mediocre on paper but in the real world it was a much better choice than the Buick 231 which was std. It ran smoother and stronger and sounded better too. Gas mileage was almost the same too. The best part was that this engine only cost 80.00 extra for 1980 and only 50.00 for 81 making it a bargain too. Note too that Pontiac also through in better springs and under hood bracing when the V8 was ordered.
My 1981 white Grand Prix LJ had the 265 and operational tow package that included a 2.93 rear gear over the highway cruising 2.29. It was actually quite peppy for the time and I really liked that car.
I know that exact Pontiac, parked on Troutman St in Brooklyn. Ive admired that car many times.
Literally just took a picture of this same exact vehicle and ended up here while trying to date it. Same plate number and all in Bushwick, Brooklyn!
Does anyone have parts?? I have a 79 Grand LeMans I’m needing the Rear Interior Panels w/ Trim and the Body Chrome Thanks!
You can email me KyleHoff22@Hotmail.com thanks
Was there anything actually wrong with the OHC 6 used in the 1960’s ? It was a shame they discontinued it. One of John DeLorean’s great achievements , but I always wondered why it didn’t have a crossflow cylinder head.
We had a 6000 and my engineer father called it the 6 x 10 to the 3rd.
The dash board is nice I’f you paid extra to have gauges and not blocked off holes where they go. The styling was bland with the ugly roof and especially ugly were the grand am and the ones with the trans am looking nose. The engines were crap as were the transmissions. The car was too small and cheaper out with its non opening windows. A wise consumer bought a Chrysler product with its better slant 6 or la v8s and decent transmission and they had opening windows or went to ford and bot a bigger and better and more attractive Ltd 2.
Wow, I haven’t been on here in a minute.
I’ve owned quite a few of these ABody LeMans, not a Gbody, even though folks call them that…The Abodies last year for RWD in the US was 1981, the LeMans also last year in the US. G body RWD began in 1982, when the Abody went to a FWD platform…Pontiac 6000, Buick Century, Olds Cutlass Ciera and Chevy Celebrity.
I’ve owned a 79 Grand LeMans coupe, 79 Grand LeMans sedan, 78 LeMans coupe and now FINALLY found this in Cape Cod, after years of searching…
A barn find 1978 Pontiac LeMans coupe, picking it up in a few weeks.
V8 pics
More pics
> Perhaps the most apparent Grand Prix influence on the LeMans was in its interior. While the previous generation only used the Grand Prix dashboard layout in the top-spec Grand LeMans, all ’78 LeMans models now had the elegant dash of their personal luxury cousin.
It wasn’t just the Grand LeMans; the Grand Am (’73-75) and Can Am (1977) also used the Grand Prix dash.
Just to clarify, the Chevrolet 305 was apparently used only in California; the other 49 states used the Pontiac 301 instead, supplemented by the 265 V8 in 1980. I’m confused about the V8 offerings in 1981 – this writeup states the 301 was discontinued, while a previous commenter says it was still available in wagons, and Wikipedia says it was available in any non-California LeMans. The brochure shows only the 265 and Buick 3.8L V6 being available, with a footnote stating the 265 will go out of production on approximately January 1, 1981 (wow that engine had a short life).
I too have long thought the ’77-78 Firebird-style front clip on the ’81 LeMans clashed badly with the “formal” roof treatment that also arrived on the sedan that year. I liked the original roofline and window treatment better, as well as the original 1978 grille. The sales downtick in 1980 may have stemmed from Oldsmobile and Buick replacing the “aeroback” sedans with a ’70s Seville-like roofline that year; I’ve read several accounts of people who were turned off by the fastback ’78 or ’79 Cutlass or Century sedans and bought a LeMans instead because of its normal-looking roofline (the Malibu also had conventional styling but was much plainer inside than the Pontiac, Olds, or Buick).
What would have been the 1982 LeMans became the Bonneville Model G instead since Pontiac’s B body was discontinued for that year (temporarily – the Parisienne would be sent to the US starting in mid-’83). But in Canada where the B body was still available in 1982, the G body kept the LeMans name until 1984.
NoI’m’GM hit a homerun with the “downsized” full sized cars in ’77. A year later it hit…a grounder with the “downsized” intermediates.’
Actually, the early ’77 full size Pontiac mockups look like overgrown versions of what would become the LeMans intermediates. At some point, the six window look disappeared on the ’77s and a set of alternate roofs would appear on the production models. Mix and match. Pontiacs long running split grille would disappear in ’84, replaced by a kidney grille on the well-designed Grand Am. This new face could have been the beginning of Pontiac becoming the American BMW, but later iterations dropped the blunt front end of the ’84 for a more aerodynamic design, losing the distinctive BMW look in the process.
I liked the “75 Lemans” coupe. A sliver one on the “Mikan Pontiac” lot in my hometown called to me for months..lol
Like these overall. My grandfather had an aeroback ’78 Century and my uncle had the post aeroback ’81. The ’78 replaced a ’72 or ’73 Impala so essentially a 2 size downgrade.
What is interesting is that while there were some fuel economy improvements after the 2008 era gas price surge (inflation adjusted beating the prior 1981 peak), there was no major downsizing movement. And the march to crossovers paused and then returned rapidly in the first part of the 2010s. And the 2022 gas price and interest rate/cost spike does not seem to be as of yet created a downsizing movement on ICE cars vs increased electrification (obviously gas prices came down quicker this time.)
Ironically one of the few cars downsize was the modern equivalent of a larger Pontiac, the GMC Acadia. I assume the 2017 downsizing was because the high gas prices were lingering in 2012/13. This was like when panicked in ’81/’82 by temporarily ditching big Pontiacs and making a lot of its upcoming FWD cars small for their intended class. Dealers and consumers took poorly to the smaller Acadia and it is being replaced by a larger model for ’24. On a larger scale, a lot of the electrification challenges for the legacy motors have some echoes of the late 70s/early 80s downsizing and diesel attempts.
Looks nice inside but boring on the outside its a drab unattractive car to look at
Looking at old brochures online, I was reminded that the original Grand Am and colonnade GP had real wood on the dash, maybe the only GM cars to have it in the 70s.
It lists the 455 SD as available on the ’73 GA and non-Luxury Lemans Coupes with an optional 4 spd stick, but wasn’t there discussion here that none was actually built with that engine?