(first posted 1/10/2017) Pontiac enjoyed tremendous success in the 1960s by delivering dramatic styling, strong performance and a youthful attitude. The mid-size Tempest/LeMans series, with the halo GTO coupes and convertibles, spearheaded this “rebellious” approach and helped Pontiac repeatedly achieve a strong 3rd place finish in the U.S. sales race. By the early 1970s, however, the market changed dramatically and Pontiac began to falter. The division started scrambling for a fix, resulting in cars like this 1972 Luxury LeMans, which Road Test Magazine reviewed in June 1972. What did they make of Pontiac’s change in direction?
The mid-size sales decline was a big issue for Pontiac to fix, since the mid-size series had been a core part of the brand’s successful positioning. Starting with the arrival of GM’s A-bodies for 1964, the Pontiac Division had really hit its mid-size stride. While Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Buick each offered the A-body, the Tempest/LeMans/GTO arguably got the most attention and was the second best seller behind the Chevelle. In fact, from 1964 through 1969, Pontiac sold 1,836,597 mid-size cars, trailing only Chevrolet’s 2,326,394 sales, but well ahead of both Buick Special/Skylark (1,126,425) and Oldsmobile F-85/Cutlass (1,176,295).
By the mid- to late-1960s, Pontiac’s strong mid size output accounted for about 1/3 or more of total divisional sales, going as high as 43% for 1966. These were not base cars either: most years saw the pricier LeMans and GTO models take the lion’s share of sales (~60% annually).
Even the tamest Tempest served-up seductive Coke-bottle body side curves and aggressive split grilles. An unusual (for America) OHC I6 was offered as the base and “1st step” performance engine, giving a bit of international “flavor” to the Tempest/LeMans line. The Pontiac brand came to define the successful mid-1960s “rebel” attitude and made other mid-sized offerings look pretty tepid in comparison.
At a time when a performance attitude drove success for mid sized offerings from Detroit, Pontiac was the undisputed image leader. While Chevrolet’s Chevelle was the sales leader for GM intermediates, Pontiac’s Tempest/LeMans/GTO was a close second, running a mere 20,774 cars behind the bow-tie division’s mid-sized offering for 1966. Plus, Pontiac intermediates garnered higher average selling prices than Chevrolet, ringing the cash registers for The General and ensuring the promotion of Pontiac’s leadership team within GM.
But all good things must come to an end, and Pontiac’s mid-sized success was no different. For the first time since the Tempest was introduced as a compact in 1961, the series saw a sales decline for 1969, dropping 17% (to a still healthy 287,915 cars). Some of this loss might well have been due to the all new Grand Prix, which was now based on a lengthened version of the mid-sized A-body and achieved a remarkable 255% increase over 1968, rising to 112,486 sales. But ominously, all GTO and LeMans series were down, and only one Pontiac A-body model saw an increase: sales of the value-oriented Tempest Custom S 2-door hardtop rose 16%. Also, while these more overtly luxurious and/or value priced offerings were shifting shoppers within Pontiac showrooms, competitors were hungrily eying Pontiac’s mid-size market position and deploying their own entrants to entice buyers.
Most notably, Oldsmobile aggressively sought a bigger piece of the mid-size pie, and the Rocket Division struck gold by adding a new formal roofline to the luxury-oriented Cutlass Supreme coupe for 1970. Combining the luxury of a larger car with handsome intermediate styling, the Cutlass Supreme was a huge hit, especially the new “formal roof” coupe body style. Since the Supreme models shared the same basic front and rear styling as the “regular” Cutlass models, the image halo extended to the less expensive Olds mid-sizers as well.
Of course, Pontiac had the high-style Grand Prix personal luxury coupe to compete with the Cutlass Supreme coupe. But, the GP was its own premium series, with seemingly little in common with the more workaday mid-size Ponchos. Plus, Grand Prix sales were under pressure for 1970 (dropping 42% to 65,750 units), likely due to the revamped Cutlass Supreme coupe plus the stylish and more affordable Chevrolet Monte Carlo personal luxury coupe from Chevrolet.
Sure, there was still the aggressive GTO with its unique Endura body-colored front bumper and sporty positioning, but the “Goat” was seen as a muscle car, and that breed was rapidly falling out of fashion as the market shifted away from larger high-performance cars. In fact, GTO sales for 1970 plunged 47% versus 1969, even though the car offered new styling and more high-powered engine choices than ever.
The standard Tempest/LeMans, by contrast, no longer seemed so exciting. The unique but seldom ordered OHC I6 was dropped, while more high performance engine choices were offered, just as the market shifted away from “go fast at all costs.” The refreshed mid-sized styling for 1970 ushered in a rather unfortunate face, with a chrome bumper/grille treatment that looked like an overgrown version of the nose sported by the 1969 Firebird. The body side sculpting, rear bumper and tail lights (which looked similar to the tail treatment found on the not-very-successful 1968 Grand Prix) were also new, but somehow Pontiac’s stylists were less successful with their A-Body updates than the rival revamps served up by Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Buick intermediate lines.
Mid-size Pontiac sales dropped 17% for 1970, while Chevrolet Chevelle dipped only slightly (-3%) and both Buick Skylark and Olds F-85/Cutlass surged (+35% and +22% respectively). Pontiac was no longer running a close second to Chevrolet Chevelle in sales, and also fell behind GM sister-division Oldsmobile for the first time in output of intermediate-sized cars.
Pontiac’s mid-size position went from bad to worse for 1971, with sales dropping another 31%, steeper than the declines suffered by the intermediate lines at GM sister divisions (Olds: -13%, Buick: -15%, Chevrolet: -26%). Some of this drop was undoubtedly due to the UAW strike that hit GM hard in late 1970 (impacting production of model year 1971 cars), but clearly Pontiac was suffering disproportionately. Worse still, Pontiac’s mid-sized model mix was shifting away from the higher priced offerings—now 69% of all intermediates sold were in the base T-37 and cheaper LeMans lines (which had supplanted the Tempest as the lower cost mainstays). The high performance GTO series plunged 78% to just 10,582 units while the premium LeMans Sport line dropped 30% to 40,941 cars.
Something needed to be done at Pontiac to recapture sales and stop the market share bleeding. Pontiac’s successful 1960s positioning as Motown’s “rebel” brand, brimming with performance and attitude, was in need of a refresh by the early 1970s. A new direction was required, but what would it be?
One way to rekindle the magic would have been to offer a snazzy, well-priced smaller car that was a cut above competitors (a redux of the original Tempest/LeMans strategy). Nimble, more economical cars were clearly the rage in the early 1970s, and Pontiac could have served-up a nicely upscale, sporty compact offering to capture buyers—especially younger customers and people considering imports. Check out this car from GM’s Holden subsidiary in Australia: the early 1970s Monaro GTS looked an awful lot like a Pontiac, from the body side sculpting down to the Rally II wheels, and shared key dimensions and some chassis components with GM’s compact X-Body and F-Body cars. Imagine this car, built in America, with Pontiac’s trademark split grille and OHC I6, and you could have had a fantastic sport/luxury compact car with youthful flair—a perfect Pontiac positioned within a growing segment.
But sadly, Pontiac took the cheap and easy way out with the Deadly Sin Ventura II introduced in mid-1971, which was nothing more than a Chevy Nova with a nose job. Buyers saw the Ventura II for what it was: a cynically conceived price leader to attract showroom traffic. “Pure Pontiac” it decidedly was not!
Another marketing approach gaining traction in the early 1970s was “Broughamfication”—whereby manufacturers slathered a veneer of “luxury” onto ordinary bigger cars, bringing customers upmarket with minimal additional corporate outlay. Some brands, like Oldsmobile, Mercury and even Ford, were very adept at executing this strategy. For GM’s “rebel” division, however, the transition was awkward at best. Nonetheless, formerly sporty Pontiac plowed ahead down the “Grand Luxury Brougham” path, and the result were cars like the 1972 Luxury LeMans.
Nothing screams “prestige” like rear-fender skirts, added chrome trim, “monogramed” logos, more sound insulation and ample simulated “Ceylonese Teakwood” on the instrument panel. So, with these “enhancements,” the former top-of-the-intermediate-line LeMans Sport was converted into the new top-dog Luxury LeMans, at least for the 2- and 4-door hardtops—Pontiac’s A-body convertible retained its LeMans Sport looks and nomenclature for 1972.
The next question to ask was whether or not the added “luxury” accoutrements made for an improved mid-sized Pontiac. Since the Luxury LeMans series was considered “new” for 1972, Road Test Magazine elected to conduct a drive report, and the 4-door hardtop version was the model tested. This model now represented the only mid-sized 4-door hardtop available from Pontiac, as the previously available hardtop sedan for the basic LeMans was dropped.
It’s easy to take perverse pleasure in finding the mistakes that riddled Road Test Magazine in the 1970s. Whether the issues were minor typos or major errors in specs or product details, RT could be counted on to deliver some doozies. For the Luxury LeMans article, one error that I noted while researching this post was regarding the industry sales rankings, where RT listed Pontiac in 3rd place in industry sales (which had been true for almost all of the 1960s). But Plymouth had passed Pontiac in 1970 to gain the 3rd best selling position behind Chevrolet and Ford, and that situation continued in 1971. There’s no doubt Oldsmobile was gunning for a strong performance, and they did want to pass Pontiac—read on to see if the Luxury LeMans saved the day, or if Olds achieved their goal for 1972.
Unlike most magazine test cars that were sourced from the manufacturers’ Public Relations fleets, this particular Luxury LeMans 4-door hardtop was an engineering test unit. Road Test speculated a brutal demise for this car in a crash test—I wonder if that fate did befall the car, or if it was just run hard and torn apart for component part evaluations.
Though the Luxury LeMans tested did feature one of the optionally available gauge packages with readouts for oil, temperature and alternator (maybe the engineers had demanded this feature for their evaluations), the car was otherwise equipped purely for comfort and benign performance. Though sporting the upgraded 400 2V V8, there was nothing sporty about this Luxury LeMans, with the standard, rather squishy base suspension.
Look at that bare metal trunk and exposed spare, just like you would find in the cheapest LeMans. So much for “luxury” with your luggage. As per typical Detroit practice at the time, most niceties (and even necessities like power disc brakes) were all à la carte options.
The Luxury LeMans represented one of the last hardtop body styles available with vent windows. Most 2-door hardtops had lost the vents in the late 1960s, and by the 1973 model year, they were gone completely at GM.
In summary, Road Test found the “new” Luxury LeMans pleasant enough, though there wasn’t anything particularly “Pontiac” about it–the car came across as did most GM A-bodies–nice, competent cruisers. This featured Luxury LeMans carried an as-tested price of $4,442.60 ($25,652 adjusted), so the car was positioned in the heart of the medium-priced market for 1972. Buyers could decide if they wanted a more fully-equipped mid-sized Luxury LeMans or a larger but more spartan Catalina for the same money.
Did the budding Broughamance pay off for Pontiac? Well yes and no. The new luxury models did provide an uptick in sales for the mid-sized Pontiacs. Compared to the former top-of-the-line LeMans Sport, the new Luxury LeMans 2-door hardtop saw a sales increase of 8% to 37,615 while the 4-door hardtop saw a sales increase of 45% to 8,641 compared to the combined LeMans and LeMans Sport 4-door hardtop totals for 1971. The lone remaining LeMans Sport convertible body style saw sales dip 11% to 3,438.
The reasonably good reception of the Luxury LeMans helped boost overall LeMans sales 2% compared to 1971, with a total of 169,993 Pontiac intermediates hitting the streets for 1972. But… Results were far better at Pontiac’s sister divisions within GM. Buick Skylark sales increased 16% to 225,346, Chevrolet Chevelle climbed 17% to 393,695, while the Cutlass Supreme magic rocketed Oldsmobile’s mid-sizers up 29% to 302,669. Pontiac, the former superstar of snazzy intermediates, now found its mid-sized offerings in last place at GM. The Pontiac division also tumbled in the overall industry sales rankings for 1972, dropping behind Plymouth and Oldsmobile to land in 5th place.
Nor would Pontiac’s mid-sized “Broughamifaction” plan pay off for the rest of the 1970s. While Oldsmobile intermediates reached record highs, Pontiac’s LeMans series, whether base, Luxury, Grand or Sport, continued to flounder relative to the other GM mid-sized lines. Pontiac could not out-brougham Oldsmobile or Buick, nor was the Pontiac brand especially sporty or aggressive any longer (Grand Am and Firebird excepted). Being lost in the middle was not a great strategy, and Pontiac would stumble along until the mid-1980s when the division ditched Broughams for good, rediscovered its latent “performance” imagery and enjoyed a turn around, at least for a little while… Gussying up the LeMans with “Luxury” for 1972 ultimately proved to be a slippery slope for Pontiac, though covered with the finest Morrokide money could buy.
If loving you is wrong, I don’t wanna be right!
I have those wire covers from my ’72 Grandville on my garage wall. Funny in ’71-’72 you could get skirts on the mid-size Pontiac, but not the full-size.
I’d put my guess on the skirts as an attempt to make the LeMans look bigger. Which wasn’t necessary on the Grand Ville. It was naturally huge.
I was thinking along the lines where the full-size Pontiac offered skirts most years from ’65-’86. The ’71-’72 and the brief Caprice based Parisianne being the exceptions. Skirts on a mid-size were pretty rare, a few years each on Monte Carlo, Torino and Skylark are the only other examples I can think of. Ironic that Pontiac, with its sporty leanings, especially in cars below mid-size, was the most prolific with mid-size skirts through most of the ’70s – while dropping them for a few years on the full-size.
Don’t know if this is relevant, but when my Grandma went to assisted living in ’03, I found a 1970 Oldsmobile brochure that my uncle had got when he still lived with her. But when he got married in 76 he was driving a 70 2dr Lemans. So it looks like in 70 at least, Pontiac scored at least one sale over Oldsmobile. And I did not find a Pontiac brochure.
These live here in town.
And the other one.
Oh for the days of “three times a year” service. Ford only required “twice a year” oil changes and 3 year suspension lubes. But not GM.
Ahhh when pontiac stood for something.
My mom had a 1986 Pontiac Grand Am back in 1991. It looked so modern and cool at the time to me as a 15 year old (I learned how to drive in it). I did notice the build quality was pure crap though. Loose gear shifter, the bottom part of the dash seemed flimsy and made of cheap hard plastic. Luckily she did have the 3.1 V6, my mom best friend also had a Grand Am (1987 model model with the composite lights). However, moms friend had the troubled, weak, under powered (Iron Duke) 2.5 Tech 4.
The difference in performance and driving experience was like night and day between the two engines. In the hot Summer heat, moms friend Pontiac with it’s 2.5 4, always had something wrong with it, a hose busted, A/C issues, and just problem after problem with the iron duke. My moms 3.1 version on the other hand was smooth, jolted the car with quick speed take off and pedal response. surprisingly the 3.1 was generally trouble free to a degree. My step dad always mentioned how the 3.1 was oddly (for GM at the time)-very refined and had a smart engine design layout!
Build quality was crappy since the door panels stayed loose like they wanted to detach. Pontiacs of the 70’s however seemed like quality tanks with bold designs and colors.
I believe that the Grand Am took over the LeManns spot in Pontiacs stable in 1985. I may be wrong on that but that is what I heard.
The ’85 Grand Am was a 2 door only and originally was to be a downsized Grand Prix. But, GM kept the bigger RWD cars around awhile.
With the 4 door added in ’86, the G. Am replaced the Phoenix X body compact.
The 6000 A body was what replaced the LeMans line, and the Mid Size G body Bonneville was the “80’s Lux LeMans”
Tomcatt630
Thanks for the clarification, what you wrote seems more correct. I can see Pontiac replacing the Phoenix which lasted until 1985 I think. With the Grand Am.
Which made the Grand Am & Phoenix run side by side for a brief time in 85′. I say this because the 85 Grand Am looked so much more modern, sophisticated, and advanced. BTW the Pontiac Phoenix did have one of the best looking “Ultra Sporty” dash boards for a car of it’s size and caliber. The tons of circular gauges must have been like a dream come true for many that love that particular design theme.
I myself had a 1987 Pontiac 6000 S/E with the composite Euro headlights, with mild factory body modification package (small deck lid spoiler) back in the Summer of 1996. Purchased it with many miles on it, but kept up very good for a 9 year old car at the time. Never knew the 6000 replaced the LeManns, but looking back on it now, it makes sense.
The Pontiac 6000 STE (AWD) H.O. V6, with the fascinating digital dash-bar layout was exciting and fresh. That is the model I really wish I had back in the day…
One more tidbit on these cars: Pontiac dropped the Phoenix after 1984, so it never ran side-by-side with the FWD Grand Am.
I agree that the circular gauges were nice, but… if you did not order the extra cost instruments they were mostly blank. To me, that negated the sporty look and just screamed “cheap.” My grandmother had a 1979 Grand LeMans with the “Swiss Cheese” dash, and it looked cool from a distance, until you saw all the blanks in the little circular binnacles.
GN
Blanks in the binnacles is a real sin for sure. This should not be an option one had to pay for.
The thing I totally hate about many GM cars of the 80’s, is that they charged for every possible option a car could have (Silly). It’s no wonder why you could find so many 80’s cars lacking so many standard options we take for granted today. stripped bare to the bones when new.
American cars charged extra for passenger side mirrors, floor mats, sun visors, additional interior map lights, A/C, Rear defrost, even a 3 speed windshield wiper, with sprayer was an optional cost. Premium wiper blades cost extra. Center counsels with the floor shifter, which I love-were made an option that many Americans passed on-which makes me mad.
I hated the old senior citizen style pull down lever steering column transmission gear shifter of the 80’s. total B.S.-dam you GM…
I wish they would bring the column shifter back. The console shifter was cool when it was actually a “sporty” thing but now that almost every cheapo crapbox up to luxocruiser has one, no thanks.
Or at least get rid of those eyesore consoles if the car is going to push buttons, dials or whatever.
The 3800 pound weight of these points to why the decision is made to promote luxury. With emission controls, performance is over. Overseas brands are able to offer a similar if narrower interior package in a car weighing a thousand less pounds. No amount of tuning or HD suspension is going to make it outhandle..
So why not promote what the foreign other guy cannot match. Quiet smooth under stressed engines, that can handle at ac and a smooth auto to make long comutes more palatable. People were leaving the cities in 1972.
These cars had very limited pollution controls. That came in 1973.
Yes and no. I believe federal emissions standards started in 1968, preceded two years earlier by California. I think by this era the engines had low compression, to allow the eventual phase-out of leaded gas, and air pumps and maybe even EGR. So performance was dipping, though the 1975 regulations that started the adoption of catalysts and mandatory unleaded were still a few years off. Maybe it was different in Canada.
I’d argue the performance of this car is pretty good for the era. A quarter mile in less than 17 seconds was pretty speedy for a 4-door sedan. And while like most domestics the base suspension wasn’t good (like most domestics), the A-body’s suspension upgrades were very good for the time.
Canucklehead is correct, that there were limited emission controls in 1972. That said, by 1972 most engines had lower compression, and had been retuned to meet the emission standards. This included carburetor and timing alterations. Some cars had some rudimentary emission controls such as devices that prevent ignition advance in low gears, but these things really just made the cars feel more sluggish than anything else. The big change in 1973 was EGR valves were added to many cars.
I always thought GM really “mailed in” the 1972 A bodies, the 73’s were originally supposed to come out in 72. Thats why they pared down models and made the GTO an option-I think they were doing their best to use up parts too, you could order a GTO front end on your LeMans.
I saw a photo of a rare 4-door 1972 LeMans hardtop with the GTO nose. http://imgur.com/a/GcIrP
And there also some 1971-72 LeMans wagons with the GTO nose as well. http://www.pontiacstreetperformance.com/psp/rebuild455jh99.html Which lead to an urban legend then some employees at a Pontiac plant created GTO wagons by putting GTO badges.
I never noticed when these roamed the highways, but these pictures of the Luxury Lemans give off a strong Gran Torino Brougham vibe to me. Maybe Ford thought that Pontiac was onto something.
Me too, I kept thinking it looked a lot like a 72 Gran Torino in the side profile.
There is definitely a resemblance between the LML and the Torino Brougham, from the side perspective at least.
There was no Gran Torino Brougham in 1972 and no fender skirts either. There was a Brougham option but it was mostly an interior upgrade. Skirts and opera windows all came in 1974.
Here is a 1972 Gran Torino 4-door
I always thought that using “Luxury Le Mans” as a name was just trying way too hard to convey something that should have been discreet.
Or not trying hard enough to come up with a distinctive sub series that associated the car [and customer] with exotic locales, romantic places, exclusivity or a continental adventure.
Yes, let’s tell the world what a climbing, pretentious poseur the buyer is.
I thought the name was embarrassing and tacky back then and still do. Yet brand whoring is a fashion statement and a lifestyle now.
To my mind, the less well trimmed Un-Luxury LeMans [ you know, the cars the knuckle dragger K-Mart crowd bought ], were better looking without fender skirts and vinyl toupee. As well as more tasteful.
A shame as, overall, Pontiac’s mid size cars were still very handsome in 72.
My thoughts exactly, on the name “Luxury” Le Mans. Such a literal, unimaginative play at suggesting what should have been quietly self-evident.
And then there’s the monogram “LML”. “Luxury Mans Le.” Or perhaps, “Le Mans Luxury.”
Haha I was thinking the same thing about that monogram. What the hell was LML?!? Although LLM would have been less symmetrical…
LML made me think ‘LeMon Law’
A traditional monogram has the first initial first, the last initial in the middle and the middle initial last. Usually the middle letter, which represented the last name, was larger. So my initials are MCS, but my monogram would look like mSc
Aha! There seems to be no limit to the breadth of information one can learn on CC. Thanks, Matt!
Grand LeMans sounds much better, or LeMans Classic
But that would suggest the LeMans 24 hour classic, and I’m sure these cars, even with legendary GM quality, lasted longer than 24 hours.
Wow, I completely forgot about these! I must admit, there is something very visually appealing about those sharp body lines combined with the fender skirts – very sled-like!
I actually think this may be the most attractive version of Pontiac’s 1970-72 A body, which I consider less attractive than the efforts of all 3 of its sister Divisions. I think the fender skirts really work on these (the 4 doors, especially). Remember that the early Monte Carlo was often equipped with skirts too, though few are seen with them today.
Pontiac had benefitted by an unbroken string of really strong management teams, beginning with Bunkie Knudsen in the 50s, Pete Estes early in the 60s and John Delorean after that. James MacDonald (who followed DeLorean in 1969) was not in their league. John Beltz was, but he was running Olds in the 70s.
John Z saw luxury becoming the new trend, and was there with the 69 GP. I think that the Division’s direction got murky after he left. Just that name “Luxury LeMans” is a confusing mash-up of concepts. In the same way, the Chrysler Three Hundred could not compete as an ordinary luxurious car, because that’s not what the Three Hundred was.
The fender skirts make this car look too tail-heavy. I’d say they were clearly an afterthought to gussy-up an aging model in its’ final year but the Gran Torino Brougham had the same skirts to the same effect and was new for ’72.
There were no fender skirts on any 1972 Torino. They weren’t available until 1974. Further, there for 1972, there were only three models, the Torino, Gran Torino and Gran Torino Sport. You could get a Brougham interior trim group on the Gran Torino though (both 2 and 4 doors). It was like it sounded an interior trim option and included no exterior changes other than an extra emblem. For 1973, the model line-up grew to include a Gran Torino Brougham in addition to the previously mentioned models.
In 1974 fender skirts as well as an array of other Brougham options were added to the Torino option list. It was actually kind of late to the game compared to GM.
This may be what you were thinking of:
’72 LLM’s were popular used cars in my area, and many were modded up, of course removing the skirts.
But, Pontiac LeMans copying Buick and Olds mid size formula didn’t work. Mid/Lux buyers saw it as a ‘kids car’ and got GP’s. Muscle car fans wanted sizzle, and got used 60’s LeMans/GTO’s.
The ’70 Cutlass Supreme was not the first use of the name, but was the first with the formal roof line, aka ‘G Body’.
It worked well enough as a stopgap in ’72 but they should’ve followed up for ’73 with a Grand Prix sedan, even if it meant reverting the GP hood length to that of the standard midsizes give or take an inch.
Tomcatt630, thanks for the point on the Cutlass Supreme name pre-dating the “formal” coupe roofline for 1970. You captured what I meant to write more clearly, so I tweaked the copy to make it more accurate.
GN, I enjoy your write-ups as much as the articles themselves. Great post.
You’re totally right – the rear styling of the refreshed LeMans line did look a lot like the ’68 Grand Prix, but the funny thing was that I probably had seen more of this generation of LeMans before I had seen (or been able to identify) the ’68 GP, so I learned to associate that look with the Pontiac A-Body.
What a comedown, from being GM’s 2nd most popular A-body (after the bread-and-butter Chevelle) to being outsold by even the (ostensibly) upmarket Buick, though yes – we’ve covered that the Sloanian ladder had been disintegrating for years before the 70’s.
By this time Pontac meant “performance”. Any one wanting “Broughamance” didn’t have to far to jump up to Oldsmobile prestige. I did like these though!
I like your idea of importing/building the Monaro. If JohnZ had stayed around, I could really see that, or something similar happening.
Back in late 72 my Dad decided to purchase his first new car in 14 years. He felt it was time to step up from all the Chevrolets he’d had. The Luxury LeMans first caught his eye but I think the new Grand Am had the European flair (so called) that tipped the scale. Burma Brown metallic with a brown bucket seat interior. God, I loved that car. It was a faithful friend for almost 20 years but boy did the tin worm have a feast!
Got one of these for my wife in 1977, it was loaded with AM/FM, bucket seats and A/C. It was a very nice car, looked good and was comfortable and reliable. It eventually succumbed to the GM intermediate coupe rusted rear window disease.
I’d never seen one of these with intact fender skirts before now. And, oddly enough, it kind of works… (though of course it looks much nicer even in the ad renderings with their subtly tweaked proportions…)
Some trivia – I actually worked in the Pontiac Engineering building briefly (shown on the opening page of the Road Test article) around 1980, as a draftman. I don’t remember what I drafted, but I recall looking out the window and seeing on occasion an El Camino with a Grand Am clip, and also a Kammback Trans Am (which had a cameo on an episode of “The Rockford Files” of all places) driving through the lot. *also* Shown in the AF VK illustration of the gold 1966 LeMans, note the 8-bolt wheels. They were supposedly to be offered as an option on the A bodies (although in cast iron instead of aluminum), and were mentioned in the brochure but never put into production. Does anyone have any further information?
According to Jim Wangers’s book, the cost of those wheels was too high, so Pontiac decided not to offer them, even as an option. They were therefore never offered by the division.
The 8-bolt wheels were not compatible with disc brakes, which were obviously the wave of the future. I believe that the 8-bolt wheels on the full-size models were gone after the 1968 model year.
The deadliest sin on the test car was the fit of the driver’s door.
How did that get past inspection?
According to the article, it was an engineering test car that wasn’t going to be sold to the public.
Hence stupid of The General to release the car for press review as not representative of production build quality.
I’m a bit surprised you didn’t mention Pontiac’s attempts to generate sales in the lower-priced end of the mid-sized car market, notably the 1970 mid-year introduction of the Pontiac T-37 and GT-37. In 1971 (their last year of production) the T-37 and GT-37 replaced the Tempest. They seemed to have been discontinued to make room for the 1971 mid-year introduction of the compact Ventura II (which you did mention).
Please click on the link in the article where the 1971 T-37/LeMans is mentioned–it connects to a great post by J P Cavanaugh on that short-lived model strategy.
You’re right. Sorry.
Great article and I thank you for a damned interesting and informative read. The rear skirts don’t work for me. Skirted and semi skirted works on some designs, but not when there is the obvious rounded wheel arch above.
And great to see the Monaro GTS/4 brochure scan. For the record, the driver is the late Peter Brock.
Never say never, but it would seem odd that GM would slate this car for crash testing or component wear evaluation. This was the final year for this body and platform, and it was a borrowed year at that – the successor generation for ’73 was originally slated for ’72. This car was really a ‘60s leftover in terms of original design, the final year for the inherently weaker mid-size four door hardtop, and had been thoroughly evaluated by ’72. I wonder if this is another issue RT got wrong.
Color me crazy, but I think the lines and styling of the white 4-door post sedan Tempest far outshines the more formal lines of the 4-door hardtop, and coupes of the sane vintage shown at the beginning of the article. I’m in L-U-V love!! Especially that gigantic C pillar and the coke bottle lines carried through the doors. So perfect.
A Luxury Lemans “Brougham-ification” was inevitable and easy; wide axle-level chrome trim, rear fender skirts, vinyl top, other doll-ups of faux luxury, folks seem to have loved it then. That other makes tried it out with success first was encouragement. Recall seeing a few of these when they were new, the owners always fit the typical middle-aged moderately-prosperous profile.
I’m a sucker for rear skirts…just love the way they look on some cars, and this is one of them. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen this bodystyle with skirts in the wild, it’s something I associate more with full-size models.
I may be in a minority here but I think the best LeMans ever built was the innovative and cute as a button Daewoo version back in the 90’s. Think of it, the Daewoo Lemans could way out handle, out stop, steer and track better than any old rear drive Lemans. In some cases the Daewoo Lemans could even out accelerate some of those old Pontiacs from the 60s and 70s. I owned a scrumptious bright red 1993 Lemans with all the goodies. It was an awesome car. I had very few issues with my Lemans, probably much less than the rest of the American built Pontiac line. I was so disappointed when Pontiac discontinued their partnership with Daewoo as I was looking forward to a newly designed Lemans in the future. Those cars are rare nowadays and very collectible. Young people today go ga-ga over the classic imports from the 80s and 90s. It’s the new wave of auto collecting.
I’m glad to see all this info on the Luxury Le Mans , how come there is no info on the Canadian cars built with the Chevrolet 350 cu in, orange engine . I’d like to know more about my 72 Luxury Le Mans &why it’s based on the Chevelle ” A ” body, & the power of the motor.
I was wondering if the fender skirts from a 2 door 1972 Pontiac Le Mans would fit on a 4 door Le Mans ?
Why did Pontiac discontinue both the Lemans and Lemans Sport 4 door hardtops after 1971, leaving the LML their only intermediate 4 door hardtop for 1972?
Would have been nice to have the T-41 endura bumper front installed on the 4 door hardtop.
In my early 20’s I bought a brand new 1972 Luxury Lemans 2 door coupe with bucket seats. I did not buy it to be a “poser” or “pretentious” and did not think twice about the name Luxury Lemans. It was white with a white roof. I was in love with the clean white on white and the sleek, more hip/modern, body style (my previous cars were a 65 bug and a 68 Corolla that backfired all the time). To this day this car body style still sends my heart racing. I have to stay away from the car shows in fear of having a heart attack at the sound of a muscle car starting up, or getting my hand slapped for reaching out to caress the paint of a gleaming red GTO.
My friends at work made fun of the “old lady” fender skirts so I removed them and was pleased with the sportier look of the car. My then future husband had an (Olive?) green GTO coupe that we both loved so we decided to go to Pontiac to look for a car for me. The Luxury Lemans was my first car financed on my own with my earnings from my first full time job. I remember paying sticker price $4440.00 (all those 4’s stuck in my head).
I had that car into my 30’s, and I can remember being able to actually stand up in the back of the car to buckle my toddlers into their car seats, so much room! But I needed a more economical car and sold it to my brother, who removed the deteriorating roof fabric and painted the roof black (which I hated). Later I bought it back from him. I don’t remember why I stopped driving it.
During a period of financial difficulty and a “gas crisis” we sold the GTO. Regret that decision, but at least the kids wouldn’t have to fight over who gets it when I’m gone upstairs.
My husband took the 350 engine out of the LeMans to try to put it in some other vehicle. The poor LeMans now sits in a field, rusting. I had grand visions of restoring it and painting it fire engine red with a new white roof and making it my Sunday driver…will never happen. So I’ve decided to sell her as a parts car.
The dashboard is cracked (result of an angry fist in cold weather when it wouldn’t start one day – big mistake) and the seat upholstery is pretty much trashed and the back bumper is tweaked and the grill surround has a golf ball sized dent in the center of the ‘nose cone’ (don’t know how else to describe it). Other than that most of the rest is straight and in good shape; other than the rust. But I don’t think any of it is rusted through yet.
The two things I didn’t like about the car was the “squishy” suspension, mentioned in the Road Test article (made my young son car sick on mountain roads), and the standard brakes that would go out every time I had to go through a puddle in the rain; until my husband taught me to drive through puddles with my foot on the brake.
I get nostalgic thinking about my Pontiac, but I think it better that her parts get new life on another wounded Pontiac somewhere, badly in need of a door or a hood and bumper, and I can sleep better knowing she is being loved and not neglected anymore.
I hope you enjoyed reading this history of an original owner’s 72 Luxury Lemans.
Wow, I’m glad this article got re-run not too long after your comment… how impressive that you held onto your first brand new car for 50 years! I felt a pang at reading it’s eventual state and I wish that somehow, in the intervening year, you were able to pull that restoration off but of course such is life sometimes… and I at least hope that if it was sold, she’ll get resurrected or like you indicated, helped to resurrect another car or more. Long live your LML!
Best wishes and a Happy New Year!
Dino
Agreed! Great ownership story. I don’t always reread the comments on reposts, but I should – you never know what gold is there!
I knew a guy back then who had a Luxury Lemans (it was actually a nice car). He wore a leisure suit – it was a different world…
I tend to think that the A-plus Grand Prix and Monte Carlo ended up assuming the niche that the A-body Tempest and Le Mans had occupied: more flash for not a lot of extra cash. Which left the regular Pontiac A-body at sea, basically.
The ’72 reminds me of the 1970 Toronado or the ’75 Charger, which were also semi-fastback sporty cars trying with mixed results to look like formal roof Broughams because their original image was out of step with the way the tastes of the market had shifted. I feel like the results were incongruously frumpy: Making a Le Mans look like a ’68 Buick Skylark was certainly a choice.
The 4 door hardtop version of this body does not get enough respect. It had a really nice shape and married the sporty to the formal about as well as anything ever did. (The sedans of this generation, OTOH, were just dumpy). The Pontiac Luxury LeMans did the formal look better than any of the others. I don’t find the skirts off-putting at all – after all, Pontiac was the one that used skirts on the 65-66 Bonnevilles to such great effect while Oldsmobile was going all Toronado with its fully exposed rear wheels.
These look nice, but the styling is a bit dated for 1972. It looks more like 1968 or 1969 to my eyes. That’s only three or four years, but GM’s cars changed quite a bit in that time, almost as much as from 1958 to 1961.
In 1964, Mustang-mania swept the industry and within a year, everything could be had with a fastback roofline, bucket seats and sporty hubcaps. Detroit put that design element in every model line. By 1972 – that look was replaced by formal brougham-mania. Pony car sales were on a skid from which they never recovered, and several corporate makes had been left holding sporty looking body styles that were out of place in the new mania.
This is one of them. This is not a formal looking car. This is a bulbous blob that was designed to mimick sporty, not formal. It was such a visual flop, Pontiac felt a need to actually add the script “Luxury” to the fender badge. This is a black double-knit jogging suit in a room filled with black tuxedos, with tails, canes and top hats. It is a visual mutt.
Ford got lucky. Their enormous fish-mouthed Torino in 1972 ended up with a chrome park bench bumper, a flat formal grille and Ford had just enough of a formal roofline to pull off the formal brougham just long enough.
Chrysler didn’t get lucky. They put a hood ornament on a Satellite designed with sporty lines, jammed a “halo” vinyl roof on a sleek sporty roofline, and watched their intermediate sedans become ugly police fleet specials.
Worse of all however, AMC which missed the boat entirely, launching a kooky Matador Coupe when everyone else was rushing away from that dated look. Their timing was horrific.
Broughamification wasn’t just about interior options – it had a formal look. These intermediate sedans designed during the era of the pony car, didn’t have that look. Putting brougham design elements on them made them look ridiculous. This is one of those ridiculous looking cars.
“Pony car sales were on a skid from which they never recovered”
never?
Mopar and AMC’s ponies died off, but Mustang stuck around [or brought back as a Pony in ’79]. F bodies had a huge resurgence in mid/late 70’s, with 1979 being a record for Camaro. Stuck around til 2002 and brought back. For past decade or so, Big 3 have had new coupes with lineage to Pony cars for sale.
1972 Gran Torino didn’t yet have the 5 mph “park benches” by the way, and a fastback was offered for two years.
I agree that the fender skirts were too much on the 1970 styled body. But, LLM sold well, and was a popular used car later on, with hot rodded versions in NW Chicago, no skirts. 😉
Since 1970 – Camaro and Mustang peaked in 1979 and Camaro hasn’t sold over 100K since 1995 and Mustang since 2016.
The others are history.
Ponymania as an industry-wide design language was gone by 1970, with only Camaro and Mustang hanging on another nine years as alternatives to other small cars. Their “roar” was gone by the time of the Fuel Crisis.
“… but the styling is a bit dated for 1972”
True, for the market then, the “classic” A bodies beloved today at Barrett-Jackson were “too small, dated” and Gran Torino had a banner sales year. Grand Prix did take a chunk of Pontiac ‘plain’ A body sales, for sure.
Big 3 had a good year in ’72, with ’73 being even better. Before the darkness of Oil Crisis I.
But also, Toyota and Datsun were eating VW’s lunch.
Good suggestion you had, GN, about the Holden Monaro as a good car for Pontiac back in the day. Shame they didn’t pursue that. But as the old expression goes, there’s a season for everything and Pontiac definitely had it’s peak season in the 1960s. The baton was transitioning to Oldsmobile in the early 70s.