Car Carrier of the Day: 1968 Pontiacs
– Posted on July 12, 2020
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My Dad had a string of Pontiacs through the ’60’s and ’70’s. I recall when he brought home a navy blue ’68 Ventura 2-door. I looked out the window and said to my Mom: “look at the nose sticking out of Dad’s new car.” I never did warm up to that look.
Recently I came across an owner survey of these Pontiacs in a late 60s copy of Mechanix Illustrated. That protruding schnozz came up repeatedly as a least favorite feature. Many people disliked it.
Well, it could have been even worse. A styling proposal for ’61.
That design looks like the front end took a hard tap in a parking lot.
Hmm, that might have influenced the Lexus “spindle”.
That’s a Pontiac? Looks like a Mercury.
I never warmed to the “Bunkie Beak” either.
These full size ’68-’70 Pontiacs front ends always gave off an Edsel “vibe” to me.
I always kind of liked the 68, and it never looked better than as a Bonneville 4 door hardtop. It was clearly trying to be a bridge to the new 69 with its urethane schnoz and hockey stick lights, but the shape of the 68 was so much nicer. These were the last big Pontiacs I really liked inside and out. Some of the later Grandvilles were attractively styled, but the 1971+ B/C body had enough structural and interior issues that I could never see it as much more than a pretty face, where these were pretty much the whole package.
There’s nothing about the 1968 full-size Pontiacs, in my opinion, that wasn’t done better the year before. The dashboard looks so much nicer without all that tacked-on padding in places where it wouldn’t even do any good, as the main top pad (shared during the two years) protruded more and was thicker than what was added. Some people don’t like the esthetics of the ’67 front end treatment, but do they really prefer the ’68? All the exterior details of the ’68 – wheel covers, taillamps, etc. – were more garish and unsubtle (even optional ones, like the cornering lights). And the molded plastic door panels on the ’68 Bonneville and Grand Prix are awful.
The new 1969 models had the door guard beams and larger wheels, as well as head restraints, but the trade-off was the crappy new dashboard and lack of vent windows. I’ll take a ’67 fully optioned Executive or Bonneville wagon, please.
#IMO the station wagon body is the most attractive model of this year Pontiac.
I may be in the minority but these were always my favourite year of Pontiacs. I was five when they came out and for some reason the convertible that a cousin of my dad’s had an a neighbours green 4 door hardtop stuck with me to this day.
Pontiac jumped the shark with that beak in ’68.
In my opinion, the prettiest full-size Pontiacs were from 1961 to 1964.
The 65-67 Pontiacs were tolerable, but the bloat had set in. That’s when the intermediate-size cars became popular.
Agree, Allan Lacki !
Somehow Pontiac and Buick “did more” with the same shared basic body shells than the other GM divisions did during this time period.
I thought the stacked lights of the 67 looked so heavy and cluttered. I like the new front even with the beak.
I’ll take that dark four door hardtop on the top row.
The wagon in that futuristic charcoal gray for me, please.
A friend briefly owned a white 68 Executive sedan that looked just like the second one back on the top. That was in the early 90’s and it was an all original, low mileage survivor. It exuded tons of that Peak Pontiac charm, from that brief time in the 60’s when the division seemed to make all the right moves and was rewarded with big sales. The bold styling, great engines, attractive interiors with great dashes, Morrokide upholstery, and translucent steering wheels. Boy, those were neat cars! I like the 68, but the big nose was the first sign of them losing their magic touch. I’ll take that wagon on the end, thank you very much!
Probably another screaming 6-71 or 8v-71 under the hood of that GMC, must be cooler weather judging by the cardboard winter front covering the grill. Long live Doctor Detroit.