(first posted 5/14/2013) Pontiac had an interesting lineup in the Sixties. While most people remember the Catalina, Grand Prix, GTO and Bonneville when it comes to ’60s Ponchos, the Star Chief still hung in there despite its ’50s-vintage nomenclature. The somewhat ignored middle child in the big Pontiac lineup is neither well-remembered or often seen today, so you can understand why I was happy to see one at last year’s Galesburg Car Show. Yes, I am still mining pictures from that single event–there were so many cool cars there!
The Star Chief debuted in 1954 as the top-of-the-line Pontiac. Unlike the rest of the 1954 lineup, the Star Chief rode the longer, 123.5-inch wheelbase of the A-body Buicks and Oldses (think Super 88/Century, not Ninety-Eight/Roadmaster) and, as you’d expect, also featured more chrome and nicer interiors.
It remained top dog through ’57, the year the Bonneville was introduced as a limited-edition, fuel-injected convertible. That marked the beginning of the end for the Star Chief as the best Pontiac you could get; the following year, a two-door hardtop joined the no-longer limited-edition Bonnie convertible in the 1958 lineup.
The Star Chief remained top-range when it came to four-doors and station wagons, but only for 1958. In 1959, Pontiac introduced its redesigned Wide-Track models, which now included a Bonneville Vista hardtop sedan as well as a Bonneville wagon–and thus confirmed the Star Chief’s new second-banana status.
Whether the Star Chief became either a deluxe Catalina or cheaper Bonneville in 1959 depends on your point of view; although it shared the Bonnie’s l123″ wheelbase, interiors were not Bonneville-plush. Apparently, Star Chief target buyers were people who wanted the smoother ride of a wheelbase three inches longer than the Catalina’s but didn’t want to pay Bonneville prices.
In 1962, the Star Chief still hung in there for those who still wanted one. At 41,642 units sales numbers were no great shakes, perhaps because the Star Chief was now offered only as a four-door sedan or four-door Vista hardtop. No two-door hardtop, no station wagon–in other words, nothing really sporty or versatile.
With their fine styling, they looked just as good as other Pontiacs of the era, but customers set on a Pontiac with flair probably drove out of their friendly dealer’s lot in a Bonneville hardtop, GP or Catalina convertible. The Vista hardtop coupes were especially striking, and the Star Chief series missed out.
The easiest way to spot a Star Chief is by the row of chrome stars on the rear quarter; in fact, from a distance that’s about the only way you can tell a Star Chief from a Catalina. It’s only as you get closer and notice the longer wheelbase that you know what you’re looking at. You’d never mistake one of these for a Bonneville, which wore far more gingerbread.
Interiors were also less flashy than with the Bonneville. While in 1962 a well-to-do insurance agent might have a Bonneville two-door hardtop, and a grocery store manager a Catalina four-door sedan, the Star Chief was a car I could see the local elementary-school principal driving. Big and comfortable, but without excessive trim fillips.
The Catalina (and even the expensive Bonneville) both outsold the Star Chief handily that year, to the tune of 204,654 Cats and 97,772 Bonnevilles–and that’s not including 4,527 Bonneville Custom station wagons. Even so, the Star Chief stayed in the lineup through 1965. In 1966 it became the Star Chief Executive, and then just plain Executive, from 1967-70, after whicn it disappeared. But I’ve always liked the name and when I saw this one, I had to give it a good once-over. It is owned by a local insurance agency that in the 1980s became locally famous for its fire-engine-red Lincoln Town Car company cars. Today they use bright-red Tahoes and Suburbans, so it seems their history with red cars goes back quite some time!
Thanks Tom for showing another gorgeous car,I overlooked the period from fins n chrome to the Mustang and Barracuda and realise what great cars were around.I’m sure this site is trying to make me a full size fan!
Sweet. I literally took my first car ride in one of these, as that’s what my Dad drove my Mom and I home from the hospital in…
Nice way to start my Tuesday!
I LOVE that 54 Starchief. I just wish it had some other color options, but I could live with the burn’t orange I guess.
Burn’t?
Spelling Nazi! 🙂
sometimes I type faster than I should and don’t bother proof reading it…sorry.
Burnt? Burned? poo poo colored, baby food squash…
What are the odds? Both of us find a 62 Star Chief (mine was a couple of years ago: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1962-pontiac-star-chief-does-this-color-make-my-butt-look-big/) and both of them are bright red.
This car looks better to my eye than the 4 door hardtop with the white roof that I found. The solid color seems to help the proportion problem that I saw in the two tone car. I also like that beige interior.
I will also confess that “Star Chief” was one of my very favorite car names as a kid. Pontiac missed a great chance at some model coherance – just think, Sun Chief, Moon Chief, Sky Chief, even Thrift Chief. OK, maybe the actual names they used really were better.
Then there’s Texaco’s Sky Chief, & Santa Fe’s Super Chief, & “Sorry about that, Chief!”
…and the F-105 Thunder Chief.
DeSoto should have done a Firechief.
DeSoto had Firesweep and Firedome..
My favorite car name ever is a close cousin: Starfire.
I remember your find , its engraved in my head as you’ll see below.
It is so cool to see which cars survived. I’ll bet this car never wished it was a Bonneville.
Apparently they were playing down the name “Pontiac” as an Indian chief.
Remember…the Indian head logo got axed a few years earlier in favor of the arrow telling us all where to go…and the DeLorean-inspired names, Catalina, Bonneville, Grand Prix…suggested exotic locales where people might drive fast. The old war chief was frumpy, dated…the future belonged to the young.
The only place the indian chief logo showed up on a Pontiac after 1957 was as the high beam indicator on the dash. The arrowhead showed up in 58, then was modified to what we know it as in 59, and was on all 59’s on up.
The nams Catalina and Bonneville were around before Delorean had influence on products, or before he even worked for GM. Catalina was 1950 to signify their first hard top coupe. Bonneville in 57 right around the time Delorean joined Pontiac and an engineer.
Grand Prix….Delorean might have had a hand in that one. His real claim to fame would be GTO, Tempest, Lemans and sort of Firebird (even though he didn’t want the Firebird, he wanted a 2 seat sports car to compete with the Corvette ie, Banshee). Firebirds were GM show car names long before Pontiac used the name.
PS Bunkie Knudeson really deserves the credit for putting the Chief to rest and begining the long run of Pontiac being a brand for youth minded people who enjoy powerful and good looking cars.
Chief Pontiac remained as the high-beam indicator through 1970 . . . many Pontiac dealers still utilized Chief Pontiac’s ‘head’ through into the ’80’s !!
I could have sworn that he was still on my mother’s 74 LeMans. I could be remembering wrong. I’ll bet Junqueboy can answer this one.
I remember reading a story about that…it was in Mechanix Illustrated about 1975. The powers that be at Pontiac wanted to phase out the old chief, yet not relinquish the trademark. To keep the trademark, it had to be displayed SOMEWHERE on the product.
They didn’t want a hood ornament or display…they were all about the Go-to-Hades arrow by then. So, some unclean genius decided that putting it as the HIGH-BEAM DISPLAY INDICATOR would do the trick!
It worked. Pontiac kept the Indian-head trademark up until past its use-by date. Today, of course, such a thing would be considered hopelessly gauche, as well as racist.
What a gorgeous car. I especially love the tail light treatment.
The 1962 Pontiac line-up in Canada had the Parisienne at the top, then the Laurentian was the mid-line trim, and the Strato Chief at the bottom. All were on Chevy platforms, I believe.
As the mid-line model, it was the Laurentian that bore the three stars on the side of the rear fenders.
Is this , by any chance the same car, reconditioned?an update on the 1962 Star Chief featured here, With a White roof, perhaps in 2011, it was this color, faded, and we all marveled at how long that trunk looked, to match the front i suppose.
In any case i love that it has all that style and it a base full size.
Not likely the same car. The driver’s outside mirror is different and the interior is
mostly red instead of tan in the older posting.
.
Comments on a few different items:
1) “The Star Chief debuted in 1954 as the top-of-the-line Pontiac. Unlike the rest of the 1954 lineup, the Star Chief rode the longer, 123.5-inch wheelbase of the A-body Buicks and Oldses (think Super 88/Century, not Ninety-Eight/Roadmaster) and, as you’d expect, also featured more chrome and nicer interiors.”
I’ve always had hard time figuring out which models correspond with which pre-1959 GM body designations, but I had thought that the short wheelbase Buicks and Oldes in this era were all B-bodies, with the A-body designation applied to Pontiacs and Chevys. (I think some of Olds’ low-end models had been A-bodies at one time, but that was no longer the case by this time.) I don’t know if the Star Chief was considered an unusually long wheelbased A-body or if it was technically a B-body.
2) “[The Star Chief] remained top dog through ’57, the year the Bonneville was introduced as a limited-edition, fuel-injected convertible. That marked the beginning of the end for the Star Chief as the best Pontiac you could get; the following year, a two-door hardtop joined the no-longer limited-edition Bonnie convertible in the 1958 lineup…The Star Chief remained top-range when it came to four-doors and station wagons, but only for 1958. In 1959, Pontiac introduced its redesigned Wide-Track models, which now included a Bonneville Vista hardtop sedan as well as a Bonneville wagon–and thus confirmed the Star Chief’s new second-banana status…Whether the Star Chief became either a deluxe Catalina or cheaper Bonneville in 1959 depends on your point of view; although it shared the Bonnie’s 123″ wheelbase, interiors were not Bonneville-plush.”
For a few years before 1959, Pontiac sold a model called the Super Chief, which was slotted in between the Chieftan and Star Chief. I’ve always seen the 1959 model lineup reorganization as renaming the Chieftan the Catalina, moving the Star Chief name down to what had been the Super Chief, and renaming what had been the Star Chief the Bonneville. In this analysis, the 1957-58 Bonneville was a special “halo” model that was not continued in that form after ’58, with its name now applied to a more ordinary car. I guess we’d have to compare prices from 1958 to 1959 to see which models line up with each other (I don’t have any reference handy at the moment). I don’t know if the pre-1959 Super Chief used the longer wheelbase like the Star Chief did, though, or if it was on the shorter Chieftan wheelbase.
3) “Apparently, Star Chief target buyers were people who wanted the smoother ride of a wheelbase three inches longer than the Catalina’s but didn’t want to pay Bonneville prices.”
I think this is absolutely correct. The Star Chief was for people who wanted the longer Bonneville body but didn’t want to pay Bonneville prices. That the full-size market could be sliced and diced so finely vividly illustrates the sales dominance and marketing importance of full-size cars in the ’60s.
4) “…the Star Chief was now offered only as a four-door sedan or four-door Vista hardtop. No two-door hardtop, no station wagon–in other words, nothing really sporty or versatile.”
Note that the Bonneville wasn’t available as a 4-door pillared sedan, which means that Pontiac had to make a 4-door pillared version of the long wheelbase body specifically for the relatively low-volume Star Chief. Eventually the Bonneville got a pillared sedan, and the Executive got a 2-door hardtop and a wagon, so their lineups were the same.
The 54 Starchief was still an A body, it just ahd a longer wheelbase and about 11 inches added all to the trunk length. It took over the “top of the line” rung from the 53 Catalina, which was the 2 door hardtop only available in specific colors (limited choice). The 54 Starchief custom 2 door ht was the top of the line, also only having a choice of different combo of beige and burnt orange (I believe called coral).
Although you are correct that the Starchief in 59 was the only long wheel base pillared sedan, the roof isn’t really unique because the Catalina sedan would have had the same roof. The Bonneville’s extra wheelbase and length was all in the trunk. All the 59 GM cars shared greenhouses regardless, so the pillard roof wasn’t really a big deal on the big Pontiac body.
I think you’d consider the 55-57 2 door Safari (sharing the Chevy Nomad body more or less) top of the line for wagons. It might be a toss up on the 57 (Bonneville trimmed) 4 door Transcontinental (really rare) wagon and the 2 door Safari.
I think the Oldsmobile 76(?) and 88 pre-1959 was an A body, but am not sure without looking it up. I don’t think the Buick Special was an A-body, pretty sure after 49 the Special as a B body.
Folks may not have cared so much in 1962, but a Star Chief is a keeper today because of the old-style 4 speed HydraMatic (Jetaway) tranny. The Catalinas and Grand Prix’s got the newfangled 3 speed Roto-Hydramatic that proved to be much inferior from a service standpoint. The Star Chief, Bonneville and Cadillac were the only cars still using the old unit by 1962-63.
Good point.
First sign of trouble would give me an excuse to rip either transmission out and put a TH350…or better yet, 200R4 or 4L60.
My first car – the ’61 Catalina – had the 3-speed Roto Hydra Matic. In auto shop, ca. 1976, in the service bay (cleaning plugs) – when I started it up, it decided right there and then to hemmorage it’s transmission fluid. A run across the street to the Thrifty Drug Store for two cans of fluid got it to Carlos’ Transmissions after school, to where said Roto Hydra Matic was rebuilt for the princely 1976 sum of $400.00 (San Rafael, Cal.) Moral of the story: as has been oft repeated here in CC, the four-speed senior Pontiac/Olds – Caddy units were FAR superior . . and more reliable. Granted, the Catalina was 15 years old by the time, but had acquired less than 50K in that time. Other acquaintances who had early 60’s GP’s, Oldsmobiles had similar problems with this shit-bucket automatic.
In contrast, my fifteen year old (89K) 63 Cadillac was piddling fluid through its old seals. I took it into a shop and the guy quoted me for “seals and service.” I asked if there could be more wrong with it. He said that they had some rebuilt units on hand that they could put in, but “I’ll guarantee you there’s nothing wrong with it.” New seals and fluid and it was good as new.
This is exactly right. I don’t know whose idea the Roto was. Better known as the Slim Jim it must have been designed by a bunch of drunks. It was a real piece of junk. For one think it had sorry ratios. I can’t remember but I think going from 2nd to 3rd gear reminded me f shifting a 3 speed manual from 1st to 3rd.
I think it was 1956 when they improved the old 4 speed Hydramatic calling it the dual coupling or Dual Control Hydramatic. It was slower shifting than later model automatics but it had some great gear ratios and it was way more tough than the Roto Hydramatic. It also didn’t slip as much as most Automatics and would her up to 2 MPG better fuel milage. It had two pumps one in front and one in the rear, thus you could push start It if you could get It to about 20 MPH. It was a great transmission for its time. It was replaced by the Turbo hydramatic in Pontiacs I in 1965.
Santa Fe Super Chief. Mohawk (Airlines) Air Chief.
Had a friend in high school whose dad had a 1965 Star Chief four door sedan with a 421 four speed. A real sleeper. The car was a light blue/grey metallic with white walls and full wheel covers. This car was the successor to about a ’62 Monza four door, four speed and the predecessor to a ’68 GTO coupe four speed (also with white walls and full wheel covers). Eventually the Star Chief was sold to one of our HS friends who proceeded to wreck it. Fitting with this feature, the Star Chief’s original owner was also an insurance agent in Illinois.
I KNEW there was at least one ’65 Star Chief sedan with a 421 and a Hurst-shifted 4-speed out there. Wonder if that 421 was the H.O. version with Tri Power and 376 horses? Back then you could order any 389 or 421 in virtually all full-sized Pontiacs (exceptions being 389s in 1965-66 2+2s or ultra high compression 2-barrel 389s in Bonnevilles and Grands Prix). You could have even special-ordered bucket seats and a console in a Bonneville Safari wagon or perhaps a Star Chief sedan. And any piece of optional equipment offered on Catalinas or Bonnevilles was available on Star Chiefs. Most Star Chiefs, however, were conservatively outfitted with either the standard Ultra High Compression 389 2-barrel or no-cost regular-fuel version, Hydra-matic or Turbo-Hydramatic, power steering and brakes, radio, heater and maybe (in southern reaches) air conditioning.
A first date with a wonderful corn-fed farmer’ daughter began with her driving her daddy’s 1962 Pontiac 4 dr sedan (more than likely a Catalina) with a 389 to a drive in theater in Milan, Illinois. The most thrilling part of the evening was her driving the Poncho at 110 mph on the gravel road leading up to Rte. 67. I thought that I would plotz. When we got to Rte. 67 she asked me if I would like to drive. Somehow I was able to croak out a yes. The rest of the evening was also exciting, but in a different way. As I recall, the movie was about racing submarines.
Just curious… Was she a keeper?
Dear Ol’ Dad still wants a 1954 or 55 Star Chief (he was born December 31st 54) because that is THE car from the year of his birth that captures his imagination. I kinda like the Star Chief because I’m always in favor of the idea that big cars don’t have to be luxurious. Some of us just want something large and quiet to pilot around.
The Catalina Ventura must’ve also eaten into the Star Chief’s sales during the 60s. If I’m not mistaken, that car was a Catalina with a nicer interior, but slightly less plush than the Bonneville.
The Ventura started as a mid-year ’60’s model. Think of it as a Bonneville-Catalina hybrid. Venturas had nicer Bonnie like interiors and more brightwork. It’s own script, too and in ’61 V E N T U R A spelled out across the rear.
the Ventura started in 1960. Sort of the pre-Grand Prix Grand Prix.
Everyone has me curious. According to Wiki, Ventura was a separate model, a step up from Catalina (but still on the short wheelbase) in 1960-61 and again from 66-69. In 1962-65 and again in 1970 it was a trim option on the Catalina.
My great-grandmother’s last car was a bright white Star Chief, and it was a beauty. I’m thinking it might have been a couple years newer (not familiar with old cars), but it looked just like this. She drove it for twenty years or so until my great uncle took it off her hands. He drove us to car shows in it, and what a treat it was. What I remember most was the inner steering wheel ring/horn, headlight dimmer switch on the floorboard, and the ignition on the dash. I thought it was worth a fortune (just a Pontiac, haha)! To me it was priceless.
Swell looking car, but Detroit shenanigans of always changing names is quite apparent here. Anyone else notice the trailer hitch? Wonder if it is actually used anymore? Makes you wonder if this Pontiac was in a slight collision since the driver side front bumper is a bit droopy or if the fastening are a bit loose?
I too noticed the ‘bent’ left front part of the bumper . . . .
I noticed that too, and was hoping that it sagged the same on both sides so that loosening the bolts and lifting the ends to straight en it would fix matters. Not so though.
These are all back when Pontiac was the logical step up from Chevrolet. I have often wondered how many more ’53 Catalinas and ’54 Star Chiefs they would have sold if the V8 had made its appearance in ’53 when it was first scheduled.
If I were to own a Pontiac, I think I’d run to the Great White North and bring a ’62 or ’63 Parisienne home. Those two years remain all-time favorites for Pontiacs no matter which side of the border. Even a base Catalina sedan spoke class.
“… full-size market could be sliced and diced so finely vividly illustrates the sales dominance and marketing importance of full-size cars in the ’60s.”
Just like the full pick-up market today. Back then, buyers had specific price points, and would not budge too much up or down.
Star Chiefs were around my old Chicago neighborhood driven by middle aged folks in mid/late 60’s. Older folk had base Catalinas or Tempests, while Bonnevilles/GP’s were seen in upper middle suburbs.
Pontiac really couldn’t do much wrong in the ’60s, could they? Most of their offerings were attractive, hardly a stinker in the bunch.
Ain’t that the truth? I must say that I’m not a fan of the red paint. I’d like this one more if it was still the original color, do you think it was originally medium brown as on the lower part of the dash?
I just looked at a color chart, and there were an ivory, a beige, and a gold available; so I’d guess it was one of them.
I don’t mind the red, but it’s not a good match with that interior.
But it beats today’s silver-grey exteriors and mouse-grey interiors. Pablum colors on sheeples’ cars.
Consumer Reports advised you to buy one of these instead of the catalina because
these kept the old automatic instead the bad news 3 speed roto
I don’t think GM ever got these right
My first licensed car was a 62 Pontiac Laurentian, the Canadian cousin built on the Chevy x frame. (My first car was 62 Studebaker Lark given me when I was 14. 44,000 miles with a thrown rod. Another story.) The Pontiac was a maroon 2 door hard top. The lines and trim closely resembled this Star Chief. Of course it was a 25 dollar junker when I bought it in grade 11 but I rebuilt everything including changing out the frame. It came with the 261 cu in 6 cylinder with 2 speed auto, which I promptly changed out to a 283 with 3 speed standard and floor shift. A medium metallic blue paint job and a mint black interior out of a 64 Paresienne and I was set to go. I quite enjoyed that car. Sold it 2 years later for $700.00. A good experience all around.
This sure takes me back to that time.
The way Pontiac stretched these – and the Bonneville – was really unusual. The stretch is to the rear quarters, not the front clip as nearly everyone else did, a la the Chrysler Saratoga/New Yorker vs. Windsor. You can see it in the wide space between the rear door cut and the wheel well – on Catalina, the two are much closer together.
Yet the stretch did nothing for rear seat leg- or hip-room. I checked the specs on the old car brochure DB, and they’re the same for the Catalina, Star Chief and Bonneville. The only other car I can think of that did that was the ’63-on Dodge Dart. Any others come to mind?
The 1954 Star Chief was the start for Pontiac to begin a long-decked series built in the same way a 1950 Cadillac 60 Special was from a Series 62. The 1952 Olds 98 was the next to join in Misterl’s magic formula before the Star Chief arrived. From then on into the 1970’s, long-decked versions of all but Chevrolets were the mainstay of GM’s best. The Star Chief was something of an anomaly: long-decked but de-contented and cut-rate priced. Of the lack of additional interior space in spite of the longer wheelbase, apparently the impression of long-wheelbased luxury was more important than actual usable space. Indeed, selling the sizzle instead of the steak.
Did anyone build as many junk automatic tranny’s as GM did in a 5 year period? Turboglide, Rotohydramatic, and the Dual-Path used in Buick Specials were all disasters.
And then, somehow, they got it right with the TH400, and maybe the TH350.
Then they went off the deep end again in the late 70’s with the Chevette tranny and the Metric TH200.
When I acquired my driver’s license in the spring of 1967 my grandmother had a 1959 Star Chief four door sedan. I only got to drive the beast a few times, probably because the first time I took my grandmother somewhere in the car I may have used a little too much gas pedal and laid down a fine black stripe from the right rear tire. It was probably just as well I didn’t drive the Chief very often, the combination of my inexperience behind the wheel and gobs o’ torque from the good old 389 would have gotten me in serious trouble. A couple of years later the Star Chief had finally rusted to the point it was no longer safe to keep on the road; it was replaced with a 1963 Catalina two door hardtop that wasn’t nearly as nice of a car.
Hi
beautiful car, I am so lucky that I have a 1962 Pontiac Star chief with original engine, paint, seat, etc. It came to Denmark in 2012 and care has been taken to keep it as original as possible 😀. it is my pride and run perfectly with the perfect sound of the V8
many greetings from Charlotte, Denmark