I like what I observe to be a trend toward increased appreciation for vehicles that are unrestored, low-spec, or otherwise seem to be considered unremarkable in some way. As much as I appreciate, say, a 1968 Ford Mustang GT fastback in mint condition, my attention at car shows will almost invariably pull toward the unique or “misfit” cars. This isn’t out of pity for either the car or its owner(s), but simply because such shows are usually full of examples, both real and resto-modded, of obvious choices or fan favorites. Much like I don’t necessarily gravitate toward the most physically attractive people in a room, I go for what seems real and relatable.
This echoes how I approach my vacations and interactions with people who start as strangers and end as friends. This ’77 Grand Prix is like the on-in-years but beautiful lady sitting and playing video poker next to me at the bar in some random, smoky casino downtown or off the Strip in Las Vegas. After both of us have been sitting there for a few minutes and after briefly making eye contact, one of us jokes about how luck doesn’t seem to be with us today, and the other laughs. She brushes a stray ash from her Virginia Slims menthol from the puffy sleeve of her fluffy, sequinned, short-sleeved sweater as she asks what I’m drinking. “Soda water with a splash of cran and a lime.” “No alcohol today? Honey, I respect it. Bartender… another for me, and whatever this nice gentleman wants. I’m Linda, by the way.”
Downtown Las Vegas, Nevada. Saturday, October 9, 2021.
The lines on her face speak to life experience. The kindness in her eyes reflects the empathy and strength of a lady who has known high times and heartbreak in equal measure, yet she remains warm and approachable. She’s been married a few times (like this Grand Prix has had a few owners), and she loves her man – a good man who appreciates her mind and the beauty that she is, was, and will continue to be hopefully for years to come. No fillers. No Botox. One hundred percent real. I smile to myself and give thanks for the blessing of her and my seemingly (but not at all) random meeting and brief time together, which seems to reinforce that there’s so much unsung goodness in the world.
To me, this Grand Prix represents the beauty of the possibility of attainability. Having purchased untold issues of Auto Trader when I was a youth, my fingertips stained with black ink from incessant page-flipping (and inadvertently leaving marks on the walls to my mother’s chagrin), a car like a ’77 Grand Prix would have been on my short-list of desirable vehicles if the price was right. It is a beautifully and interestingly shaped and detailed Colonnade specialty coupe that’s (mostly) rust free and has a bit of personalization to it. It’s a ’70s GM car with a V8, so it will run for years and many in my GM factory town of Flint, Michigan will know how to wrench on it if and when something goes awry. It’s not perfect, but that’s what makes it perfect.
The ’77 model year brought the all-time sales record for Pontiac’s personal luxury machine, with over 288,400 sold, up over 25% from 1976’s respectable 228,000 figure. Most buyers selected the base model with over 168,200 units moved, with the mid-range LJ and top-line SJ selling 66,700 and 53,400 units, respectively. I didn’t see any extra letters or badges affixed to our example, so I would assume it’s a base model, unless the LJ or SJ letters came off when the custom graphics were applied. I didn’t have a chance to visit with the owner(s), but power for a ’77 Grand Prix could come from V8s displacing 301, 350, or 400 cubic inches, with horsepower ratings ranging from 135 to 180 (the 350 had 170 horses).
The more power, the better, as the starting weight of any ’77 GP was over 3,800 pounds. Unlike the famous race after which these cars were named, they were never meant to go breathtakingly fast, but rather to provide a smooth, stylish, luxurious cruising experience. This would be the Grand Prix’s last year to feature this dramatic styling, as next year’s “Medium Prix” (I can’t help laughing almost every time I read any such reference to the ’78) would be downsized and feature more restrained styling that I nonetheless still find attractive, especially in the right color combination and with the right wheels and accessories.
There were a lot of beautiful, interesting, desirable cars on display at Flint’s annual Back To The Bricks car festival this year. Many were in condition cleaner than a dinner plate, yet this Grand Prix remained so compelling to me that I passed it twice, both on my way into and out of Saturday’s big show. Tucked away next to the historic Paterson Building, it was one of the most “Flint” cars at the show, and I say this most lovingly. Like my hometown, this GP was rough around the edges, but also boldly, unapologetically, and unflinchingly what it was, unmistakable for anything else.
Like my fictional video poker player friend, there was also a sweetness about it, pink graphics and all, which endeared it to me even more. Maybe it had awakened a latent something inside of inner teenage Joe. Maybe it had made me reflect on my early childhood, when the Colonnade-era of Grand Prix was still a common sight. Maybe it reminded me of the cigarette-burned glitz of old Las Vegas. Regardless of the reason, I loved this Pontiac for being there.
Downtown Flint, Michigan.
Saturday, August 16, 2025.
The brochure pages were sourced from www.oldcarbrochures.org.
I burst out laughing at the “medium Prix” line, as this was the first time I’d ever heard it!! There’s a bit of wistful sadness to the picture, as even though we see someone keeping it alive, the faded grandeur of what it once was is apparent.
“Medium Prix” continues to make me laugh. I’m pretty sure those words were first typed with a light Austrian accent, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find the old article where Paul N. had referred to the 1978 – ’80 GP as such! So I linked a different article. But, still… 😆
Would that make the W-body the Consolation Prix?
LOL!! Yes. I think we should assign “-Prix” nicknames to all generations as we see fit. I smell a CC challenge brewing…
Wait, I’d hardly consider my own Grand Prix a “Consolation Prize”…. LOL
Point taken, Rick – very sharp GP you had! Love the wheels and color combo.
This is perhaps my favorite Pontiac ever.
A friend of my mom’s had a red ’77 Gran Prix SJ she has purchased new. It was a beautiful car I rode in a time or two – she disposed of it shortly after her husband died quite prematurely.
The parents of an elementary through high school classmate had a blue LJ, also purchased new. It had seen a harder life, with a motorcycle once having slammed into the passenger side front then rolling all the way down the car. You’ve reminded me of a story involving this car as classmate’s grandparents had a weekend home near Florence, Alabama, and I went there with him and his parents in the Grand Prix. That might be a story for these pages at some point as it solidified my respect for these.
They still had the GP in the early ’90s, but it had been parked for a while by that point. Classmate and his dad got in an argument about it. Classmate said it would not start as it had sat for well over a year; dad said he was full of it and got out his keys. He hit the ignition switch and it started after a little bit of cranking, running like it was new.
Thanks for this!
Jason, please dust off and tell that story you mentioned, as only you can. And maybe the red ’77 had reminded the widow too much of her deceased husband.
Well, I have started a recollection. Take a look in the Drafts if you are curious. I promise to run it, barring any unforeseen circumstances, by 2029. 🙂
Goals! Thanks, Jason.
I am not a big fan of the “Colonnades”, especially of the Pontiac versions as that beak nose always seemed lacking cohesion with the rest of the design (i’d rather have a same period 4-4-2 Cutlass if i should pick an A-body ), but I agree with you Joseph – I am always attracted to apparently unremarkable “survivors”.
At car shows and in museums we are used to seeing cars that have been preserved because they are desirable or rare, but give a very skewed view of what the automotive scene was back in the day.
Examples like GP this are still alive because somebody loves them, perhaps bringing back memories of a past life… so many moments that have been lived inside and with this car
By the way, those pink graphics somehow complement perfectly this Pontiac!
I am a fan of these, including the frontal styling (with a slight preference for the waterfall grille of the ’76), but I agree with everything else you said! One other thing about the front styling of these – they definitely look aggressive if not slightly mean. I suppose not like “Linda” at all.
I am trying to figure out that visual treatment on the sides. I don’t ever recall seeing one decorated this way before and have to assume that it was a late-in-life decal job.
My eye is drawn to that turn signal stalk – did that protuberance at the base of the lever (that did not age with the same color as the rest of the interior) get added on at the end of the run to incorporate a modern switch for high beams?
I like these a lot better now than I did when they were common. They were good looking cars and when properly equipped could be pretty good handlers too.
You bring up a great point about the eventual different-colored-ness of GM interior plastics after a long period of time. Aside from that small panel on the side of the steering column (which I admit I hadn’t noticed all that much until you pointed it out), IIRC, this interior seemed to be mostly the same color red.
There might have been some Armor All involved, but I liked the way this car presented. And yes, the graphics work for me, too.
At first I assumed the side treatment was a pink camo design – but it’s not. Just a pink pattern, like what one would find on bed sheets. Somehow, it doesn’t look too bad on this car… not really my thing, but the Grand Prix actually pulls off the pattern and the contouring pretty well.
Pink camo would actually have been kind of “Michigan” – I hadn’t even thought of that possibility when I had first taken note of these graphics. Michigan loves hunting!
What really works with these graphics is that the lower edge is flat, and the upper edge nicely follows the body sculpting to a logical end.
I’m a sucker for a side o’ the bumper mounted license plate so this GP works for me as well. As does the whole front end really. “It’s not perfect, but that’s what makes it perfect” is a great line, I may have to appropriate that in the future… Excellent story, Joseph.
PS. Linda’s third husband is usually named Buck.
What’s funny is that when I was originally writing this, a certain Grace Jones lyric has come to mind: “I’m not perfect… but I’m perfect for you!”
Yes, this generation of the ‘A’ platform was the one which moved the high beam control from the floor to the column. Different divisions made the change over the course of ’75 and ’76. GM didn’t go to the trouble of changing the design of the steering column to accommodate the change. They simply cast the sleeve with a larger stalk hole to integrate the switch and the new fore and aft travel of the stalk. Then they simply stuck a plastic cover over the whole contraption. Because the sleeve was cast metal, the plastic cover would deteriorate at an accelerated rate relative to its mounting.
David, thank you for this explanation. I did rather like the floor-mounted high beam switch on my old ’76 Chevy Malibu Classic. It was one of those throwback touches that I appreciated from a car of that era (I had owned it in ’91).
I can’t unsee that protuberance on the side of the steering column. I suppose with the downsized ’78 models on the horizon, there was really no need to put anything but an engineering band-aid on this.
Great analogy with your fictional poker friend! At every car show I might find one or two “misfits” that immediately become by personal best-in-show winners. This would be one of them for me… thanks for writing this up!
Thanks so much, Eric. I feel like I actually know “Linda”. Every time I have re-read this and re-envisioned that scene in my head, it’s been like I was actually there with her, waiting for my other friends to show up so I could make introductions and we could all hang out there for a while together.
I can’t recall too much about these from back in the day, but looking at it now, I am reminded of a friend’s family that had a 1974 (?) Regal Coupe that looked a lot like this (aside from the front end). I was rather fond of that car, and so now 50 years on I am finding that the Grand Prix may look more appealing than I used to take it for.
Great story, Joe.
Thanks, Jeff. The further we are from any nice Colonnades being semi-regular spottings, the more it seems I appreciate them.
I, definitely, do not like the looks of that car. Call it a visceral reaction especially to the first picture of it.
We like what we like. I’m sure you’re not alone.
There’s a white Tesla which has recently moved to our neighborhood. Other than the color, and being a domestic, not much in common with this Grand Prix. But the Tesla also sports a pink sticker on its flanks, much smaller than this Pontiac’s striping but still very noticeable. I wonder if the car – and its sticker – will last 50 years and attract someone’s attention like this GP.
You bring up something I have wondered myself about the interest in the future in the automotive hobby for vehicles that are now current.
I could see Teslas being interesting in the way I might find an Apple IIe at a museum interesting, though not necessarily the way I’d find the rolling sculptures of the ’60s and ’70s interesting.
Knew a lady from “Community College”, days; her usual car was her mom’s, black, “74-5, GP”. Was pretty unassuming car, always seemed to be going.
As I recall, her mom drove a car belonging to her “boyfriend”. Hence the “GP” was generally available. Would a been a “4-5”, year old car at the time.
I seem to recall Pontiacs of this era being somewhat rust-prone. I suppose this would depend on the climate in which it was garages and driven, but if in the Midwest (like our featured car), I’ll bet the 4 or 5 year old GP has some rust on it.
I’ll bet our featured Grand Prix had been a southern car that has been transplanted to Michigan within the past 10 to 15 years.
I live in Las Vegas. I’ve met plenty of Lindas, both the cars and the people.
Evan, maybe I was hoping just a little bit that you’d have something to say about the Vegas part, and I’m glad you did. Thank you. I enjoy visiting with my co-tourists in those parts of your city.
Another nice survivor .
I love ’em too, our annual So. Cal. TT Run is coming up and is always filled with oddball cars .
Nate
“Survivor” is a good way to describe this one. Tough but sweet, like the pink graphics on the side.
Colonnades get a good deal of hate, which I don’t understand. I luv ’em! I recall as a car crazed kid, they were a big deal in the fall of ’72, so fresh and new and different from anything up till then. And the ’77 Grand Prix, Regal, Cutlass may have been the best-looking year. (’73 in my view for the Monte Carlo).
Is that a black ’73 Buick Centurion coupe, no vinyl top, preferably with the 455-4 to the right? One of my automotive white whales.
I agree about the ’73 Monte Carlo, which to me was the most aesthetically pleasing of that generation. I wish I had paid more attention to that Buick you mentioned. Flint is a Buick town, so it would not surprise me to learn I had walked past some rare and desirable B-body like it was just another nice, classic Buick.
I can’t quite tell…is that an AM/FM/8-track stereo? If it is, I’m very disappointed that there’s not a Grand Funk Railroad cartridge sticking out.
When I see one of the PLC versions of the Colonnades I expect to see the Saturday Night Fever sound track, Donna Summer or other Disco in the 8-track.
My boss when I was in my early to mid twenties had one if these in a color not too dissimilar from my own Grand Prix GTP, a picture of which I posted above in response to Aaron’s “Consolation Prize” comment regarding the W Body.
His car seemed so big for a personal luxury car, but compared to the ‘83 T- Bird I was driving at the time, it was huge. I liked it though, especially in that greenish blue, and IIRC, it may’ve had a two-tone thing going on with a lighter blue on the V of the hood. I may be recalling this detail a little wrong.
I’m with you Joe in liking the “Medium Prix” though. I really liked the ‘78 that replaced these, and my Dad’s dark blue over silver ‘85 was a nice looking car too.
So, a buddy and I were watching the crash scene from 1980’s “The Hunter” with Steve McQueen earlier this month, and I almost always wince when the two-tone green Medium Prix goes careening into the Chicago River from Marina City towers. That had been a nice car.
Couldn’t help laughing at the ‘Medium Prix’ for the next year’s car. Not just the size, but the un-special nature of the styling, compared to this one. Smaller need not equate to blander. If a used-to-be-special coupe doesn’t look special, what’s left?
But on today’s car, there seems a massive disconnect between the pink graphic panels (which seem almost ’80s, or possibly lowrider style?) over what llooks to be factory white paint, and the wheels on this example which have more of a Pro-Touring vibe. Then there’s those odd exhausts. Obviously this is a work in progress, but I wonder which way it will go?
Haha! Peter, I can’t take credit for “Medium Prix” – those were Paul Niedermeyer’s words (I did eventually find that article where he used those words, and it was actually in reference to a ’76 not unlike our featured car).
Regarding the wheels on this one, I do wish they were factory chrome “snowflakes” with red center caps, but I don’t dislike the black wheels. Combined with what might look to some like pink camo on the sides, the overall look adds to the tough-but-sweet persona. To me, anyway.
Another great read, Joseph.
This one does appear to be the base Grand Prix model, and it has relatively few options as well. It has the standard split bench seat covered in vinyl, and likely the 301. I see no evidence of it ever having a vinyl, excuse me, a Cordova Top, and I would imagine the snowflake wheels were added later. Too bad they are blacked out, but they could have been in poor condition to begin with. A close look reveals it has no air conditioning, but it does have a AM/FM Stereo, which also could have been a later add.
My first impressions of the colonnade cars was not good, as they had a lot of ‘teething’ type quality problems. I was a used car salesman then, and we bought a ’73 Cutlass Supreme that had been traded for a new Toyota when the first gas crisis hit because of it’s poor gas mileage. One of those panic trades. I ended up selling it to my parents, and the about a decade later it became mine. It really turned out to be a good car. A few years later I rebuilt a wrecked and loaded ’77 Cutlass Supreme Brougham that also was a fine running and riding car (I was in the collision repair business by this time). I really liked that one. And then a few more years later I traded a friend out of a ’77 Grand Prix very much like this one. It had the 301 that ran well but was pretty gutless. His wife’s name was Debbie, not Linda (close).
I look back at that era now with fondness, probably more with sentimentality than common sense. It was the decade I became ‘of age’, and although the malaise era had fully began, to me the cars were the last of the ‘old style’ with choked but bullet proof drive trains and long option lists. Things began changing in the late seventies, and for the most part they were good changes, but I like the old American cars.
Patrick, thank you so much.
Your last paragraph, to me, perfectly sums up our attachments to vehicles while if not the most superior in terms of dynamics, design, performance, etc., still elicit feelings in us that are tied to a certain point in time and our concurrent experience of those vehicles. Well said. I feel that way about some ’80s cars that others might find to be questionable choices.
The lack of a/c (great spot) seems to debunk my idea that this had been a southern car.
I’ll bet you’ve got stories, having been in the businesses you mentioned.
I didn’t remember this Pontiac, but checking my video clips, I did see it. I think it may have been the lack of breeze, but I was seriously overheated by the end of that show. By the time I had seen everything, I ended up over at the McDonalds on Ballenger for about half an hour soaking up the AC and a cold drink before I was ready to head out.
I have seen that sort of floral pattern used on the roof or hood of a car, but not on the sides. Wouldn’t be my first pick, but I do like the way it works with the sculpting of the body.
It was pretty warm that Saturday, Dan. I have similarly ducked into a business before and made a purchase just to enjoy the a/c for a little bit. It was great catching up, even if only briefly.
GPs are nice, but I think I’d rather have the ’73 Buick.
It was a very nice ’73. I wish I had paid more attention to it.