Here’s the Not-Niedermeyers engaged in an exciting hobby on the wild coast of California, while the real Niedermeyers were sweating in their hot 1965 Coronet wagon going to the boring pool in Towson. Life is cruel.
Vintage Ad: 1966 Pontiac Bonneville Safari Wagon – The Not-Niedermeyer Family Wagon
– Posted on October 18, 2021
Beautiful ad of a beautiful car!
Hey, I went to a similar pool in Catonsville but luckily it was just over the fence from our house so a short walk to the gate. I would assume my mother’s Comet station wagon didn’t have A/C. Yet, as luck would have it while I went to the pool in the first week of June 1966 I managed to go to the beach at Santa Monica by the end of June 1966. We moved…
I remember that we went with someone who drove through Topanga Canyon in a VW Beetle. That was the first and only time I ever rode in a Beetle.
A full vinyl roof, no less!
The Cavanaughs were definitely Not-Neidermeyers in many ways, but even our branch of Not-Niedermeyers got our legs stuck to the searingly-hot black vinyl seats of a non-a/c 66 Country Squire. Which also lacked a vinyl roof. 🙂
That’s the first thing I noticed!
Were vinyl roofs on wagons a big broughamy thing in America, or a rare-but-available option? All these years of CC and I don’t recall seeing many.
My recollection is that vinyl roofs on wagons were quite rare.
A little known fact is that vinyl roofs were originally a device to enable a vehicle to be overturned and used as a boat.
Mishaps were common of course, as XR7Matt’s photo below illustrates.
It looks larger than a Mack truck, doesn’t it?
I remember these wagons and they are not this large.
There is not enough room in that vehicle for all those people and all their gear.
There’s a VW bus parked just ahead of it.
If it was a photo instead of an illustration, there’d be a five ton box van for all the camera gear!
Picture 3 pretty big kids in the backseat of a 1959 Rambler American 2 door sedan. Back windows didn’t even roll down all the way. Only good thing about that car was it had no radio. Thus we weren’t forced to listen to the polka tunes the folks liked. Forgive me if I lack sympathy for anyone who had a wagon to stretch out in.
Why did Bonnevilles have opposed wipers, while their lessor brethren had parallel ones? Were they really better? And why bother with a vinyl roof on a wagon? This ad would speak to me more if they were dropping things off at their yacht.
It’s all here:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-the-mystery-of-gms-two-wiper-systems-the-answer-was-pretty-obvious/
This was a great article, considering I’ve always been fascinated with windshield wipers. It’s funny thinking that no one’s built a better mousetrap in 100 years for a way to clean the windshield — as a kid, I imagined something like a forceful airstream. RainX sort of works, but not in all situations.
I watch a lot of ‘Out of Spec Motoring’ videos on EV’s, and noticed recently that the Europe-only VW ID.3 uses a monster overlap wiper system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcVvHR9EPJk&lc=UgyDqd7S5Q-i-Iq0OM14AaABAg.9TOE6WoiUto9TS9BK4kIAS&t=469s
while the ID.4 (at least the US version) uses a parallel system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikheO2Nb3-k&t=3492s
I’d assumed these cars were identical in most underlying respects. Wonder if the parallel system is a cost-saving measure for the US where VW’s hopes for the ID.4 are so great?
I doubt that’s the reason. It appears to me that the ID.3’s windshield has a steeper rake and extends further into the roof, necessitating that more complex wiper system.
The ID.4’s windshield looks to be smaller, allowing a more conventional system.
The Canadian Pontiac being a “Cheviac” or a “Ponvrolet” didn’t have opposed wipers for 1966. http://oldcarbrochures.org/Canada/GM-Canada/Pontiac/1966-Pontiac-Prestige-Brochure/index.html
Still, the guys who did the illustrations of the Canadian 1966 Pontiacs brochure did a good job for imitating the style of VK-AF or AF-VK. .
I was totally smitten by the big 1965-66 Pontiacs when they were introduced. The closest my family came to one was a 1967 Chevy Bel Air 2-door sedan (actual car pictured after my brother modified it by jacking up the rear and removing the then-uncool dogdishes).
There’s a white ’64 Catalina wagon that hangs around Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan, and which was parked on Overlook Terrace last night as we were driving home from birthday dinner. My main impression is that it’s not as big as my old ’87 Safari.
Life’s not totally cruel, you own that piece of property now, don’t you? 🙂
I can’t really see you owning a 1966 Bonnie wagon even in 2021, so that’ll have to stay a not-Niedermeyer vehicle.
It was then; it hasn’t been in quite a while. Ever since I left Towson, actually. 🙂
You’re right about the connection of that coastline and Port Orford; it’s what came to mind when I saw the ad and decided to post it (although our actual wooded chunk doesn’t quite look like that). It made me feel very grateful for how things have turned out. I could not have imagined it back then as a reality, although I did wish for a place by the coast, ever since I first hitchhiked up it in 1972. It’s surprising how many wishes turn out to be fulfilled.
Now if only my wish for a handful of eager young helpers to clear it and build on it would come true.
Could be a good CC meetup activity, but none of us are getting any younger!
No, that wouldn’t be a good idea. I’m talking about on-going projects.
I’m getting some leads, but everyone is slammed. I’ve never seen it like this. It’s so hard to find anyone who’s not already super busy.
Paul, not everyone can be raised by a family of frogmen.
And here it is today!
Oh, come on, anyone can tell that’s a ’64. (Most people here, anyway. Flat side window frames are one giveaway.)
When my folks were friends with a Pontiac sales manager, we had two new 1965 Bonnevilles at once, a convertible and a wagon. The wagon was white with a blue interior and like all Bonneville wagons of the era, had no third row, but instead a carpeted rear area with raised chrome strips. It was our first air-conditioned car and I still remember it well. The ’66 would have had an almost identical interior; the walnut dashboard veneer mentioned in the ad was already doomed, replaced by vinyl for ’67.
Forgot to mention that the ’67 Executive wagon that replaced the Bonneville had a vinyl roof, plus chrome luggage rack, plus rear wind deflector. Plus fake wood on the lower body sides and tailgate. Missing a hood-mounted tach, though…
And look at that left rear door panel!
There were so many things that we wished for growing up. If we are lucky we get to realize some of those wishes as adults. I wonder what it would be like growing up really rich. Everything you could ever want growing up, and the assurance that all this and more, would be available to you in the future.
Not to give the impression that I’m envious of anybody. My life has actually turned out much better than I had expected.
This reminds me of that famous exchange from the movie Broadcast News, when the clueless anchorman William Hurt shares his feelings with the despondent Albert Brooks.
“What do you do when your real life exceeds your dreams?”
“Keep it to yourself!”
Good advice.