These two Grand Prix were found by canadiancatgreen at the Cohort, and each seems to play a different persona. First, a 1985 broughamy chestnut one; being the sensible player. And then, a dark menacing one with red interior; the ‘rad’ one with an ‘attitude.’
These were already rare when I lived in California a while back, and I can’t imagine many survive today. And doing a quick search, their last appearance at the Cohort was 7 years ago. When was the last time you saw one?
Further reading:
Curbside Classic/Driving Impressions: 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix – Getting In Touch With My Inner GM
CC Capsule: 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix – A Broughamified Deadly Sin
They’re still somewhat common in the Midwest, where they sold a heck of a lot of em. I like G bodies a lot but that Camry wagon piqued my interest more!
The appeal of ’70s-style brougham coupes left me decades ago. Not that they ever had an allure. Of the ’80s GM versions, I preferred the Buick and Olds examples. Excessive overhang always compromised their looks. Besides, their ongoing association to a ’70s lifestyle. Like Sam above, I’ll take the Camry wagon.
It looks like the black one has had a bumper tuck.
I wish this generation had the Darren door dip the Colonnade GP has. This one is less eye-catching than the Monte Carlo and less handsome than the Regal.
Has that one had a bumper swap too, or is it a different year? Actually the whole front end cap looks shorter.
Different years. 5th-gen GPs got a mild reskin in ’81 for better aerodynamics, think that’s when they switched from the shorter, bluffer nose cap with full-chrome bumpers (as on the black one here), to a longer, more tapered nose cap with body-color faired-in bumper corners and slightly subdued rear fender haunches (as on the bronze one here).
Thanks!
I learned to drive on a 1980 Grand Prix SJ. My Dad’s car, which I picked for him out of the AutoTrader. Two-tone Grey-White over Burgandy with Burgandy interior. It had a 301 with an automatic, T-Tops, and Rallye Wheels. It was a sharp looking car. The 301 expired about 4 years into our ownership (probably with my help). Pops was open to a new engine, and a friend had a 400 V-8 out of a 1973 Firebird Formula which he’d swapped a 455 into. A deal was done, and it lived again with the 400. What a difference!! Miss that car to this day.
That 95/96 Camry wagon is identical to the 1995 I had several years ago down to color/trim – wonderful car that lived up to every expectation I had of that 1992 3rd gen Camry. The 15″ wheel covers show that it’s a V6 LE, the highest trim available since the XLE was sedan only. Mine was equipped with the third row seat, and the floor space with all the seats down was more enough for me to stretch out in at 5’10” – I had many daydreams of making it a sort of RV-lite. Opinions about the styling generally regard the wagon in particular as questionable but I personally LOVE it (and the 3rd generation Camry and dressed up mine with a set of 16″ alloys from a 2000 ES300. The controversial reverse canted D pillar endeared it even more along with it’s dual wipers in the tailgate.
I know the post was ostensibly about the Pontiacs but man, that Camry was a car I lusted after since I was a child… definitely feeling another fresh wave of regret for ever selling mine and hope I find one again.
Too bad Toyota doesn’t bring the equivalent of a mid-size estate/wagon car to NA. All of their Tacoma front end SUVs are so ugly. I ride a fwd Rav4 ’13, the only ‘modern’ thing that comes close to your old Cam wagon.
What first got my attention was the Camry wagon, which I’ve seen less than the occasional GP.
I once drove (& bought from the original owner) a ’79 SJ. It had been ordered quite loaded, with a 301 4bbl, 4-spd. manual trans, limited-slip diff.,power moonroof, leather seats, 14-in. versions of the snowflake rims, rear air shocks, and other stuff I probably forgot.
It was black, with twin narrow white pinstriping. The paint had been well-maintained and looked great. Even the bumper-filler panels were perfect for a then-20 yr.old car. It had brand-new raised-white-letter Hoosier GT tires. It was quite sharp-looking.
While the chrome grille-surround was in good shape, the inner slats’ chrome had begun to flake off. So I painted that part black, which in my opinion looked better than original. It drove very nicely, but the clutch wasn’t very sporting, kind of like an old truck. Not a fast car of course, but could do a pretty-fun 2-wheel burnout.
From a lifetime of mostly necessary/practical vehicle purchases, it was one of my more interesting cars. I don’t remember what I paid for it, but it was only decent old-car money, and I made some kind of profit when I reluctantly sold it for a medical expense.
Of these GPs, I actually like the later style more.They were more common when I was growing up. But not with the spoked-hubcaps. Rallye wheels all the way for me. With RWL tires because I would put them on everything including the lawn mower if I could.
I considered the downsized Grand Prix to be better looking than the initial Monte Carlo. The crisper lines gave it a more substantial and upscale appearance. The interior benefited from a better dashboard and instrument panel. I saw one of the GPs last month, they are now usually in the hands of collectors or LowRider fans.The one that I saw was equipped with some kind of lifts. But it was so clean and shiny!
I remember when my Aunt bought a new ’69 GP, did that car attract attention. That was a situation that would never be duplicated.
Neighbors got a beautiful ,2 tone blue, one in 1983.I think it was an “82” model.
Around ’82-,’83 I was working as a ‘tripper’ for Tilden rent-a-car and I could drive back to back either a Grand-Prix or a Buick Century. The difference was notable in the increased comfort of the body on frame G-body versus the new full sized Fwd gm cars which transmitted too much ”mechanical information” via the steering wheel like vibrations and big torque steer despite the modest power of the time. Of the 4 G-body according to me here in order from the most beautiful to the ugliest .Buick Regal , Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme , Monte Carlo, Grand Prix …
always find that the GP was for the pimps especially with a T-top .
Oh, that’s what the job is called (guess you are in Canada)?
I had that same job 5 years prior, but with Hertz in South Burlington, Vt. However we almost never got to actually choose which car we drove except on rare occasions they would tell us which car to pick up. Mostly Fords as back then Hertz seemed to specialize in Fords, but a few GM, MOPAR, even an AMC and imports (Datsun and Toyota only)…this would have been ’77 and ’78. We only got to choose our car once when we picked up a bunch of cars in Framingham from Florida…they had given us a bunch of registration papers none of which ended up matching the cars we found to pick up….so we tried our best to match the model if nothing else.
Even though I did work in ’78 also when the downsized Grand Prix was around I only drove the ’77 colonnade. It was a nice car but huge for the small interior room. Also drove a Dodge Magnum (not the wagon, the 70’s personal luxury car) and liked it a lot…if I was in the market for a car like that, but still living up north and bowing to concerns over gas availability after the 2nd gas shortage, ended up with a Scirocco, which was good on gas and had good winter traction compared to my RWD 710 which was light so not very good in the snow.
Still one of my favorite jobs, but it ended up paying less than minimum wage since we got paid by the trip and I wasn’t a speeder which attaining minimum wage would have required..still I avoided hitting deer which ended up totalling several cars in the fleet. I called the job a “transporter” and it allowed me to drive a variety of cars that in a way saved me money…got the “owning” different cars bug out of my system such that I’ve only owned 4 cars in almost 50 years of driving…guess I can enjoy a different car by proxy (reading about them on forums like this helps a lot).
Another vote for the Camry wagon being much more an object of desire than the Pontiacs. In fact, it took me a while to figure out the text under the opening picture as I saw only one Pontiac plus something decidedly un-Pontiac.
There must have been very few of those Camry wagons sold in the US, as given that vintage Camry, I’d imagine that most that were sold are still plugging along. And I only rarely see one. Cool cars.
There are still more than a few of these driving around L.A. in the outer or Southern neighborhoods .
Not my cuppa tea but very distinctive .
-Nate