It’s another visit to Pontiac dealers of the past through vintage photos, on this occasion featuring some of the brand’s better days, when it went from a conservative GM division into one of America’s most exciting automotive names. The collection of images spans the 1959 arrival of Pontiac’s famous “Wide-Track” models through the 1960s and into the 1970s, capturing the make at the height of its popularity and performance image.
Our opening image is at Earl Dunn Pontiac in Madison, TN.
Thorpe’s Pontiac-GMC, Main Street, Tannersville, NY.
Humphrey Chevrolet-Pontiac, 457 Milwaukee Ave., Burlington, WI.
George Kell Motors, Pontiac-Oldsmobile-GMC, Highway 67, Newport, AR.
Thorpe’s Pontiac-GMC, Main Street, Tannersville, NY.
Front Pontiac Sales, 127 W. Third St., Perrysburg, OH.
Willis Motor Co., Pontiac, 202 West Maple St. North Canton, OH.
Showroom at Superior Pontiac-GMC, Monterey Park, CA.
Central Pontiac-Cadillac, 614 Kingshighway, Rolla, MO.
Simpson Pontiac, 16100 Fort Street, Southgate, MI.
Salesmen and 1974 models waiting for a buyer.
Center Pontiac, Main Street, Springfield, MA.
Looks like a Hillman Minx there at Thorpe’s Pontiac, maybe 1955-57 vintage. Americans didn’t warm to English cars with a roof. I don’t understand what the Volkswagen’s appeal was over the competition. There were many more attractive, practical and roomier imports available. I would guess that none of them were as reliable.
That style Hillman was my parents’ first car, for seven years of American driving, including freeway road trips. I barely remember it but my Mom never mentioned any breakdowns or big repairs.
Thank you for all of these today. I especially like the Pontiac-Cadillac dealer in Rolla, Missouri. It’s apparently late 1960s, but times had changed, and the 1957 Chevrolet (and flattop something-or-other) really look ‘ancient’ by comparison.
Thorpe’s is still in business in Tannersville, New York, though just as a GMC dealer, and they moved to a bigger facility a mile outside of town. However, they kept their older site, which is now used as a body shop / parts department. At some point it gained a 1980s facade, but amazingly, the sign still says “Thorpe’s Pontiac-GMC”.
Then-and-now comparison, and Google StreetView link below:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/PS5nEGa6zUU5MnA76
A Chevy-Olds dealer near where I live still had the latter’s emblem on their building as as late as 2012
Call me old-fashioned but I think the old facade looks much better. I wonder if it’s still hiding behind those bricks.
Back when GMC trucks really were different .
? Is that a Hillman I see parked beside Thorpe’s Pontiac – GMC ? .
And perhaps a Renault next to the ’57 Chevy at Central Pontiac-Cadillac ? .
I remember and miss dealers like this back in the day .
Pontiac was always a step on the Sloan Ladder too high for me .
Don, you nailed it ~ English cars were terrific and took a serious beating but _ONLY_ after you’d taken most of the entire car apart and fixed all the myriad initial build quality issues / mistakes .
Then there never was serious parts support for any English car back then .
-Nate
Simca 1000 by the Chevrolet 1957.
I delivered cars to Thorpe in the 1990’s when I drove for Anchor Motor Freight. I worked nights and the new dealership was at the top of a hill in the middle of nowhere and was quite creepy at night.
Thanks for the Wide Track photo trip down memory lane! The George Kell dealership also sold Cadillac as per the smallest brand sign on the pole out front. Nearly all these dealers still showed the Chief Pontiac logo on their then dated signs. And Thorpe’s still offered Green Stamps in the mid 60’s, don’t remember another dealer that offered them, usually department stores and gas stations. I remember helping mom lick and stamp hundreds, if not thousands, of those stamps into the books. Fortunately for my tongue near the end of the stamp era S&H had a bigger one per page size. Saving Green Stamps is how we got a “modern” folding chair and table set to replace the 1930s era rickety table with metal corners and wooden legs, that took a lot of books!
Flying A was a gas station brand so I’m betting they at least at one point sold gas if they still weren’t at the time of the picture, though to be fair the sign says service which is not as common as the Flying A Gasoline signs.
Most of those pictured used the same Chief Pontiac sign from when dealerships were still run out of 1920s-styled brickfront stores with a pair of gas pumps out front.
It looks to me like most of the dealers pictured had the good sense to keep overhead low even when sales started to take off in 1959. I’ll bet they made a fortune when Pontiac was in it’s heyday.
Earl dunn.pontiac.
Nashville Tennessee..big Pontiac dealer till 2001..it all fell apart when gm blocked out Oldsmobile cars..then Pontiac was next..Nashville lostca Chevrolet dealer downtown that was started in 1925..its gone now…all foreign cars now
George Kell was a hall of famer, and had a long career as a broadcaster for the Tigers. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/George-Kell/
Simpson Pontiac is where I bought my 1st car a used 1971 Ford Torino. I worked at Park Tire in Lincoln Park where we sold a lot of used tires to Simpson and did White walling on tires ie turn black walls into white wall. My wife, then girlfriend, lived around the corner on Leroy, behind the Fort George driven. We’ll be married 50 years in May 2027. Now I live in Nashville and I remember Earl Dunn in Madison too.
Spectacular 1966 showroom with a LeMans convert. & long, swooping Bonneville with skirts.
Dad traded his ’61 Austin 850 (Mini) for a ’66 LeMans coupe, b/c the doc said, you gotta relax & get a car with AC!
(our 1st AC car)
I’m pretty sure the big 2-door with the skirts is a Grand Prix — it had a more squared-off C-pillar than the Bonneville.
These photos are awesome. Humphrey Chevrolet/Pontiac is kinda of an outlier as both brands were so close in price point. The canopy at Thorpe’s Flying A is the same canopy my Dad put up at Kline Pontiac in Doylestown, PA to keep the Philadelphia Zone office from forcing him to build a new building for the dealership. We lived above the business in Doylestown which it looks like Willis Motors in North Canton Ohio as well as Front Pontiac in Perryssburg Ohio may have done. Wonderful memories growing up in a Pontiac dealership.
1967 Pontiac Grand Prix. 2 door. Red line tires. 400, 4 barell. Dual exhaust, with resonators. TH400 tranny, 8 bolt. Hideaway wipers. Pwr. windows with vent windows. Pwr brakes.Pwr steering. Pwr rear antenna. Buckets, all black interior, burgundy maroon paint. Pinstriped and vinyl top. Fender skirts, hideaway headlights, and cornering lamps. Tilt steering. Center rear speaker, rear arm rest, rear ashtrays with lighters. Rear window defogger. AC. Center console, with shifter. Also has passenger glove box.Tinted glass, with factory “GP” etched into front driver and passenger window glass. And if you can take out and put back in the number one plug in under 5 minutes, you are a better man than I am. All that at age 19. Geez.
Salesmen and 1974 models waiting for a buyer:
Any body know what the “MIC” sticker represents in the window behind the two gentlemen?
If it was GMAC, it be General Motors Acceptance Corp which financed dealer new car inventory and individual customer purchases.
GMAC, Ford Credit, & Chrysler Credit are worth CC’s of their own.
IIRC, GM was losing money on car production while GMAC was the money maker in the 00’s.
Motors Insurance Corp.
As a big Pontiac fan and 4x owner of F-bodies and 1x of a J-body (my first car), it’s always a little disappointing to see no Firebirds in these old dealership photos from the late 1960s into the 1970s. Especially considering both Camaros and Firebirds were selling well back then to compete against the Mustang.
I owned a 1975 Pontiac grand prix LJ black over gray, red velor interior, 400 4 barrel, …nice Pontiac museum in Pontiac Illinois