The darling of the 1960s, Pontiac’s mid-size cars had once been among the most popular in America - but in the 1970s it was luxury touches, not muscle, that sold cars. If the #GTO was Pontiac’s star in the 60s, that role was filled in the 1970s by the #GrandPrix - which buyers snapped up in record numbers, while the #LeMans lineup, closely linked to the GTO, began to dwindle. The 1973 “colonnade” cars did well in their first year, but nowhere near as well as Oldsmobile’s versions, and sales softened after 1974, despite being some of GM’s best looking products. After the fuel crisis, downsizing was the order of the day. The A-bodies, which at #Pontiac meant the LeMans, Grand Prix, and revived Grand Am, were redesigned for ’78. Once again the sporty looking LeMans was one of GM’s best looking mid-sizes, but still the cars failed to draw new buyers. In part, this was because returning buyers still wanted Muscle cars, and if they did, they turned to the Firebird - which was a hot seller in the late 1970s as most of it’s competition had been killed off by 1975. Or they wanted the Grand Prix, which, as before, was very similar to the LeMans inside. The GP lost considerable cachet with it’s 1978 shrinking, but it was still a big seller compared to the more workaday LeMans. Under the hood power choices were not thrilling - Buick’s 3.8 V6 or Pontiac’s 301 V8 with either a 2 or 4-barrel carb (max. 155hp) - but the cars drove well and had a good combination of soft ride and reasonable handling. None could be called sports cars but, on average, they weighed 600lbs. less than the colonnades. The LeMans shared its basic shape with the Chevy Malibu but Pontiac got a unique roofline on the coupe that gave it a sleeker look than the other A-bodies - but often times, to appeal to the “luxury” buyer, this roofline was covered up with a big vinyl top - as on this car. The basic LeMans and the plusher Grand (seen here) soldiered on for four years but were never big sellers - a shame, because they were some of the nicest of these A-bodies. #PontiacLeMans #GrandLeMans #junkyard #salvage #trb_autozone #decay #dirtmerchantautos #discarded_but_not_forgotten #grimelords
