If a person were looking for what may be the nicest 1976 Pontiac Ventura Landau coupe in North America – and that’s a very big if – this could be it. It isn’t a 100% original car but it sure looks nice. It can be found here on eBay in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, about an hour north of the Montana border. The seller had it appraised in 2017 and it came back as being worth $17,000! I’m assuming those were Canadian dollars which would be $12,600 in U.S. funds, still a tidy sum. They have it listed with a buy it now price of $9,000 Canadian ($6,670 U.S.).
There is quite a history with this car and it includes some hail damage which is apparently why it was repainted in 2016 as you see happening here. The car was Ziebarted (rust-proofed) when new and it has never had any rust, according to the seller. It stayed with the original owner, barely being used, until 1993 when she left the country and her kids took over stewardship. The seller bought it in 2011 with 27,325 miles on it and went through the whole car to make it reliable. They also fixed the hail damage and storage dings and had it painted.
They say that the interior is original but it’s had a new headliner and new carpet installed. You have to love those original seats! A padded landau top and that seat fabric bring me right back to the days of white shoes and a white belt. Oddly, but not really oddly anymore since we’ve come to expect it, there are no engine photos. It has Oldsmobile’s 260 cubic-inch V8 which had 110 hp and it works perfectly along with the automatic transmission. There isn’t a lot of originality left in this car according to my maybe-skewed definition of the word, other than maybe they mean “original-spec”, but certainly not original. That being said, if a person had to have the nicest ’76 Pontiac Ventura in North America, is this the one?
Looks like they amended it to $14,000 but it would be fun to ask the appraiser, “Would YOU pay me that much for it?”
I had an appraiser come to my house and appraise some cars. He asked me after he looked each car over how much I thought it was
worth. That’s the price he put on the appraisal. I don’t have much trust in appraisals.
17k!?! Does this guy appraise houses too? Wouldn’t mind hiring him myself!
Nice car however always remember what an appraiser really is:
A PAID LIAR!
We have one in NJ…. Gov Phil Murphy
I am leery of saying it is the nicest Ventura on the road. As soon as you make that claim another one will pop up with 1000 miles on it. It is very clean and it is certainly in the top 5 for originality and cleanliness in the world. It would be fun to drop a 400 or 455, Rally II Pontiac rims, the chrome aftermarket ones and maybe a functional shaker. A 455 without a shaker and keeping the pillow top roof might turn this car into a super sleeper. As for the price, it is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. There is a truism about old cars. “It will be popular today if it was popular when it was new.” Pontiac did a design exercise in 1973 called Formula X. A Firebird, a Lemans and a Ventura. All had a Trans Am shaker and all had a red, white and blue color scheme and graphics. They were to be a less expensive muscle car that were high performance and less creature comforts, like power windows, A/C, sound deadening among others.I did find a photo to share.
A friend of mine used to call ads that claimed “Best” and ask them when and where the contest was held! Funny guy…
I would not include a picture of my car taped up and sitting in somebody’s home brewed backyard “paint shop”. Even though there are good home paint jobs, it doesn’t inspire confidence.
As for matching numbers, who cares. It only really matters on performance models.
Steve R
Steve R, thank you. All well said.
(I think the appraiser IS the owner of the car !!)
Hey, at least it’s not GREEN !!!!
Totally. Needs to be silver, white or black, like everything else on the road.
Dark green is alright with me.
Crappy car 17k no way 1700.00 would be more like it.
You tell ’em, open-minded car dude.
Was the 260 a V8?
Yes, Olds block, only made for a short period of time. The 307 ended up being produced in real volume.
“… the nicest 1976 Pontiac Ventura Landau coupe in North America..” ? Maybe so, but it’s still nothing overly noteworthy.
Appraised at $14K?? The appraiser was obviously kidding.Honestly, sellers need to ease up on the B-J Kool Aid. $3000 is about all this Poncho will muster
My Dad and I back in 1987 had a customer, (she was the little ole Lady that only went to the store and Church with her car). Miss Neibert, retired school teacher owned a 75 Pontiac Ventura, one day it was rear ended and it was towed to the shop, she loved the car and wanted it fixed so her insurance company gave us the go ahead to do the work. Well in SE Missouri we could not find a rear clip for one, but was able to find a rear clip for a 75 Oldsmobile Omega, so we took that clip and turned the car into a Ponti-mobile as Dad called it. The only main differents was the tail lights, they had the Olds emblems. Miss Neibert drove that car for another 10 years until, she passed away, the Family sold the Ponti-Olds, and I have never seen it since.
Good Memories!!
Somebody’s head is in the clouds. I don’t see anything even remotely worth even $8K U.S. on this. No, it’s no mothballed low-miler, although its fairly straight. This is no highly sought-after model of Pontiac, so I can only hope the owner comes back down to earth price-wise at some point. He’s gonna have to; only a fool would pay even close to his price on this.
The kind of guy that try to sell an old used Rolex and shows a photo of the appraisal for 9K and the appraiser it’s the jewelry from the mall. LOL
Clem on the phone to his bro in law Cedric Joe the local livestock appraiser:
“Need you’s to c’mon over and rate this here Ventra for me, I’m thinking it’s gonna be at least $60,000 because on the computers Pontiacs are going fer big money.”
Cedric Joe:
“Vision’s still a bit shaky after all the corn liquor but I’ll be over after Doris May done finishes up usin’ her glasses so’s I can see.”
Thanks for giving us Canadians a bad name. Sheesh…………
$14k and no white walls??
Appraised by Jesse Ventura.
Calling all blue – hairs, your ultimate Grandma car is up for grabs!
Unfortunately this car is worth what an equivalently clean, used car is worth.
Some people refuse to buy any ‘newfangled computer cars’ as a daily driver and this is just the ticket for them.
Eventually this car will catch on.. its clean, a two door, and not the worst looking design I have ever seen. But it might take 20 more years…..
Apparently no one here knows what an appraisal is. It’s the cost involved to replace the car to the condition it’s in at the time of appraisal. It has zero bearing on what it’s worth.
It may cost 17 G’s to get a replacement car in the same condition it’s in now, but it will still only be worth 7-8 G’s for someone to buy it.
So a 25,000 mile car in really nice condition, ready to be driven is not worth $6700? Oh, and it’s a 2 door, Oh , and it has a V8. Do you people just come to this site to whine about every car?
This car is a real deal for someone wanting to get into the hobby.
A lighter 1st gen camaro with the 250 6 cyl(155 gross hp 110? net hp) & 3:07 rear & turbo muffler might be faster than this pontiac.
Let’s hope it finds a good home.
I focused on the notation that the rust-free state of this car is due it having received a Ziebart treatment when new. I can only talk to the 1970 version of Ziebart, but it was known to be effective only in the short term, and then to CAUSE rust over a longer period. The material would harden, and then develop surface micro-cracks. Those cracks would allow water to infiltrate, but then trap it against the metal that it was supposed to protect. I witnessed all of this on my Dad’s only new car, a 1969 Ford Torino. Judging by the condition of this Ventura, things must have changed by 1976. Jumping ahead to the current day, last year I purchased a 2007 Ford Focus wagon that is completely rust free, thanks to Ziebart. In fact I am continuing the annual re-check and touch up through Ziebart. After my Dad’s experience, I never thought I would be saying such a thing, but you can’t argue with results. As for the Ventura, if as Scotty wrote “…a person had to have the nicest ’76 Pontiac Ventura in North America”, well I feel a little sorry for them! The mid-70s was a sad period for North American manufacturers….