Pontiac was on top of the world in 1977. The Pontiac Trans Am and Grand Prix were hitting sales records and their 4 door line of cars was doing well too. This was the last year for the colonnade body style and buyers had their choice of four engine options and several trim levels. This 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix is located in Los Angeles, California in the Woodland Hills area. It is listed for sale for $6,900 here on Craigslist. The car is black on black with California blue plates.
The interior features a front bench seat with the shifter for the automatic transmission on the steering column. This car appears to be an SJ model and it has the gauge package, AM/FM stereo and air conditioning. The seller discloses that the dash is cracked. The carpet and door panels look nice and the steering wheel has an aftermarket cover on it. The odometer reads 120,000 miles and the car seems to be in driver condition.
In 1977, a buyer could order a 301 cubic inch V8 engine, a 350 cubic inch V8 engine, a 400 cubic inch V8 engine, or if in California, a 403 cubic inch V8 engine. The small 301 cubic inch motor barely produced enough horsepower to move the 4,000 Grand Prix. The other engines were much more capable. The 403 cubic inch motor was built by Oldsmobile and was known as a reliable and smooth running engine. It produced 185 horsepower and 320 lb-ft of torque. It was also offered in the Trans Am and Can Am for the first time in 1977.
The exterior of the car looks pretty good but it is hard to tell from the distance the pictures are taken. While the front license plate is mangled, the body of this Grand Prix appears to be straight and solid. I like the understated grill on the 1977 Grand Prix, although many enthusiasts prefer the fine lines of the 1976 grill that ran up on to the hood. This Grand Prix would look a lot sportier with Pontiac Rally II wheels but is equipped with upscale Pontiac hub cabs. Amazingly, all four hub cabs are still on the car. For the asking price, this car should find a new home soon.
Born a year too late. Always be a smog fail waiting to happen if it stays in California.
2 years too late
No vinyl top, cool! I’m not a fan of wheel covers; a set of Rally II’s would really improve the looks of this one! GLWTS!! :-)
Agreed. Set of Rally IIs would make this car pop
I was surprised by the lack of vinyl too. Rare on the various A body models.
This is an oddity. Upscale options on the standard Grand Prix trim. Not an SJ or LJ, but biggest engine , PW, PL, guages and twin remote sport mirrors, just to name a few.
Those hupcaps….if you look at them ‘straight on’, the fins almost disappear and all you really see the stainless base.
I believe the Cutlass Supreme outsold the GP, but I think the GP was much nicer-looking.
Smog issues will be an anchor around it’s neck, that’s the reason you will find more cars from the 1960’s and early-70’s being drive than cars like this. These midsized GM’s were everywhere when new, and would have survived in much greater numbers other than the states unrelenting emissions regimen. They never developed much of a following inside California, even though the fix may not be particularly expensive, the price is too high for what it is and where it is, it’s hard to see someone from another state stepping up once shipping is factored in.
Steve R
Luckily it’s in good enough shape that the buyer could fly in and drive it home.
Great lead photo. Looks like an ad in Playboy which I only read for the articles.
The first thing to go would be the hideous black walls and go with white walls or letters.
Rally II’s, etc. don’t look too good with blackwalls either. & some grade school looking sidewall designs only make matters even worse – like this …
http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/images.linnlive.com/355b9e6a99eb0414878009c54be14de9/9ff7abec-9d03-425e-9f44-9afd001e476f.jpg
Typical Chinese crap. I would let my car sit before I put Chinese tires on it.
Had friend who bought one in high school in 1980 just like this except it was an SJ with bucket seats, console shift, 400 motor, Ralleye II rims, and Kelly RWL tires. We had a group of friends who got together on weekends and we formed the JLA ( Justice League of Amerca ). As corny as it sounds, he was Batman, and therefore the GP was the Batmobile. It was a really nice cruiser , he came to a Halloween party dressed as Batman. It was a great costume, mask, cape, boots, the whole enchilada. He was a kinda portly guy, so the tights weren’t so flattering. He lept out of the Batmobile, and exclaimed ” The Bat is here “. I laughed so hard I shot beer out of my nose. We got pretty hammered but it was something I’ll never forget. Everytime I see one, I see a chubby guy dressed as Batman.
Another one that needs whitewall tires, looks like Amish owned it!
So what motor is in this black on black grand prix. no matter it’s black on black
My Dad had a ’73, Black Vinyl Top, over White, Black interior, same hubcaps, and the car was fast. It spent it’s first 3 months of ownership in the Pontiac/Buick Garage for repair. They gave Dad a Buick Electra as a loaner, Dad was rough on cars, so I’m sure they never recovered any profit. The Electra was a pig, so I was happy when Dad got the GP back. Most GP’s had Rally Wheels and trim running down the side, but Dad’s had no trim, and those turbine hubcaps. It did have a 400, 4 barrel, and bucket seats, so it was fast and felt like it handled well, but without the Rally wheels and trim down the side it looked cheap. Dad must have liked Pontiacs, because he bought Bonneville to replace it in ’76,(he kept the Bonneville, he usually dumped cars every three years). It was the V8 Dad owned. After that he bought nothing but 4 cylinder POS cars until started buying Buicks in the mid 90’s.
I was given this car for graduation 1980 by my parents. Drove it everywhere. The ride was incredible and the power of the 400 engine awesome. Had power everything including sun roof. Thanks for the memory!
My older brother bought a new car every 3 years back then. He traded a ‘73 LeMans Sport in for a Grand Prix in ‘77. It was a nice medium blue with a 301 in it. To this day he talks about how much he liked the styling and that it was one of the best cars he’s ever owned
Three years is just too short to own a car. I buy what I like and drive them forever. That way I never regret selling one. Average age of my daily driver fleet is 25. Average age of my (running) collector cars is 59 .
And huge surprise your name is “Poppy”
That’s one of those ironic nick names, Ike. I’m probably younger than you think (and not even a grandpa yet!)
Sweet looking Pontiac Grand Prix. I remember cars like this from my childhood. While I was too young at the time to drive a car, I used to know people who owned cars like this. While I love the pics in the Craigslist ad, there’s still not enough pics to show everything on the car. When advertising a car to sell, I don’t think there’s such thing as too many pics. Potential buyers what to see as much of a car as they can, warts and all.
This cannot be a Grand Prix SJ if it has a front bench seta and a column shift.
The SJ had a center console with a floor shift. It might be an LJ or the base model. That said, for me, there’s too much black here. As someone else mentioned, white wall or white letter tires would be an easy way to break up all of that black.
This one looks like it’s pretty worn out and, I’d bet it looks even worse in person. Crappy 403 and not optioned well otherwise, to boot. $1500 car, IMHO.
The horn button on the steering wheel is on upside down.
Jeez, I thought the steering wheel was on upside down. Thanks
I bought a new ’77 GP SJ & it was awesome! To me that was the last year of the GP because of the smaller version starting in ’78 just didn’t cut it!
Just another suspect Craig’s List ad.
leaks,bent tag…pass
I also had a new 77 SJ, and they were bucket seat cars. Mine was black withj
T tops and red velour buckets.
It had the 400 pontiac engine but they only had a 2.45 rear axle ratio. You could only call it fast if you kicked it down at 70 and went up the scale which was only marked to 100.
Great cruiser but no hot rod.
i had a 76 or 77.
silver with charcoal on the hood/trunk, red pinstripe between
400 with burgundy bucket seats/floor shift console.
i put a trans am steering wheel on it.
had big plans to update the exhaust etc…..
a kid stole his dads car and hit my girlfriend while she was driving on the interstate, while it sat against the jersey wall an idiot in a truck slammed into it ……..
my ins had to pay out then dropped me ……
Special note: remember cars over 35 years old don’t have to be inspected. I believe that will cure a lot of the smog pumps plaguing most of these.
Timothy
From the Cal DMV website:
Your vehicle does not need a smog inspection if your:
Gasoline-powered vehicle is a 1975 year model or older (This includes motorcycles and trailers.)
Wow. This car is right down the street from me. Ive walked past it several times thinking “how cool”….small world.
Back then you could get any interior you wanted. The SJ might have had buckets listed as standard but you could get most anything you wanted.Everyone did not like the bucket seats .Unlike today you could get what you wanted.
But could you get what you wanted?
I had worked as a Parts Manger back when these were new and still have the parts books for these years of cars. Any combination was possible and if things like the half vinyl top were in your option group it could be deleted. Can’t do that ordering a car today.
Best looking GP ever. Odd, this car has bench seat and optional steering wheel like my 77 SJ did. Mine had the snowflake wheels, way better looking than the Rally IIs. Mine also had Hurst Hatches and about 30 other options. Mine was silver with red velour buckets. Miss that car more than any other of the 45 cars I have owned. I tracked it down to Houston, TX, wrote the guy a letter and he never got back to me. I told him I would pay his price. Oh well. Maybe he still has it.
My roomy had a 77 (I believe) green w/green vinyl top. He traded it in on a Cadillac V8-6-4, big mistake!
I bought a year-old ’77 SJ loaded-to-the-gills in two-tone blue. Man, I loved that car but when I found out my credit was good enough to get a new Corvette I made another one of the many bad decisions that happen all too frequently with me.
I currently own a 73 Grand Prix SJ w a 455, factory sunroof and every option available, mine is black, w a white interior, white half top, spokes and Vogues, the SJ was not available w a bench seat, the car your showing here is probably a base model car, the LJ had a nicer interior and LJ letters on the fenders, still this is nice cruiser, no rocket by any means, my 73 is only 250 hp, by 77 they were dead, I actually owned a brand new 79 Grand Prix with a 301 in it, and because of the downsize, wasn’t terrible,
My 1st new car, 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix LJ. Black on black on black. Had the half vynil top, black velour (?) Interior, moonroof, wire hubcaps and, since I ordered it, the 400 4bbl engine.
Still have a copy of the title, been trying to find my old car past couple of years with 0 success.
I had a 77 with the lowly 301 Pontiac turd engine, was a great driver, so comfortable to ride in,even had a turbo 400 transmission, the 301 took a dump,I was going to build a hot Pontiac 350,with 326 HO heads,but ended up just letting it go,was becoming a money pit like most old cars do.
Ntb I had a 67 I bought in 76 I still wish I had, I’d have to pass on anything past 1973
That’s not 1977 Grand Prix SJ! Just a 1977 Grand Prix…