The seller of this super-clean Pontiac is pretty sure it has only 6,526 actual miles! Take a look and see if you agree—it’s here on eBay in Macon, Missouri for $15,000, with the option to make an offer. Thanks to reader rmward194 for the tip. Since its introduction in 1962, the Grand Prix vacillated between a luxury and performance offering for Pontiac, but by the peak of the malaise era, performance was dead in the American auto industry and “personal luxury” had taken its place. Kind of like lean, young hotrod Elvis devolving into rhinestone-jumpsuit Elvis. Personal luxury coupes were all the rage though, and Cordobas, Cougars, and Monte Carlos ruled the boulevards.
The Grand Prix’s trim levels of J, LJ, and SJ were meant to be suggestive of the ultra-luxurious pre-war carmaker Duesenberg. For what they are, these big Pontiacs are sharply styled and make pleasant drivers—large, comfortable, and usually loaded with options. While you could still get a 400 V8 good for 180 hp, this car has the newly-introduced 301 V8, with only 135 hp available to motivate two tons of road boat. Dark days indeed. However, Grand Prix sales hit their all-time high of over 270,000 units in 1977, the final year before it would be downsized.
This Model LJ has a huge power sunroof, power windows, power locks, tilt wheel, cruise control, and air conditioning, plus what appears to be a factory 8-track stereo—and if that’s not ’70s enough for you, there’s an aftermarket CB installed by the original owner. The exterior is a light icy glacier blue, and the interior is what my friend calls “bathroom blue”. The cushy velour seats do look like those fancy memory-foam bathmats.
While the original engine is a letdown, I think cars like this, in mint condition but not hugely desirable, are the perfect candidates for engine swaps. Big GM cars can handle surprisingly well, and the power and efficiency they lack can now be remedied with plentiful LS motors and transmissions from Chevy trucks and vans (and even Corvettes). Such a swap would give this Poncho the punch it deserves.
What do you say, would you preserve this one as is, or upgrade it for the modern age?
Beautiful example, whatever the mileage. And I’d resist the temptation to source a 455. This was a boulevard cruiser, not a dragstrip bruiser.
Those cars were meant to cruise and look good, not for real performance. Leave it as is
I find it strange that with only 6,000 miles that the paint doesn’t match on any of the body panels, not to mention the haphazard way the rust protection was applied to the insides of the rear quarter panels. The ad itself is even more strange with how it refers to “my boss” as the owner – seems really shady for an alleged classic car dealership.
I have been around rust protection and undercoating my entire life being part of the family that brought Ziebart to Chicago in 1964. 56 years now. Still the best in the Midwest, just not Ziebart anymore!!
Dealership undercoating and rust protection application (is today and always has been) terrible, inconsistent, and in most cases…..not done at all.
Car looks great. Would like to see some underbody shots. AS a master detailer, and the seller being a classic car sales place ??? Blows my mind that you would not have detailed the engine bay? IT is the only part of the car I can see that I question the mileage….a little bit.
Paint on these cars from the mid 70’s through the 90’s + were terrible. Does not surprise me at all.
This car is priced right and will sell fast for asking. I am thankful it was not Metallic Red or Dark Blue with a Black Interior or I would have bought before writing this! Tom
106k miles
Not on this one, I don’t think.
I’d like a closer shot of the pedal wear, and yes the underside pictures too.
Hard to believe that an outfit which sells cars can’t think to post those, because nearly all buyers will want to see them.
The car is a beauty.
No reason to fear the 301. It may not be a stoplight drags winner, but it will get decent economy and push the GP down the road well enough. Bonus if the AC and everything else works.
The interior fabric is reminiscent of that in my Grand LeMans, with just the color being different.
Like it!
DDB, I agree with you and totally disagree with Keith.
I am the biggest skeptic when it comes to low mileage quotes.
Even with things you can see, edges of the seats, steering wheel, knob on shifter, carpet, mats, knobs on dash….106K miles would look different EVEN with good care. AND there is one pretty good look at the pedals which also do not indicated high mileage wear. Front nose on these cars got ROAD RASHED BAD…..and this one looks like brand new. I don’t see evidence of repainting at all.
I believe this one is the real deal.
The trans in mine was terrible. Big heavy car, 301 and a super small 3 speed. These come up occasionally and I’m sure I’ve said it, but I had the deluxe velour with bench seat. Two tone and a sunroof. Slow as molasses, but so much fun as a high school cruiser.
The money sounds high, but it’s a lot of car. I’m going to say 12k or so? I used to be in the Pontiac Oakland Club. They were usually a good idea of what the street value of these things actually are. It’s people who are interested in having unique Pontiacs but aren’t crazy.
I like it.
Item specific section on EBAY says 400 ci. Ad below says 301. Nice car. I loved my 76.
The 301 was slow . Awful. End of story.
I’m not sure if the practice extended to 1977 or if it applies to this car, but in many cases, GM bodies were painted by Fisher Body, while the front fenders and hood were considered part of the chassis and were painted separately by the divisions. That’s why many original GM cars from the 70s have front ends that differ slightly in color from the rest of the car.
Interesting. My first car was a 1978 Buick Century that my parents bought brand new. It was a 2-door fastback with the Custom level trim so it had two-tone red metallic paint (sorta a candy-apply red with a darker maroon on the sides akin to where you’d expect wood grain on a station wagon), a white interior with black carpet, dash, and steering wheel, and factory chrome 5-spoke mag wheels.
It was a garage queen but driven year round, so by the time it was about 7 years old the paint on the roof and hood started to fade and spiderweb. However, from front to back, left to right, both shades of the red metallic paint matched perfectly. My neighbors had a 1976 Monte Carlo in the same shade of blue as this Pontiac and it’s paint also matched perfectly. So again I find it difficult to believe that this car hasn’t had some of its panels resprayed at one point.
In 1968 I worked as a finance manager for Pontiac Plaza in Seattle and drove a similar car as a demonstrator. It was one of the most pleasant cars Ihave ever had the pleasure of driving extensively.
We had a Plaza Pontiac in Toronto for many years across from the Yorkdale shopping centre.
Hi Tony – I don´t think they were related. The Pontiac Plaza I worked for started in Portland Oregon as a huge, ultra modern store with plans to expand to Seattle, Boise and another place. We used computers at a time noone else did. Computer glitches and misinformation caused the financial collapse of both branches, the third one was in the process of being built. It was very sad. The owner was a visionary by the name of Mel Peters.
I bought a new ’77 GP & it was a great cruiser w/ 301 Berkshire Green wht vynl tp!
JP, you are absolutely right. The large Pontiacs were always special, the GP was simply a gas!
Drivin a 76 Bonneville Brougham with the 400cui and 185 HP. Thats definitley enough power for that car. But 50 HP less for a car with nearly the same weight…???
Nonetheless the 3rd Generation of the Grand Prix was the best looking of all Grand Prix generations and also with the best looking dashboard of all 70s american cars (my opinion)
I owned a 73 Luxury Lemans in 1978, and sold it in 79 to buy the 79 Grand Prix, which was a bit smaller and lighter than the 77, and my 79 had the 301 4 barrel which was no track car, but was ok for cruising, I now own a 73 Grand Prix SJ w a 455 in it, that takes the place of my long lost Luxury Lemans sort of
Yes, a cruiser but at 135hp, I would not want to be scared of a VW Beetle at a red light. I would pull that driveline, box it up for a possible factory build and install a supercharges 5.3ls and a few other goodies to keep up with the ls. An exhaust to keep the engine real quite and drive the heck out of it.
Hmmm….Since this GP is being offered by a “classic car” dealer, why wasn’t the car detailed inside & out (including under hood & inside trunk area?) In addition, it doesn’t appear to have original equipment tires on it. Sorry, it’s not a $15k vehicle as presented…far from it.
301 on the emissions tag under the hood.
The Grand Prix was a great car back then. However, just a year later someone in the design center started drinking their own bath water. The ‘78 models were a ghost of what they used to be. We lost most of our Grand Prix sales for ‘78 because of the new design.
I had a 76 in the same exterior color combination, my interior was white vinyl ( not hard to clean, used fantastic… it was vinyl , not leather). I did have the 400. It came with a 2bbl but I still had a bunch of parts around from my goat days.. so I just put a stock Rochester 4bbl on it ( no real performance gain but bragging rights I guess), of course for me black wall tires on the rally II wheels, but other then that just like this car. It was a great cruiser and I put a lot of miles on it before it rusted away. It was a very good car and looked great.
Ok you experts. That is the factory rust protection, even if it was a joke, at the bottoms of the insides of the rear quarters. Workmanship then was a joke and a big reason Americans buy import cars today. I worked at GM when this car was new. I owned a loaded 77 GP SJ with the gas hog 400 engine and 37 options. To say I am mad at myself for selling it in 2006 us an understatement. The car is now in Oklahoma. I would give almost anything to get it back. Contacted the current owner. No response. These are not fast cars. Just great cruisers. Super comfortable buckets. As to whether this car has 6,000 miles, I d want to see proof. Agree it is beautiful but pictures lie. And that 301 is a boat anchor.
Why must every article on here mention an LS swap? Just leave it as is. Geez.
Really, I rather keep it a Pontiac w a 301, or if it really bugged me I’d go w a nice Pontiac 400, but absolutely it an LS, you don’t cross Pontiac w Chevy, it becomes a Monte Carlo which was a nice car on its own
Once again, look at the odometer. This is a 106,000 mile car.
Bah.