The Grand Ville was an upgraded version of the Pontiac Bonneville and was sold between 1971 and 1975. So, it had the best of the best that the GM division could offer at the time. This 1973 edition is said to have come from a collection, but the photos could be better (appears to have been detailed in a couple), and the description requires more than one read to decode. Located in Springville, Tennessee, this 45,000-mile survivor is available on eBay for $17,500 OBO, down from $21,500 in the original post.
Pontiac did some shuffling of nameplates in the 1970s, and the Bonneville replaced the Executive. And the Grand Ville became a sub-series of the Bonney. The car was discontinued after 1975, two years before all of GM’s B and C-body cars would get downsized for better fuel economy. Three versions of the Grand Ville were available in 1973: a 2-door hardtop, a 4-door hardtop, and a convertible. 44,000 copies of the pillarless 4-door were built in ’73 (the car’s best sales year as 1974 brought higher fuel prices and a shift in demand for big automobiles).
We’re told this car runs like a “dream,” and it has Pontiac’s 455 cubic inch V8 paired with a TH-400 automatic transmission. The only area in which the original owner cheaped out was with the radio (it’s a basic AM). Most of the listing is about why the seller is selling the auto (bad health) versus the attributes of the car itself. For an automobile that was in a collection, it looks as though it needed or needs some detailing (for example, the engine compartment).
The Pontiac has been in a climate-controlled space since the seller bought it last year. He waited to get the title transferred, and we assume that everything is in order with that now. The body looks solid, the paint is better in some pics and less so in others, and what we can see of the interior is very nice. If you’re a fan of these 1970s land yachts, they may not come any nicer than this one (maybe). A nod goes to “Curvette” for this tip.
Ok show of hands who thought of the movie The Seven Ups? When you saw this ’73 Grandville? Another excellent chase scene too. This one looks very solid. Maybe a very careful cut and polish can wake that Lacquer paint up a bit. Another great find Curvette. And a great write up too Russ. Thank you.
I agree I’ll agree bill Hickman that is all I have to say
What a tank that car was. It certainly took the punishment Bill gave it. Funny and coincidental there’s a 1974 Ventura on this post as well. Except the one Roy drove was a 73 with a 350 under the hood.
I ACTUALLY HAD THE 2 TONE GREEN 7 UPS CAR
This is at least the second time this car was featured at Barn Finds. This particular car sold at the July, 2025 Mecum Auction in PA for $6600
It’s nice, but with an asking price of $17,500obo, potential buyers need to really want THAT specific year, make, model or they will find one of the many 4 doors from the same era that are listed for a fraction of the price.
Steve R
Steve R … top shelf Pontiac powertrain on this model. 👌 🏁
Yep, I agree. Watch Bill Hickman push that Grandville to its limits in that chase scene.
Seller sounds like quite the character
Mat that skinny pedal,it will roast that right rear tire until you let it up…I worked in a garage late70 early 80s… most of or clientele was elderly widows with stuff like this 😊
“Grand Ville” translation: Big City!
It’s as big as a city all right.
Love to have that Chief of the Pontiac tribe!
Hickman was 1 of the best stunt drivers to ever turn a steering wheel. he beat that Grandville like redheaded stepchild as well as the charger in bullet. these don’t seem to sell as well as other big GM cars from this time..
I agree. Bill had a great way of controlling the car and putting it right where he wanted it.
There’s a subtle difference between Grand Ville and lesser big Pontiacs. The Grand Ville used the more formal C-pillars from the big C-body, with its sharper side window profile. The difference was more obvious on the coupe, but the sharp window corner is evident on the sedan, too.
Correct!
The only GM B-body with a Cadillac roof!
Lots of displacement and wheelbase for your driving enjoyment. They were finally taming the Bunkie Beak. Nice ride.
Not that anyone may care, but I installed the rear sway bar from a Grandville on my ’71 Delta 88, @ the same time swapping in a front bar from a ’76 Caprice Estate wagon. For all practical purposes I achieved a “home grown” F41 suspension package. Turned my big Olds into an eye-opening, B-body handler.
Maybe the best mod and cheap, to any car Utesman.
Like the car, but as Russ said, reading the ad is like working your way through one of those corn mazes. The AM radio is a dead giveaway that this was elderly owned.
Clean up the engine compartment & have yourself a nice cruiser after everything is looked over & all features are checked for proper operation.
An AM radio is fine with me, as long as it isn’t cheap and chinsy on the performance end. Unless you are fortunate enough to have a classical music station in your area, then FM is nothing but frantic and crappy noise, as far as I am concerned! There isn’t much in the way of popular music after the early 1960s that I can stomach, and nothing on country after about 1975, nothing R&B after about 1964, either. So, even “Good Times — Great Oldies” formats are disgusting to me, with perhaps one record an hour that I can tolerate. And where are all of the wonderful records from between 1946 and 1955? In my view, the British Invasion and the Motown Sound sent music straight down the crapper. I learned to tolerate rock-‘n’-roll (SOME of it anyway) in the mid-1950s and later, but by 1965 I’d had a bellyful. Every other song, I’d shut the radio off with frazzled nerves! An A.M. radio can give you interesting news and talk (NO interest in sports!), and has the capacity (on a decent radio) to travel WITH you during the day for 500 miles (much farther, of course, at night).
All of that said, That $6600 winning bid at Mecum’s Auction is closer to the value of this car, and this seller is DREAMING if he thinks he can get any five-figured interest in this Pontiac. It is a gas-guzzling beast with no parking spot large and long enough to accommodate it. And the new fuel with its limited unleaded octane and poluted with ethanol, won’t give you anywhere near what this car could do in its day. It’s a bloat-mobile from the ’70s, capable of about 11 m.p.g., and could be adequately powered for daily driving with a small block V-8; so, why would anyone WANT it?
You do know that this is actually smaller than most of the trucks they sell today and if tuned correctly, it would be right at the same fuel mileage. At least in the same ballpark.
An AM radio is fine with me, as long as it isn’t cheap and chinsy on the performance end. Unless you are fortunate enough to have a classical music station in your area, then FM is nothing but frantic and crappy noise, as far as I am concerned! There isn’t much in the way of popular music after the early 1960s that I can stomach, and nothing on country after about 1975, nothing R&B after about 1964, either. So, even “Good Times — Great Oldies” formats are disgusting to me, with perhaps one record an hour that I can tolerate. And where are all of the wonderful records from between 1946 and 1955? In my view, the British Invasion and the Motown Sound sent music straight down the crapper. I learned to tolerate rock-‘n’-roll (SOME of it anyway) in the mid-1950s and later, but by 1965 I’d had more than a bellyful. Every other song, I’d shut the radio off with frazzled nerves! An A.M. radio can give you interesting news and talk (I’ve NO interest in sports!), and has the capacity (on a decent radio) to travel WITH you during the day for 500 miles (much farther, of course, at night).
All of that said, That $6600 winning bid at Mecum’s Auction is closer to the value of this car, and this seller is DREAMING if he thinks he can get any five-figured interest in this Pontiac. It is a gas-guzzling beast with no parking spot large and long enough to accommodate it. And the new fuel with its limited unleaded octane and poluted with ethanol, won’t give you anywhere near what this car could do in its day. It’s an over-powered bloat-mobile from the ’70s, capable of about 11 m.p.g., and could be adequately powered for daily driving with a small block V-8; so, why would anyone WANT it?
I saw this car at Mecum last july. It is rust free, but the origknal single stage lacquer needed work. As a professional detailer, I looked closely and believe a foam pad on an orbital buffer with mild polish woukd return sone oils to the paint before I would ever touch it with an aggressive compound. I had a 72 Catalina with a 400 two barrel 50 years ago. Ate gas like two pigs.
Pontiac really mailed in the Grand Ville trim level, providing very little to differentiate it from the lower trim Bonneville and even the Catalina. Olds and Buick did a much better job sprucing up their entry level models to semi-luxury status. Grand Ville seemed like just a slightly dolled up Caprice.