A rebadged Chevette wearing the Pontiac name and woodgrain sides in one of the world’s most beautiful cities? Oui, merci beaucoup! It all comes together in the form of this 1976 Pontiac Acadian found here on eBay in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The current bid price is just over $1,100 and I’m assuming that those are Canadian dollars, which would be around $822 U.S. dollars. But, don’t get too excited, the reserve isn’t met yet.
If you have never been to Quebec City, drop what you’re doing and go there. Now. It’s been six years since I’ve been there, which is really eight years after the conversion to Canadian time, and if I would have known that there would be random Pontiac Acadians roaming the streets I would have stayed even longer than I did. I knew that it was a beautiful and exotic city but seeing an Acadian there would have put it over the top.
I’m not quite sure what’s happening with this Pontiac. It appears to have been repainted or at least touched-up in some of the photos. The seller mentions that this “Pontiac Acadian comes with the Woody package exclusive for 1976, the first year of production for the Acadian.” Then they go on to say that “The simulated wood panelling was hand painted by the famous hand letterer Pierre Tardif.” I’m 99.9% sure that this car would have had vinyl woodgrain trim unless this wasn’t a woody Acadian to begin with, or it was repainted and they didn’t reapply vinyl woodgrain? The seller has provided a YouTube video showing a bit more of the car including the cool interior, which apparently was redone at some point.
The interior looks great in this car, despite the automatic shifter housing. And it’s more of a housing than a console because it’s the size of a house and it’s also devoid of any design what so ever. I can’t remember ever seeing a more pragmatic shifter housing or one that big. WHAT’S UNDER THAT THING?! Border patrol agents are going to want to see what’s under that zeppelin hangar if you’re bringing this car back to the U.S. It really does look great inside, though. The hatchback area looks almost perfect and there’s a decent amount of space back there, believe it or not. The seller says that “the previous owners of this 1976 Pontiac Acadian have managed to keep it clean and safe from the rust.”
I don’t normally have visions of transplanting a twin-turbo V8 into a car like this because I’m such an original-spec guy, but dang. The engine in this car should be a 1.6L inline-four with just under 60-hp, according to the VIN. The seller mentions that it’s a 1.8L but the 1.8L, I believe, was a diesel when it was associated with the Chevette family. They say that it “starts right up at the first turn of the key” and the “Brakes were just gone through. We know the car’s complete history and previous owners, whom 3 were females.” Any thoughts on this painted lady?
Twin turbo V-8 in this flimsy drum brake thing? You’d be like Wile Coyote strapped onto an Acme rocket LOL! While I would pay to see the YouTube video of the first straight line blast, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Beep beep!
The fronts are discs actually, but they are pretty tiny…..
You might want to look on youtube for the turbo LS chevette then .
I generally like all old cars and want to see them preserved, but there are exceptions.
This is one. Yecch.
Panelling is the correct spelling in Canadian English. The edit mark should not be there.
Thanks, Jon!
Awwwww… it’s so cute don’t you just want to hug it? (With a crusher?) hopefully someone will love and preserve it, even though it’s one of the most embarrassing American cars ever built.
better learn the language …they don’t like non francophones
Considering that the original ebay ad was written in english, I would think that the “don’t like non-francophone” is not applicable.
Prejudice much?
Head-in-the-sand-much? I had Irish cousins in the 1970s who had to move from Montreal to Toronto because of the bias of the francophones.
I’ve been in Cananda enough to experience it myself, it’s not an everyday thing….but it’s there.
Just as you have some people in the Deep South who don’t like Yankees or people all over the USA who don’t like New Yorkers.
Came here for the bashing.
Thanks again david…
…to say nothing of the import headaches.
Acadian Woody was the backup goalie for the 1955 Quebec Aces. I have his O-Pee-Chee rookie card
Geez, a lot of hate here in the comments section… I am the one who posted the eBay ad for my friends, and did the video.
First, those are US funds, as the car is listed on eBay.com.
Yes, the woody package is a hand painted recreation, the car was not a woody originally.
I will not respond to the ignorant anti-francophone comments, other to say it’s quite disapointing to read this here. This is a city that lives and relies on the tourism industry and English is spoken and welcome everywhere.
As for importing the car, it’s really not so hard. I have done it from the US into Canada and helped export some cars from Canada to the US and Europe, and it’s really just a couple more paper forms to fill.
Thats why BF is called trash n bash , everyone is an expert on cars here but ill bet half never worked on one .
Nice write-up Scotty! Despite your caution I did get excited. Thanks to your vivid prose I feel I’ve ignored Quebec too long as a destination, and lament my lack of respect for the handsome and thrifty Pontiac Acadian. With that name these little cars must be “the” national treasure of French Canada! I wonder if Canada’s Prime Minister exclusively drove these as an act of patriotism during the ’70s. Add the artistry of Pierre Tardif and who can resist, eh? With wood-grain, a maple leaf, and cup holders for two Molsons, it’s got everything you need for a trip to the “Canadian Ballet.” Nice find!
Survived all this time, if someone is into these cars the price is rite
Belongs to a friend of mine. Pretty cool to see it here! I can confirm the prestine shape of this little jalopy. Wish I could put my hands on it myself.
Nice little econo ride! It’s tacky enough to be kind of a cool novelty! Id drive it till it died!
The Chevette gets a bad rap, and its undeserved . It was a cheap car to be sure, but it fit the bill for its intended purpose. The driveline was very durable and easy to work on. Even in the rust belt the only main rust area was over the catalytic converter, and that was due to the high heat . It may have been underpowered, but at the time, what 4cyl U.S. car wasn’t ? The Pintos and Vegas weren’t exactly smoking their tires either, and does anyone remember the first generation Omnis and Escorts ?. If you wanted luxury or speed, you didn’t buy a Chevette , you bought a Chevette for economy . The problem with economy cars is they don’t usually get taken care of as they get older ,which is what happened to most of these. With routine maintenance these cars were very reliable !
Where im from the pintos and vegas did smoke the tires even chevettes too ,yes 4speeds.
Back then those cars were cheap never paid more then 300 for one.
Drove them all had fun and made money on them .
Scott, please correct your “Astre” in the first paragraph. This is a really odd find, with no rust to complain about. I could see fabricating a console from some other sub-compact to replace the factory one in this car. Doesn’t look like anything I’ve seen in a domestic Chevette.
Arrrgg.. thanks, Little Cars!
My best friend in high school had the chevette. Hand me down car for him. Man if that car could talk. By mistake the car was put into reverse going down the street. It sqweld the tires then the car died. We laughed after we found out what had happened. So what do you do? Try it at 60 mph. Ha,ha,ha man that thing smoked the tires. Reved it up in nutral first then right into reverse.
It lives in a snow area and the shock towers aren’t rusted through? The cool thing with the auto trans Chevette in cold regions is you can start it for warm up, select D, go back in the house for your mug & meet it at the end of the drive. Still, a car you can have more fun playing with than front drivers on the snowy side roads. Good winter beater, use it up.
Geez, some hateful comments here!
I am the guy who posted this one on eBay, this is my friend’s car. It’s a very solid, funky little car, that’s very cheap, and reliable.
The motor is a 1.6, not a 1.8. I added a note on the auction to correct the typo.
True, the side woodgrain treatment is not original, it was handpainted by a pro, as mentioned in the ad. I added a little note on this too, to be sure it was clear in the ad.
As for the hateful anti-francophone comments above, it’s quite disapointing, and pretty ignorant. Quebec City lives and thrives with tourism, and you can speak English everywhere here and you will be warmly greeted.
Bonjour! I didn’t bother reading the ignorant comments. Every BF posting usually garners a ton of ignorant comments. Quebec City is an amazing place and The Eastern Townships are also amazing. We are looking forward to visiting Knowlton and the surrounding areas this summer.
“je me souviens”
Aw c’mon guys, give this little a chance
won’t you. Would love to have this car
here in Fl. Seems to me that Canadian
cars were built better than their American
cousins. I bought a Canadian built Chevy
Citation off a regular customer of mine
30 years ago as a backup car for our paper route business. Yeah, it had the worst case of cancer I’d ever seen but
the V-6 engine in that car ran like a Swiss
watch! When I bought it, the car had 150K miles on it. After patching the front
floors, flushing the cooling system, and
doing normal maintainance, we logged
an extra 200K miles before something
broke in the transfer case which cost
more than what the car was worth to fix.
Anyway, owning this car would be a great
little driver for Mom and I can guarantee
you, I’d never see another one like it at
our local car show!
The name “Astre” ( pronounced ass-tra locally) very quickly morphed into “désastre”, french for disaster (you knew that though, didn’t you) ? The name was well well earned and merited. People in Ladas (restamped Fiat 128) and Dacias (Romanian restamping of a Renault 12) would sail by, pointing at these stillborn Chevette clones while laughing and flipping the driver “les oiseau”. I imagine the extra weight of the “wood” noticeably slowed progress.
The Astre was Pontiacs version of the Chevy Vega, this is an Acadian
The Astre was introduced in 1973 to replace the British-built Vauxhall Firenza (1971-1972). Don’t know which one was worse.
American Pontiac dealers got the Astre for 1975.
Anything with a Pontiac badge that runs on its own power should be saved. All of them are rarities now.
A reserve on a Chevette. Now I have seen everything.
I’d be all over this like flies on watermelon. Power and speed? Of course not! I have a 90 Mustang with a 302 built old school for that when I want it. I also have a 1985 Ford Bronco II with a fresh 2.8. It holds it’s own just fine. Took a road trip to Oregon from central Arizona with the family and did fine. Moral to what I’m saying is this, not every vehicle has to be a powerhouse to be loved and appreciated. I love a clean Chevette or it’s cousin in this case.
Karl is right. These get an undeserved bad rep.
I had a 1978 Chevette with a 4 speed. Only upgrading the carb was all it needed and it was really zippy and still great on gas.. I got the speeding tickets to prove it.
ANYWAY, for those that don’t know this. There was a plan to make an SS Chevette for the 83 year, with the new 2.8 V6 GM engine. GM gave the test model with V6 in it to roadandtrack and they matched up against the 1982 Corvette. In their test runs around the track it was almost equal with the Corvette, and even performing better on the curves then the Corvette was. That article actually scared jamming to no longer offer consider offering that model because they were afraid it would hurt sales for the Corvette. Remember the Chevette extremely light and so is the V6 but the power to weight ratio is pretty high compared to what power to weight ratio is for the Corvette. Many people still drop in a V6 to Chevettes and I can tell you from experience, those are really fast cars. Besides the engine and transmission upgrade, all you need to do is swap out the rear axle and upgrade the front end to S10 brakes. Select a donor S10 Blazer GMC Jimmy Woods always preferred because you can get the engine the rear axles and the front brakes that you need to make the modifications.
V6 upgrade is much easier than doing a V8 upgrade. Again from experience there’s a lot more extensive work needed to shoehorn in a V8, as opposed to. Sunny room for it and you can either run the stock air conditioning if one had it. To get a V8 in the Chevettes not only do you definitely have to remove the air conditioning if it had one, but you would most likely have to remove the heater unit.
Danny, please don’t use TALK TO TEXT when commenting on this site. Your well-intentioned add was hard to read and didn’t make sense the second or third time around. Just type ’em like us old timers. Great add to the topic, though. Thanks.
Reminds me of a saying, we motorcycle riders like to use. “It’s not what you ride, it’s that you ride”. At least you can tell people you drive a Vette.
I owned a 76 Chevette, and rather enjoyed it. The smallness of it was probably what I liked just like the 2014 Ford Fiesta I bought for my wifee who said she couldn’t drive it in winter so I traded that one in. The fall back for the Chevette for me was that it was slow off the light and up hills even with the 4spd. Although, mine was in imaculate condition. I had bought it from a guy who said it was passed around in the family from what I understood. It only had 30k on the od when I bought it. I owned it for almost 6 years. I had the carb rebuilt and brakes worked on when I first bought it. It ended acting up as if it were not getting fuel, and it would die on me a couple of times after driving it for 10 miles. I replaced more stuff like fuel lines, fuel filter, choke selonoid, flushed gas tank, and installed an electric pump, but it did not fix the issue. After all of that, I figured the carb probably was the culprit, and needed to get rebuilt again or replaced. But I threw in the towel, and traded it for a 85 Jeep Wagoneer with a nice lift kit. Unfortunately, that Jeep only had the 2.8 V6 which was also slow off the light and up hills even with the 5spd. So I traded the Jeep after about 2 years. As for the Chevette, I still see it sometimes around. And get this, the guy that I traded for the Wagoneer owned it for around 3 months, and he said he sold it for 4k! I once meet the guy who owns it, and he said he replaced the carb, and it drives good. One thing that I could never figure out with the Chevette if the engine was a 1.4 or 1.6. It has a sticker on the bottom side of the hood which states tuning information for those engines, but the car itself didn’t indicate what size engine it had.
with all that soot in the engine bay i can believe its a diesel
Chevete in Brazil