Smaller hauler? What, this thing is huge! Sure, this 1977 Pontiac Grand Safari Wagon is huge compared to a Pontiac Astre wagon, but it’s small compared to the previous generation car. This woodside wagon is posted on Craigslist or here on the CL archive. It’s located in Plainwell, Michigan and the seller is asking $3,800 for this one. Thanks to Pat L. for tracking down this great looking Pontiac Wagon!
This is one sweet wagon. The wheels really set this one off and add to the Pontiac performance mystique, even on a huge (I thought you said it was small?!) wagon. The Grand Safari was Pontiac’s top of the line wagon. Overall it appears to be in nice condition but it isn’t perfect.
The previous generation Pontiac Grand Safari was over a foot longer and around 1,000 pounds heavier. As most of you know, GM downsized most of their vehicles after the 1976 year. It’s hard to believe a car maker today downsizing anything, isn’t it? The seller isn’t divulging any information about this car other than what features and options it has. You’ll have to give him a jingle to get the scoop on the condition. It sure looks great from the photos, though. I see one ding on the passenger side rear door and that’s about it.
You can see right away that the carpet is in rough shape on the driver’s side, but the seats look fantastic – front and rear. This generation had a three-way tailgate instead of the classic clamshell tailgate. The seller says that this Pontiac wagon is “loaded with options including power windows, power door locks, power drivers seat, power antenna, power tail gate, A C, tilt, cruise, rally wheels, sport mirrors, deluxe cloth interior.”
This is the optional 400 cubic-inch V8 which would have had around 180 hp. This one has a new alternator and the seller also says that the car has new tires. If it looks as good in person as it does in the photos this could be a fun car to own. Have any of you owned this generation GM wagon?
Who all survived the rear facing,third row seat in the late ’60’s early ’70s Catalina’s/Safari’s?
But evidently we can’t survive trying to make these yank tanks cool 😝
Can we get another cash for 75 and up wagons
To get them sent to Korea for future imports😎
I can never see a wagon of the late years as a classic with muscle cars and classic trucks
Always a hater around isn’t there? This is a cery cool V8 400 cube RWD wagon. If uou can’t appreciate go get a belly button muscle car and pay stupid money for it. 😆
Right On John!
I took my drivers test in a 77 Olds Custom Cruiser wagon same body style as this.
What makes it a classic are the memories you get from seeing a car from your past, regardless of the purists grumblings…
Seen prices on stationwagons lately? Are you asleep?
I always liked the 77 onwards GM full size B bodies. 2 years ago I bought All original 1977 Bonneville landau coupe ( base non brougham) with 8K original miles. brown ext with beige cloth int. 350 4B, tilt steering, factory AC, factory AM /FM radio, power windows
Was in storage over 30yrs. came with window sticker & original manuals. I just did oil&filter change and new slightly wider whitewall tires. I paid 11K
He was offering 11,100 I bet , and you gave him , 11k , then shipped to Beirut I bet.
The car was listed for $11,800 exactly by arnoldmotorcompany. com I offered 11K they agreed. Whats with the sarcasm?!
I know your excited bro. Seems like if has 4 tires you got one too! You should just get a picture of you wearing a leather USA flag jacket with shades and the related vehicle all shined up giving the thumbs up with a big smile paying homage American Iron. Something like this
http://www.cowleatherjackets.com/vanilla-ice-usa-flag-jacket
I like this wagon, but I really lust over this seller’s garages!
My first car was a 1979 Chevy Caprice Classic wagon – LOVED that car 350/350 turbo with a four barrel on top…. It would scoot, almost as fast as the gas gauge would drop at WOT…..
I believe this is built on the highly successful Caprice chassis that GM used to build a billion or so cars on. These wagons remind me of the well-heeled alumni cruising onto the golf course next to Michigan stadium to do their tailgating. These cars were perfect for the occasion because they actually had tailgates.
Station wagons rock! Much better than the stubby little chubby little awkward looking “crossovers” favored by today’s hausfraus. “Crossover” – sounds like a gender change for a car.
Back in the late ’60s and into the ’70s I worked part time at Baker Ambulance in Odessa. One of our nicest ambulances was a ’67, I believe, Grand Safari wagon. It came with the split rear seat, so there wasn’t much work to be done inside except for adding the cot lockdown bar, etc. I loved running in that one, as it was a fast running machine.
Went for my drivers test in a 1970 Ford station wagon. No power steering or brakes. Bare bones no options wish I had that car today!!
it has been deleted! OH, the possibilities for this wagon! whatever it takes to get it back into shape, I’d do it ! the wheels are OK ( IMHO) but, I think having chromies on it would set it apart the rest, just leave as is. maybe replace the carpet not sure if I could ” legally” tweak the 400 ( I live in NY) but would see Seems that back in 77 or so either Pontiac or some other entity was giving away ten(???) fully equipped Pontiac Wagons , and if my memory serves me correct, they were tweaked somewhat seems like I entered a bunch of times!
Except for the wheels, it could almost be a same vintage mercury Colony Park!
great find Scotto!
As known I’m a wagon guy so like this 1
AND
seek more down sized:
(this one) 115.9 inch wheel base for the 2 yr model
(97 inch wheel base ’73/7 Pontiac Astre 2 dor Wagon [2 & 2.5 4cyl])
but relish the:
105 inch wheel base ’83/6 (w/8cyl motor available) LTD/Merc Marquis (sm compaired to above mentioned Colony Prk).
These are possibly the best driving and handling wagons of the period, and the 400 is icing on the cake, it’s the one you (should) want!
I think I’ll start stealing Barn Finds content, and publicly archiving it on my own website. Seems to be the trend these days.
Steve myself being a fanatic classic car lover and collector have saved lots of Barnfind, Curbside classics & Honniverse!
My dad bought one of these new in 1979. I think it had the 301? Beautiful car. When new, we drove it from Texas to New York. Upstate New York, the harmonic balancer decides to part ways with the rest of the car. Back in 79, being stuck by the side of the road in the dark in the middle of nowhere was no fun. Finally got towed to a dealership, and they had to rob parts off of a new car to get this one running. Later that year, Pontiac had to put a new engine in it, as this one was so damaged.
Thank goodness build quality has gone up so much since then.
Dan: Your mentioning the problem with the harmonic balancer on your Safari wagon brings back some frustrating memories, and makes me wonder if that was something common to GM cars. People who know me on here know that I ran a small standby ambulance service in Lubbock for many years. Our first ambulance was a 1963 Pontiac Consort (short-wheel-based coach) ambulance that we got in 1971 that had relatively low mileage. The harmonic balancer went on it; but fortunately it wasn’t on a run and inside the city. I mention that part because almost all our standby work was outside the city, which brings the next comment. In 1974 we added a 1965 Olds VistaCruiser wagon that had been specially built as an ambulance for a company then in Corpus Christi. By far, one of my most favorite of all the ambulances we had over the years in terms of performance and longevity. The only downside we had with the car was that the 455 drank the gasoline! Well, we were working at the dragstrip about 20 mi. east of Lubbock in that unit one weekend, and the harmonic balancer went on it while we were on a run into town with a patient on board. Fortunately we were close to the ER so we made it in just fine. Had the wagon towed to our mechanic’s place and then picked up our 2nd out unit and back to the dragstrip. As I said earlier, losing those things can be frustrating, but that Olds wagon was otherwise dependable. Our best-ever “workhorse” was a 1971 Chevy Suburban that was built here in Texas that we bought in 1981 for a whopping $500 from a small funeral home in Dallas that had exited their ambulance business only a year after they had put the truck in service. From ’72 until we got it in ’81, it served as a utility and removal vehicle, so it didn’t have any hard mileage on it. We retired it in late 1989, when anything that could go wrong….did! Still miss that beast!