This 1954 Pontiac Chieftain Deluxe is down-to-earth in more ways than one. First, it’s a sturdy and reliable piece of transportation, an unassuming two-door sedan that will never raise the eyebrows of the local constabulary or give pause to your girlfriend’s dad. Second, it literally spent 12 years on a hoist in a storage shed. These days, it “runs and drives down the road” and is ready for a new owner who appreciates the finer points of a smooth idle. (It’s a straight-eight car with a video of the engine idling as proof.) Our friend T.J. has branched out to shed finds and pulled this one from Marketplace in New Berlin, Wisconsin. It’s been for sale for about a week, and the seller has thus lowered the price from $6,500 to $6,200. That’s not too bad for a seemingly solid old Pontiac that may help you slow down and enjoy a more relaxed mode of driving.
The Chieftain Deluxe was one step up the model ladder from the Chieftain Special, and in eight-cylinder trim like our featured car, it cost an extra $105. For that money, you got some noticeably fancier trim (which is in good condition, per the seller). I snipped this picture of the 268-cubic-inch straight eight from the seller’s video, and it was by far the most popular of the two engines Pontiac offered in 1954 (the other engine was a 239-cubic-inch six): 149,986 Chieftains had the eight; only 22,670 had the six. The 268 was in its last year in the Pontiac lineup, and with the Hydra-Matic, it produced 127 horsepower and 234 lb.-ft. of torque with a 7.7:1 compression ratio (the synchromesh cars had a 6.8:1 ratio). Notice the shield underneath the carburetor: That was a factory heat shield to keep the carburetor a little cooler sitting just atop that long exhaust manifold. Pontiac seemed to include a lot of good, thoughtful engineering in their early-to-mid 1950s lineup.
The interior of the Chieftain is in decent condition, except for a few stains. A good cleaning or perhaps a seat cover would make this a livable place to enjoy the two lanes of Wisconsin, or wherever you live.
Being a Wisconsin car, it’s no surprise that it’s had some floorpan work in the past (which was covered by new carpet). The work seems fairly well done, and this isn’t going to ever be a show car, so it’s certainly sufficient for cruising around.
Aside from that, the paint on the driver’s side shows three different shades of what appears to be “Coral Red,” with a beige/off-white roof to set it off. Unless you enjoy full paint jobs (they’re so much work!), it might be best to let the car be what it is and enjoy the ride. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more reliable, thoughtfully engineered classic car for less money.
Nice old Pontiac. Seems like a good driver for the money. I like the fact that it’s still running on 6 volts, “old school” style!
Nice old Pontiac. Seems like a good driver for the money. I like the fact that it’s still running on 6 volts, “old school” style!
Sorry, sold.
Nice old Pontiac at a decent price. Someone liked it well enough to buy it as it’s gone to a new home now. Did anyone notice that round thing in the front floor? That’s where you check the transmission fluid. You had to raise the floor mat to get to it, but thankfully they moved it to under the hood.
My dad never owned a car until I was 14 and my next eldest brother was 17. They bought a ’54 Pontiac sedan with this same colour scheme but we lived in Saskatchewan. The Canadian Pontiacs had Chev bodies and flathead 6 engines. I was stunned when I saw an American Ponch with those neat little fins (?) and a straight 8. I learned to drive in that car, my Brothers ’57 Beetle and my oldest brothers new 1958 Chev (Bel Air 4door). No fancy wheels in this family. The Pontiac was gutless but what an amazing, dependable, smooth and comfortable machine. After many carefree miles dad sold it and bought a Rambler.
I’ve lived in Michigan since childhood, just over 70 years. Our family had friends in Toronto and we’d often cross the border to either visit with them at their place or at a rented cottage on Georgian Bay. I not only noticed the differences in US and Canadian Pontiacs but in Ford products and in Chrysler Corporation vehicles. The Dodge lineup of Coronet, Royal, Polara and Monaco had morphed into Crusader, Regent and Viscount. Ford offered Meteors and Monarchs in Canada but not south of the border. And the concept of a Mercury truck really blew my young mind. Ah, those were the days, when there were no lookalike motorized jellybeans all painted black, silver or white.
Greetings Rick. I never had a Meteor but had 3 Monarchs and a couple of Mercury trucks, all 1949 to 1954 stuff. The 1954 Monarch was just a sedan but with power windows and a power bench seat and OVH V8. Really nice car.
As for those look-alike jellybeans: now also imclude an entirely lifeless non-metallic medium-to-dark grey, which suddenly is ubiquitous.
Worse still is a greenish color that’s been appearing on certain off road vehicles and bringing memories of a GM shade from back in the 1970s. That hue became known as (you can read between the lines) the strange color that very young infants excrete.
As for those look-alike jellybeans: now also imclude an entirely lifeless non-metallic medium-to-dark utterly drab grey, which suddenly is ubiquitous.
My parents bought a new ’49 Pontiac Silver Streak 4 door all black with a straight eight and automatic tranny. They drove it for over 12 years, so I got quite familiar with it as a child growing up in the 50’s. Other than front bumper configuration changes and rear fender design changes, they didn’t change much in the 5 years of this body style production. The interiors from year to year are almost the same too. When you design and build what people want, there’s not much reason to change it. This is a very nice survivor and whoever got it is really going to enjoy having it.
Boy, were they ever slow!
Really???!!! My parents’ bought a ’49 Pontiac straight eight when it was new, and it was never slow at all – and had incredible torque with that big straight eight engine. They actually pulled a few tractors and cars out of the mud with it too. Mom was young then and drove it like there was no tomorrow. She liked that low-end torque getting the car moving quickly before the tranny shifted into the higher gears. We all went on vacations in it and it had no trouble passing a line of cars on a two-lane highway. So, I don’t know what Pontiac you’re talking about, but it’s not the ’49 to ’54 Pontiacs with the big straight eight engines. Maybe you had one with a blown engine, I guess.