Talk about snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory... At one point Pontiac ranked third in overall sales, just behind Chevy and Ford. With the GTO it ushered in the muscle car era. It was a leader in technology. In a recent New York Times interview, retired Pontiac executive, Jim Wagners, recalled a time when BMW sent a team of engineers, designers and marketers to meet with Pontiac's team and study how the brand did so well.
If you ever want to know how to run a successful brand into the ground, study GM's handling of Pontiac for the last 35 years.
There have been hundreds of articles written recently about the demise of Pontiac. All of them mention the GTO, some mention the Firebird and a few mention the woefully underdeveloped Fiero. They're interesting cars - and the GTO was a great, groundbreaking car - , but the first Pontiac I noticed was this one, the 1969 Grand Prix.I was just a kid when I first saw the 1969 Grand Prix. It was at the the New York Auto Show, an event my dad would take me to each year. My dad was a GM executive and one of the perks was being able to take home cars from the GM "pool". I asked him to bring home a Grand Prix. He did, and I spent a weekend in the driveway, just staring at it. I loved it. My dad used to buy a new car for my mom each year - it was the "family car" - and I asked him to buy the Grand Prix. He said "No, it's not a practical car for a family of five". In retrospect, he was right, but back then I was not happy. I think we wound up with a 4 door Buick Wildcat that year.
The Grand Prix name had been around since 1962. Earlier cars were based on the big Catalina chassis. It was really nothing more than a sporty Catalina coupe. The 1969 Grand Prix was based on the smaller Tempest / LeMans / GTO chassis and it got a body all its own. It had a monstrous hood, a short deck and a beak nose. It looked classy. It looked sporty. It looked different. In typical 1960s GM fashion, they offered a variety of engines in the Grand Prix, including the 390 HP, 428HO V8. Innovation wise, the 1969 Grand Prix was one of the first cars to have a concealed radio antenna, an electrically heated rear window defroster and side-impact beams inside the doors. The dashboard was a wraparound "cockpit-style" dash, which put all the controls within easy reach of the driver. That's all common stuff today, but back in '69 it was new and different.
It's interesting. I am the son of a GM employee. When my father was alive I could get any GM car I wanted at a pretty good discount. Yet with the exception of a couple of used Opels and a few Corvairs, I've never owned a GM car. By the time I was old enough to afford a new car, GM had lost me. It's amazing that in a relatively short period of time, I could go from begging my dad to buy a Grand Prix to never setting foot in a Pontiac dealership. Like I said, it's a case study in mismanagement.There are 3 1969 Grand Prixs being offered on eBay right now. All are in really nice condition. I chose this one simply because I like the color and the lack of a vinyl roof. (But I'd ditch the striping on the trunk.)
Located in Seffner, FL, click here to see the listing.How much did I like the 1969 Grand Prix? I took the photo below at the 1969 New York Auto Show. As you can see, I still have it.(I have no idea who those people are sitting in the car, but that's my dad standing on the right.)
