1979 Pontiac Trans Am - You Had to Be There

If I could be assured that I wouldn't have to endure the ninth grade again, I'd build a time machine to take me back to 1978-79 where I'd rob a bank and buy a hundred of these or so. Then I'd transport them back with me to now, sell them all except for maybe a black one or two and retire fat and happy. All the while scratching my head as to why anyone would pay the kind of money these things command. Don't believe me? This lovely 1979 Pontiac Trans Am is for sale outside Baltimore, Maryland with an asking price of $42,777. Say that asking price slowly and it's even more heart stopping. Forty-two thousand seven-hundred and seven-seventy dollars. Snowman, you got your ears on? 

These cars weren't always the pot-of-gold that they are now. Perhaps coinciding with the explosion in popularity of non-descript, soulless crossovers, it's only in the last ten, may be fifteen years that the values of these cars have gone through the sun-roof or T-Top. The values of the T/A's corporate sibling, the Chevrolet Camaro Z28 of this vintage are "up-there" too. Meanwhile, and ironically, the value of Corvette's of this vintage are languishing. I have a 1977 "C3", arguably more desirable than the heavier glass-fastback 1978-1982 C3's, and I know that even if it was in showroom condition, which (he laughs out loud) it's not, it would be hard to find a buyer who'd pay more than fifteen-grand for it. 

Back in 1979, a Corvette was a good four-grand more expensive than a Trans Am (that was  a lot!) and these days, if we're talking pie-in-the-sky original condition, a T/A commands two if not three if not four times what a '79 Corvette can. Even Camaro Z-28's are worth more than Corvette's. Why? 

Good question and I have my theories but let's not quibble about C3 Corvette's because today, we're all about late '70's Trans Am's. And rather than just shrug my shoulders and say that some things are what they are, or "it is what it is", there has to be something to it because, obviously, there is. 

As someone who lived through it, although I was rather young I was fully aware at the time, best I can tell you is there are several reasons for the appreciation in value for these cars and it's a lot more complicated than pin-pointing where Peter Frampton went wrong with his career. 

For starters, there's the engine. Or engines. These cars were the last of the "big-engine" muscle or pony cars manufactured in this country. Insurance surcharges, gas-mileage concerns and emissions regulations made muscle and performance cars all but verboten. On the Corvette, Chevrolet discontinued offering their "big-block", "454" V-8 after 1974 and the last big-block Camaro left factories in 1972. Ford didn't offer a "big" engine on their Mustang after 1971 and Chrysler dropped big motors on their Plymouth Barracuda and Dodge Challenger models after 1971 as well. I guess fittingly since Pontiac was billed as GM's performance division, Trans Am soldiered on with big displacement V-8 engines through 1979. Albeit ones that were somewhat wattered down to be in compliance with emissions and fuel economy regulations. They didn't do what they did because of horsepower - the big T/A's did it all with gobs of god's-green-earth-polluting torque. 

Our subject here is powered by the Pontiac 400 cubic-inch V-8 that makes it a bit of a rarity given that Pontiac stopped making that engine after 1978. Legend has it that a select few '79 Trans Am got left-over Pontiac 400's, most of them tenth anniversary T/A's that this one is not. The vast majority of T/A's in 1979 got 403 cubic-inch V-8's made by, Fred, are you sitting down? Oldsmobile. 

Like all good things, the big engines had to come to an end. Pontiac couldn't get the big mills to comply with new and far tougher fuel-economy and emissions stipulations that kicked in for 1980. The "big engine" in a T/A for 1980 and 1981 was a Chevrolet built 305 V-8 although the wobbly-kneed, turbo-charged, Pontiac built 301 V-8 on the "Turbo Trans Am" was technically more powerful. 

There was more to these cars than just tire shredding torque and relatively neutral handling. There's that "flaming" or "screaming" chicken on the hood. If  you don't "get this", all I can tell you is you had to be there. This was insanely cool back in the day; still is as it rifles me back to my oh-so-awkward junior high days. That's not my inner fourteen, fifteen year old saying that either. My twenty-three year old quasi-car loving older son loves this decal too. Even if it defies just about every convention for taste that's ever existed. It's kind of like early '70's Elvis in a jumpsuit before he packed on the ell-bee's. Somehow the largest decal ever installed from a factory on an automobile worked and worked fabulously. At least at first. Slapping this down on the the turbo T/A's of '80 and '81 was akin to Elvis in a jumpsuit just before his alleged passing. If you're wondering, it's official name from Pontiac was the "giant Firebird hood decal". 

However, time-travelers, and this might sound really silly, I'm of the opinion that the single biggest reason that these cars are as valuable as they are today is because of the 1977 Burt Reynolds literal and figurative star vehicle, "Smokey and the Bandit". 

Such was the power of a movie and particular star - you drove a "Bandit T/A" back in the day, regardless of the color scheme, you had it going on in ways that you just didn't if you drove a Corvette. And whereas if you drove a "Starsky and Hutch" Ford Gran Torino - folks snickered; not that Ford offered that stripe job but some people did get custom decal or paint jobs. Had Burt Reynolds driven a Corvette in "Smokey in the Bandit" perhaps late 70's Corvette's would've gotten the same lift in sales and later appreciation, but the film's director, Hal Needham, insisted on a black Trans Am for The Bandit. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Best is, our subject's asking price is "average retail" these days. High retail is over $61,000. Say that slowly. Now, anyone got a blue print for a time machine?