I've always thought the proportions of GM's downsized 1978-1988 intermediate coupes wonky, they look smaller than they actually are and their styling derivative. Throw a toilet seat on the trunk lid, and this 1979 Pontiac Grand Prix does the seemingly impossible; it makes a bad thing worse.
Somewhat mercifully, what's officially a "simulated deck mount" was not part of the "SSJ" trim package that was exclusive to model year 1979 Grand Prix'. From the factory, those that checked the SSJ box on the order form for '79 got a Grand Prix SJ with a special gold "Targa-band" highlighting a heavily padded, "elk grain", vinyl landau roof, factory custom pin stripping and cast emblems. The fake wire wheel covers were an extra cost option.
SSJ's for '79 came in any color Grand Prix' came in that year. The "simulated deck mount" spare tire was an after market add-on, most likely by a dealership who charged exorbitantly for it. You either "get this" look or wonder what in the heck the buyer and seller were thinking.
From 1969 through 1984, Pontiac took liberties with Duesenberg's nomenclature to differentiate different trim levels of their Grand Prix. Most "Doozies" made between 1927 and 1936 were model J's; supercharged J's were "SJ". Two modified SJ models called "SSJ" were custom built for actors Gary Cooper and Clark Gable. There was never a Grand Prix "S" although there was an "LJ" model, hence liberties taken, that was introduced in 1975. The "L" denoted luxury whereas the "S" in SJ was purportedly for "sport".
In model years 1971 and 1972, a Grand Prix SSJ had this unique paint scheme, special wheels, emblems, and a god's-green-earth Hurst (automatic transmission) shifter. Gold jumpsuits were available after market and at additional cost. See dealer for details.
Taste being like arm pits, no doubt someone thought this accessory added to the car's, ahem, elan. Meant to emulate the elaborate outboard spare tire cases of cars of the Great Gatsby era, which, here's a real kick to the old noggin', were about as long ago at the time as this Grand Prix is old now.
Chrysler tried something similar on their 1957 Imperial Southampton and their 1960 and 1961 Valliant's (above is a 1960) with similarly comical results; through my foggy goggles it's like putting a chandelier in a mobile home. Ford was far more successful with their vestigial trunk hump\bump on their 1956 and 1957 Continental and 1968-1999 Lincoln Continental Mark's.
From this angle, our Knoxville, Tennessee based Facebook Marketplace find here is atypical 1978-1980 Pontiac Grand Prix; I'm indifferent at best towards it. GM smoothed out the quirks of these cars for 1981 but the dye had been cast, the personal luxury car segment, one that the Grand Prix helped spur to great heights in the 1970's had begun it's long, slow decent to oblivion.
The passage of some (he swallows hard) 45-years now has done little to usage this car's cringe-worthiness. While some things like disco music and a handful of movies and TV shows have aged well, particularly disco which in and of itself is ironic seeing the vitriol for it at the time, fussy, wholly unnecessary, Liberace-esque bolt ons, whether installed at the factory or dealership, were bad looking then and are even worse now.
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