In my opinion, General Motors didn't introduce anything remotely as cool looking as the Pontiac Grand Am after 1973. This '73 Gran Am sedan popped up on Facebook Marketplace recently for sale near my triple-wide west of Cleveland, Ohio. Asking price was $8,000. Don't spit up your morning Metamucil.
I'm not a sedan girl but this is a four-door a dyed-in-the-wool coupe lover could get their arms around. Bucket seats and a console on a 1973 Pontiac sedan? Giddy up! A four-speed manual was offered but they're rare - especially on the sedans. I want to marry that steering wheel and while there's no shortage of cheapie plastic baubles and bits on this interior, that's real wood trim on the dash and console. Imagine that.
The Gran Am coupes were the lookers; no wagon or convertible was offered. Pontiac sculptors did their best to keep as much of the coupe ethos intact with the four-door versions.
I think they succeeded for the most part although, as with all of GM's A-body four-door sedans and wagons of this vintage, the back seat was a cozy affair. This despite the A-body four-door sedans and wagons were built on a 116-inch-long wheelbase whereas the coupes were on 112-inch wheelbases. So, if you think things are tight back here, imagine shoehorning into the back seat of a Grand Am coupe.
'73 Grand Am's were powered by either Pontiac's 400-cubic inch V-8, in 170-horsepower, two-barrel guise or with four-barrel carburetor making 185-horsepower. There was also a four-barrel, Pontiac 455 making 250-horsepower on the option list but those are rare; I've never seen one. Brochures claim Pontiac's "Super Duty" 455 was available, even with a four-speed manual; legend has it there may have been one of those built. Our Marketplace gem here has an aftermarket four-barrel on its 400 engine; no idea if this a 2- or 4-bbl car from the factory. Does it matter? Contemporary road testers clocked a 455-cu. in. Grand Am coupe with an automatic going from zero-to-sixty in 7.7 seconds. Pretty good for a smog era Pontiac that wasn't a Firebiird or Trans Am.
Those same road testers were unimpressed with the Grand Am's handling despite it having the firmest and beefiest suspension set up of any GM "A-body" at the time. They also lamented the cramped interiors particularly in relation to how large the exterior of the car is. I test drove a Grand Am coupe back in the mid-eighties and, frankly, I was perplexed by how mediocre it was. I thought it was slow, the engine hemmed and hawed, the steering was numb, the brakes were horrible, but they probably needed replacing. Didn't dissuade me from thinking it was cooler than Elvis, though. Just wish it was a better car. I passed on it.
The clumsy handling was a real head scratcher since these cars were supposedly Pontiac's answer to sharp handling imports washing ashore from Germany. I know, as if. But that's what they portended to be. Fun facts, the Grand Am started out as the 1973 GTO but seeing the market for performance cars waning, GM opted to make the Grand Am first and foremost a "luxury" car. In the 1970's, what defined a luxury car was literally quite grand.
For eight-thousand-dollars, you get a '73 Grand Am sedan here that's far from perfect. There's no radio, this had factory A/C but the guts of it are missing, there are a number of ouchies on the body too; look closely at that rubberized nose cone. That won't be cheap to fix or replace. At least the title is clean. Who would buy this and why?
The Grand Am sedans sold terribly; the comelier coupes outsold them significantly not that they sold well either. What's more, all GM "A-bodies" were moving to square or rectangular headlights for 1976 that would have meant a costly redesign for the Grand Am's "Endura" front fascia. Thus, Pontiac pulled the plug on them after 1975. The Grand Am nameplate was resuscitated from 1978 through 1980 on GM's downsized A-body chassis. After a four-year hiatus, they brought it back again in 1985 festooning it to a front-wheel-drive, GM "N-body" that, ahem, was not so "Grand".
To "LS-swap" an automobile is to remove the original engine and replace it with a General Motors "LS" engine. The practice is seen as a massive improvement as the series of LS engines, there are many, are considered to be the most powerful and reliable V-8 engines GM has ever made. It's not just GM makes and models that get "LS-swapped", it can be done with any vehicle that can accommodate one. With this 1971 Buick Skylark, for sale currently on Facebook Marketplace near my triple-wide west of Cleveland, Ohio, it's been LS-swapped with a 6.0-liter "LS".
GM has built "LS" engines since 1997 in a number of different displacements including a gaggle of 6.0-liter versions so it's anyone's guess, without contacting the seller, as to which one this is exactly. Poster of the ad notes the fuel injectors have been upgraded to LSA injectors and a Texas Speed Chop "Monster Cam" has been installed. One thing for certain, this is a handsome looking transplant.
Looks can be deceiving, though. Along with the fuel injector and cam upgrade, which, candidly, are debatable "upgrades" seeing, in particular the camshaft. they can make the engine fairly challenging to drive casually, there's a Holley Terminator X engine controller replacing the controller the engine came from the factory with. So, while the install is tres jolie, that the engine has had as much work done to it as it has might explain the more than "reasonable" $20,000 asking price for the whole car. I've seen original and unrestored 1970-1972 Skylark that needed total restorations going for twenty-grand.
Other "upgrades" include a disc brake conversion, Yukon closed differential with 3:08 gears, GM "Turbo" 400 transmission with a 3200-stall converter, aluminum radiator and electric fans. There are custom Buick valve covers on the engine to dress things up. Pretty neat. Apparently, these handsome wheels come with it as well and the body appears to be tight as a drum. That's saying something up here on the North Coast.
Obviously, the seats need to be redone, and the headliner needs replacing; no pictures of it so my guess is they pulled it down. This is all catalog stuff although I'd get with an interior pro to have the seats reupholstered. If you've ever tried to glue or reglue a sagging headliner, you know that a trip to the dentist is more fun.
What concerns me about this car is, and this is the same for anything that's been heavily modified, you get it home and something goes south, who do you take it to if you're not "handy" enough to handle this Dr. Frankenstein's monster of a car? Hopefully the seller is forthcoming with who did all the work if it wasn't themselves doing it. Teh shop that built the engine would no doubt be a great resource for you. If the seller did the work, hopefully they're amenable to you taking it back to them when there are problems; otherwise, that could be really awkward. Maybe not. If they bought it like this and don't know who did the mods, that's a red flag.
Food for thought. I'd certainly line up a shop that could do the work on this before I bought it and have them vet it out for you. Good news is these days. younger techs are more familiar with computer-controlled engines than carburetors. With these kid techs, if they can't "plug it in", they don't know where to start.
Buick first used the "Skylark" name plate on celebratory Roadmaster convertible in 1953 and 1954 commemorating Buick's 50th anniversary. They used it again starting in 1961 on their version of the compact GM Y-platform that also underpinned the Oldsmobile F-85 and Pontiac Tempest. In 1964, GM moved the "Skylark", Oldsmobile F-85, Pontiac Tempest and the new Chevrolet Chevelle to their new "A-body", intermediate chassis. GM updated styling on the A-bodies for 1968, the results were mixed; the Buick Skylark arguably the least attractive of the lot. Buick "righted" that wrong in 1970 when GM updated the "A's" again, this time, my opinion, making some of the best-looking cars of all time.
When GM redesigned the A-body chassis for 1973, the "Skylark" name was dropped for another storied Buick nameplate, "Century". Buick festooned "Skylark" to their version of the Chevrolet Nova in 1975 replacing the "Apollo" nameplate. Buick built a "Skylark" in several different iterations through 1998.
1971 Buick Skylark
Clean title
6.0 ls
Lsa injectors
Th400 trans
3200 stall converter
Texas speed chop monster cam
Holley Terminator X
Tanks efi fule tank with 340 pump
Four-wheel disc brake conversion
yukon posi unit
308 us gears
Aluminum radiator with electric fans
Custom Buick coil covers
NEED Headlining and seats redone
When some people find out I'm a "car guy", they want to know, "what's your favorite"? That's like asking me what my favorite finger is; I have many "favorites" like 1971 and 1972 Chevrolet Impala Sport and Custom Coupes. Push comes to shove, I'd want a Custom Coupe, but I wouldn't kick a "bubble window" Sport Coupe like this '71 out of my garage.
These cars pay homage to another favorite, the "bubble top" Impala of 1961 fame; Chevrolet built an Impala "Sport Coupe" of varying degree of attractiveness through 1974, they brought it back from 1977 to 1979. The Impala Custom Coupe came out in 1968 that had the same rear roofline as the more formal looking Caprice. Poe-tae-toe, poe-tah-toe? Not if it matters to you. Impala Custom Coupes, like the Sport Coupes, were hard tops through 1973.
The big Chevrolet's were all new for 1971 and they were bigger than ever. Stem-to-stern, they were seven-inches longer in length at 220-inches compared to the 1970 models riding on a ginormous 121.5-inch wheelbase, up two-and-a-half inches over the 1970 models that were no midgets. With the advent of five-mile-per-hour "safety bumpers" in 1973 and 1974, these would grow to up to 223-inches long.
A "South Carolina" car, this is a very original oldie with a price-reduced asking price of $16,500 down from $18,000. The owner wants to sell it rather than store it, perhaps they're willing to bargain. Seeing what it needs, you might be able to work that to your advantage. Poster of the ad says that "low ballers" need to stay away and "save their scams". Same time of person who claims they'll ignore you if you simply ask, "is this still available".
A/C needs work, paint is thin in some areas, engine is tired. Dash is cracked. All pricey fixes best left to professionals rather than us garage-hack, DIYer's. I'd budget at least two-grand for the AC, $7,500-$10,000 for a decent paint job, the dash? Who knows. Good luck finding someone to do that too. And do it right.
Years ago, I really wanted one of these, but it never made sense either as a "daily" or as a weekender. I've always had a sizeable commute and being terrible on gas, which actually made these reasonably affordable in the '80's, they weren't practical. As a weekender, they don't do anything above and beyond what even my janky, 300,000-mile RAV4 can do to make them special. Sorry, I like my weekender to do something more than simply look good.
With the cost of admission and what it would need to get it up to snuff, I know the willowy handling and unsupportive seats would stoke that annoying buyer's remorse voice in my head. I can hear him now whispering evilly, "what have you done?" I'd prefer not to go there. That and my wife chiding me, "how much money did you spend on this thing?"
Better to want for something and never get it than experience the chill of buyer's remorse. Helps me sleep better too.
The market for classic cars has cooled considerably since the post-Covid high-water mark for anything that isn't the creme de la creme, so I'm taken back by the $14,000 ask for this 1976 Oldsmobile 98 that popped up on Facebook Marketplace recently. Back in 2022, this very nice but flawed 98 would have commanded twenty-grand; not saying it would have sold for that, but it would have been priced higher than what it's priced at now. Are we to believe at fourteen thousand this well bought?
Quick Google search tells us this is not unreasonably priced but the biggest bucks are for cars that are in showroom condtion. Just 29,000 miles on this one's fifty-year old ticker, though, and it has an interior that looks like it hasn't been sat in since the days of Kajagoogoo. Poster of the ad claims there's no rust on the body but there's surface rust on the frame which isn't surprising considering we live in northern Ohio. Best is, it's got a bad starter and look at those rear filler panels. Details are scarce on whether the air blows cold, accessories work, etc. Seriously? Fourteen-thousand dollars? This is the kind of car you brag to your neighbors you got on the cheap. If they're not car people, they may think you got gipped at $7,500; imagine what they think if they found out you paid $14,000.
If you're of a certain, ahem, vintage and you're into cars, you may have a soft spot for these land yachts that were ubiquitous years ago but have all but disappeared. I love 'em, my wife thinks they're old far cars. Well, dear, if the golf shoe fits. In a day and age of do-everything great SUV's and crossovers, these cars don't make any sense, but back then, if you wanted to show off you had it or wanted to make it seem you did, you drove something like this. No one bought them for their ability to corner or go from point A to point B as quickly as possible nor where they marketed as such.
These days, the only people who have these cars are my age or older and they love these cars for what they are and understand what they aren't. You don't see "young people" showing up to classic car shows with these things either. Wait, hold on. You don't see "young people" at car shows at all. Incidentally, car shows are one of the few activities my wife and I can participate in and feel confident we're not the oldest people there.
The Oldsmobile 98 was the top-of-the-line Oldsmobile sold from 1940 to 1942 and 1949 through 1996. Years ago, Oldsmobile sold their cars in series; series 60, 70, 80, 90. The first digit was for the series, the second was for the number of cylinders it had. Hence, "98". All "98's" had eight-cylinder engines until 1981 when a Buick V-6 was optional. From 1985 through the end of the model's run in 1996, all "98's" or "Ninety Eights" as they were referred to from 1991 to 1996, had six-cylinder engines. Us purists were like, they should be "96's" then.
That means our big boy here has a V-8 and a mighty fine one although there were no pictures of it in the Facebook ad which is a little disconcerting. Us car wonks perusing Marketplace like to see engines. Poster of the ad claims this has the original engine which would be Oldsmobile's 455 cubic inch monster that had been around since 1968 in various guises. By '76, the old stump puller had been detuned and defanged considerably to improve gas mileage and improve emissions. Still, she'd have some decent torque although this probably has a lazy final drive ratio. All stuff, along with the rear filler panels, that can be fixed.
This being a "Regency" means it has the tufted, "loose-pillow" interior Oldsmobile first introduced in 1972 to commemorate Oldsmobile's 75th-anniversary. It sold so well, Oldsmobile kept it around in one form or another through the 98's run through 1996. I'm not a fan of this interior. It looks great, but it's not as comfortable as it would appear to be. Especially for the driver.
In my Jay Leno garage, I'd have a 1970's General Motors C- or B-body two-door or two. Or three or four. This 98 is a "C-body" and shares its chassis with the Buick Electra and Cadillac deVille. Can't say this one would make it since it's a pillared coupe rather than a hard top. The hard tops coupes were phased out in 1974 although, interestingly, the hard top four-doors remained in production through 1976.
1976 was the last year for these dreadnaughts as GM downsized their big boys in 1977. While far superior transportation conveyances, in my humblest of opinions, none of them have the charm or elan of anything they replaced, though.
My boss lets the transmission shop next to our office park their overflow of customer cars in our parking lot. Not like we need the space; in the six-years I've been at my current job, we've gone from a skeleton crew to a crew of skeletons with a significant number of bones missing. On occasion, they'll leave something interesting there like this 1972 Chevelle SS454.
The VIN number on these cars is not on the dashboard at the base of the driver's side windshield so I couldn't begin to confirm if this was a "real" SS454 or a clone. A clone is a car that's actually a lesser model dressed up to look like it's more than what it is. I'm not a fan of clones; in fact, I've never met a car guy or gal who is.
Could I possibly be so lucky to have one of my favorite cars of all time fall into my midst like this? I have my doubts this is "real"; I mean, c'mon. What are the chances?
"Chevelle's" were Chevrolet's intermediate models made between 1964 and 1977 in three-generations; 1964 to 1967, 1968 to 1972 and 1973 to 1977.
"Chevelle" was technically a sub-brand as these cars were "Chevelle by Chevrolet" and not "Chevrolets" per se. Digging deeper into the Chevelle lineup is where things get a little murky.
Chevrolet, err, "Chevelle" changed what was what so often that model year to model year it's hard to keep tabs on what was actually what. Rather than split pin stripes reviewing the nuisances of each model year's lineup, for simplicity's sake, through 1973, any Chevelle two-door that was an "SS" was the top-of-the-line model. Although, SS models could vary greatly. Such was the 1970's and customer ala carter ordering.
Under the hood, buyers who checked the "SS" box on the order form could choose from Chevrolet's 307-, 350-, 402- and 454-cubic inch V-8 engines. For 1972, if this in fact has a 454, from the factory, the big engine had lost a couple of ponies from its 1970 nadir but would have been rated at 270 net horsepower and 390 net foot pounds of torque. That beefy torque number is what gave these cars their oomph. The horsepower rating isn't too shabby for the time too.
Snaps to me for taking these photos of it in the rain. You can't tell but it was pouring. Even if this is a clone, has to be killing the owner it's getting rained on not to mention that it has transmission problems. When it rains, it literally pours. Next time I see Nick, the shop owner, I'll get the scoop on what's going with it. And, most importantly, if this is the real deal or a poser.
This is the time of year to buy a "classic car" as many owners would rather sell them than store them for the winter. That's the case here with this 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix for sale on Facebook Marketplace for what would appear to be, at first, a reasonable, $9,200. It's out in Olathe, Kansas, a suburb of Kansas City about a half hour out. I've never been to KC, but Google Maps says I could make it there in under twelve-hours, pick up an hour on my way out there too. Bonus, "I understand they got some crazy little women there."
Pontiac came out with these cars in 1969 and unknowingly christened the personal luxury car craze of the 1970's. GM's first attempts at a personal luxury car similar in scope to Ford's 1958, four-passenger Thunderbird while handsome, missed the bullseye. Their best effort, the 1963-1965 Buick Riviera, was a more than worthy competitor, but its price point put it out of reach of potential buyers looking for a little something extra in what was an otherwise plebian, affordable offering. The Grand Prix offered all of that and more at a price that didn't break the bank.
Built on a longer wheelbase version of the two-door GM "A-body" intermediate chassis, the longer canvas enabled designers to give the GP it's extraordinarily long hood. Chevrolet would build their Monte Carlo starting in 1970 on the same chassis that was code-named internally, "G-body".
As were many cars from General Motors' "Golden Era" of 1949 to 1972, these cars were all form over function. Designed from the outside in, despite being enormous, their interiors were quite cramped. The back seat on a car of this size is atrociously tiny. Meanwhile, look at the amount of room in front of the engine purely for the sake of design. The size of that fan shroud!
Meant to emulate the "classics" of the Great Gatsby Era, which, incidentally, was about as long ago in 1970 as 1990 is now from 2025 (feel ancient, yet?), GM designers did such a wonderful job with these cars that it didn't matter if you "got that" or not. It's a transcendental design that was simultaneously retro and contemporary. Not an easy thing to do.
Although it's hard to tell from the pictures, iPhones tend to make things look better than they actually are, this car has some challenges.
It's a Grand Prix "J" and not an "SJ", so it's modestly equipped. Crank windows, no power driver's seat, seller says the original AM radio is in the trunk. Yes, a standard radio that was AM only. Hey, it's a 1970. The engine is Pontiac's 400 cubic-inch V-8 in 2-barrel guise making all of 250 gross horsepower, none of its purported previous three owners got anywhere quickly. This car came with factory air, but it's not hooked up. Rebuilding air conditioning systems in vintage cars can run big bucks. $2,500 if you're lucky, $4000 or more if you're unlucky.
Poster of the ad claims it's been repainted to its factory color meaning it was painted something else sometime over the past fifty-five years. There's some amateurish body filler work on it, apparently there's spots where you can tell someone with a spatula and a can of Bondo went at it. There's a hole in the trunk floor (noted above).
This is a literal barn find that was sitting for twenty-years. "Barn finds" sound romantic, but there's usually a pretty severe reason why something was stashed away. Rarely is a "barn find" even like this stuffed in a closet because someone couldn't part with it simply for sentimental reasons. In the case here, the tin worm got the best of fuel and brake lines. Rather than part with it on the cheap since it needed fairly costly repairs, it got pushed into Clippity Clop's old stall and forgotten about.
The tires hold air but they're more than twenty-years old and dry rotted. The car runs and moves on its own, but they say whoever buys it should have it towed away. Gosh, the cost of a tow from KC to CLE these days? Two-grand? Maybe more? They don't want to sell it but apparently their circumstances warrant their letting it go. Asking price is $9,200 but they are open to reasonable offers. Thing is, on a car that could use a frame off restoration, what's a "reasonable" offer? I wouldn't offer a third of the asking price for it. I'd rather pay more, a lot more in fact, for something that was more complete and didn't have the rust and body work issues this has.
Shame that within a decade, the Pontiac Grand Prix and the Chevrolet Monte Carlo would be parodies of themselves much like the endless Rocky, Jaws and Planet of the Apes sequels were. Terrible movies inspired by films that were actually excellent.
"Kansas City" is a rhythm and blues song written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller in 1952. The most famous version of the song was performed by Wilbert Harrison in 1959.
