Photo: Craigslist Rochester, NY
Nobody needs to drive a 1970s-vintage American landship. They don't need a 400-cubic inch (6.6-L) V8 that treats the average gas station pump with all the hostility and prejudice of a swarm of murder hornets who stumble upon a hive of defenseless, innocent honey bees. Nobody needs a car with a 4,000-plus pound curb weight that doesn't do much to protect you in a front-on impact besides send the engine block careening directly toward your sternum. But do you think anyone really gives a rat's you-know-what about any of that? Because we want this 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix LJ.
The Pontiac Grand Prix was a very different car than what it came to be in the later parts of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. With a wheelbase that made stretch limos from European countries feel bad about themselves and as many muscle car credentials as was possible to have in the conditions after the 1973 oil crisis, the Grand Prix was the middle-of-the-road, young-person-friendly option between lower-end Chevrolets and higher-end Buicks, Cadillacs, and Oldsmobiles that were priced ahead of Pontiac in its market segment.
New for the 1976 model year was a revised waterfall-style front grille that distinguishes it visually from Grand Prix's made from 1972 to 1975.
As the second to last model year, before the Grand Prix line underwent a very unfortunate downsizing campaign for its fifth generation, this particular 1976 edition is among the most valuable and desirable American sports coupes made during the mid-to-late 70s. In the year that Pontiac celebrated its 50th anniversary, this Grand Prix left the factory sporting the second-largest bespoke Pontiac motor available at the time.
It was only surpassed by the gargantuan 455-cubic inch (7.5-liter) Pontiac V8 fitted to only a handful of top-of-the-line, fully-specced out examples manufactured only for a short period. Though a healthy 228,091 Pontiac Grand Prix examples were sold during the 1976 model year, we hazard to guess that none still surviving look as nice as this one.
That's all the more bizarre because this particular machine is for sale on Craigslist from a seller out of Rochester, New York. Of course, anyone who knows anything about this region of New York knows it's particularly unkind to the sub-standard rust treatment General Motors was known for applying to their vehicles around this period. Heck, the interior plastics in their cars were no better. In some cases, they were even worse.
With a new paint job applied sometime in the new millennium, there's every reason to suspect this Grand Prix would be an awesome daily driver, assuming you just looked in the opposite direction of the gas pump every time you fill it up. For that privilege, it'll cost you $14,000.
New for the 1976 model year was a revised waterfall-style front grille that distinguishes it visually from Grand Prix's made from 1972 to 1975.
As the second to last model year, before the Grand Prix line underwent a very unfortunate downsizing campaign for its fifth generation, this particular 1976 edition is among the most valuable and desirable American sports coupes made during the mid-to-late 70s. In the year that Pontiac celebrated its 50th anniversary, this Grand Prix left the factory sporting the second-largest bespoke Pontiac motor available at the time.
It was only surpassed by the gargantuan 455-cubic inch (7.5-liter) Pontiac V8 fitted to only a handful of top-of-the-line, fully-specced out examples manufactured only for a short period. Though a healthy 228,091 Pontiac Grand Prix examples were sold during the 1976 model year, we hazard to guess that none still surviving look as nice as this one.
That's all the more bizarre because this particular machine is for sale on Craigslist from a seller out of Rochester, New York. Of course, anyone who knows anything about this region of New York knows it's particularly unkind to the sub-standard rust treatment General Motors was known for applying to their vehicles around this period. Heck, the interior plastics in their cars were no better. In some cases, they were even worse.
With a new paint job applied sometime in the new millennium, there's every reason to suspect this Grand Prix would be an awesome daily driver, assuming you just looked in the opposite direction of the gas pump every time you fill it up. For that privilege, it'll cost you $14,000.
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