1976 Pontiac Catalina Safari

455 V8. Power tailgate and rear window appear to work perfectly. Not loaded but looks immaculate and totally original other than the incorrect Buick chrome road wheels with Pontiac center caps. Very impressive overall.



http://www.ebay.com/itm/BEAUTIFUL-R...A-C-NICE-/141420170440?_trksid=p2054897.l4275

 

YouTube Video!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kxR8JU1FaqI

 

Wow, nice looking wagon!!!

 

While I was looking at the pictures of this wagon only one word came to mind. WOW!

 

Yes WOW !

 

Too bad it's a Classic car dealer. Price will be ridiculously high no doubt. That being said I will be in Boise early November so if it's still for sale and anyone here is interested I'll go have a look see.

 

VERY nice indeed!

 

I like that, according to the text, it has 'Factory Power Wipers'..........

 

No idea what reserve might be, but this is a beautiful Pontiac wagon!

 

A stunning wagon, to be sure, but definitely low-option. No third seat. No luggage rack. No power windows or door locks. No tilt wheel. No cruise control. It's optioned just the way you might expect an older man or older couple to do it. I cansee the whole thing in my mind now. Sit down with the salesman and go down the option list carefully one by one, and getting only the things you really want. Power brakes and steering, which were probably standard, the must-have air-conditioning, and power tailgate because he didn't want to be moving it by hand no matter how easy it was supposed to be to do so. He got a rear defogger, too, because that's a practical thing, and that's about it.

He had no more family to raise, so no luggage rack or third seat because he could just put any luggage he and his wife had when traveling in the rear cargo area where the third seat and kids would have been. He grew up with out power windows or locks, so he wouldn't miss them. Ditto on cruise control. And even by '76, air-conditioning was still seen as a luxury by many people, especially those who were older and spent most of their life in non-A/C cars. So buying A/C would have been seen as truly splurging, so they blew their wad on that.

Can't tell what radio it had as I see an aftermarket in there, but I'll guess it was AM only.


In short, everything about this car screams that it was not purchased originally by a man with a family.

 

I'm failing to see why options in a car has anything to do with having a family? My first brand new vehicle purchase although not a wagon but a GMC Safari mini van, I was on a budget. Options such as P/W and all the other bells and whistle options at the time had no merit other than jacking up the price. By 1999 A/C was standard and yet I'll admit that even if it wasn't I would have splurged for it. Bare bones van with hand crank windows, no arm rests on the seats, no rear A/C (dash only), no frills period did the trick for us back then and remembering 9 out of 10 family cars on the street as a kid it did the same for most families. It's only today where everybody needs everything option wise for a family car, not to show off but just to keep up with the jones so to say.

 

I agree with Tedy. I never ordered much in the way of power options either. Didn't really need AC in central Illinois often and I loved riding with the windows down anyway.
If some of these young people added up all of those unnecesary options they might be amazed and could possibly get a better car without all of those things or much lower payments. I found I didn't need even a radio to drive to work or the grocery store. But always had the basic one. When on vacations we looked out the windows and talked.
It wasn't until my 1977 Ford truck that I got AC and that was just because the truck I wanted had it.
Here in Florida with my wingless truck I need AC or get my pretty hair messed up and have to shout.
Didn't even have AC or radio/TV in RV's until the 80's.
Now everyone brags about the do-hickies they have in their SUV just to drive to the Mall. We have friends who use a GPS to drive to Wal-Mart near where they live in case they get lost.


Wait! I agreed with Tedy ???????

 

And I'm failing to understand why you're taking what I wrote so seriously. All I was doing was having a little fun playing Sherlock Holmes and trying to deduce from the available evidence the circumstances that led to the car having the combination of options it has. I never said it was the only possibility.

 

It did kinda sound like it

 

Bid to $7100 reserve not met with 6 days left.

Any guesses what reserve might be?

This is a spotless looking Pontiac clamshell wagon, but it is not all that well optioned to command a premium price. Just saying.