Canadian Nova: 1970 Pontiac Acadian Coupe
Canada–United States Automotive Products Agreement (Auto-Pact, or APTA) was a trade agreement in 1965 with a mission to produce more vehicles in Canada by limiting U.S.-built cars from being sold there. Before this pact, the country imposed tariffs and most of us have heard of “Canadian” brands, such as this 1970 Pontiac Acadia. This rare example is posted here on craigslist in Chilliwack, British Columbia, and the seller is asking $8,500. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Tony P. for the tip, eh!
Now that’s patina! The Acadian was General Motors’ peace offering when they started to offer Canadian-specific rebadged Chevy IIs and there was also a Beaumont, another Canadian brand that a lot of us have heard of. The Beaumont became its own model in 1966 and it would go away after the 1969 model year. The Acadian by that time consisted only of the Chevy II and Nova design, which most of us recognize as the Chevy Nova. I’m guessing 99 out of 100 of us would have said “Nova” after looking at the above photo.
In mid-1971, Acadians went away and GM didn’t offer another car exclusive to Canada until 1988. I can’t tell if this car has been sandblasted or what’s going on with the exterior. The interior is a bright teal blue and I can’t imagine this was a brown paint scheme with that interior color (colour?), would it have been? The seller says it has rust from being parked behind the barn, but we don’t know where the rust is or how long it was parked outside. We also don’t know if their asking price is in Canadian or U.S. dollars, I’m assuming Canadian. The conversion rate would be $6,212 in U.S. dollars.
The seller is strategic in not showing the driver’s side interior or the front seats. We do know that the padded dash is basically shot so you’ll be sourcing a Chevy Nova dash and reusing that Acadian badge there. The back seat photo (a back seat photo but not a front seat photo?) shows that it needs help, but parts of the teal vinyl look perfect. The driver’s door panel is the only other interior photo, other than the one showing the odometer. and 81,442, which I’m assuming is kilometers.
Most of us were hoping to see a V8 here, but the standard engine was a 230-cu.in. OHV inline-six with 140 horsepower and 220 lb-ft of torque. A 250-six was optional, as were a 307 V8 and two versions of the 350 V8 depending on the model. With no console-mounted selector, I would have guessed that this car had a Powerglide automatic, but the seller says that it has a turbo-350 automatic. It runs and drives and isn’t currently road-worthy, but it has new tires, brakes, and shocks and this would be a fantatsic car to restore. Have any of you heard of this model, or better yet, owned one?
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Comments
Well, THAT’S an optimistic asking price!
Perhaps thats in Canadian dollars and not US currency?
GM cars in Canada switched to metric in 1976, so the odometer reading on this Acadian would be in Imperial units.
“In mid-1971, Acadians went away and GM didn’t offer another car exclusive to Canada until 1988.”
What about the 1973-1974 Pontiac Astre (Vega)? Or the 1976-1987 Pontiac Acadian (Chevette)? Or the 1985-1994 Pontiac Firefly (Chevrolet Sprint/Geo Metro)? Or the 1987-1991 Pontiac Tempest (Chevrolet Corsica)? There may be more, but I can’t think of any at the moment.
Nice catch, CCFisher, thanks for the correction. I was going by this from Wiki, “GM would not market another Canadian-exclusive brand until the launch of Passport starting for the 1988 model year.” I clearly wasn’t thinking.
I remember the Chevette-based Acadian as I wrote about a couple of them.
https://barnfinds.com/canadian-chevette-1984-pontiac-acadian/
https://barnfinds.com/painted-lady-1976-pontiac-acadian-woody/
Oh, you were talking marques. In that case, you’re correct. There were Canada-only Pontiacs all through the 70s & 80s, but no Canada-only marques until Passport.
I didn’t know you can put bicycle tires on a nova!
Those tires are so skinny, it makes it look like a Mistubishi Mirage! 🤣
There’s no brown paint on her. Just grey primer rusted thru, total patina, ha……
There is a old timer here that has a 2-door Canadian wagon and this is what he told me.It started out as a 4 -door but he bought doors off a 2 -door because they are longer and did a bunch of welding and cutting and leaded in were the door seam would have been on back of the rear doors.Well anyway it looked nice,modern engine and transmission. I have a nice picture of it.
We’d love to see it! 🙂
I just looked through hundreds of photos, I must have deleted it thinking car like that would ever be mentioned anywhere.
In my little Eastern Oregon home town circa 1968 a pal of mine DID have a ’66/’67 Chevy 2, 2 door wagon that was built in Canada in that configuration. Any time I tell this, I have folks say “not true, never was built”. This wasn’t something I heard from somebody, Larry had this almost new car for years. Furthermore I was a Chevy 2 / Nova guy myself having owned 5 of the 1st series through the years. :-) Terry J
Google D&D Speed Shop on YouTube. He has documented many 4 door to 2 door conversions.
I’d like to own one of these just because it would be something different.
Didn’t GM offer a big block in this era Nova?
To my memory, USA GM never offered a big block in the Chevy 2 or Nova. BUT there were a couple of big Chevy dealers that took new cars and retro fitted BBCs in them and sold them to the public: Nickey Chevrolet and Motion Chevrolet. BUT in 1966 you could buy a GM built Nova SS with a 350 h.p. 327.
We were all sitting lined up in the High School parking lot facing the end of Main Street one Saturday evening in 1966 when Denny hit town with his new 327 4speed Nova SS. We heard it first rumbling through town up Main and since we knew all the cars in our small town, we all turned to see what it was. About then he punched it and screamed by in front of us banging gears and burning rubber with every shift until he flashed by into the night. WHAT THE HECK was that? But for mystery purposes Denny didn’t come back that night so we didn’t know until the next day what we had witnessed, :-) Terry J
The 396 big-block was offered in Novas from 1968-70.
Yup to Des below, There was a 396 option by GM. Never saw one, but did see a 396 4 speed Camaro from a neighboring town once. :-) Terry J
Looks to me like it may have been silver originally. Which makes sense with the teal interior.
Interesting that on many of the Canadian versions of the GM’s (including the earlier Chevy II’s ) a split grille layout was used giving them more of a Pontiac look but these 70’s retain the Chevy look.
The town of Canso Nova Scotia lent it’s name to the Pontiac version of the Nova or Chevy ll, way back when.
I think… Wiki says it wasn’t Poncho but I don’t remember them being Chevy?!?
LOL, I had a ’66 Studebaker Daytona that had a 283 V8 with Studebaker valve covers but it was really a 283 Chevy engine. However they were built in a Pontiac plant in Canada so are often called the Pontiac Studebakers. You just never know what you might come across when Canada was involved. Terry J
It looks like the rear bumper has been hit, as it appears to not be straight, but then again, it could just be the pictures.
It looks like the rear bumper has been hit, as it appears to not be straight, but a nick in the rear bumper on the left has apparently twisted the right side up a bit.
$8500 CAD is $6217.41 USD, but going the other way yields:
$8500 USD is $11, 619.08 CAD, so your guess is as good as mine.
The Acadians were early French settlers of what is now the Canadian Maritime Provinces and Northern Maine. With the defeat of French General Montcalm by British General James Wolfe in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in August, 1759, that completed the British conquest of French Canada in the French & Indian War. Both Generals were killed in the engagement. After the battle, many Acadians were forcibly relocated from their homes to make room for British settlers, in what we would now call a case of “Ethnic Cleansing”. Some Acadians relocated to French New Orleans, where the became known as “Cajuns”,a corruption of the word Acadians. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published hie epic poem “Evangeline” in 1847, in English, which describes the search of a Acadian girl, Evangeline for her love, Gabriel, after their separation during this forcible relocation during the French and Indian War, as it is known in the United States, although French Canadians call it “The War of Conquest”, since it marks the beginning of British rule in the largely French-speaking Province of Quebec. Their antipathy is not unlike Southerners in the US who call the Civil War the “War of Southern Independence”.
Thank you for the history lesson. Not germain to cars, but I still learned something new. What a vast resource of knowledge in BF comments!! Thank you.
My Grandmother (in French, mon Grandmere), whose maiden name was Arsenault, was born and raised in New Brunswick, Canada, gave my mother a paperback copy of “Evangeline” to read when I was still in Elementary School, and too young to appreciate it. I’d like to find it and read it now! Beauty, Eh? The Acadians got hosed bad, Eh?
What do the (bleep-bleeped) Germans have to do with it?
I believe the correct spelling is “germane”, as a synonym for applicable or pertinent, not “germain” (sic), but I get your drift!
Apparently, another reader thought you were discussing Germans, the folks who started two (2) World Wars, but I digress.
Pronounced “A-cay-jun”…hence the term “Cajun”.
As I recall, they stopped making/selling Acadians when the Pontiac Ventura was introduced mid 1971. Acadians and Beaumonts were sold at Pontiac-Buick dealers