Roadside Sighting: Pontiac Star Chief
If you liked the looks of the early Pontiac GTO, but wanted more luxury and room, the sixth generation Star Chief might be the car for you. It was Pontiac’s executive class of cars, meaning big luxury and for ’65 through ’67, it shared a few styling features from the GTO. You don’t see many of these big Ponchos anymore, but reader Jonathan M spotted this one recently and thought he’d share his Roadside Sighting with us! We will let him tell you more about it below.
I found this abandoned Pontiac Starchief alongside a similarly abandoned house just off the Minnesota – South Dakota border by Watertown. It looks to be all original with fairly little rust, although in Minnesota who knows. I didn’t want to hang around, because I didn’t feel like getting Lyme disease.
This Pontiac actually looks to be in decent shape. It’s hard to say what the floors are like, but you never know. It sure would be interesting to know the full story of how it ended up in this yard and what it’s life before being parked was like. If any of you recognize this car and know the story, please share!
Our thanks to Jonathan for sharing his sighting with us! If you spot an interesting find parked by the road, snap some photos and send them to us at [email protected] so we can share them with everyone.
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Comments
Josh, you may find that the Tempest/Le Mans/GTO line actually borrowed its styling from the full-size range, usually the previous year.
This ’64 Star Chief four-door sedan would have been a popular seller in its day, although not as desirable as, say, a SD Catalina or fully-loaded Bonneville coupe.
With this example sitting in the tall grass, one wonders what the state of the floors, lower body and chassis are like? Maybe Jonathan M could have a closer look for the rest of us..?
If I get out that way again, I will. I only found two ticks after trudging around in the grass. It has a 389, but who knows if it’s stuck or not. From what I saw through the windows, the floor looked fairly solid.
Looks like in pic 7 there is grass growing under the steering wheel.
Get the weed wacker out.
Looks like something from a scene in the movie “Cool hand Luke”.
checking out the car over here Boss ….
That girl washing it, too.
Still shakin’ the bushes, boss.
I feel like driving the 16 hours, just to cut that lawn!
I’m sorry, but saying “Star Chief” & “GTO” in the same sentence stretches your credibility a bit. The Star Chief was, I believe, slotted between the Catalina and the Bonneville in the Pontiac hierarchy. It was a grandma car or worse, a nerd car. Not the cheapest but not the full-Monty either. The spiritual forebear of the Camry.
The GTO elicited excitement from the word go. Despite the sometimes excessive hype, real car guys knew what the numbers 389 tri-power 4-speed meant.
This is still an interesting find, but the ’63’s were better-looking in my not-so-humble opinion. Starting in ’61 GM was on a 2-year cycle with the 2nd year being highly derivative of the first.
I love these whenever I see a 64 Pontiac I think of my old red Matchbox 64 Pontiac in Red.
I had the same red Matchbox GP too Derek, complete with a tiny gray trailer hitch.
Back in 1990 since it was my fave MB of those times, I bought a (Skyline Blue) full-size 64 GP I came across and still have it today. (After *lots* of work to revive it of course.)
Little did Matchbox know how many young budding car collector minds it inspired to later action with its toy cars!
Le it’s see if this photo comes in right side up…
Would be a cheap way into the hobby.
Were it any closer, I’d hsve to go check this one over. As beatnik bedouin said,
that tall grass can hide a lot. I’d venture
to say that the floors and maybe parts
of the frame are toast, and replacing these could set you back quite a bit
financially. Hopefully, the engine isn’t
seized up at all. Without any further
elaboration, this poor old Poncho will
need everything before seeing the road
again. Providing this car is solid, a family
man could buy it cheap, and rebuild it as
time and finances permit. In the end, you’d have a car capable of hauling your
family around in comfort and style. Can’t think of anything better than that. How
about you?
While I’m typically a Ford/Merc and AMC guy, I can definitely appreciate a classic like this.
( curtain in upstairs window pulls back ever so slightly)
” Clem……fire up the boiling pot…we got another one looking at the Pontiac…….now don’t scare ’em…I’m hungry”
This might be a rare roadside sight up north, but it is not at all unusual to see some even 60 year old sedans sitting in weeds next to abandoned homes down here in Tennessee. I pass by one neighbor who has a Stude Lark, three 1953-54 Chevies and one 52 Ford sedan scattered across his land looking like they were parked there to create visual appeal with the high grass around them. This is next to another property owner with two Ford Fiestas becoming one with the earth.
I still have my white on white ’64 Bonneville Sport Coupe from high school, with 51,000 miles. Enormous car, that is similar to driving a waterbed. :)
Wow.. if it were closer to southern Indiana I’d be looking for the owner.
Dad took delivery of a new ‘64 Star Chief at Townsend Pontiac on 5th Ave in Gary Indiana on February 12th 1964. He ordered it in Gulfstream Aqua with the 389 Economy 2bbl which included a four speed automatic.. I was 9 going on 10 and two summers later Dad taught me to drive in it. He even cut me loose in it in the middle of nowhere Southern Illinois near my grandparents farm. He just handed me the keys and said “Be careful, don’t wreck it. We have to go home in it”. He apparently trusted me.. I timed my trip to 30 minutes with the dash clock which worked for at least another ten years.
Lots of great childhood memories in that car with mom, dad and little sister on vacations to all four corners of the USA.
I’m not sure anyone is going to deal with ticks, possible bad rust, and no clear idea who the owner is, all for a ’64 sedan.
Just the facts, ma’am. It’s too bad, but I doubt it gets saved form the scrap man.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure..
And I’d bet that even if the floors are intact, the transmission crossmember is toast at the ends along with the frame rail attachment points.
My first vertical welding job..
Usually when a car is parked and ignored for years it means that there was a problem with it. It doesn’t mean that it was a serious, fatal flaw. It could have been something simple like the master cylinder, radiator, or tranny went bad. Either It cost too much to fix or the owner had other cars to drive, so it sat. After a while it had even more problems from disuse. So it sat some more. Pretty soon it was just too much trouble to bother with. A pretty common story.
To use as a yardstick, this was the Pontiac equivalent of an Olds Super 88 in that year. My Dad was shopping both models that very year. In this case the Olds won out.
Mine is Annabelle, a 1960 star chief and sat because owner died. Was left in garage with only 28,000 miles on her.