Monday, June 24, 2013

I'd have to wrestle MJ for it


I want a 1967 Acadian Beaumont.  Its the one with "poise".

What was a 1967 Acadian Beaumont?

First, some geo-political stuff.  Most people outside of Canada have no idea how big a country it is.  Keeping it simple, Canada covers an area larger than the Lower 48 States.  But the population is much smaller.  When you have a lot of area spread as spread out as Canada, and smaller population you have fewer people per square mile.

And the US auto industry in the postwar era wasn't designed to cope with the reality.  PLUS, Canada's government had no intention of becoming a paler shade of the US, so there were laws on the books that "guided" non Canadain companies to design uniquely Canadian products.

Combine these two things and you get GM Canada's Acadian, which was a Chevrolet dressed up with unique trim, and sold through Pontiac dealerships.  At first they started with the 1962 Chevy II (think Nova) and by 1966 they brought out a companion Beaumont (think Chevelle).  The cars both got unique grilles, taillights and badging, and they were sold through Pontiac Dealerships, but never in large numbers.

Changes to Canadian laws removed the native auto content clauses by the late 1960s and by 1970 only Ford Motors of Canada was selling unique automotive Marques and they were dust by 1980.  The last Beaumont rolled off the line by 1971.

Now, car companies sold the same cars north of the border that they did south of the border, but some kept the unique names.  In the US Pontiac sold the Catalina and Bonneville; in Canada, it was the Laurentian and the Parisienne.

The Parisienne name should be familiar to people of a certain age.  When GM decided o suspend production of large bodied Pontiacs in 1982 and turn the LeMans into the Bonneville Model G, dealers threatened to drop the brand, and GM caved in and started importing the Canadian built Parisienne (a Catalina by any other name) to fill the gap.

By the way, there is one of these online as I type - asking price is over $20,000.

3 comments:

  1. Good luck with the wrestling Cookie... I hear MJ has mudflaps of steel...

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  2. Good luck with your quest in finding one that's not rotted with rust from our Canadian winters.

    I'd kick Princess for that remark but it's her birthday.

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  3. “an estimated 75 percent of Canadians live within 161 kilometers (100 miles) of the U.S. border.” National Geographic

    Likely to keep warm.

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