Canadian Pontiac Brochure
Last year I located the Pontiac line brochure for 1981. While this was a pretty cool brochure, having all of the Pontiac vehicles for 1981, it wasn’t ideal as it was a U.S. brochure and not Canadian. There was a nice photo of the ’81 “Bandit” Trans-Am and some really nice interior pictures of the Catalina and Bonneville but, of course, the brochure didn’t include my Parisienne. The Pontiac Parisienne was exclusively a Canadian car until 1982. Up to 1981, the Pontiac Catalina was sold in the United States and it’s sister car, the Parisienne, was manufactured in the GM plant in Oshawa, Ontario and sold only in the Canadian market along with the Laurentian. In 1982, GM decided to reduce the line a little bit and the Parisienne was sold in the United States. By that time the car had lost much of it’s unique Pontiac styling and was really just a re-badged Chevrolet Caprice. The pre-1982 cars were much more visually appealing, in my opinion, which is what caused me to purchase my 1981 Pontiac Parisienne instead of the 1984 Chevrolet Caprice that I was comparing it with. My Parisienne Brougham was number 21,756 off of the production line in 1981, the last year for the genuinely Pontiac, Canadian-made Parisienne’s.
As I mentioned, the brochure that I bought last year was great, but having photos only of the Bonneville and Catalina wasn’t doing it for me. I was really excited when I located a Canadian brochure for the 1981 Pontiac line and I was even more excited when it arrived today in the mail. The seller sealed the brochure in a plastic sleeve and put a cardboard backing behind it to ensure it wouldn’t bend. That’s the sort of care and attention I’m used to with comic book sellers but it’s the first time that I personally have seen it with auto brochures.
Unfortunately, the parts of the brochure that show the Parisienne are all spread across two pages. I was able to scan them, but it will take me some time to get them stitched together into a single image so that I’m satisfied enough to post them here.
For now, I’ve scanned the front cover, and I have one (poorly) stitched page. I’ll post the rest once I’ve tinkered with them some more.
