Pontiac Bonneville

The Pontiac Bonneville is an automobile that was built by the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors from 1958-2006. Introduced as a limited production performance convertible in the Pontiac Star Chief model range during the 1957 model year, the Bonneville became its own series in 1958.

Early development

The Bonneville name first appeared in 1954 on a bubble-topped GM Motorama concept car called the Bonneville Special. It entered the production linup as the Star Chief Custom Bonneville, a high-performance, fuel-injected luxury convertible, late in the 1957 model year. Only 630 units were produced that first year, making it one of the most collectible Pontiacs of all time. The Bonneville endured until 2005 as the division's top-of-the-line model. The term was taken from the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, the site of much early auto racing and most of the world's land speed record runs.

Bonneville Special was last seen in 2006 Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Auction, sold for $2,800,000(+8% commission).

The Bonneville expanded into its own series and added a coupe in 1958, and it paced the Indianapolis 500 that year. In its third season, the 1959 Bonneville gained a four-door bodystyle and formed a nearly complete product line in itself. It played an important part that year in the introduction of two of Pontiac's greatest marketing inspirations — the split grille and the Wide Track slogan. The latter was not just ad copy, either, as Pontiac pushed its wheels further out toward the fenders than anyone else and created what were considered to be the best-cornering fullsize cars in the industry. Both the grille design and the Wide Track phrase are still part of Pontiac's image today. The Bonneville remained as Pontiac's costliest and most luxurious model throughout the 1960s and was instrumental in pushing Pontiac to 3rd place in sales from 1962 to 1970.

Bonneville's identity crisis

From 1971 to 1975, the Bonneville was de-emphasized somewhat as Pontiac used the Grand Ville name for its highest-price model, but Bonneville never went away and re-emerged in the top spot in 1976, the last year before the downsized full-sized Pontiacs appeared in 1977, and continued its flagship duties on the downsized big car line until it was discontinued after the 1981 model year along with the lower-priced Catalina.