What a Way to Go: Oldest reported Pontiac found as brand rides off into the sunset
As it turns out, "old GM" still matters to someone -- and in this case, we mean really old. The Fairfield County Concours d'Elegance in Westport, Connecticut wanted to include Pontiac in this year's showing, so it went looking for the most ancient example it could find. Of the 12 Pontiacs they tracked down from 1926, the brand's inaugural year, the very oldest resided in Minnetonka, Minnesota: a 1926 two-door coach.
Co-owned by a father and son, Roy and Paul Jaszczak, the Series 6-27 is in good running condition and has apparently made it this far in life without a major restoration: a clean-up, a valve job, and replacing the Lindbergh-era tires is all the Jaszczak's have needed to do.
For their munificent stewardship of the oldest Pontiac, the car will be shipped to the Concours and the Jaszczak's will be flown to New York and put up in swank digs. Then they'll drive the car up to Westport and revel in the kind of East Coast attention that probably hasn't been showered on Minnesotans since Fargo. It's a fitting showcase for the end of the "We build excitement" era, and to the Jaszczak's we say: nice work.
[Source: Star Tribune]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
cowboy bob 1:54PM (9/13/2009)
I felt a loss when Sudebaker bit it, and as a life long car guy, I feel the same for the demise of Oldsmobile, and now this. Hyundai for Gods sakes....is there no hope for those like me????
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Visnick 2:14PM (9/13/2009)
I feel for Studebaker as well; especially since my family owned a dealership
Quack. 1:58PM (9/13/2009)
Awesome find, sad to see the brand go.
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brandonmckinley 1:59PM (9/13/2009)
I live in St. Paul, MN and BTW, and I have to say the Republican National Convention was a great showing of Minnesotan hospitality (lol) and certainly more important than that movie!
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PJ 2:04PM (9/13/2009)
I don't think I would be looking forward to the drive from NYC to Westport. Good luck.
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garlinski 2:08PM (9/13/2009)
um... Fargo is North Dakota...
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Joe 4:44PM (9/13/2009)
Oh, You Betcha.
Duncan 6:41PM (9/13/2009)
Yeah, I normally don't dig on the smaller errors here at AB, but that's a pretty big one. And it's pervasive (as in not just here), and it needs to be stopped.
Fargo = North Dakota. Again, Fargo = North Dakota.
Vig 7:24PM (9/13/2009)
@garlinski and Duncan,
Have you ever seen Fargo? Where do you think Brainerd is?
@Duncan, specifically,
I normally don't dig on the smaller errors here, but this one made you look especially bad
garlinski 11:27PM (9/13/2009)
Here, I just thought it was funny b/c i work for a certain tv network that made fun of "Fargo not in Minnesota" thing in a commercial spot with Joe Mauer from the Twins...
see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6prZdeldd-4
Justin 2:33PM (9/13/2009)
Where's the plastic side-cladding?
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swimtedswim 2:57PM (9/13/2009)
as a Pontiac diehard fan i'd say you made my day with that crack
Ian 5:29PM (9/13/2009)
I lolled.
scott 3 10:37AM (9/14/2009)
This is not the oldest Pontiac.
The first Pontiac ever built is in the GM collection.
The one here is the oldest private or second oldest depending on how you look at it.
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mike 5:20PM (9/13/2009)
Driving an 83 year old car in the environs of NYC is insanity.
Those roads are crap an filled with nutters.
The thought of two midwesterners driving an 83 year old car out of town that way seems like a recipe for disaster.
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TonyInMI 5:47PM (9/13/2009)
Great find. Pontiac was a brand created by GM for marketing purposes and has been killed for similar reasons. Likewise Plymouth. Oldsmobile and Studebaker are different stories altogether. Oldsmobile, as one of the originators of the automotive industry, was killed by incompetence of people who failed to see the passion in the automotive industry and looked at it merely as a capitalist endeavor. No pan on capitalism here - the American auto industry is WAY MORE than just making money. Studebaker was much more complicated and a BIG loss as well.
We've traded diversity of product for diversity in marketing. I just hope the few American brands that have any gusto left live on. Competition is fine, ie. Hyundai, but if we focus on competing only from a financial perspective we (the American industry) will lose.
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Duncan 6:45PM (9/13/2009)
Pontiac, of course, remains the only one of GM's various "child" brands from the 1920s that actually managed to outlive its parent (Oakland, in this case).
Sad to see it go out with such a whimper after all the amazing history they made, but such is the way of the withering American auto industry. I'll continue to celebrate the brands we have left, while pouring out a quart of 30-weight for our fallen favorites. (Into a suitable receptacle, of course.)
Love this story, though - gotta give the truly veteran classics some credit, too.
Avinash machado 12:08AM (9/14/2009)
Great find.
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Larry 12:23PM (9/15/2009)
Roy and Paul are the Jaszczaks, not "the Jaszczak's". Pretty much nothing needs an apostrophe to make it plural, least of all people's last names, but for some reason some seem to think it's absolutely mandatory, especially on mailboxes, it seems. So irritating.
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Chiefpontiac 6:27AM (9/19/2009)
Have you guys seen our site: Savingpontiac.org? we are trying to save this Great Brand fro leaving. We believe that GM and our Government have alternatives that have not been explored. Please visit and sign our petition and join our association.
Thanks for your interest!!
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