Danville Street Sighting - 1975 Pontiac Astre SJ

It's funny how people lampoon one car for being terrible to the point it becomes infamous, and completely forget that rebadges of the same car even exist. Such is the case with the Pontiac Astre. The Astre was a rebadge job on the Chevrolet Vega, now famous for its rust problems and unreliable 2.3 liter aluminum-block engines. The Astre was sold in Canada only from 1973 to '74, then it came to the US market in '75 as Pontiac's smallest and cheapest model.

Alameda Street Sighting - 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ

My previous post about the 1979 Chrysler 300 discussed the Malaise era's idea of a personal luxury car. Fake wood, hood ornament, baroque detailing, padded vinyl roof, you name it. Exotic, expensive-sounding European name? You got it. Take a look at the 1977 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ and you get all those things. And much like the 300 was a sport version of the Cordoba, the SJ was the sport version of the Grand Prix.