Tough Talk From The CAW

Glenn 126 You may will be the resident historian,but I need to set the record straight. The Pontiac all models are my passion.First off before the auto pact the Canadian full size Pontiac was an American Pontiac with a Chevy power train and frame.We never imported or sold an American Pontiac in Canada V8 or otherwise untill about the mid 80s. I worked on the Chev line for 17 yrs building Chevs American and Canadian.The Chev other than a few emision gadgets,basicaly the same car.The Pontiac was two different cars.The U.S Pontiac was more like an Olds,and the Canadian was still a Chev.For 10 yrs or so we run them down the same line. 305 small blocks 301 pontiacs, 400 pontiacs 3.8 chevs and 3.8 buicks all went into the full size Pontiac.We ran 350s and we even put a stove bolt 6 in some of the exports.And just to make interesting in the early 80s we had the much maligned [rightfully so]diesels It was an adapted 350 rocket gas olds engine, with lag bolts sort of holding the heads on.This was not one of GMs finest moments.Nuff said! As a production group leader at that time, to this day I have nightmares of trying to figure out the plumbing and hose routing of the different engines and configurations. The auto pact was a fairly simple agreement.For every vehicle GM sold in Canada ,GM could ship one to the US. It was,for its time a perfect a set up.In Canada we enjoyed years and years of prosperity,while building cars for the US market I'm sincere when I say God bless America! Since that time the world has changed NAFTA, come along the Canadian Pontiac is dead Toyota leads the pack with blandmobiles. The once mighty UAW has gagged down concessions I believe market share is somewhere around 23%.The loonie is at par. Up till now Canada has been almost immune to the devastation and the downturn in the domestic auto industry I fear that our days of bliss are behind us. Now old Buzz,while I don't allways agree with him.his heart is in the right place. Ontario needs the domestic car industry for its very survival and Buzz knows this.Ontario folks that want to jump all over Buzz and his every comment[and with all due respect to our US friends] just take a drive down to Michigan.Have a good look around cause if something don't change real quick we aint too far behind.

The Auto Pack used to work: 1 built in Canada for 1 built in US, the reconcilition was usually done in July or August and manufacturers would conveniently stall trainloads of vehicles to balance the books, and start over again for a new year. When the US had Pontiac Catalinas - Ventura - Bonneville with the Pontiac specific 389, Canada had the same bodies on a Chevrolet frame, assembled in Ste.Therese many years ago. Canadian Pontiacs always looked a little dorky, from 1959 onward the US cars were Wide Track, and the Canadian Strato Chief - Laurentian - Parisienne was a Chev - narrow track. This goes back to when GM had brand specific engines in each car line, Pontiacs had Pontiac engines, Chevrolet had Chevrolet engines, and so on....later GM resorted to "corporate engines" which meant that they could shove any motor in any car. By the mid senventies there was a Canadian Pontiac, and Pontiac Grand Ville which was an American car. In 1972 the Canadian Lemans was a Chevelle, with the exception of the GTO, if one ordered a Lemans with the GTO "endura bumper", the car was assembled in the US with an American Pontiac 350, not a Chev small block. You could always get American Pontiacs in Canada, it usually helped to know the right dealer with the right contacts to source an American Pontiac, like an off beat Catalina Station Wagon with a 421 and a 4 speed.

don't forget to point out that with the weakened dollar, Canadian labor isn't as attractive as it once was.