Junkyard Find: 1960 Pontiac Ventura

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

There’s a tendency to assume that a battered but reasonably solid Detroit car from the chrome-and-tailfins era is always going to be worth a bunch of money, but the real-world value of such cars turns out to be quite low in most cases. A ’57 Chevy coupe or ’59 Cadillac in fixer-upper condition, that’s real money, but a 1960 Pontiac sedan that’s been sitting for decades is lucky to fetch higher-than-scrap value. That’s a shame, because the ’60 Pontiac is a great-looking car.

Judging from the thoroughly roasted interior and quantities of dust on everything, this car sat outdoors on the High Plains for at least 20 years. Some surface rust, but no real cancer.

Perhaps someone restoring a GTO will grab this 389.

The CONELRAD markings on 1950s and 1960s car radios are always good for a Cold War flashback. CONELRAD was phased out by 1963, but my ’69 Toyota‘s radio still had the markings.

The upholstery is toast, but plenty of salvageable interior trim components remain. I hope someone rescues the good parts from this car before The Crusher eats it.








Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Ron B. Ron B. on Jul 13, 2012

    Back in 1960 i didn't a yellow bottle of "big shot". but today? well even the blue buttons dont help much either.

  • Mr. Edward Mann Mr. Edward Mann on Jul 17, 2012

    Why doesn't our old friend Paul (Niedermeyer) over at Curbside Classic (CC) know about this?! He has often professed his love for the 1960 Pontiacs over at CC!

  • Lorenzo Heh. The major powers, military or economic, set up these regulators for the smaller countries - the big guys do what they want, and always have. Are the Chinese that unaware?
  • Lorenzo The original 4-Runner, by its very name, promised something different in the future. What happened?
  • Lorenzo At my age, excitement is dangerous. one thing to note: the older models being displayed are more stylish than their current versions, and the old Subaru Forester looks more utilitarian than the current version. I thought the annual model change was dead.
  • Lorenzo Well, it was never an off-roader, much less a military vehicle, so let the people with too much money play make believe.
  • EBFlex The best gift would have been a huge bonfire of all the fak mustangs in inventory and shutting down the factory that makes them.Heck, nobody would even have to risk life and limb starting the fire, just park em close together and wait for the super environmentally friendly EV fire to commence.
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