Rare Rides: This Pepsi-Cola Pontiac Grand Prix From 1989 Lacks Fizz
Our last Rare Ride was a Pontiac 6000 with some serious B&B appeal, what with its special gold alloys and transverse all-wheel-drive witchcraft. In light of this old Pontiac lovin’, I found another one for you today.
This special edition vehicle was practicing before either #, or “branding,” were things you’d put together for your latest Twitter communiqué.
According to the listing copy, Pepsi commissioned these special edition Pontiacs in 1989 as part of a store contest. There’s no further detail about said contest, and I couldn’t locate anything online. We’re dealing in obscurities today.
Just 500 Pepsi Grand Prix examples were made, and the special features should be immediately apparent! They include the red and blue striping, the Pepsi logo just below the B-pillar, Special Edition script, and white directional saw blades (which are of course excellent because we’re talking Pontiac wheels).
The front end features more Pepsi branding, as well as some script to tell oncoming traffic that you’re both important and carbonated.
The interior features absolutely nothing unique. The standard fare of gray plastics and quirky Pontiac button placement are all you see. It looks reasonably well kept, and mostly free of the stains you’d normally see on a car of this vintage.
The same goes for the unrelenting grayness of the rear seating, where there’s a center console to store your Crystal Pepsi.
This Grand Prix was driven only occasionally over its long life, clocking 64,000 miles. And though it looks like it could use some paintwork, the asking price of $1,600 makes this our cheapest-ever Rare Ride. So go get yourself a coooold pop, and make this Pepsi Pontiac your own.
[Images: Craigslist]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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Thanks for sharing this one with us Corey! Like others have noted, not a bad price for the car in it's current condition.
Clemens Markets which was a local supermarket chain based in Lansdale, Pa. gave away one around this time. They had it sitting outside their store. I remember a 65 year old lady won it which annoyed this high school student.