Sunday, October 5, 2014

We used to make things here; Canadian "A" logo Hubcap



A bit of a search soon showed a very short list of Canadian-built cars beginning with an A. There was a version of the Chevy II named the Acadian.

http://www.oldcaradvertising.com/



3 comments:

Steve said...

The Acadian (and the sexier Canso - the SS version), were Chevy IIs with superficial cosmetic changes built by GM Canada to provide the Canadian Pontiac-Buick dealers with a product to sell for that particular market segment. The Acadian name stayed on untill 1971, when they renamed it the Pontiac Ventura. The Acadian name resurfaced again in 1976 on the Pontiac clone of the Chevette.
I don't think that the Pontiac versions were as popular as the Chevys, and as I recall, the resale prices were often lower than what you would pay for an identically equipped Chevy.

Mister G said...

Thanks for the input! The whole Auto Pact would be the ultimate "We used to build things in this country". post
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/economy-business/trade-agreements/the-auto-pact-en-route-to-free-trade/the-end-of-an-era.html.
As a former owner of a (Canadian) Pontiac Sedan Delivery, I was always aware of the unique qualities of the "local product". As you say, GM seemed to do mostly rebadged Chevrolets.

Steve said...

I had a (Canadian) 1980 Pontiac Parisienne. It had a Bonneville badge on the glove box, which I think designated the top of the line option package. In addition to the outside differences, the dashboard layout and the luxury interior appointments were, imo, much nicer than their Chevy Impala/Caprice cousins.