The seller indicates that this 1971 Pontiac LeMans was ordered new for their grandmother. She used it regularly until parking it when she hung up her driving gloves. It has sat in their uncle’s garage for years, but the time is right for it to find a new home. It has many positive attributes that will attract potential buyers, from its unusual color to its originality and the claimed 10,000 genuine miles showing on its odometer. The seller listed it here on Craigslist in West side, Tucson, Arizona. They set their price at $18,000, and I must say a big thank you to Barn Finder T.J. for spotting this wonderful classic.
The seller-supplied photos of this Pontiac make it difficult to gauge its condition, leaving us to rely on the listing text. That appears positive because they describe the only panel flaw as a scrape on one rear quarter panel. Life in a drier climate has helped its cause, with this Pontiac remaining rust-free. It’s unclear how long it has spent hibernating, but the accumulated dust suggests it has been many years. Cleaning away the dust could be a satisfying step for a new owner intent on returning the car to its former glory. The paint shade raises an interesting point because I suspect it could be a Special Order. I can find nothing similar on the company’s 1971 color charts, but it seems to match the 1969 shade of Mayfair Maize. The exterior trim looks like it might respond well to polish, and there are no signs of cracked glass below the dust.
When I saw the interior shots, my fingers began to itch in anticipation of climbing inside this car with some cleaning products. Everything is pretty dirty, but I can’t spot any evidence of tears or abuse on the upholstered surfaces. The only flaw worth mentioning is a significant crack in the dash pad. This could create a nightmare because replacement pads aren’t thick on the ground. With everything detailed, this flaw could detract from what appears to be a nice interior. Covers and caps are available and retail between $100 and $160. Other alternatives for the new owner include scouring online auction sites, sending the pad for specialist restoration, or tackling the job with a product like Polyvance. Since a professional repair could prove expensive, I believe the buyer will select one of the less costly options.
LeMans buyers in 1971 could choose several engine options for their new toy, but it appears when the person ordered this car for Grandma, they opted for the 350ci V8 producing 250hp. That power fed the rear wheels via a three-speed manual transmission, and they elected to forego power assistance for the steering or four-wheel drum brakes. While it is generally true that a four-speed manual is preferable to a three-speed, the extra cost sometimes isn’t justified. With its peak power and torque delivered low in the rev range, this car would have covered the ¼ mile in 17.2 seconds. The added cost of the optional four-speed would have produced an identical result. The seller doesn’t indicate when the motor last ran, but I believe it was long ago. We don’t know whether it turns freely, but revival may prove straightforward if it does. They state it has a genuine 10,000 miles on the odometer but don’t mention verifying evidence. If that exists, the reading places this classic in elite company.
The potential within this 1971 Pontiac LeMans is difficult to gauge due to the photo quality, but the indications are positive. If the seller holds evidence confirming the odometer reading, that could make it one of the most under-used classics of this generation. The paint shade adds to its appeal, and the general lack of rust and unmolested condition help its cause. It isn’t perfect, but the first step in returning it to its former glory would be to clean away years of accumulated dust. However, with the signs looking promising, someone can look forward to performing that satisfying task. Considering its specifications, the price is higher than I would typically expect. However, I won’t be surprised if an enthusiast is waiting in the wings with the cash to call it their own. I want to think it will be one of our readers because I’d love to see this car once it returns to active duty. Do we have any takers?
I may be wrong but something doesn’t look right here You have a yellow car with tan interior and a green dash? Shouldn’t the dash color match the paint or interior color? The asking price seems high for a non runner too.
I may be wrong, but wasn’t this same exact car featured about 3 week ago on BF?
Was featured October 14th.
My 71 Lemans has an original interior with door panels that have 2 horizontal chrome strips each and door panel pleats are shallow heat embossed by factory. These look like an upholstery shop did them with aftermarket pleated vinyl with pufffier pleats. Also my car has vinyl upholstery on seats not cloth, I thought the Tempests had cloth, what say the poncho guys out there? Guessing car was green due to dash, repaint to yellow, driver side hood hinge plate yellow, not factory look.
The overspray by the hinge might explain the “unusual” color…
Hi. That paint is from the 1970 model year, I live in Tucson and had a 1970 Tempest with that SAME color. Not a weird color, it is faded out , and may have been an early assembled 71 car to get the 70 yellow paint. My 2 cents.
Not original upholstery. Not factory.
But don’t take my word:
https://www.google.com/search?q=1971+pontiac+lemans+interior&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwin0-n5_577AhX0ko4IHX6kAYYQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=197+lemans+interior&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQARgHMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeMgYIABAHEB4yBggAEAcQHjIGCAAQBxAeOgQIIxAnOgYIABAIEB5QsA1YsA1ghyVoAHAAeACAAZYBiAGJApIBAzAuMpgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1nwAEB&sclient=img&ei=HoNqY6fMJ_SluvQP_siGsAg&bih=668&biw=1366
Not 10,000 miles FFS. That dashboard is shot. 110,000, even 210,000 is possible
http://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Pontiac/1971%20Pontiac/1971%20Pontiac%20Full%20Line/image18.html
Here’s what a kit looks like:
https://www.profitautointeriors.com/products/Pontiac/1971/Lemans/Seat-Covers–Front–Bench–1971—1972-LeMans-Base-Model/9896843/72GSLB.html
You could order whatever Interior color on the option sheet. Pontiacs often have dashes different from the seats. Owners choice.
IF the dash is a “different color”, it’s probably sunburned/bleached. After all, it’s in AZ.
1971 Pontiac had Goldenrod Yellow ,so that’s likely the color .I doubt anyone would special order a Tempest as they were the low end models and were on every dealers lot.
Well I had a yellow 72 with an all black interior. The car featured here. Looks like a scam engine compartment is too dirty for 10,000 mi
Why would you buy grandma a car with a V8 and 3spd on the column and no pwr brakes or steering??
I live in NE Iowa and there was a couple grannies in the hood drivin 396 427 4door caprice impalas
Granny didn’t have any grass growin under them tires🤪
Back in the day when there were no automatic transmissions, no power brakes and no power steering, Grandma learned to drive what was available or had Grandpa do the driving.
Back in the day there were automatics and power steering and brakes. Hell that stuff existed in the 1940’s
No there weren’t Matt, rare exceptions in expensive cars and especially not in the ’40s.
Matt,
1st production automatic trans – 1940 Oldsmobile Hydramatic.
1st production power steering – 1951 Chrysler*.
1st production power hydraulic brakes – 1952 Packard
1st production A/C – 1940 Packard.
*The 1951-54 Chrysler P/S was made by Gemmer, and it had no “return to center”, meaning at what ever point you let the steering wheel go, it remained in that turning radius – very dangerous. You had to use your hands to return the steering to straight. If I have my info correct, the Gemmer P/S was originally designed for Oliver Tractors where the need to maintain the curve radius was an advantage.
Packard introduced the first P/S system with automatic return [using the Eaton/Bendix patents] in 1953.
Back then Grandma’s could drive better than most men these days. BTW the 3spd is on the floor. Imagine that 71 Lemans is probably 400-500 lbs lighter than one that has power brakes,steering , automatic transmission, AC etc etc. Lol my grandma had mustangs from 65 on and they were all V8s until the 1990s. She did have a 66-67 Ford station wagon with a 429 and a 73 Rivera w/455. My grandpa bought it after she got sandwiched in her 69 GT mustang with a 3spd on the floor 302 4bbl duals. After my grandpa died she sold me the Riveria for $600. For a while I had 2 cars with 455s. That’s when she bought her last V8 mustang. A LX 5.0 convertible. Red. She did go with an automatic instead of a 5spd. She tried the 5spd but she had an issue with the rear tires breaking loose. I had gone with her to the dealership, she worked the salesman, a younger dude. Threw him off his game by telling him she would be wrighting a check for the full amount that day. So talking about financing was a waste of time… She wanted a convertible V8 LX automatic, power windows and locks. Posi traction w 3:36 gears ( I think). AC etc.In red or maybe yellow.. Not black or grey or that blue/Grey. And she wanted to drive it home today. If not there was a dealership in Casper that had one that fit her bill and I’d drive her up there tomorrow if need be. Her initials were JET and She had a HEAVY right foot. Infected all her kids and many of us grandkids with that weight. Her last Stang was a bright yellow 2013. That was the last car she drove at 94. So Grandma’s of that Generation weren’t soft as they might look.
Mike,
Granny was a child of the depression, and many people of her age group bought cars without the options we take for granted, because of their cost. I have also found that a very high percentage of low mileage cars owned by elderly people have little or no options, and were carefully driven and garage-kept because they considered the car an expensive purchase that needed to be cared for so it would outlast them.
As for the dash pad, send it to Just Dashes in California. It will come back like it was when new. The interior has been reupholstered, likely because the sun destroyed the vinyl. And considering where the car spent it’s life, if I was going to change the seating material, I would have likely opted for a woven material rather than vinyl.
My Grama chose a car with manual steering ,brakes and transmission then in her late 70’s she bought a brand new car without power steering she might have went to automatic trans I can’t recall for certain
Grandma drove a 4 speed with no power steering or brakes? Why? I wonder if Grandma had those boy racer gauges installed also..
So Grandma ditched the factory wheel covers for J.C. Whitney Baby Moons? As Ronny Reagan said…….”Trust, but verify”.
Anybody who believes this car has 10K miles deserves to be ripped off.
I doubt this was grandma’s car. The baby moon hubcaps and aftermarket gauges under the dash point to someone younger having owned this car or at least a guy. I don’t know if it’s worth the ask but it’s apparently rust-free and for the most part in pretty good original shape with a decent powerplant. You’ll have to get it up and running, replace all the perishable bits and add new tires. All that will require more than a few dollars. Plus, it’s lacking options folks want today like disc brakes and A/C. If the engine is sound and the mileage can be verified, maybe it’s worth $12k to $15k. But what do I know.
My mother was a grandmother who drove a 72 nova 350 built with a three speed on the floor and she would spin the tires in reverse as well as first and second to make the appearance of a four speed. She got a real kick out of people asking if it was a four speed.
Its a young man… identifies as grandma 👵
Oh Lord that made me laugh!
1971 seems like yesterday as I had a friend who had a ’70 or ‘1 in that hideous sort of dark green. What a beast.
To all the properly skeptical BF’ers, perhaps the “Uncle” hung the gauges and put on the JC Whitney caps when he was a younger man.
My only beef in this post truth world of auto advertising, is, if you want this much money, roll the damn thing into the sunlight, put air in the tires and wash the car. THEN ask a ridiculous amount for the Tempest.
Maybe when you buy the car the seller expects you say thank you, too.
The seats and door panels aren’t original. Based on the dash it must have been a green interior. Lol no way this is 10k mile car. Younger people don’t know back then Odometers were only 5 digits and would roll over.
Looks like the shifter is on the floor
Yes, the ad says that, and you can see the clevis on the steering column where the column shift lever used to reside. Whoever ordered it for granny had more plans for it.
I’d be hard pressed to pay $10k for this car. It’s only attribute is the rust free status.
Remember that grandma was a young lady in 1971. 51 years has a knack for aging us.
So, Granny drove a stick with no power anything? Good for her!
I have purchased a car with this very same history. My car is a 1971 Chrysler New Yorker, 4 dr HT. Aztec gold, many options,(cornering lights, AC, high end radio, PS,PB, PS, PW, Not s single scratch anywhere, not a single flaw in the interior, (gold cloth). Car sat for 35 years in a garage. I am not having good luck. Replacing the engine, (not able to break it loose), replace the fuel tank, replace the carb. and radiator. I did buy the car at a great price though.
Te-Hee!
Green dash, stringwheel, seat belts and carpet. Looks like redone seats and door panels. If paint is original the left front fender was repaired. Grandma may of owned it at some point but it looks to be changed around for a younger driver.
I like the style on the ‘70/71 Tempest / GTO, had a ‘70 GTO Judge back in the day, but $18k for this car in this condition is not likely to happen, mileage claim not withstanding…
Had a 1972 Lemans GT 350 Hipo out of the factory. 4 speed on the floor. It was yellow with black striping. Evey one has a car they wish they would have keep. This is the one I wish I would have kept. A young man order the car and couldn’t buy it because he got drafted.
Emblems missing, interior not stock, why cant it have 110k miles and seller does not understand th old odometer rolls over.? At half price depending on amount of bondo, its overpriced and Im a 71 Pontiac guy.
Interior is redone , the headrests wouldn’t be originally cloth, the fabric doesn’t look stock, door panels should have horizontal trim and I’ve never seen green dash with a tan interior.
Water pump looks like it has been changed. The seats should still be good at 10K miles.
I would guess 110K miles or a rolled back odometer.
Yeah if you look close at the steering column it looks like it had a column shift …not buyin their story..
Bill McCloskey, You are spot on with your automobile facts. The power steering offered by Chrysler did become available in the 1951 model year, but close to the end of production. The pump was driven by the shaft coming from the back of the generator. I owned a 1951 Imperial, I had power brakes and power windows but no power steering. I was 16 years old and was hardy enough to handle the big ole car just fine. Had this car in Mt. Clemens, Mi. and kept it mint. My relatives in Pa bought new Packards every year, remember seeing these with AC
Bill McCloskey, I like your comment about car buyers in the 1970’s and remembering the depression. Also, small town car dealers would inventory the “plain Jane” models thus this would be the car found in small town America. This year I bought a 1971 Chrysler New Yorker from the grandson of the woman who bought it new. A loaded New yorker in a very small town north of Sacramento, Ca. Having a great deal of work still being done to it.
Tom Crum,
You are very correct. I’m very familiar with the concept of a special car on the lot with no options, so the dealer could legally advertise cars “as cheap as $xxxxxx”, but here in Maryland they are also required to list the dealer’s specific car’s stock number in the ad.
I have vivid memories of my best friend’s dad taking the 2 of us with him when he went to look at a 1967 Chrysler that was advertised at Al’s Motors in Fairfax, Virginia, They had advertised a Chrysler sedan for a very low price, and the picture showed a New Yorker.
What we found was a 1967 Newport sedan, 318, 3-speed stick, Delete AM radio and clock, Delete power brakes and power steering. Car was white with a light blue interior, no whitewall tires either!
Well my friend’s dad was fairly powerful in the Washington DC area [his car displayed “Military District of Washington” bumper stickers with 2 gold stars], and he accused Chrysler Corporation in writing of not policing their dealers. I don’t know what he did, but he ended up with a light metallic blue 1967 Newport with all the standard features, PLUS factory A/C, for the same low advertised price of the other car! He ended up trading the Newport sedan in on a new 1970 Imperial LeBaron sedan, but that’s another story.
Sun-baked dash.Thats why they replaced the seats and panels.Defenite repaint.Original engine.Partially done resto.Been monkeyed with for sure.Far from grandmas original LeMans IOP.
This is just a extreme base model Tempest , with a 3 on the tree shift and dog dish caps. My thought is this car is not as advertised -I’d say it was repainted, and not very well. The paint doesn’t look right and there is yellow overspray under the hood ; the engine bay looks really bad for only 10k. Plus, these engines were a metallic teal, not blue . the Tempest should have vinyl seats , as some noticed, the door panels have been redone ; I’d venture to say the seats were redone as well- this car likely had a green gut at one time , maybe the whole car was green too.
I THINK THE CAR IS ORGINAL. It would have been ordered by a dealership employee that was trying to keep the MSRP low so the cars in inventory looked more attractive. This would be a nice standout color to have on hand. Remember, in photos what is blue might look green so I discount the color comments that have been made. Please note, the gear shift is on the floor, typical of many cars of this era. Should not call it “on the tree”.
Nein!..Nein! ..Nein!
The more I look at this the more I agree with the folks above who think there was a color change AND you can see, if you look closely, the ‘knuckle’ on the column where some enterprising “yute” removed the “on the tree” shift lever. Said enterprising “yute” probably hung the gauges and dumped the off the side of the tranny hump shifter in there as well as the paint job and hubcaps.
Where’s Charley Chan when you need him!
Mountainwoodie,
Good call on the 3-on-the-tree. If you blow up the engine compartment photo, you can barely make out the small shifter levers on the steering column. Yeah, it was sold new as a column shift car.
This reminds me of a friend changing the transmission on his 1960s Ford sedan. It had column shift 3 speed. He was attending a famous university’s engineering school, and he changed the shifter so it would operate all 4 forward gears of the new 4-speed trans he installed. He then installed a special knob under the dash, connected to a Bowden cable down to the reverse lever on the trans. To put it in reverse, he first put the column shifter in neutral, then pulled out the knob and it went into reverse gear. He also installed a switch and bright red light on the dash that came on when it was in reverse, to remind him it was still in reverse!
Why did he do it? Just to show it could be done. And he also commented: I would like to be watching when a car thief tries to back the car out of the driveway!
Tom, if you take a closer look at the steering column you can see where the handle was for shifting. The best thing for this seller is to remove the ad and wait a few more months and repost it and forget the grandma idea. It may have been her car but it was changed.
Grannymobile? 10k miles? Gauges? Floor shift? baby moon hubcaps? Want to buy a nice toll bridge?
The 71-72 Pontiac’s are some of my all time favorites. This has to be one of the ugliest color combinations I have ever seen. That’s a lot of money for a color combination like that.
So, nobody noticed the black tape around the outside trim of the windshield? We have a sun-bleached interior that was replaced but a bunch of sticky tape around the glass because of….torrential rain? This is a dang rough 10k car!
If we could get a close up of the hubcaps, you might see a Pontiac arrowhead emblem. The classic “dog dish” hubcaps were no more and the ugly round hubcaps were the stock cheapie caps. This looks to have been very much a stripper. I notice no mention of the radio so everyone could complain about that. Think about spending time in a garage, forlorn and neglected…how would you look today?
Chevy Novas and Camaros from this year got “baby moon” style caps. This year Lemans, Tempest or GTO would get base level dog-dish hubcaps with turbine lines emanating from the center. The center would have Pontiac Motor Division around the middle circle. No arrowhead emblem.
I owned two of these. Really miss the 71 400 floor shift auto bucket seats 50’s and 60’s cragar ss wheels. Absolute blast and one of the best looking cars of the era.
I believe I own one of the worst color combinations possible. I have a 1955 Packard Patrician that is a two tone cream and a rose exterior and a green interior, door panels, dash and seats a two tone green. I will take pictures and also deciding to offer this one for sale. I need to get some body damage fixed on it. It sat in a warehouse for many years and was damaged by a fork lift in moving it around. I will make note of the information on the plate on the firewall when I take pictures
If you’re going to put a car up for sale for $18k at least kindly blow the dust off and clean the interior. Otherwise you’re just hiding what this car really is, a junker. Besides, this car has a lot more on the clock besides 10k miles.
In Rosenburg, Texas the Chev dealer advertises a 1979 Monte Carlo with a very low price. I knew it would be bare bones and that was fine, however he refused to sell it to me. I went next door and bought a 1980 Mercury Monarch bare bones, (4 door) for even less money. Stick shift and it was a very enjoyable car for years. I had previously purchased a 1976 Volare that was totally bare bones except it had a 318 engine. 3 speed on the floor and a fun car after many, many repairs. My neighbor came over and said I see you just bought a new car. I told him it is a year old and had been at the dealership for repairs all these months
I bet a lot if you are like me with a grand mother like mine that drove a standard shift and no power because the car was a 1937 Packard