1977-1979 Pontiac Phoenix
With a new focus on personal luxury, Pontiac launches its final variant of the rear-wheel-drive X-body...

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 Here's a clean '79 from California. The gauge cluster is a nice feature. Given the beautiful condition inside and out, it wouldn't be surprising if the odometer miles are actual.
  Nice detail can be seen in these shots.
 (L) Stick a big-car nose onto a compact and you get...the 1977 Phoenix, which overlapped with the Ventura that year.  By 1978, the Ventura was gone, and it was up to the Phoenix to preserve the Pontiac X-body heritage until the front-wheel drive redesign in 1980.

 (R) Postcard of the 1978 model.

Gleaming black paint and a dash of chrome really set this '77 Phoenix apart from the crowd. What a masterpiece! This car later appeared on ebay, but I have no idea whether it sold or not.   11-05

Nicky C ( ncameli@yahoo.com ) wanted to be sure we had this fresh car show pic of his shining ride.  There's another nice nose shot of this car a little further down the page.



Proud new Phoenix owner Cam Moffatt ( cam.moffatt@gnb.ca ) got a very sweet deal on this low-mile beauty from Nebraska. Here are a few details on his purchase:

"I saw it on eBay, but the auction expired. I eventually bought it from the original owner's son in Nebraska and had it shipped to the Canadian border. This photo shows the 25 year old car on location in a 230 year old cemetery in St. Stephen, NB.

"It has the 3.8 liter V6 with 58,800 miles. I am the second owner. The car has power steering and brakes, auto trans, tilt wheel, cruise control, power windows and locks, AM/FM stereo radio, A/C, 5 Pontiac Rally II factory mag wheels with the original spare tire, and all documentation, manuals and warranty literature. The car has never seen salt, and passed the MV inspection with no problem at all.  I had it undercoated, and it is completely rust free.

"Transcar Auto Shippers was fantastic, and the rig was all new." (Oct '04)


This is a new angle, up on the transport rig being delivered from Nebraska to Calais, Maine so that it could be exported from the US and imported into Canada.
A sparkling car from 'Richmond', but no state was mentioned in the sales ad.  The vehicle was a 2-owner car with only 22,800 original miles, and was professionally detailed for these photos.

Notice the keyboard-style taillights (for lack of a better term).  It looks like Pontiac salvaged a Chevrolet Concours body (high-end version of the Nova with a wide triple lens taillight) and came up with their own special lens to fill the gap.  Contrast this with the wraparound style on Cam's car above, and the old Ventura style on the red car immediately below.

Cardomain.com has some nice images from time to time; I thought this was a great 'mood' shot, very well composed by the photographer in a rough, hostile season.  This looks cold enough to be Minnesota or something!  Update: The owner checks in:  "Hello this is Bryan Burrows, I noticed you have posted my car and many other cars on your web page I think that is pretty cool... just so you know, that picture was taken with no thought in it, I was just out at my girl friend's house in Puposky Minnesota, it was around spring time of '04 and I thought I would get a quick pic of it in front of Puposky Lake (also known as MUD Lake)" bdb_86@hotmail.com  OK, a lucky shot :-)

Taken as a trade in Jasper, Indiana, the seller didn't know much about this car, other than it had a V8, 143,000 miles and was in fair shape.  But he snapped a nice close-up of the Phoenix badge, so that makes us happy.

Rocke found this original owner, garage-kept treasure at an estate sale in Sacramento, California.
"The original dealership salesmen handled the sale for the niece that inherited it. The car has a 350ci 4bbl Chevrolet Small Block, factory A/C, F41 heavy-duty suspension, front and rear sway bars, tilt steering.  Car is completely original except for KYB gas shocks on all four corners and urethane bushings. It has 72,000 original miles, has never been smoked
in and has been re-painted. Recently installed a new TH-350 automatic transmission. Car has all new brakes, four new Michelin tires, complete tune-up parts, A/C blows ICE-cold, all around the car is a solid number 2 vehicle.
I may be looking to sell the car in the future for around $6,500.00.  Any
interested customers may inquire by sending an e-mail to "Rocke" at this
address: coolkc@bigplanet.com " (Dec04)

Probably the most flattering view of the Phoenix face.  The fog lamps behind the grille create a cool effect in this overhead shot.  As you can see, this is a Canadian car; it also appeared on the cardomain.com website.

Literature off of the Net.  Note that the wraparound taillights have a little Pontiac arrow on the outboard corner.

There seems to have been no rhyme or reason in the various taillight schemes for the '77-'79 Phoenix; I'm speculating that Pontiac was using whatever body shells they could get their hands on, even hand-me-downs from other divisions.  For example, the wraparound-light body style was shared with the Omega and Skylark (I even have a photo of a Phoenix with a Skylark taillight assembly in my files, so you know they can be swapped).

Two nice photos from cardomain.com; this color must be "Arrest Me" Yellow.  But it sure looks hot, and the car has a low, aggressive stance!

A selection of factory photos of the rather stuffy and uninspiring 4-door version of the Phoenix.  If you own one, and have turned it into a high-tech rocket ship or slammed cruiser, my apologies in advance :-)

Another remarkable find, this 1-owner, showroom-condition car had only 25,748 miles on the clock.  It was equipped with the 3.8L Buick V6.  Discovered in Levittown, Pennsylvania, Vin#: 2Y27A9T113445
These rather nice cars have been gathering electronic dust in my PC for some time now (I'm glad site visitors have started sending in Phoenix photos, it gave me good reason to finally update this section!). 
The Rexburg car had only 48,000 miles on its 350 and was offered at $3200. The loaded Lemont car featured a 305 auto, tilt/cruise, P/S, P/M, A/C, am/fm, buckets, had 72K miles, and was offered at $3950.  The Loveland ride was Marine Blue with white interior, bucket seats, V-6 engine, auto, all original, 1 owner, "completely rust free, always garaged, excellent daily driver or fantastic street rod project, 100K miles, spare parts included. $1500". 
Update Aug05, the owner of the 'Unknown' Phoenix checks in: "Hi there. I was looking at X-bodies on the web and I found my car on your site! It is the silver one (78 Phoenix LJ with Cragar wheels in the pic). I just wanted to let you know some info about the car...This past summer I installed a 355 Chev motor with forged TRW 10.5:1 pistons, forged crank with a Crane Powermax cam. It has 1.94 1.50 valves on stock 72cc heads. It also uses a Wieand stealth aluminum intake manifold and full exhaust with long tube headers. I'm still tracking down pesky problems with the motor, but it hauls ass!  I don't use the Cragar wheels anymore because of the bad offset on them, I just used them for the pics and a car show. It rolls on Pontiac Rallye II wheels with BFG radial T/A tires. Its also got a nice sound system with a Pioneer CD player and Alpine 6X9's. I like the car because there aren't many around here in Winnipeg (Manitoba Canada)....I will get some pics of the new motor and the wheels in the spring when I get it going again. Martin Smith ( sk8face@hotmail.com )"

She ain't too pretty, but you can see how painting the bumpers gives this car a more 'together' look.  The tail lamp corner arrows can be seen quite clearly, as if the owner had accented them.

This maroon vehicle kicked around e-bay for a while...it originated in Canada, then ended up in Colorado, where it was put up for sale again.  Where is it now?  Probably...'marooned', ha-ha.

See how cool your 4-door could be??  Take a tip from these wild Canadians, who have improved upon the Phoenix's classic styling with these useful bolt-ons.  And yes, the car IS being painted by hand...

A pumped-up '79.  Doug from www.nonnova.com fills in the details:  “The stats for this car are as follows: it has a .030 over 350 Chevy with '69 2.02/1.60 heads, .501/244 deg. cam, Edelbrock RPM intake, Holley 750 double pumper, TH-350 with 3,000 stall and a 4:11 posi 12 bolt rear”  Thanks, Doug!
Two collections of Phoenix photos from the early days of the site.