This barge of a car just sold for over $98,500 this week. What looks like a nicely maintained 1975 Pontiac Grand Ville convertible is something more. It is an essentially new Grand Ville, with incredibly only 1,500 miles on the ticker. That’s equal to around 32 miles a year if you’re keeping score. 

This Pontiac Grand Ville even has that new car smell

Landing on eBay last week, the owner goes so far as to say it even comes with that new car smell. And why not? It is basically brand-new. Everything looks minty fresh from the white top and interior to the paint and details.

Whoever ordered this 1975 convertible loaded it with options. Air conditioning, power windows, and locks, six-way power seats, cruise control, remote exterior mirrors, tilt wheel, headlamp warning buzzer, clock, and AM/FM radio. Though virtually all of these options have become standard over the decades, that was not the case in 1975. 

A 455 ci V8 powers the large Pontiac

For power, the Grand Ville has a 455 ci monster V8. It only punched out 200 hp with all of the smog control and timing retarded from the factory, but it was huge in cubic inches. Hooked to the 455 are a three-speed Turbo automatic transmission, a Safe-T-Track positraction rear end, and power front disc brakes. 

These large barge cruisers were not Camaro- or Mustang-quick, but the huge cubes helped launch the Grand Ville to an 18.5 second ET in the quarter-mile. From our 2021 perspective that seems like you could beat that running with tennis shoes. But for an almost 5,000 lb car in those smog-choked days, that wasn’t terrible. 

This was the last large convertible Pontiac ever made

This was the last B-body convertible that Pontiac made. They were distinguished from earlier convertibles mostly by those new square headlights. Only the E-body Cadillac Eldorado convertible went into the 1976 model year. Chevy, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick had all dropped their big convertibles by 1976. 

So what makes these 1975 ‘verts more collectible is that they were the last ones, and are distinguished by the one-year-only square headlights. And what makes this one worth more is undoubtedly the hyper-low mileage. 

To get ready for the sale the owner replaced the checking tires, did a fluids change, and replaced both the radiator and heater cores. A new battery and some other small items were also added to bring the Pontiac up to driving condition. 

But is it worth $100,000 and will it ever be driven?

But whether the convertible is worth $100,000 is the question. Normally, a low-mile older car would be a weekend cruiser or frequent car show participant. But would you drive your super-low mile Pontiac Grand Ville? What makes it intrinsically more valuable you’ll chip away at if you do. So, is this nothing more than a big red and white doorstop?

It’s hard to call this, but we do like seeing these big barges in such pristine condition. Restoring one gets expensive, and we doubt you could have a shop replicate this for the money. And even so, it still wouldn’t be factory fresh like this one. Will it get driven, or will it go into someone’s bonus room as a huge monument to the fading glory days of Detroit?