Our feature car is a convertible variant of the Pontiac Sunbird. Far fewer of the ragtop Sunbirds were produced, as the convertible option nearly doubled the price of this economy car. Just 2,114 copies were built in 1985, fewer than two percent of all Pontiac Sunbird production. This particular example was kept by the dealer as his personal car until very recently, sparingly used for parades and sunny days.
It is finished in its original hue of Light Russet Metallic. The paint presents very well, surprisingly so when you consider the horror stories of mid-1980s GM paint. Stainless trim is bright and shiny, and the black moldings are free from fading. Original wire wheel covers are fitted to the steel wheels, which are shod in Firestone whitewall radials. Glass clear, absent of road rash or wiper tracks, and weatherstrip is in excellent nick. The tan convertible top is in exceptional condition.
The two-tone tan cloth interior of the Pontiac Sunbird shows well, with little sign of use. The tilt steering wheel is wrapped in dark saddle leather. It is equipped with bucket seats, center console, power windows, power convertible top, AM-FM stereo, cruise control, a full gauge package, and R134a-converted air conditioning. There is a vinyl convertible boot to keep things tidy when the top is down.
Underneath the Pontiac Sunbird’s hood is the nearly spotless 1.8-liter inline four cylinder. It is backed by a three-speed automatic transmission. Thanks to the throttle-body fuel injection, the Sunbird starts with ease. There are no signs of leaks or drips, either in the tidy engine bay or the equally clean undercarriage. The power brake booster feeds the front disc and rear drum brakes.
This Pontiac Sunbird is accompanied by the original owner’s manual and complete ownership history. It is available here at Streetside Classics for just $13,995.
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Comments
Looks good but the Chrysler K convertibles were miles ahead of the J-convertibles in terms of performance and quality.
Yes, but talk about a low bar.
Guestt: I agree that the K-cars from Chrysler were fantastic cars that has so many variants and literally saved Chrysler. To this day I still think the best convertible to get for just a fun driver would be the last gen Lebaron convertible.
Junk when new,junk now+no collector value now unless you have some kind of love affair for them.
I was around to see these back in the 80s. Looking at this car now, I realize how much it looks like a Mustang convertible from the same era; the two cars are almost indistinguishable, right down to the spoke wheel covers.
They both also flexed as much as the K convertible too.
definitely a low period in car design!
Emmaculate car! Goes to show age means less than mileage
This is very nice for its age.
I love old cars and convertibles but this is just hideous, in spite of its clearly excellent condition. As a Flintstone reared in the 70s, I remember GM’s incredibly crappy J-cars all too well. Before I saw the asking price I was thinking $4k, tops. This would appeal only to someone who had one back in the day and wants to relive 80s GM crap cars. The horror.
Just once, literally just once, I’d like to read an article (on here or anywhere) that doesn’t feel the need to still bash the Cimarron when talking about the J-cars line. I’m one who loves the old Cimarron and am still looking for a fairly clean and nice one that isn’t a lot of money. I certainly don’t expect many on here to agree, but we all have those certain cars we each like. Not everyone wants or loves high performance cars. Not everyone hates anything J-cars. In fact, there were so many of these sold and on the road that lasted forever, I don’t know how people can bash them so much. Not only that, but compare them to most of the Japanese branded cars of the same era, and you will find that most of them were no better.
But back to this specific article: Not a huge fan of the color combo, but that sure looks like a near perfect time capsule.
If you liked cinnamons the car that almost put put a nail in Cadillac coffin the time to buy was back in the day when they were new a one year old one was worth 50% of new and a three-year-old one 25%
Dan Berning,
I agree completely.
Don’t know why the “thumbs up” button won’t register.
Anyway, I remember defending the last iteration of the baby Caddy when it was considered crap.
In typical GM fashion, the dopey bastards released the car before it was ready, then, after the damage to its reputation was already done, finally got it right … and dropped it.
Especially as a completely under appreciated, relatively new used car ( forget about whether or not a Cadillac), a 6 cylinder, automatic transmission, A/C , leather interior, and sunroof equipped Cimarron was a nice little, relatively inexpensive, comfortable, and economical commuter car.
If you didn’t have to contend with the bumper to bumper, stop and slow Long Island Expressway, the stick shift was a fun option.
I, too, would love to find a reasonably priced one in decent shape, even today.
But I’m afraid that my idea of “reasonably priced” just doesn’t fit in today’s price structure.
Based on the information at the beginning of the Sunbird story, and the experiences of 3 friends who owned them new, II thought the price would be $2500 -$3000.
Old Bryan. Agreed. I’ve been looking for years and have found numerous of them, but they are usually just garbage with a low price. A really nice one will go reasonable, but they get sold faster than you would think. In just the past 6 months, I lost out on two quite nice examples (both V6 of 1986 vintage). One was white and one red. The white one got sold 2 days before I saw the ad. The red one got sold out from under me, literally. I found it at a small dealership in Colorado. I was calling, texting and kept telling him I was taking the car for the exact price he listed it for. He said that he just got it in and needed to have his mechanic go over the car before selling it. Fine, I had no problem with that and made sure he knew I was buying it. Sure enough, some guy walked in and gave him the cash and the SOB sold it on me. Oh well, my search continues and is part of the fun!
But thank goodness we all don’t desire the same cars. I just wish people would stop with the Cimarron bashing. Kind of getting old.