Please let me know if this info is available somewhere.
I have been lucky enough to own two Beaumonts a 68 and a 69, both four doors and they were great cars but why:
Were they only made in Canada?
Do they have Chevrolet motors? I am not criticizing, just asking why GM did that.
Did they switch to building the tempest, lemans, T-37, Gt-37 and gto's in 1970? I call my car a 1970 Beaumont! An LS-6 1970 Beaumont would have been awesome! Was there ever a prototype 1970 Beaumont?
Any info would be great. Again I am not criticizing anything about Beaumonts or any other Canadian built Poncho. I am proud to say I owned three Canadian built cars.
This is an enormous topic. GM Canada was a wholly owned subsiduary of General Motors corporation. Col. Sam McLaughlin operated with some autonomy and for purely economics and tarrifs the Canadian Pontiac Beaumont and Acadian was born.
McKinnon Industries in St. Catharines was licensed to build Chevrolet engines and GM Canada owned it, so it was more cost effective to use these engines. Canadians wouldn't pay for a US Pontiac so they made Chevrolets look like Pontiacs with great sales success.
By 1970 the auto pact agreement had removed tarriffs and the Tempest was built here and often you could get a Pontiac engine in a Pontiac built here too.
Beaumonts were made until 1971 and sold in Chile. Looked just like a 68/69.
Ray gave it to you in a nutshell. There actually a few past posts on this actual website that you can search for that give a little more detail on the topic. Here is one:
I don't know of a book solely devoted to this topic, but somebody here might. There are writings of the auto pact, Canadian-made Pontiacs (Fords & Chryslers also) in many books.
-- Edited by Pontiacanada on Wednesday 27th of June 2012 10:01:54 AM
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Prince Edward Island
'64 Parisienne CS "barn find" - last on the road in '86 ... Owner Protection Plan booklet, original paint, original near-mint aqua interior, original aqua GM floor mats, original 283, factory posi, and original rust.