I remember as a young kid my dad taking me to Sinclair Pontiac Buick in London to look at the new cars and a salesman gave me a small Hot Wheel sized version of that car. I was disappointed as I wanted one of the 1/25 promos in the display case!
Originally in Canada the Vauxhall was sold at Pontiac-Buick dealers while the Chevrolet-Oldsmobile dealers got a re-badged version called the Epic. For 1971 the new Chevy Vega made the Epic redundant, but Canadian Pontiac dealers got the revised Vauxhall, now sold in Canada as the Firenza. After a spate of reliability problems and poor workmanship as a result of labor strife, they were hastily withdrawn from the Canadian market late in the 1972 run. The small car to replace it was the Vega-based Pontiac Astre for 1973. The U.S. Pontiac dealers finally got the Astre for 1975 on the heels of the energy crisis, but in 73/74 they were exclusive to the Canadian market.
In the U.S. they got the German Opel line sold through Buick dealers; they really didn't sell Opels here except for the Opel GT and later the Manta 1900. Too expensive for the Canadian market and it only got worse as the 1970s progressed thanks to the exchange rates. They even got too expensive for the U.S. market so by 1976 the German Opel line was replaced by the Isuzu Opel, really an Isuzu I-Mark which was the Japanese version of GM's "world car", also sold in Brazil as the Chevette and in Britain as a Vauxhall. Of course everyone knows about the North American Chevette, also sold in Canada exclusively as the Pontiac Acadian. The U.S. finally got their version of the domestic Chevette at Pontiac dealers for 1982 called the T-1000.
Based on the reputation of the 1971-72 Firenza in Canada, there was no way that Oldsmobile in Canada was going to sell their version of the 1975-80 Chevrolet Monza and call it a Firenza.
__________________
67 Chevelle Malibu Sport Coupe, Oshawa-built 250 PG never disturbed.
In garage, 296 cid inline six & TH350...
Cam, Toronto.
I don't judge a man by how far he's fallen, but by how far back he bounces - Patton
My brother had a bright blue 72 4 door auto Firenza for a while back in 77. He got it from one of my aunts, whose husband worked at the local Pontiac dealer. I had my own 72 Ventura at the time but I drove the Firenza once in a while. Not much power but it was a nice car; only problem I recall was that it leaked a lot of trans fluid.
Back in 2006 I was walking into a WalMart and saw a blue 71-72 Firenza 2 door. It was in pretty good shape except for the left 1/4 panel butchered collision repair. Also in 1973 when I was working in a Pontiac dealer parts dept., I sold a lot of spare parts (hoods, fenders, doors etc.) to a guy that owned a trucking company and owned a Firenza. Olds had the Monza equivalent in the US called the Starfire. Hatchback only.