I received an e-mail from another member here, asking me if I could help, by posting info he received from a friend in Australia. Apparently we have limits on how long a post can be. Who knew? I will break it down so it fits, I hope.
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1967 Parisienne 2+2 1967 Grande Parisienne
1967 Laurentian 1967 Strato Chief
Remember, "The Government" only has money confiscated from us.
Subject: PCCA-Q News : Queensland Pontiac Census 2010
Recently, we approached the Department of Transport and Main Roads (formerly Queensland Transport) to see if we could get a gauge on the registered Pontiac population in Queensland. Although little known, there is a data analysis unit within this department that handles all types of statistical requests, covering registration, licensing, infringements and road accident data.
As a bona fide body, we as a club can request statistical information from the Transport Registration And Integrated Licensing System (TRAILS), at no cost. I was sent a request form to fill out, the normal request return time being a couple of weeks.
What we asked for was a number of statistics on Pontiac registrations - the total number, split into year of manufacture, the geographic regions used in reporting, and the car models. Data was supplied as a snapshot of the situation as at 6 May 2010.
The latter request, by car model, was considered of less value, as a lot of older registrations did not record this e.g. 1965 Pontiac Coupe - just year, make and body style. Model is now recorded in addition.
The total number of registered Pontiacs as at 6 May 2010 is...........................696
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1967 Parisienne 2+2 1967 Grande Parisienne
1967 Laurentian 1967 Strato Chief
Remember, "The Government" only has money confiscated from us.
South East North - Northern suburbs of Brisbane, and Sunshine Coast South East South - Southern suburbs of Brisbane, and Gold Coast Southern - West of Ipswich, Gympie to Bundaberg, and west. This region encircles the South East regions. Central - Gladstone to Mackay, and west Northern - Bowen to Cape York, and west Interstate - interstate address
UNK in year is unknown (!)
Looking at the total number by year, this graph shows the age distribution of the population:
1968 is by far the most popular year for a Queensland registered Pontiac. The sixties are a relatively well represented decade, although fifties Pontiacs are rarer than what we thought.
The other peak years are 1977-1979 (Bandit Trans Ams), and the eighties third generation Firebirds from 1982 (no doubt due to the popularity of Knight Rider).
Numbers then drop off in the nineties, other than for 1995.
The only registered 1940 Pontiac, which is on the Sunshine Coast.
Member Rob Pike's 54 is the only registered Pontiac of that year. Rob is shown as 'Southern Region' as he is from Gympie, and the model Chieftan was also shown in the detail for this car.
By the decade : 1920?s - 23 cars (3.3%)
1930?s - 14 cars (2%)
1940?s - 6 cars (0.8%)
1950?s - 34 cars (4.9%)
1960?s - 247 cars (35.5%)
1970?s - 158 cars (22.7%)
1980?s - 166 cars (23.9%)
1990?s - 42 cars (6%)
Totals by region : South East North - Northern suburbs of Brisbane, and Sunshine Coast - 168 cars
South East South - Southern suburbs of Brisbane, and Gold Coast - 274 cars
Southern - West of Ipswich, Gympie to Bundaberg, and west. This region encircles the South East regions - 106 cars
Central - Gladstone to Mackay, and west - 65 cars
Northern - Bowen to Cape York, and west - 76 cars
Interstate - interstate address - 7 cars
As expected, the south of the state includes most of the population, 78.7% or 548 cars. We could be in for a very
big turnout at the Warwick Nationals!
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1967 Parisienne 2+2 1967 Grande Parisienne
1967 Laurentian 1967 Strato Chief
Remember, "The Government" only has money confiscated from us.
Totals by model : As noted, this is impacted by the lack of description for older registrations, when this data was not collected. 135 cars (or 19.4%) were shown as unknown model.
Other than this, the top models were :
Trans Am - 170 (24.4%)
Firebird - 130 (18.5%)
Parisienne - 88 (12.6%)
Fiero - 28 (4%)
GTO - 26 (3.7%)
Laurentian - 25 (3.6%)
Chieftan - 11 (1.6%)
All other model names had less than 10 cars recorded against them. In summary, 300 cars (43%) were from the Firebird/ Trans Am family. During the 1967-1999 timeframe, the unknown model had 78 cars. The majority of these would probably belong to the Firebird/ Trans Am category too. So 350 would be a likely number, around 50% of the 696 grand total.
One member's Trans Am you might not have seen before. This is Townsville member Ash Sullivan's 1973 model, recently fitted with a set of Wheel Vintiques 18" X 8" billet Rally II's
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1967 Parisienne 2+2 1967 Grande Parisienne
1967 Laurentian 1967 Strato Chief
Remember, "The Government" only has money confiscated from us.
Then, GTO's. We know of a few not listed here, so you could add a couple more to the 25
GTO MODEL
S EAST S EAST Year NORTH SOUTH SOUTH CENTRAL NORTH I'STATE TOTAL 1964 1 1 1965 2 2 1966 1 1 2 1967 3 2 5 1968 2 5 1 8 1969 1 1 1 3 1970 3 1 4 Total 3 13 1 1 6 1 25
New Townsville member, Keith Freeman, owns this 1966 GTO, seen recently at Kurrimine Beach near Innisfail, where a group of Cairns members were on an annual campout.
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1967 Parisienne 2+2 1967 Grande Parisienne
1967 Laurentian 1967 Strato Chief
Remember, "The Government" only has money confiscated from us.
Find it truely amazing that your department of motor vehicle registration will freely give out this info. Wouldn't it be great if the Canadian provinces would do likewise?
