Video: ’79 Pontiac Commercial Makes Us Miss The ‘Bird

Our friends over at Jalopnik hooked us up with this video, that takes us back to 1979 when this Pontiac Firebird commercial aired. It puts emphasis on the new restyled rear tail lights, and front fascia, calling it a sophisticated new ‘Bird.

This new look was not welcome among hardcore Pontiac enthusiasts, many could not get used to the new look, not to mention horsepower numbers were almost embarrassing. This so called “Sophisticated bird,” was relying on its ancestral descendant’s, like the iconic “Smokey and the Bandit Edition” Trans Am to keep sales moving.

Maybe it really was Burt Reynolds that ruined it for future Firebird and Trans Am owners. After all, he did do that big smokey burnout at the stoplight in the first movie, a hard act to follow. Everyone saw the scene when Burt Reynolds filled the intersection with smoke and left Posi-Traction marks as far as the eye could see.

It was definitely a disappointment when you went to your local Pontiac dealer and test drove one of these cars, especially the Firebird with the standard 301 engine. There wasn’t much you could do with about 150 hp, and that was being kind with the ratings. This Pontiac’s bigger brother, the Trans Am, even with its largest horsepower offerings, a 400 cubic inch engine rated at 220HP in 1979, could barely write its name in the asphalt from a dead stop.

These third-generation Pontiac’s back in their time took a lot to get used to, the rubber impact bumpers, the lower horsepower ratings. After all, when these cars first debuted in ’79, the muscle car era was already dead, and the 3 major car companies were all too busy scrambling to try to conform to stricter government regulations. Today these body styles are very desirable and fetch a pretty penny, especially when you can find a good candidate to build or even a nice original one.