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While much has been written about how Buick made the station wagon fashionable rather than just utilitarian, it can be said that Pontiac also played a role in this. Pontiac offered a station wagon as part of its regular model line up starting in 1937, a full three years before Buick. While Pontiac was in a lower price range than Buick and its offerings were largely less well appointed, they were still above Chevrolet’s pure utility. When World War II ended and car production resumed, Pontiac offered their Streamliner Station Wagon in both six and eight-cylinder versions.
The immediate post-war Pontiacs were, like all cars at the time, warmed-over versions of their 1942 offerings. The Streamliner series was the larger and more expensive choice utilizing the GM B-bodies shared with Buick and Oldsmobile. The Pontiac Streamliner and Oldsmobile 66 Station Wagons were essentially the same body. In fact, the Streamliner wheelbase slotted right between the Buick Special and Super. Styling was not far removed from the ‘42 offerings and the chassis and engines were carryovers.
The Stationwagon equipped with the eight cylinder engine was the highest priced offering from Pontiac in 1946. The pricing placed the Pontiac wagon right between Oldsmobile and Buick.
The car starved public would buy anything the manufacturers could get out their doors but with material shortages and the need to get assembly lines up and running again, production was slow to ramp up. Pontiac managed to place 6th in the industry production rankings for the model year, nearly where they stood before the war. -
Company
General Motors
Make
Pontiac
Model
Streamliner Eight (28LB)
Body Style
Station Wagon, 4-dr, 8-pass
Body Manufacture
Fisher Body / Ionia Manufacturing
Model year
1946
Wheelbase
122 inches
Length
215 5/8 inches
Engine
inline-8, L-head, 248.9 cid
Horsepower
103 bhp @ 3500rpm
Transmission
3-speed manual on the column
Original Base Price
$2,047
Brand Production
137,640
This Car Production
49,301 of all Streamliner 8 bodies -
Coming . . .