1949 Pontiac Chieftain DeLuxe Convertible Coupe 🇮🇹

The first all new Pontiacs after the war represented a big departure from the cars they replaced. The cars now had a low stance, front fenders flowed seamlessly into the doors, the hood no longer stood above the fenders and the two appeared to be more harmonious,  the two piece windshield appeared to curve subtly, the grille was much lower and wider, overall the cars took a big leap forward in looking more modern. Customers loved the changes.

The major redesign of the 1949 cars carried across the entire General Motors line. Under the guidance of design chief Harley Earl, each GM division had to design their own unique variation of a basic body shell supplied by Fisher that was classified by a letter. For Pontiac the  Chieftain was  based on the A-body shell while the lower priced Streamliner made use of the B-body shell. Ironically, all Pontiacs in 1949 came on a 120 inch wheelbase so the outside dimensions of the two models were the same. 

The Chieftain used a more traditional notchback style while the Streamliner kept the fastback styling that proved so popular the previous few years. The cars were nearly 3 inches narrower and 2 inches shorter than the previous offerings but allowed for more interior space.

Mechanically there were few changes from 1948. The engines remained the same and the Hydramatic automatic transmission, first offered in ‘48, would be even more popular in ‘49.

A 29.5% increase in model year sales proved that car buyers were loving the new designs. Pontiac maintained their fifth position in the industry behind Ford, Chevrolet, Plymouth and Buick in that order.