Canadian vs US makes and models

Ok. On the Ode to 2 wagons thread, I opened a can of worms on the differences between Canadian and US makes and models. There doesn't appear to be a thread on this, so here we go:

What were the Canadian vs US makes and models?

So far I have run across

Meteor - Canadian Ford (more or less)
Monarch - Canadian Mercury (more or less)
Canadian Pontiac - US Chevy with US Pontiac style front sheet metal
Beaumont was a Canadian Chevelle

What else was there and what were the differences?

 

how about early murcury pickups , 50s simular to f100

 

Frontenac - Falcon with maple leaf badges.

Dodge Fargo - Plymouth pickup truck, still ugly as homemade sin.

Pontiac - Laurentian, Parisienne, Pathfinder. US Chevy chassis and running gear with Pontiac sheetmetal and trim.

Acadian Beaumont - Chevelle in lumberjack boots and flannel jacket.

I'm sure there's a bunch more that I'm missing.

If you look at any of the Canadian only Pontiacs and Beaumonts, the vehicle I.D. plate doesn't say "Pontiac Motor Division", it says "GM of Canada".

My Canadian-built 1948 Chevy Fleetmaster also has "GM of Canada" instead of "Chevrolet" on the I.D. Tag.

 

How about this 56 Dodge Suburban. Plymouth front with a Dodge rear.

 

Speaking of Dodge, wasn't the Mayfair a Canadian only model?

Shawn

 

Yes, the Mayfair was a Canadian only Dodge that was a Plymouth with a Dodge front clip and emblems. This was true for all Dodges through most of the 50s with the exception of the Custom Royal starting in 56 that was all Dodge.

 

I believe the Mercury Econolines were Canadian only and there were also Nova/Chevy II based Acaidian Canso models.

 

Oh, and the Acadian started as a Chevy II and changed over to the Chevelle body when it was introduced in 64.

 

My 1963 dodge 330 sedan is a canadian model built as a CKD (completely knocked down) down under here in new zealand
Has a dodge body
some 330 and 440 body trim
Marked up as a 330
but with a plymouth dash and right hand drive
Along with a canadian 313 v8 - same as an American poly 318 but with a smaller bore and mechanical lifters.

 

------------------------
Actually, yes and no. Prior to the 1964
model year, all Pontiac Acadians were
just rebadged Chevy II's. But starting in
1964, the Pontiac "Acadian Beaumont"
came out that was based on the 1964
Chevelle body, chassis and running gear,
but with a modified U.S. Pontiac Tempest
dash, a unique grill and an odd mix of
Chevelle and Tempest body trim parts.
But alongside the 'Acadian Beaumont',
Pontiac still marketed the Chevy II-based
Acadian. Both cars were marketed and
badged as Acadians, but one - the
Chevelle-based model - had the additional
"Beaumont" moniker added to it's name.
Also, on the Chevy II-based Acadian, when
Chevy came out with the slightly fancier
trimmed Chevy II 'Nova", Pontiac came
out with a similar uptrimmed, but still
Chevy II-based Acadian "Canso". By the
way too, to match the Chevy II "Nova SS"
and the "Chevelle SS". instead of calling
them "Super Sports", Pontiac badged their
equivalent versions with Pontiac "S.D"
badges, but with the "S.D." meaning
"Sport Deluxe", rather than "Super Duty"
as on some U.S. Pontiacs. And in 1966,
when Chevy came out with the Chevelle
"SS396" with a "396 Turbo-Jet" engine,
Pontiac had a similar Beaumont "SD396"
with the same big block 396 Chevy engine,
but labeled as a "396 Pontiac Astro-Jet".

Mart3406
=============================

 

Recently when I was in Cuba, I noticed that
most - but not all - of 1950's vintage Pontiacs
still on the road there, were Canadian-built
cars, as evidenced by their Canadian Pontiac
model names and Chevrolet chassis and running
gear. Also, I saw several '40's and 50's-vintage
Mercury trucks in Cuba too, which I assume were
also built in Canada.

Mart3406
===========================

 

What about 64 el caminos??? Did they have beaumont on the front fender instead of chevelle too???

 

I just remember my dad telling me about taking our mid 80's Grand-Am to the Pontiac dealer here in Michigan. The car was brought here, from Canada, by a hockey player. My dad just laughed watching the mechanic scratching his head, trying to figure out why things weren't where they "should" be, under the hood. After a few laughs he finally told him it wasn't born here, and pointed to the build tag.

 

That's probably partly because of the fact that Canada doesn't have an embargo against Cuba.

Parts for the cars are available from us.

We're a bunch of pinko socialists, they like us.

Shawn

 

----------------------------------
The cars and trucks I'm talking about
though were all pre-1959 models and
the U.S trade blockade of of Cuba didn't
come into effect until after 1961. Prior
to the revolution, which came into power
on January 1, 1959, Cuba was practically
a U.S colony and almost every imported
thing - including almost all of the cars and
trucks - were from the U.S. That's why I
was surprised to see that most - but not
all - of the '40's and '50's- vintage
Pontiacs still in use in Cuba are actually
the Canadian-built versions, rather than
U.S-models - plus also seeing several
'40's and 50's Canadian-built Mercury and
Fargo trucks too.

Mart3406
=============================

 

Why such a mixed varity of parts ?

They use excess parts to cobble a car together ?

 

------------------------
Up until the 1965 "Auto Pact" deal between
Canada and the U.S., Canada imposed
import duties on both U.S.-built cars and
U.S.-made auto parts coming into Canada
- thus encouraging the manufactures to
source as many of the parts used in their
Canadian-built cars as possible, here in
Canada. Because the Canadian market
was traditionally only about 1/10 the size
of the U.S-market it was more cost effective
for the auto manufacturers to try and use a
single part or assembly - (like engines or
chassis for example) and adapt it to as
many different Canadian-built models as
possible. Where neccessasry - or if it was
more cost-effective - though, imported
U.S-parts and assemblies were used too -
and then adapted as necessary to work on
the somewhat different Canadian-built models.
As a result you ended up with Canadian-built
cars sometimes using an odd mish-mash of
standard U.S and uniquely Canadian-model
parts.

Mart3406
======================

 

--------------------
No. Pontiac never marketed a "Beaumont"
version of the El Camino or of the '64-'65
Chevelle 2dr wagon on which the El Camino
was based, either. The El Caminos and
Chevelle 2-dr wagons were sold here in
Canada, but only as Chevies and with El
Camino and Chevelle badging.

Mart3406
====================

 

I had a 58 Pontiac 2door wagon that was never produced in the US,

 

A neighbour (paint contractor) bought a new '58 Pontiac See-Dan Deli-Very, Red 'n White two-tone, that drove off a ferry and someone didn't get out in time...

That car sat at a local wreckers for many years...then was crushed. I can't imagine very many of those existed...

Pontiacs with 348s/409s/396s/427s/454s would be a very rare find these days. Sadly, they trail Chevs in value, comparably engined.

In the early days of Trans Am racing, Pontiac (in the absence of durable purpose-built 303s) pushed through racing Firebirds with Z/28-derived 302s, claiming "Canada sells 'em that way"...which, of course, we DIDN'T...

Frontenacs (Falcons) were a one-year wonder: 1960. Kingston Ontario was founded by Count Frontenac in 1673, and Kingston is located in Frontenac County.

Monarchs disappeared after '61. Meteor, eventually, was adopted in the US as a Mercury "Fairlane", '62-'63. Canadian Meteor continued in '64 until '81 as full-sized cars. Meteors (generally) were sold by Merc Dealers; Monarchs were sold by Ford Dealers.

Acadians, based on Novas, sold from '62-'71. Then, the name was resurrected in '76 thru '87, as Chevette-based. Beaumonts '64 till '69.

Here's a trivia tidbit: Canadian Pontiacs (with Chev engines) were NEVER legal for Stock-class racing in NHRA on US soil or at National events...Oshawa never submitted the proper Manufacturers documentation...

 

Acadian,(Nova style) car were sold thru Pontiac dealerships,they were not made by Pontiac, they were made by General Motors of Canada. GMC didnt have their own dealership program, so they were sold thru Pontiac dealerships. In 66 the Acadian was available in the Invader series (same as 100 Sedan Nova), the Canso (same as Nova hardtop). They were also available with the legendary L79 engine.
Canadian produced Novas, and all Acadians were painted body colour in the trunk and the firewall was body colour too.

 

Meteors were originally based on the Ford body but then changed to Mercury shell in 1964 with Ford interiors and often drivetrains not found in Mercury models( usually straight 6's). A lot of the unique trim was often used on later Australian models making Meteor stuff rare even in Canada!

My Father owned a 1969 Meteor S-33 that basically had a Ford XL interior in it. One of about 450 made... super rare extremely underpowered with a 302! Ironically the last years of the Meteor they were built in St. Louis.


http://www.ford.ca/app/fo/en/our_company/heritage/pre_war_fords/meteor_1.do

http://www.ford.ca/app/fo/en/our_company/heritage/pre_war_fords/meteor_2.do

 

Yep my buddy just scored one a 57 I think, from a 20 plus year hibernation got a smoking deal on it (2 dr H/T ) neat car!

 

------------------
Back in the early 70's, I had a buddy
who had a '66 Acadian 'Canso SD' with
the 350hp-327 L79 and 4-spd. There
were a few Chevy II Nova SS's around
at the time with the 350hp L79 option,
but it was extremely rare option in an
Acadian.

 

Mart3406, I have a 1966 Acadian Invader, with a L79, and a 3 on the tree. The car also has a nonposi 12 bolt,as part of the L79 package.The Invader is a sister to the 100 sedan Nova.The car is a numbers matching, with many,many original parts.
If memory serves me correctly, there were 84 L79 engines installed into all Acadian and Novas in 1966,built in Canada.Of those its figured that roughly 50 or so were Novas, the rest were Acadian's. Now the majority of those Acadians were Hardtop, Canso's and SD versions.My car was ordered with the 3 on the tree, the 4 speed was not ordered with the car.

 

A friend of mine scrapped a 409 Pontiac 2 dr to put the engine in his 57 hardtop!
He realizes NOW that it wasn't as good an idea as it seemed at the time.
The Poncho was very low production.

My 63 Dodge 330 uses a Plymouth dash and some body trim I've never seen on an American 63.

 

Hey, I see you found this thread I should mention koolkemp stepping up and explaining some of this stuff is how I got the idea to start the thread in the first place

 

heres a Canadian Model... Regent

 

Years back I had a '66 Pontiac CustomSport Parissiene. (Did I spell that right?) CS was the one with buckets & console. In Canada, that was the high level full size Pontiac. Dimensionally it matched the Chev Impala. The bigger wide-track Bonneville series weren't found in dealerships here, just US. of A.

 

What was (is?) the logic/reasoning behind all this---requiring, i'm ASSuming, canadian built engines in cars sold in canada(?) and why hasn't the u.s. adopted this policy concerning imports?