For more than a decade Pontiac was an industry leader, and the Catalina was usually its best-selling model. Here’s a brief but fond look back.

Originally, Catalina wasn’t a model name but a body style, signifying a pillarless two-door hardtop. The name, of course, came from the resort island 26 miles across the sea from the Southern California mainland. The 1949 Catalina show car (above) served as a prototype for the 1950 production model, the Super Chieftain Catalina Hardop Coupe, sharing its body shell with the Chevy Bel Air. In 1954 the body style became avalable in both the Chieftain and Star Chief trim levels. When a four-door pillarless style was added in 1956, it wore the Catalina name as well, and the label identified Pontiac’s hardtop body styles through 1958.

It was in 1959 that the Catalina gained full model status, offering the full range of body styles: two-door and four-door sedans and hardtops, a Safari station wagon, and a convertible. The Catalina story can’t rightly be told without including Fitz and Van,  Art Fitzpatrick and Van Kaufman, the famed Pontiac artists. Arguably, they were the greatest product illustrators the Motor City has ever seen.  While their work was precise, almost photorealistic in style, they weren’t above employing some artistic license. The 1959 Catalina Convertible above takes the Pontiac Wide Track theme to a fabulous new level.

By 1965, Pontiac was securely dug into third place in U.S. sales, trailing only Ford and Chevrolet, and the Catalina was its best-selling model. Much of that success, we think, was due to the fact that while the Catalina was Pontiac’s full-sized base model, it didn’t look like a base model. The standard engine was a 389 cubic-inch V8, the wheelbase a roomy 121 inches, and the stylish interior was dressed in deep-pile carpeting and Morrokide vinyl. With the Catalina, Pontiac offered the right combination of style, value, and performance for the time, and the public responded.

Shown above is Pontiac general manager E.M. “Pete” Estes with the 10 millionth Pontiac to roll off the line since the GM brand’s introduction in 1926. (See our feature on the birth of Pontiac here.) Not long after this photo was snapped, Estes was promoted to president of Chevrolet, and chief engineer John Z. DeLorean took over the top Pontiac spot. One DeLorean project, a sporty option package for the Catalina called the 2+2, was produced from 1964 through 1967. (The 2+2 became a stand-alone model for 1966 only, and it was available in Canada though 1970.)

By the early ’70s the Catalina’s  sales were slippping, from the all-time high of around 271,000 cars in 1965 to not quite 130,000 in 1971 (above). While the division’s total sales remained solid, now the Pontiac lineup was more segmented with the addition of the Firebird and mid-sized Grand Prix. Also, imports and subcompacts were eating away at the division’s market share. There was a shift in Catalina demand, too. While the two-door hardtop had been the model’s top seller through the ’60s, now the four-doors were edging ahead.

When the GM B-body cars were downsized for 1977, the Catalina came along, serving as Pontiac’s full-size base model while the Bonneville continued to represent the premium trim level. Body styles were limited to a coupe, a sedan, and a wagon (below) while the standard engine in the Catalina coupe and sedan was no longer a V8 but the Buick-built 231 CID V6. Sales continued to slide: 61,678 in 1977, 33,531 in 1979, 13,727 in 1980. As the market for full-size, rear-drive cars was narrowing, Pontiac was backing away from the category. In 1980 only 7,530 cars were sold, and after 31 remarkable years the Catalina was discontinued.