[Formulabruce]

This day in History ...MILESTONE ...On April 13, 1965 .......................................That's Pete Estes at the wheel of a 1965 GOLD Catalina

[77 Canamman]

You have to wonder what became of these production milestone Pontiacs? That one seems very mainstream..absolutely nothing special, much like the 1973 Catalina that was the 16 millionth Pontiac...

[Fullsize455]

Quite a milestone! I wonder if that Catalina is still out there somewhere...

[77 Canamman]

Per a POCI board post:

The 1992 milestone (30 millionth) joins a long line of previous Pontiac production achievements that took place in 1935 (one millionth), 1954 (five millionth), 1965 (10 millionth), 1971 (15 millionth), 1978 (20 millionth), and 1985 (25 millionth).

[tharkun8]

Originally Posted by Fullsize455

Quite a milestone! I wonder if that Catalina is still out there somewhere...

I suppose PHS could try to figure the VIN and publicize..

there cant have been too many Gold 4 dr Cats going down the line
each day.. see what plant Pete was at .. ( likely Pontiac MI plant)
then look through that day for that plant.. filter by color then model..

I figure there would be a few candidates...but could probably narrow it down..

Being a 4 door it likely met the crusher years ago.. but would be interesting
project to try to find.

John

[gtohurstjudge]

Anyone know what the final tally of Pontiac production was from 1926
to 2010? It sucks that today you can buy a Kia or Hyundai Korean car but you can't buy an
Olds or a Pontiac.

[JamRSW6]

From my experience with PHS, they do not have a way to search with filters on colors, selling dealer and other variables. Their data has not been converted to a searchable (other than VIN) or so I was told. Wouldn't it be great it we could search in multiple ways? Jimmy

[Keith Seymore]

Originally Posted by 77 Canamman

You have to wonder what became of these production milestone Pontiacs? That one seems very mainstream..absolutely nothing special, much like the 1973 Catalina that was the 16 millionth Pontiac...

Usually they get shipped to commerce.

Because there are often several final assembly locations building a particular nameplate, with no linkage between them, there is no way to really know ahead of time (or even afterwards) which car was the actual "milestone" vehicle. This also makes planning and hosting the festivities nearly impossible.

As a result, a location is chosen (in this case the "home plant" in Pontiac Michigan, chosen based on proximity to Pontiac headquarters, and inherent status) and then a production vehicle is selected and "anointed" as the one. That way the sequence number can be published ahead of time and everyone can work towards the same vehicle as far as counting down, affixing the signage, following the build, etc.

VIN #001 vehicles make the selection process easier as their identification is more obvious. Some of those find their way into manufacturer collections (like the GM Heritage Center, but GM certainly doesn't have as many VIN #001 vehicles as Ford Motor Company does). But that's seemingly not the case with milestones. Recall that the very last Pontiac built ever was shipped and found it's way into a nondescript fleet somewhere.

Sometimes if a collector or enthusiast has a working relationship with a manufacturer they can make a special request. "Pinky" Randall was a well known Chevrolet collector and, as such, asked for and was given the opportunity to buy the final Impala SS produced. Much of his memorabilia (and that particular car) is housed in the Heritage Center collection now that he has passed.

K

[Jeff Hamlin]

Love the hype used for these milestone points of production...