In fantastic condition, even has an intact taillight panel, almost never see that on a hatchback sunbird. Base Iron Duke, automatic. https://maine.craigslist.org/cto/d/vassalboro-1980-pontiac-sunbird/6917000491.html
Looks like it's in fantastic condition. These cars just scream 70's to me ( I know it's an 80) Not the best looking car IMO but they were doing the best they could with what they had to work with. Pretty neat survivor.
If it had a V6 & was a Manual Trans, either 4 or 5-speed I would be interested in this one, but after driving a few Iron Duke powered examples, even with a 4-speed they are just to slow for me. I would be to tempted to put a V8 in it and ruin it as a survivor. To bad the last year they put SBC's in these was 1979, no V8 H-bodies in 1980.
The Iron Dukes were definitely no powerhouse (maybe 100hp) -but the one in our 86 Pontiac 6000 lasted 180K. Was still running fine when the body rusted out.
American dealers we're certainly attempting to stay in business back then; grabbing foreign marquees was a way to do it.
Shortly after this car was sold, Fiat would have left the US Market, so it would just be Pontiac-Mercedes-Benz. Yeah the 79 & later Iron Dukes were pretty bullet proof, just so slow. This car has the looks that it should at least be able to get out of its own way. But I bet it got over 30mpg highway, and that is what it was really built for to help Pontiac meet its Divisions CAFE standards. The same reason the Big Pontiac B-bodies were cut a couple of years later, even though they were selling well.
cammerjeff's comment that the "car has the looks that it should at least be able to get out of its own way" jogged my memory. Wasn't this series of cars designed for the never built GM rotary engine ? If so, they would have been runners.
Hard to make out but this is the best Picture I have of that emblem on one of the 75 Monza test cars, this car also has round head lights. Compared to the final production car
And when GM killed their Rotary, it threw AMC for a loop, because they were supposed to buy some GM rotary engines for the Pacer....... VERY easy to fit a rotary in a short Pacer engine compartment. NOT so easy to shoehorn a straight 6 in there. It was actually easier for them to engineer the later V8. In reality, the Pacer SHOULD have been a front-drive vehicle, but front-drive development in the U.S. for a smaller car was not quite there yet. In fact, AMC never did design their own front-drive automobile.