Collector Classics: 1974 Pontiac Astre

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Brian Medford’s 1974 Astre sold only by Pontiac Buick dealers in Canada gets a lot of attention at car shows. It’s not just because of its striking Fernmist Green colour with matching interior or its sporty classic smaller-scale Camaro good looks. It’s because he shows it with a tent on the back.

Offered as an option on the Canadian-built Astre and its Chevrolet Vega lookalike, the Hatchback Hutch quickly clipped in to convert the open hatchback lid into an airy camping compartment for sleeping and other activities. A screen door let fresh air in while keeping insects out.

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Brian’s Astre was purchased new by his uncle Walter Baranski for $3,835 on September 23, 1974 at Omer Barre Pontiac Buick Astre GMC in the Montreal suburb Verdun. It was the end of the model year, and the finishing carpenter was smitten with the good-looking compact car sitting on the showroom floor. The Astre came off the Sainte Therese GM assembly line just 40 kilometres away from the dealership that Walter probably walked to from his nearby home. He drove the car sparingly as he took the bus to his job creating window and floor displays for a Montreal department store.

In 1978, Walter retired and moved to Ladner south of Vancouver to build a house behind one occupied by his sister’s family and near his young nephew, Brian Medford.  Walter stopped driving the car in 1987 after suffering a stroke that paralyzed his arm. The Astre would gather dust in his garage for the next 12 years with only 10,800 miles on the odometer.

Ironically, Brian had sat in a new 1974 Astre at South Park Motors while attending university in Edmonton. “I loved the look of the car and all the other features but ended up buying a Toyota from a dealership down the road for a few hundred dollars less,” he says

Returning to Vancouver for a career managing laboratory operations at Simon Fraser University, he would visit his parents and Uncle Walter on Sundays. “I asked my uncle what he was going to do with the car and would he sell it to me. He really thought he would be able to drive again. It was twelve years before he told me I could have it,” he says.

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That was in 1999, and Brian started to drive the Astre to some collector car events. It was showing its age with some rust around one wheel well and behind the rear window. At one show, two fellow enthusiasts offered to refurbish the car over the winter. The body work and new paint was finished by June 2000, and the Astre looked like new. Brian planned the reveal of the refreshed car to his uncle, but sadly, Walter passed away at the age of 74 the day before Brian had planned to take him for a drive in the restored Astre.

Someone left a note on Brian’s Astre while it was parked at a classic car show in Vancouver’s oceanfront Kitsilano district. “The note was from someone offering me a tent for my car free,” Brian recalls.  When he followed up, he found the man who had left the note had been cleaning out his elderly parents’ garage and had found a new Hatchback Hutch in a box, exclusively for a 1974 Astre hatchback. Turns out that the man’s mother had won an Astre in a Vancouver contest and received the new car with the Hatchback Hutch in its original General Motors branded box inside. Since then, Brian has been displaying his Astre with its unusual camping option and is a member of the Lower Mainland Vega Club.

Few early Astre and Vega cars have survived because of rust and engine problems. The cars were mechanical time bombs, with small radiators leading to overheating, which caused the aluminum blocks and cast-iron heads to expand at different rates. That resulted in blown head gaskets and premature engine wear. Compounding those problems was the propensity for valve seals to break down causing heavy oil consumption. Brian’s later model Astre does use some oil but it’s not excessive. The car now shows only 22,300 miles on the odometer.

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“I may be aging out of the car after owing it for 26 years,” he says. The six-foot two-inch owner is experiencing some trouble getting in and out of the car his uncle bought new more than 50 years ago.

But Brian loves the collector car hobby and has two other low mileage classics. His 1967 Ford Galaxie four-door hardtop is like the one his father bought new and the car he learned to drive in. Bought new by a Saskatchewan farming family for light weekend use, the Galaxie has traveled just 22,271 miles. And Brian’s Dark Cherry Metallic 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood has been driven 99,000 kilometres and is the most comfortable car he has ever owned.

But the ‘camper special’ Astre is still his most special car. “When I put the camper back on the car, It’s like a magnet. A lot of people haven’t seen a tent on the back of a car,” Brian says. “I’m glad my Uncle Walter gave it to me. He also gave me a new hobby for life.”

Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and a partner in a Vancouver-based public relations company. Contact him at [email protected]

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