Short answer to long History. Until 1957 there was no model in the Pontiac line up named Bonneville. I won't go into great detail here about past history other than to explain from Mid 50'* to now. If you would like to know more I can give you web sites and book titles to check to really get to understand the history of Pontiac.

In the mid 1950'* the "top of the line" or "flag ship" model for Pontiac was the Catalina- Star Chief. In 1957 Pontiac introduced the "Bonneville" as an upscale model. It had the first fuel injected production Pontiac motor along with many other options that helped to set it apart from it'* Pontiac brothers and other GM cousins.

The Bonneville has been the longest running "model" name in the Pontiac line up, with over 40 years in production. There are many things about how Pontiac used the Bonneville name to make it the "Top of the Line" model in their division. If you would like to know more, drop me a line.

Please post the Historical Pontiac Web Sites. I remember in the early 70'* they introduced the Grandville as (I believe) the top trim level of the Bonneville(B-body). In Canada, the Bonneville was dubbed the Laurentian and Parisenne. The Parisienne also saw life here in the states in the 80'* (when GM totally lost its way) and started calling the top of the line Le Mans the Bonneville G(for G Body)

yea, I remember bonnevilles bein called Le Mans

The Lemans was an upscale GTO, not a Bonneville.

I saw a bunch of old LeMans last week at a Pontiac Car Show. It'* a shame they became those dinky little POS'* now. Anyway, the Bonneville is the flagship to me.

They have so many '04 GP commercials because they're new and they want to sell them. I've only seen three of them on the roads. Seems not too many ppl are getting them. Maybe they're waiting for the GTO? Too many design flaws with the new GP, IMO.

I saw an 04 GP at the dealer on Friday morning, parked beside a 02 SSEi, no comparision.

My grandmother used to have an old LeMans...it was an OK car for its time. In CAN, the 86 Bonneville was the exact same style as the old LeMans

I saw a red '62 convertible Bonneville at the show too, and it had a manual transmission with a steering wheel shifter.

I assumed back in the day it was the old school "3 on the tree" style...

Column shifter manual... cool

That'* what it was

Other way around. The GTO was an upscale Lemans. The base was a Tempest.
At least in '68 - '72 that'* true.