The boss at Pontiac (Semon Knudsen) summed up the all-new 1959 models as having this as the general theme: "We have placed more emphasis on the sculpturing of sheetmetal, less on brightwork."

What that meant was he told the designer to back off the chrome! Shown here is the Parisienne models of the Pontiac, the "North of the border" version of the Catalina models for Canadian buyers. 2-door Sport Coupe models featured a sleek appearance that helped Pontiac change its image to that of being more youth-oriented, eventually becoming #3 in the overall North American sales race.