Burt Reynolds received a brand new Pontiac Trans Am every year for the rest of his life until an awkward call with GM president

Smokey and the Bandit star Burt Reynolds received a brand new Pontiac Trans Am muscle car every year for the rest of his life, until he had an awkward call with the General Motors (GM) president.

Smokey and the Bandit was one of America’s biggest hits of the 1970s, and the film became synonymous with Reynolds’ character and the 1977 Pontiac Trans Am he drove in the movie.

The success of the film led to GM calling Reynolds to offer him a new Trans Am every year for the rest of his life.

But an awkward phone call a few years down the line brought that deal to an end.

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Why Burt Reynolds was offered a new Pontiac Trans Am for life

The film caused a major boost in sales for the Pontiac Trans Am muscle car.

It quickly became an icon, to the point that Reynolds said that sales had shot up by 700 percent due to the film’s success.

Not long after came a call from the General Motors president.

He told Reynolds he could have a new Trans Am every year, for life.

Renyolds gave the first car to his sister and the second to his stepbrother.

While he couldn’t remember where the third went, the fourth was the first one the actor kept for himself.

However, one day the deal suddenly ended.

Renyolds was shocked when the deal was called off

Reynolds had a new car every year for at least the next five years, amassing quite a cool collection.

Then one day, the Pontiac Trans Am never turned up, and Reynolds rang GM to find out what had happened.

The actor has since admitted to feeling like a jerk when he did so.

But he wanted to make sure nothing had gone wrong, and of course, a deal was a deal!

Having got through to the president of General Motors, it turned out there was a new man at the top of GM.

The previous deal was for the president’s life, and as that president had died, the new one had ended the deal.

Reynolds hit back, saying that was for his lifetime and not that of the president.

The president replied by claiming his predecessor loved Burt Reynolds’ films like Smokey and the Bandit.

However, it turned out that the new president did not like them…

That was the end of a lifetime deal that ended up lasting less than 10 years!

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