It’s official…

PONTIAC IS DEAD.

NOTE: Anti-domestic car supporters, Toyota/Honda sheep and BMW driving douchebags need not continue to read or leave comments at the end…they will be deleted…

Not really sure how to feel about this. I have an emotional tie to them because they helped spawn me into the enthusiast that I am today. When they pulled the plug on Oldsmobile, it didn’t bug me as much because I thought that they had too much overlap with Buick anyway. I glossed over the fact that Pontiac and Chevy were doing the same. I really wished that GM would have gotten their heads out of their asses sooner and make Pontiac the sporty division they were supposed to be. 

In addition, my driving history has crossed paths with them several times.

• I learned how to drive in an ’89 Grand Am
• I saw Lethal Weapon 4 and fell in love with the Grand Am (the redesigned GA debuted in that movie – the scene where they are going through the office building is my favorite!). When I was looking for a car back in ’99 during AIT, I knew I wanted a Grand Am. Now, 10 years later, Michiru is still in my driveway and remains my Road Warrior.
• I saw the Vibe GT at the 2001 New York International Auto Show and stalked it for 2 years . My dealer called me the day it arrived for a test drive and immediately fell in love. After we got into the accident with Umi (R.I.P.), we knew exactly what we were going to buy next. Hotaru was our first manual transmission vehicle and she mixes sport and utility perfectly.
• I didn’t fully expect to fall in love with the G8 only because of how poorly the GTO was received (liked that car a lot, too). We followed it since the 2007 New York International Auto Show and I finally test drove it last year while I was at OBC in Texas and when we got here, we test drove another one.  As you can see from my post, we had to get that car.

No one saw how the recession would ultimately affect businesses across the world, but you could see that something wasn’t right at GM well before that. A lot of what had happened to them today was out of their control because someone had messed up the formula over 15 years ago. They got lazy and complacent and allowed ‘badge engineering’ to take over. They wised up a little too late in the game. I’m not claiming to know exactly what happened, but as a consumer you can look at certain GM vehicles and know that there wasn’t too much thought put into making it look different from its “cousin”.  There are many more factors to consider, but I just don’t have the time to get into them right now.

My other beef with not differentiating the brands is that Chevy was the darling older sibling that got everything and Pontiac got the scraps. Pontiac’s most recent wins were the Solstice and G8. I don’t have anything against Chevy (my first car was an ’89 Beretta), I just don’t think Pontiac got a fair chance to prove themselves.

Maybe this is what they need to get back on track. I just feel horrible for all the people who will be affected by this mess.

Bottom line is I’m not sure how to feel about GM anymore. Unlike most uninformed knuckleheads who see a domestic brand and immediately count it as trash, my beef with them is a little more personal…emotional if you will. When it come time to buy a new car again in the future, the chances of it being a GM will be considerably less for me.