I’ve been following the auto industry news as of late and things are just really sad for Chrysler and GM. One of the local Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealerships got the notice last week that as of 8 June, they will no longer be selling those cars. Our dealership, Mike Shaw Pontiac, has avoided the first round of dealership cuts, but it is still possible for them to get the slip in a future cut. Bottom line - no one is safe.

So one of my RSS feeds stated that the Viper plant was up for sale - and very few was interested in buying it. At $10 million, purchasing the plant seems like a steal to me, but I’m in no position to buy it nor am I fully aware of what is expected of the company that does decide to buy it. Will they still build Vipers (my ultimate dream car by the way…) or would they desecrate the plant by building anything other than a Viper? I was especially scared for the plant when I read that a food company CEO was interested in purchasing it for considerably less…horrible, horrible thoughts came to mind.

The Viper is a car that you either love or hate…I happen to love this car to death. I had posters of this car on my wall (yes, when other chics had the latest Teen Beat heartthrob on theirs…) I save car magazines with photos of Vipers on the cover. Before I die, I hope to sit in one of these beautiful vehicular beasts so I can listen to its sweet V-10 rumble through my soul - IT’S THAT SERIOUS! Car mag reviewers will talk about its high maintenance costs, it’s lack of road manners, the fact that’s it not a good daily driver…it doesn’t matter because this car was never not meant for the masses - only serious car enthusiasts needed to apply! Those that wanted appliances like Camrys and Accords knew where to go (I have an alternate place for them, but anyway…). To think that this car may no longer be produced is sickening.

Hopefully a car enthusiast will purchase this plant and do right by this car. This is the hope of a car enthusiast - one who does not see any of her vehicles as appliances.

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.

This place is just full of “creative people with money”. I think I would have enough content to post one every day for over a month.

The first time I saw one of these beasts, I was in shock. I tried to explain what I saw to Will and he couldn’t believe it. There are at least 5 of these rolling around post and we saw 3 of them in the PX parking lot today. Brace yourself for quite possibly the worst kind of vehicular molestation:

We missed the opportunity to get the third one (or maybe we were lucky that we did…).

Will and I had a brief discussion about where this was popular and who this was popular with. East coast and west coast mods are pretty easy to define. This has to be some mid-west home brewed experiment gone all kinds of wrong. I could only imagine what would happen to this car in New York…California may be a little more accepting.  As for who…we all know this is something only my brothers and sisters could come up with.

Hopefully, this trend will only be found here in Colorado.