RIP Pontiac | 05/17/2009 11:00 pm
The Death of Pontiac, by Kate McLeod
An elegy for the iconic muscle car that will be put to rest by General Motors.
Kate McLeod/Image: Jerry Flint
Editor’s note: Kate McLeod is a journalist, author and playwright who has written for magazines and newspapers for more than 20 years. Her GirlDriver, USA column is syndicated in newspapers around the country. Kate has written for Edmunds.com, The Houston Chronicle, More, Motion, Chief Executive, The New York Daily News, The New York Sun, ForbesAutos.com and Autobytel.com. Ms. McLeod is the author of Beetlemania: The Story of the Car That Captured the Hearts of Millions. Her plays have been performed in New York, throughout the Northeast, in Alaska and London. She is a member of The Dramatists Guild. Here, McLeod feels a personal loss for the soon-to-be defunct Pontiac.
The executioner was on call but I didn’t tell that to our Pontiac G8 GXP. Just let it have its day, I reasoned. The Pontiac G8 shoots off with a roar as it should with a sticker that read $41,590 including the gas-guzzler tax (but we got 20 miles to the gallon highway and no mistake on that, either) and destination charge. It’s rear-wheel drive with a 6.2 liter V8 engine, and a six-speed manual and high-end Brembo brakes.
| Pontiac is falling victim to the government’s future CAFÉ standards that require cars to show major gains every year. |
A touch of force to the accelerator and you’re down in the seat of the Aussie-made, four-door coupe. Thrilling, that rush of power. Vocally, the G8 is the James Earl Jones of cars. Its low octaves and deep, rich timbre makes its voice impossible to ignore. It speaks. You say, "Louder."
Sparkling Candy Apple primer is the right color for this car — a nice hard glint. I could make more comparisons to Clint, and Marlon and James — the tough manly stance, the muscle — but what’s the point? A half hour before I turned the key, General Motors killed Pontiac. I get it now; this was a nostalgia trip.
GM is killing Pontiac and keeping Buick? Why kill a brand that has sold 41,000 cars in the first three months this year, but keep a brand that has sold only 21,000?
Is it because Buick is selling like wonton in China right now? Note to self and anyone who will listen: We don’t live there, work there, pay taxes there. But there’s another agenda at work here. The government, the people who intend to relieve us of incandescent light bulbs in 2015, is forcing General Motors to strip naked in order to stay in business. And General Motors doesn’t seem to have any problem with that.
It’s pretty clear that the future of cars in this country isn’t going to be about building excitement, which was the old Pontiac motto — remember? "We Build Excitement." And they did. GTO, Grand Prix, STE, Firebird. Don’t make me cry.
Killing Pontiac, which is small potatoes in the scheme of things, falls right in line with the environmental zeitgeist, the new big brother. But killing a muscle car or two, with their small number of sales, will not move the needle a millimeter on the CO2 front. Pontiac is falling victim to the government’s future CAFÉ (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards that require cars and light trucks to show major gains every year after next.
For enthusiasts, this is hard. In 1957, John DeLorean with a famous team put a V8 engine in Pontiac’s new compact Tempest and created the GTO, and a new genre — the muscle car. Pontiac followed with the Firebird and the Firebird Trans Am. Then the oil crisis of the 1970s made fuel economy utmost to car buyers.
1964 Pontiac Lemans GTO convertible/Image: GM Corporation © 1978
Pontiac came back but lost its way a second time and never found its mojo again. Robert Lutz, the last GM "Car Guy," really tried with the Pontiac Solstice roadster, and a new closed Solstice coupe just coming out; he tried to recreate the GTO and that wonderful G8 I drove, and even a Pontiac convertible. He really tried. But it was just too late.
Read more about: Auto Industry, Automakers, Buick, Business, Finance, General Motors, Kate McLeod, News, Pontiac
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Pontiac, I predict, will make a comeback within seven years in an all-electric form. Ford’s 2011 Focus will be all-electric. It’s Canadian parts/assembly supplier, Magna International, surprised Ford executives by building it inside an existing Focus. It’ll go 100 miles between recharges. Ford announced last week that it’s investing $550 million to retool its Michigan Assembly Plant for the Focus BEV, and other electric vehicles. The all-electric Ford Transit Connect will hit market in 2012.
General Motors developed an electric vehicle, the EV1, after the California Air Resources Board in 1990 passed a zero-emissions law. But Big Oil lobbied to get the mandated overturned, fearful of what could happen to their fuel monopoly. The oil barrons used patents to prevent implementation of the NiMH batteries, as well. Also, consumer demand wasn’t there, because of the high vehicle price, and gasoline was much cheaper in the ’90s. The initial EV1’s only got about 60 MBR (miles-between-recharges), but later ones got 110 MBR.
A123Systems recently received a $100 million tax grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to build a world-class lithium-ion battery-production plant for Chrysler’s ENVI electric-battery lineup.
Johnson Controls-Saft Advanced Power Solutions announced plans last month to invest $220 million in an advanced-battery manufacturing plant in Holland, MI. This is manufacturing infrastructure for its production of hybrid and electric vehicles in the U.S.
Making Michigan the advanced-battery capital of the world is seen as a national-security interest, in terms of maintaining a strong manufacturing base in the U.S.
They have an existing facility there, that they plan to convert for the lithium-ion plant. Johnson Controls is headquartered in Milwaukee, which is smack dab right across Lake Michigan from Holland (both are located next to the lake). I know that they use I-196 as the route around the lake. I’m guessing that they’re anticipating eventually being able to ship parts, maybe even vehicles, via boat right across the lake. I know the Lake Express ferry transports passenger vehicles on a regular cycle from Milwaukee to Muskegon (north of Holland), and back.
My beloved Pontiac will become a thing of the past. My company car was always a pontiac. I loved driving it long distances and it handled so well in the snow due to the front wheel drive, so I switched to Pontiacs for my personal car. My last new car was a Bonneville….sporty, good on gas and easy to maintain.
My husband is a lover of the classics and at one time we had 4 Classic Pontiac GTO cars… 2 were 1967 and the other two were 1966. But a wonderful buyer came along and wanted all 4 cars so we sold. Big Mistake even though we realized a huge profit. Of course our first love from the classic car selection is the Oldsmobile 442, and we intend to keep our 1970 until death due us part. The Oldsmobile line was terminated long ago, but it wasn’t as popular as Pontiac.
I am heartbroken that a new Pontiac will not be in my future. The Buick line was kept as the older generation buy these for road traveling. Comfort, 4 doors for getting out, and I think Buick status might be the word for these people. But the baby boomers, age 50 and 60 don’t necessarily want Buicks to travel to Florida and Arizona or wherever. Most will probably still be working and not able to travel. If General Motors stays in business, I think they will regret this Pontiac decision in just a few years as the Buick buyers become fewer and fewer. And Cadillac might go then too!
May Pontiac rest in peace. The end of a legend. The end of a good car.
It is just another sign of changing times.
If you ‘look’ at what sells best…pick ups; SUVs; and sportier performance type vehicles, it becomes apparent that we are going to be nanny stated into New Age Yugos. Sad. But choice is being taken away from the consumer.
Hopefully, Ford, having taken no bailout money, can continue to build what American’s want.
RIP Pontiac…I never got the Trans Am of my teen dreams.
What a car! My parents had a green Pontiac LeMans, vinyl top. My uncle treasured his GTO. Such solid cars and so comfortable. Unlike so many of today’s cars, if a big gust of wind came your way, you didn’t feel the car shudder and shake. Not to worry if a big 18 wheeler came up behind you.
Sweet memories.