How to tell if you are a Pontiac diehard.
 

I have a friend who kept telling me that he had a new classic car, but he would not tell me what it was. Today I met him at a car show and saw his new car. It is a 1998 Buick Le Sabre type T. Yes it is a very nice car, 3.8 engine and factory loaded with upgraded suspension, gauges, and luxury options.
I told him that it is a nice car. What I did not tell him was that the voice in the back of my head said "To bad it's a Buick." I did have enough smarts to keep that comment to myself. But my ire of GM killing Pontiac and saving Buick were shouting in the back of my head.

Pontiac wasn't exactly doing anything noteworthy when they got axed.

Granted, Buick wasn't either, but their numbers made more sense for GM to keep them around.

There are still more Pontiacs in my neighborhood than Buicks. Nuff said.

When Pontiac got the AXE, They had the G8, V8 powered sports sedan, and the Solstice roadster and coupe. Along with the bread and butter stuff. GM brass, for whatever reason chose to end production of their high volume cars for no reason at all, the Grand Prix, Grand Am and the Bonneville. Buick on the other hand hasn't brought anything to market that an American would want to buy since the Grand National and GNX, and that was one hell of a long time ago. Not to say Buick didn't build and sell some serviceable ground transportation. But that's all it was. Pontiac was run by morons and fools for the 10 years that led up to their demise, even sucking up Bob Lutz in their whirlwind of incompetency. But though Buick may have had better worldwide numbers than Pontiac, their product since 1987 appeals to the over 80 set that generally just wants to get from point A to point B.
Cute commercials alone won't sustain a car company. Telling people your making cars for a younger demographic doesn't make it so. Oldsmobile tried it by changing to a swoopy logo that looked like a Toyota, Lexus, Mazda or whatever and telling everyone "This is not your Fathers Oldsmobile", and you can see how that worked out 6 years before Pontiac was killed . Guess nobody bothered to pay attention.

Aztek

I heard the reason they kept Buick is because its one of the favorite cars of the Chinese. Whether thats true or not I couldn't say.

Well GM had better sell a lot of cars in China, because I am not buying. I am actually starting to look at Mazda.

The disturbing part is he thinks a ‘98 LeSabre is a classic car.

I’m still sour about losing Pontiac, but GM is making some terrific performance cars right now…Camaro SS ILE, ZL1, C8, 4/5 V Blackwings.

Losing Pontiac sucked, but when they killed the Trans Am back in 02 they were pretty much dead to me anyway.

They started building interesting stuff right at the end, but it was too late.

True….

Assuming their dealers will let you order one without giving you attitude or paying a ridiculous price... (this was true pre-worldwide car\chip shortage)

Nothing GM has now excites me. I’m with you- the e-mails I get from Buick as ‘a Pontiac’ customer are just an insult and proof the didn’t know their customer.

Everyone is getting excited about the Blackwing that cost over 100k. My 6 year old Hellcat will embarrass it at half the cost.

Never buy another new GM car, ever.

I even made and sold T shirts to commemorate the terrible event/decision of GM dropping Pontiac.

Here they are, and we sold a ton of them, starting in 2009 when GM announced they were dropping Pontiac.


FRONT


https://i.ibb.co/MkY6297/pontiacnailbyost.jpg


BACK

https://i.ibb.co/7jZ4Mkz/yost-brad-RIP09fb.jpg


Oh yeah, I'm still very bitter over GM dropping Pontiac, and will never get over it.

I sold one of those T Shirts to a guy that was at the T/A nationals that had a meeting the following week with GM execs. He wore it to the meeting...............LMAO

There may have been a little tension at that meeting...........;)

Mike Garblik, from Boss Bird fame, has asked me numerous times to make another run of those shirts, he wore his out and wants another one.........:thumbup:

And it would have a plastic bumper, plastic not classic ever ,

Sent from my SM-A426B using Tapatalk

Never own a Buick or chevy.

I have a buddy who thinks he 88 S10 Blazer is a Classic , he took 3rd place in a local car show recently which was by popular vote , now we will never heard the end of it 🙀

The Aztek is a very important vehicle IMO. In a single chunk of plastic and steel in encompasses EVERYTHING that went wrong at Pontiac over a 10 year period. It is often used in college business schools and marketing classes at an example of how to do EVERYTHING wrong. When the vehicle you build ends up being the star joke in an entire episode of "American Dad cartoon", you have to know things are off the rails. My favorite quote when they came out was from Car and Driver. Concerning the styling: The car looks like a group of prisoners whittled it out of a bar of soap. High praise indeed. If not for "Breaking Bad", they wouldn't even be worth scrap value today. They ALWAYS make the top 10 worst cars of all time lists, right next to the Vega, Yugo, and other Gems.

Blame the Chinese, they like Buicks and GM knows where its sales are. Strange thing is that Cadillac became the performance division for a while and "C"s (Cadillac, Camaro, Corvette) are the only two doors left.

Can you imagine working at Pontiac during that time, If I was, I like to think I would have been smart enough to be looking for another job.

I remember the first time I saw one, thinking how far the brand had fallen.

P.S. the stying of the new HD GM pickup trucks gives me the same feeling.