Zombie Brand Pontiac Interred Tomorrow
After spending years wandering the gray shadows that divide this life from the next, the undead brand Pontiac will be placed in its final resting place sometime tomorrow. Scientists at TTAC’s paranormal automotive brand research lab are still working to determine exactly when Pontiac slipped from relevance into the nightmare world of zombie-dom, but Pontiac has been living on borrowed time since being officially marked for death a year and a half ago. As of the end of October there were still 125 Pontiacs on dealer lots around the country, but dealer agreements covering the brand expire on Halloween, making the day of the dead the last day to buy a car from America’s biggest zombie brand. And what better way to celebrate Pontiac’s decades-long waking nightmare than by buying a G6 on the spookiest day of the year? Meanwhile, as Bob Lutz, Lee Iacocca, and Zombie Bunkie Knudsen converge on Oakland County to commit their faithful brand to the cold earth, let’s take one more moment to remember the brand that died too long before anyone noticed. Are your memories of Pontiac fond recollections of the brand’s vital youth, or spooky tales from its long, shambling un-death? Finally, will Pontiac actually stay dead this time?
More by Edward Niedermeyer
Comments
Join the conversation
I've owned several Pontiacs over the years, and still have three in the driveway. Our most recent, an 09 G6 has been the best one we've owned. I guess my most memorable Pontiac was the 83 Trans Am, I bought to impress a young lady who could have cared less about me (or the car). It was the V8/5 speed combo, and after the POS Mercury Capri Turbo that it replaced, the "big" motor was a young man's tire burning dream. Unfortunately, the T/A was also a POS, although my treatment of it at the time made matters worse. I wasn't aware that Pontiac expired this week, I thought it happened last year. I guess that explains why our local PBG dealer hasn't taken down his Pontiac sign yet. I imagine that will change soon, though. Like Mercury (my other automotive love), I will bid Pontiac a fond "Auf Widersehen".
G8 GT. The only Pontiac in my lifetime that made me want to darken the doors of a Pontiac dealership. The car was awesome, but no way was I forking over $32k large for a company with the uncertain future of GM circa June 2009.
The only Pontiac in our family was a mint green '55 Catalina 2-door sedan that was my father's first new car purchase. For reasons unknown, he bought a few Chevys and Oldsmobiles, but never another Pontiac. I loved the style of the '60's Pontiacs, but never owned one myself. Later stuff was just awful, with all the cladding.
My first car was a 1973 Grand Prix. Big beast of a car that I still remember fondly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quartzcity/3369140343/