QOTD: Missing Brands
Today's UCOTD got me thinking -- what now-dead '90s brands do you miss?
Let's keep this to brands that existed in the '90s and died during that decade or after. So that list would include Geo, Suzuki, Plymouth, Pontiac, Saturn, Mercury, Oldsmobile, Hummer ... and I'm sure I am missing someone. I went off top of head there.
We often joke about missing Oldsmobile around these parts, but I think I miss most of these except Geo and maybe Plymouth. I think I maybe miss Pontiac the most, just because the brand seemed to be turning things around at the end*
Full disclosure: I worked at a Pontiac dealer not super long before the Great Recession killed the brand, but I don't have affection for the brand from that experience. It's really the cars -- the G8 and that last GTO, especially.
Yes, we've probably asked this before, but it's been a long time, and we're limiting this to the '90s anyway.
Anyway, kill the end of your work week by sounding off on this topic below.
[Image: Pontiac]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
More by Tim Healey
Comments
Join the conversation
Pontiac should have been retained over Buick but the Chinese won after bailing out the spending to prop up GM as Buick was a big thing in china (they buy with their eyes closed and brains don't function over there?). Pontiac outsold Buick here and offered better vehicles. But alas, we have a putrid brand instead of something that had performance to it.
I don't necessarily miss it, but I always wound up with Mercury.
Yeah, when Saab was "leaving", there was concern about part availability. Especially on the 2011s, which I also love. I see those being sold fairly cheap used, but of course there is a reason why they depreciate. Get into an accident, good luck getting body parts for those.
They make made it through the 90's but oh how I miss the Old Fighter Pilot (dad) smoking Camels and driving his Eldorado way too fast. Two sets of Tommy Armour's in the trunk and some iced down Buds in the cooler.