The End of an Era

I’m going to miss GM’s Pontiac Division.

It’s nostalgia I’m feeling, not brand loyalty. I voted with my dollars for the quality and durability of Honda and Toyota cars long ago. But I grew up in a Detroit suburb, surrounded by families who worked for the automobile industry. Much of my extended family still works for the auto industry, or serves families who do. So the economic ups and downs of the automobile makers still hit quite close to home.

But the nostalgia… ah, now that’s for another reason. The first car I regularly drove as a newly-licensed teen was a light blue Pontiac Custom S. I loved the way it looked, hated its blind spots. It was the first car I ever dug into, as the brakes just… didn’t… when you put it into reverse. Turned out to be a factory error – the star wheel adjusters on the back drums were installed backwards. That started my love-hate relationship with car repairs, which turned into a purely hate relationship when I was lying underneath our 1974 Plymouth Valiant, 3-foot-long breaker bar in hand, removing a frozen u-joint… in the pouring rain. That’s when I swore we’d always have enough money to have someone else do the major repairs on our vehicles.

My favorite Pontiac was a bright yellow Trans Am my brother rebuilt. And of course, who couldn’t love the 1968 Pontiac GTO? That, now, that was a car! Remember Woodwarding? Oh, yeah, cruising Woodward Avenue in a ‘68 Goat was the only way to go.

Ah… Pontiac. We’re gonna miss you.

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  By Dan, May 4, 2009 @ 2:59 pm

  Someone gotta buy it, the name has to be worth a quite a bit, don’t you think? Well then again, the Studebaker went the way of the dodo, so I guess pontiac can too.

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