Remembering Pontiac
/When I came to know Pontiac as a kid it was a good time to know Pontiacs. This was a make that took risks. It had its ups and downs, its deaths and rebirths. The Pontiac Division of General Motors had just seen three brilliant management teams in succession guide it from the brink of extinction in 1956, to its pinnacle which I was witnessing as a pre-teen in the early 70s. Pontiacs took up more than their fair share of real estate on my bedroom wall - before later giving way to Cheryl Tieges and Farrah Faucet-Majors. In a way, the two art themes were not so different, only the preoccupations of the viewer had changed. Pontiac’s looked hot! Unlike the other of GMs lost makes that have been gone for a decade now, the story of Pontiac is fun to think about. Upstart Saturn was a tragedy pure and simple: A great and heroic quest that was done in by corporate jealousy and atrophy. Grand ol' Oldsmobile's fate flowed like the opus of a life lived well. It had early glory, a long steady rise, and then a much shorter but just as steady decline. Oldsmobile’s very name all but ensured that one day its time would come. The audacious Hummer and the quirky Saab were no more than corporate larks. "Here's a trend, " said some suit in Detroit, "Let's follow it." Things couldn't have ended well for Saab; they shouldn't have for Hummer. But over at Pontiac, you never quite knew how things would turn out. Pontiacs were exciting! The occasional few that weren’t? Well, at least they were interesting. With Pontiac, it was all about the cars. So why don’t we let the cars tell the story.
In the Beginning...
The First Pontiac Car Wasn't Called a Pontiac
Even then...the Allure of a V-8
The First Pontiac
The Last Oakland
The Chief of Style
The Silver Streak
Pontiac Spreads its Wings
The Old Man's Car
No More Silver Streak... No More Old Man's Car
The Wide Track
Tempest in a Teapot: the Compact Pontiac
The Prettiest Pontiac
Personal Luxury
The Legend is Born
Muscle Came in Size Large
Poncho's Pony
The Endura Era
Ponchos on Film
The Age of Malaise
Split Grilled and Grievous
Much Better...but Not Good Enough
Eighties Rebirth
Harbengers of the End Days
Last Gasps
End Days
A Parting Gift
Copyright@2018 by Mal Pearson