When General Motors euthanized Oldsmobile the public’s reaction was a non-reaction. Nobody cared – well, except some dealerships. The last Oldsmobile rolled off the line in 2004, ending a 107-year history.
Save America’s first mass-produced front-drive car, the Toronado…
…Oldsmobile really never had a raison d’etre – never really produced an icon like Buick’s Riviera, Chevy’s Camaro and Corvette, Cadillac’s various De Villes or Pontiac’s Bonneville.
That’s not to say there wasn’t some semblance of logic for the existence of the different divisions. Loosely, Chevrolet was the “bread and butter” division, Pontiac the “sporty”; Buick “near luxury”, Cadillac “luxury” and GMC the “professional truck” division – oh and Oldsmobile – “your father’s car?”
Rumor has it Pontiac will also go burbling into the night as early as next week and this time people will take note. There are a lot of Pontiacs out there and Pontiac has shown us some real (relative) talent of late: The G8 and the Solstice are a couple examples…but alas, GM, true to form, is late to the party and all the best girls are already on the dance floor.
GM has fallen victim to the unions GM execs enabled for decades but also to their own invention – brand engineering – where platforms are modified superficially and then force-fed to the various divisions. Many Chevrolet’s, Buick’s, Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and even Cadillac models were almost indistinguishable from each other in the 70’s and 80’s as arrogant GM execs thought Americans would buy whatever their factories pooped out the door.
Only now are they realizing the error of design redundancy and being forced by market conditions and economic forces to thin the ranks. Pontiac will reportedly be the next casualty; then maybe GMC, along with possible sales of Saab, Opel and Hummer.
American industrial dominance and ingenuity have seen better days.
So at the risk of having a funeral before the body arrives, here are some of my favorite Pontiacs, a couple of them icons of American Muscle, for your enjoyment: The Bonneville, Firebird, GTO, Solstice, Trans Am and G8.
Being indifferent to a fascination with cars beyond the utilitarian, I never did understand why not only GM, but also other car makers did the whole redundant design thing. Chrysler, Plymouth and Dodge had that going as well, where there would be essentially the same car produced with a minor cosmetic difference, and there were plenty of people who were brand loyal, ignoring the cars were really the same.
There had to be some kind of marketing genius behind that.
Sad as it is to see another ‘death’ in the ranks of american industrialization, I suppose it is rather like a forest fire clearing the landscape for something new to pop up in it’s place that couldn’t sprout otherwise because the big and the old were in the way. A lot of devestation, a traumatic transition, but sometimes the way things go forward.
My 2000 Pontiac has 165,000 miles on it. So far the only repair needed has been a new water pump. I hate the UAW, but support American industry. It’s so frustrating to hear constantly, from liberals and conservatives, that they will only buy a foriegn car.
Do you consider a car foreign if it is manufactured in the US by US workers employed by a US subsidary company to a foreign manufacturer?
Way back in the ’70s the Wall Street Journal predicted that worldwide car companies were tending to mere into multi-national mega-corporations, no longer distinctly single country businesses. It rather blurs the definition of what is a domestic versus foreign car.
A friend in the business told me that, for the past 50-odd years, Olds’ purpose was to be Cadillac’s AAA farm club; any feature you found on a Caddy would have been tried out and refined in the previous three generations of Deltas. That way everything that got tried on a Caddy – designs, options, ideas, whatever – was tried and tested before it went into a Caddy.
Do you consider a car foreign if it is manufactured in the US by US workers employed by a US subsidary company to a foreign manufacturer?
I don’t know what you consider anything these days, DG. The last three vehicles I have purchased have been a Chevrolet Lumina, a Dodge Intrepid and a Hyundai Santa Fe. The only one that was assembled in the United States is the Hyundai, which was assembled in Montgomery, Alabama. Both the Lumina and the Intrepid were built in Ontario.
It rather blurs the definition of what is a domestic versus foreign car.
Beyond recognition, I’d say.
It is too bad about Pontiac, though — while I’ve never owned one, I’ve driven a Bonneville and a Grand Prix in the last decade. The Grand Prix was nothing special but the Bonneville (a mid 90s version) was a great road trip car — big, responsive and powerful, an excellent ride for passing on 2-lane highways. I don’t know if anyone loved Oldsmobiles, but I think a lot of people love Pontiacs.
When I was ninetween I had a ’64 GTO. The fenders were dented and it needed paint, but it had a 389 with a Holley 4 barrel carb under the hood & four-on-the-floor transmission.
That was a very good car for a nineteen year old man to have.
Hey, don’t you go dissing Olds 442! I wish it was “my father’s car.”
And G8 is hardly a Pontiac. At least not a Pontiac that originated on these shores, like all the others.
And G8 is hardly a Pontiac.
True that. No more than an Escalade is a Cadillac or a 9-7x is a Saab.
GM has fallen victim to the unions GM execs enabled for decades but also to their own invention – brand engineering – where platforms are modified superficially and then force-fed to the various divisions.
Oh come ON! The Cadillac Cimalier was PURE MARKETING GENIUS!
Too bad it was a simmering pile of shit also.
I have a friend who worked at a local auto parts wholesale distributor, making deliveries to dealerships on an as needed basis. They handled all of the big 3, and some foreign, but mostly big 3. He said 40% of their volume was not just GM, but GM fuel system parts. There is a reason why Honda and Toyota retain their resale value FAR better than GM does. There is a reason Chrysler cars have a “reputation” for transmissions taking a crap at 100K miles.
Chuck, you are not in the majority.
I have a friend whose Dad has a 1999 Camaro Z28. He gave me a ride in it last fall. It had less than 42K miles on it. It had far more squeaks, rattles and groans than my 1991 185K Nissan Stanza.
I will say this: The new Malibu IS a nice car. Let’s see how reliable it is in 5 years. I’m not holding out high hopes for it.
Fletch put it best:
“… my ex-wife’s lawyer’s Oldsmo-buick”
The Olds 442 was slick. Full luxury quarter-mile runs. With the AC on full.
When I was in high school, a friend of a friend had the baddest Pontiac evah! A 1968 GTO that he had shoe-horned a 455 into. With Nitrous (a novelty at the time) the car was geared for Wednesday night bracket racing and would lift the front wheels off the line. But more than a quarter-miler, the car could blast on the highway as well. Biggest kick of G force on the ground I’ve ever had.
I lift my cup to Pontiac tonight. We’ll see what the future brings.
A ’64 Goat with a 389, 4-barrel Holley is a terrible car for a 19-year-old man — as are gonads, for that matter. Ahh, but the memories….
My first new car was a ’79 Firebird Formula, with the 403 (6.6 litre) Olds engine, T tops in Bright Blue Metallic. Since it was a Formula, no “screaming chicken” on the hood. Was fun, but had a slightly mis-cast differential housing, so wouldn’t keep a seal in place. It was stylin’.
1980 Bonneville. Great for roadtripping!!!
Keg in trunk with CO2. Hose through back seat….