Why I'm not terribly assed about the death of Pontiac

Once upon a time, I simply admired cars in general. In many ways, I still do -- I'll commonly say "Horsepower is horsepower" -- and throughout my car-loving history I went through a few phases, starting with Hot Wheels...

One week, I might have a late-1960s Corvette Stingray in my pocket. The next, it could be a mid-1950s Ford F1 hotrod pickup. And the next could be one of those wacky Rothian Homermobiles that Mattel were apt to make on occasion. Cars = love.

Eventually, fascination went from Hot Wheels to model building to remote control, and so on, then finally to the real thing. By the time I get around to purchasing my own car, I noticed something dismaying about the differences between Ford and GM...

Example: At the time, GM still had Oldsmobile, and while it and fellow child nameplate Mercury had performance in their pedigree, GM had wandered far afield from it. No rear-drive, fewer V8s, and nearly all sedans. What happened?

Arguably, Wayne Cherry and Bob Lutz happened. A ton of nameplates that share vanilla designs (Pontiac Grand Prix/Am and Bonneville, Buick LeSabre and Skylark) and lack of historical context (Pontiac Aztek, Cadillac Escalade, Buick Lucerne and Rendezvous, Chevy Aveo and Cobalt), and the few flecks of tasty chocolate are either watered down (Pontiac GTO, Chevy Impala and Malibu), bastardized (Pontiac G8, anything recently Chevy SS), or flung into oblivion (Pontiac G8-ST, plus good historic names like Seville, Riviera, El Camino, Caprice, Tempest, LeMans). Anybody see any patterns in there?

Pontiac was quite like the redheaded stepchild GM didn't quite know what to do with. There was some performance orientation with the GXP models, but then there was this air of mid-range luxury and comfort that they still wanted to execute in models like the Torrent and Montana.

Today, GM seems to be taking a page from Ford's playbook. If you want luxury, go with Cadillac (Lincoln). If you want comfort, go with Buick (Mercury). If you want a truck, go with GMC (Ford Trucks). And if you want performance or anything else, go with Chevy (Ford).

Sad, yes -- if only that I admire the old Goats like the Tempest LeMans and Judge, and the Firebirds and Trans Ams, and even the old boulevard yachts like the Star Chief and Bonneville -- but sadly inevitable. Happy trails, Chief Pontiac.