.....will be Monday, according to Edmunds and Leftlane News. I know the nameplate has suffered from the current lineup but I cant help to think how strange this will be. The same nameplate that brought us "The Goat" is no more. Growing up, the mid-to-late 90's Firehawk was my favorite car. So badass.... Hopefully, when the economy and the automotive industry recovers, someone will revive the ole nameplate, along with cars worthy enough to be called "The Goat" or The Firehawk."
shocked but needed. there's just way too many GM brands sucking it up. GM needs to go to a toyota/nissan setup where they have an economy and luxury line instead of 10 diff brands.
They're trying to get rid of some of their brands by selling them so they can make some money. Hummer has been in rumors to go to a Chinese company ( ) and Saturn may be up for sale.
man fair enough the company has really fallen off, but it's still a sad day. for me, it feels like when a favorite athlete retires... yet in reality, it's much worse. this isn't the same company that brought us these classic. and my car -
Very sad. I remember drag racing my cousin in his 1966 Pontiac Bonneville, the one with the 421 cubic inch, 376hp monster under the hood. It drove him crazy that I could beat him with my 1965 Mustang fastback, with the 271hp 289 V8. God, those were the days. Gas under 30 cents a gallon, few cops, and some really great streets to race on out in Southeast Houston. I was always a Ford/Merc guy, but I liked Pontiacs. A real bummer.
I thought they'd keep Pontiac around with a couple of sportier cars (like the Solstice and the like) to be sold through Buick dealers. My first car, by the by, was an '86 Trans Am.
dude, i'm sorry, but Pontiac's cars have suuuucked over the past decade. Not really making me very sad.
I actually liked the looks of the new GTO, but I guess it didn't really hold true to the GTO name and what it stood for and that's why people hated it.
That is sad. The Firebird and Trans AM were my favorite cars of 90's. The few still driving around today still kick ass and look as fresh today as they did almost 15 years ago. Alas, it is necessary for the greater good, which is GM pulling through the hard times. RIP Pontiac
Really? Sad as it is, the Smokey and the Bandit and Knight Rider series killed the Trans Am, which was the only thing Pontiac had going for it. Once they became known as red-headed step-childs of an exponentially deteriorating company, the big picture was seen. I still recall both me and my brother having cars in 89. I went 87 Mustang. He went 86 Camaro. There wasn't a contest. Speed, handling, things breaking, etc. I've never bought a GM since, and that was after my dad had a few, himself. They were just really, really bad cars. And I've ridden in enough to know. Odd thing is they are the Goliath. Ford hasn't asked for a bailout, and Dodge has been on the brink for decades. Unions had their value at one point in time, but just like a pendulum swing, it has been corrupted. Time for them to swallow the pill or give up. Your glory days of crappy work like it is a government job are over. Welcome to the real world.
Of course, a lot of the reasons GM made crappy cars that fewer and fewer people wanted was because of non-union design, finance, marketing and engineering people. Though there have certainly been quality-control problems over the years with GM products, the relentless pursuit of wringing every penny out of each and every car can also result in inferior components being used and ending up with cars that look and feel cheap when compared to offerings from competing companies. Even the best, most efficient factory workers can't turn crappy wiring or cheap plastics into high-quality cars. And even the design of the factories and how workers were tasked to do their jobs was probably a factor in the lower quality/less efficient results. Check out the differences between how a car is made in a Toyota factory vs. in a GM factory. It seems like the factory design itself (and factories aren't designed by the union laborers) at Toyota and similar companies is designed to place a higher value on quality control. If the company doesn't value quality control, it's difficult to motivate the rank-and-file to value quality control on their own. GM has been a dysfunctional company for a long time with plenty of blame for their current and past failures to go around.
Man this sucks. My favorite two cars that friends owned as a teenager were both Pontiacs. One owned a Firebird with the ram air and everything. The other owned a mid '80s Gran Prix that was really, really, really fast. Looking back, both cars were unnecessary. The Firebord was just a better looking Camaro, and I couldn't tell the difference between the Gran Prix and a Monte Carlo for anything. Still, both were awesome cars.
