Poncho is Dead, thanks to General Motors

Many of us die-hard aficionados of Pontiac called the marque "Ponchos" as a shortened version of Pontiac. I have no idea when this started, but back in the 1950's when someone owned a "Poncho" you knew it was a Pontiac. No big long name, just a simple pseudonym for a great car. And, now Poncho is dead, thanks to the idiots at General Motors.

How could this happen? Let's take a short trip down memory land, to when the muscle car was king of the street. The American Muscle Car, that is. Yes, there was the 1950's Corvettes and the Chevy's and even the Fuel Injected 1967 Pontiac Bonneville and Chevrolet Bel Air, but the car that set the tone for all muscle cars to follow was the 1964 Pontiac GTO.

In the early 60's, most of the big engines were in big cars, such as the Ford Galaxy with a 427, a Chevy Impala or Biscayne with a 409 or later on a 427. Dodge and Plymouth as well as Chrysler offered big engines as well, including the 383 and 440 blocks as well as the 426 Hemi. But again, these were in big cars with lots of weight to pull.

So, along came the GTO, from the parts bin at Pontiac, built on the Tempest frame and body and infused with a 389 cubic inch engine and a 4 speed transmission, the "Little GTO" was just about King of the Street. Add three two barrel carburetors, or three deuces as it was known and called "Tri-Power" by Pontiac, and you had a potent street and drag machine that few cars could match. The Mustang came along later that year, but the smaller engined "Pony" car was no match for the "Goat" as the GTO was called by many. For years the GTO ruled the streets and was the cradle upon which the American Muscle Car industry was born, giving rise to the famed Olds 4-4-2, the Plymouth Road Runner and GTX, Dodge Super Bee, Shelby Mustang GT500KR, and even such unusual, yet amazing players, as American Motors with the AMX and Studebaker with the Supercharged Lark, and Studebaker-Packard with their Hawk series.

Camaro soon followed along with Firebird. The car that Grandpa drove, the Buick, gave birth to the Buick Grand National in later years, followed closely by the venerable GNX version that could whip just about anything on the drag strip with it's turbocharged V-6.

Then, for some strange reason, in the 90's GM decided that we didn't want what we wanted. That we wanted what GM would give us, and like it or not, if you wanted a GM product you had to settle. What? Settle? We were Americans and not used to settling for just any Iron. We wanted muscle and not rice burners and Japanese tuners. We wanted cubic inches and V-8's and thunderous exhausts. And GM and Chrysler let us down. Ford still produced the Mustang and thus, has survived the debacle pretty well, at least to this point.

GM dumped Oldsmobile. Remember the slogan they used during the waning years of that marque? "This isn't your father's Oldsmobile!" Hell no it wasn't. Dad's Olds had horsepower and could smoke most of the cars on the road or the track on Saturday nights. It had style. The new Oldsmobile was pathetic to say the least. No self respecting muscle car person would own one. Thank God it wasn't your father's Olds!

Buick was the consummate symbolism of a granny car. Driven by the aged and the perfect vehicle to clog the highways between the senior citizens home, and the all you can eat buffet in Senility City. Big and style less, they were avoided at all costs by the younger population. Then, someone got the idea to use the same body style as the Olds Cutlass during the early to mid 80's and create the Buick Regal. Then, why not turbocharge it. Then create the Buick Grand National. Now there was excitement on four wheels. Then, for the ultimate fun with a V-6, came the GNX, a Super Stock version of the Grand National. For once in a hot rodder's life, they actually could say YES to the jingle "Wouldn't you really rather own a Buick?"

Aah, but GM screwed this up too. Blame it on gas shortages or maybe brain shortages at GM, but the fast Buick's disappeared in favor of over sized behemoths that guzzled gas anyway, and were never going to sell to the kids and young adults who had money to spend. Buick regressed to the car driven by senior citizens and people who didn't yet have their AARP card just didn't want to see in their driveway

I am saddened to see Pontiac disappear, just as I have been by many of the names of our automobiles that once graced our streets. I have had three Pontiac's, a 1957 Bonneville, a 1966 GTO and a 2005 GTO. I bought that 2005 GTO thinking somehow it would hearken me back to the days when the GTO was king of the road. Maybe I thought, somehow, it would bring back 1964 and the excitement of the era when the GTO was the car to drive. Factually, it was faster, drove better, handled better on curves, and had a better fit and finish than my 66 Goat. But, it wasn't really a GTO at all, and it wasn't really even a Pontiac. It was a re-badged Holden Monaro, made in Australia and not in the USA. It was scary fast and fun, and had GTO emblems, but it still wasn't true American Iron like the old days. They only made the "new" GTO for three years, 2004, 2005 and 2006 and production ceased. There will never be another GTO made. Period.

Bad decisions on the part of the automakers, greed on the part of the unions and trying to force cars that we didn't want down our collective throats has brought us to the current state of affairs. Those of us who bought American for 50 years now turn to the imports for better value, better performance and mileage, and stability of the makers. It never had to come to this. But when companies forget that the consumer gets what they want, not what you want to give them, it all ends up the same.

Bottom line is that the tag line on Pontiac commercials "Pontiac...We build excitement!" has fallen on deaf ears, as it just hasn't been true. What Pontiac and GM has done is build apathy, and the motoring public has finally responded by saying we'll have someone else build something exciting for us, thank you. You had several generations to make the grade and failed, now it's someone elses' turn.