Monday, May 4, 2009

Pontiac, RIP

Until a few days ago, the Arnolds had a plan. In the tradition of his
father and grandfather, Bob the white-haired elder, 74, would be turning the
dealership over to his son, Bob the dark-haired younger, 44. The handoff would
have happened sooner if not for the embezzlement of $400,000 a couple of years
ago by a longtime employee who was like family and who, it turned out, liked to
gamble.

But a far deeper betrayal came last week, the Arnolds say, when another
family member and poor gambler, General
Motors
, announced that by 2010 it would close its Pontiac division and 2,600
of its 6,200 dealerships — all to convince a doubtful Obama administration that
it had a business plan strong enough to beat a bankruptcy deadline of June 1 and
to deserve more government loans.

Pontiac: The Official Car of the 2009 Economic Crisis.


It's so sad to see Pontiac disappear. It was my favorite car of all, so far: a 1990 Pontiac 6000. It looked good, drove well, had lots of power and room, and was fairly good on gas mileage. What more could you want? I still see lots of Pontiacs around, so they seem like a good niche brand. But who am I?

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