I understand that Pontiac has fallen under the knife and will no longer be. That's a shame, I guess. I've never owned a Pontiac although my first father-in-law owned several. He didn't cuss them, but he was a GM employee and a GM driver.
My room mate in College had a '48 Pontiac Sedan. We double-dated in it a couple of times. Once, there were six of us in that car. Two in the front and four in the back. It wasn't crowded back there, either. The seats had been re-covered in nylon seat covers and they were as slick as greased... well, they were slick.
I understand that Saturn has been whacked, too. As I recall, Saturn was formed to fix what was wrong with car companies and give consumers what they wanted. So much for that.
Oldsmobile is gone, and I'm given to understand that Hummer and Saab are on the block, too. That's five in GM's stable that are no longer viable marques. What's left? Chevy, GMC trucks, Cadillac and Buick? Did I forget any?
Lots of news agencies will be talking about the restructuring, but I'm told that the Government will be a majority shareholder. UAW is going to have a sizeable share, and the bond-holders will get a minority play. The question becomes, will the motoring public trust a company run by the government and the union? Trust them enough to actually buy cars and pickups from them? Trust them to stand behind their vehicles and honor warranties?
Who knows? It all depends on what the vehicles look like and how they perform. I'm not holding my breath that General Motors will be here in another year.
2 comments:
First car I ever bought was a '48 Pontiac (in 1963). It was a 4-door Chieftan, with a Straight-eight and three on the tree. My mother was impressed that the clock worked on the old clunker.
I paid $65 for it, and when I changed the oil the first time, I found the crankcase half-filled with Motor Honey. After I flushed that all out of there, the car smoked like a chimney and got 40 miles to the quart of oil, BUT IT RAN! I kept a 2 1/2 gallon oil can in the trunk, and bought my oil in bulk at 30 cents a quart.
The car got 7 miles to the gallon, and it had two huge two-barrel carbs on that flathead.
It was SMOOTH. The back seat was just as huge as you said, but mine had the original horsehair cloth, in very good shape, too.
I got my first ever in-car nooky in that car. Could never listen to the radio on Lover's Lane though, because it was a tube radio and it ran the battery down in 20 minutes with the engine off.
I wish I still had her (not the girl, the car).
Can we trust a car company that's being run by the government and the union? Hmmm, lemme think about this one.
I know what we can do, let's take a look at the governments track record on keeping it's promises.
First there were all those treaties and promises made to the natives. Ok, on second thought, let's not look.
Short answer, PawPaw, you're right. GM is screwed.
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