[AMC-list] goodbye pontiac

["Eddie Stakes" <eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Looks like Pontiac will be joining us on the ever expanding "orphan" field now. Getting sort of crowded with Hummer, Olds, Plymouth, Saturn now Pontiac. The below was sent to me from fellow car fan Randy Tate. On the Aztec however I wanted to comment. While the Aztek tops many 'worst cars' lists:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1658545_1658544_1658540,00.html

Back in the millenium I was working at a sports bar called Nick's here in Houston. A friend of mine who frequented the place, Mike, also known as 'fake cop mike' used to work at Mars Research on Wilcrest at Richmond Avenue about 2 miles south of Nick's. There, companies paid Mars to bring in individuals to get opinions on upcoming products for variety of reasons, could be new beer, chips, gaming software, anything and everything. Mike would solicit the crew from Nick's, myself included, as one would get paid $40-$50 for usually hour work at Mars. You sat thru presentation, ate stuff, drank stuff, played games, whatever it was, no one knew until you showed up for appointment. You just evaluated things and got paid for it while being watched.

On this particular day it was new Pontiac Aztek. There were a series of commercials we watched. Behind the huge 2 way mirror was GM reps and marketing people. After you watched a commercial the instructor would ask questions. One of the commercials showed a couple having more fun than legally allowed by law at beach, waterfall, driving, a Aztek. 

I told them that I thought this was the most butt ugly car I had ever seen, it makes a AMC Pacer look beautiful. They copied the chopped off back end of a Gremlin and used it. The idea of the seats folded down to make a bed was stolen from Nash in the 40s/50s and if you wanted to make a bed inside Aztek you would have to be midgets. The commercials were symbolism making it appear that if you bought a Aztek, you would never work another day in your life, all fun at beach, waterfall, camping, nothing more.

I was the harshest of the group and let everyone know am car collector. (A lady there said "that is one ugly car! though)...I also mentioned that Detroit needs to quit spitting out junk like this, if they sold any of these ugly things it would be to ugly people, not beautiful, sexy couple shown in one of the commercials. Montezuma's Revenge......I blathered, (got laughs in room, probably behind 2way also) later this would be also mentioned by those who felt GM had lost it's way.

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/06/the-pontiac-aztek-and-the-perils-of-design-by-committee.html

Two reps came out later and talked to me, asking why so harsh on it and I simply said that 'it looks like a piece of sh*t, and I don't think it will sell, much less bring people into Poncho showrooms'. I said to them I could waste your day telling you about throwing away valuable resources into something that won't sell and mentioned Matador coupes from 1970s. I don't know if it did bring curious buyers in, but know it didn't sell worth a damn either. I later heard from Mike also, as he said my opinions were recorded and taken back to Detroit. Whole room, all 8 of us, opinions recorded and only 2 thought 'it was a neat car' but 'expressed no desire to buy one' either, so ugly little car went 0 fer 8 that day. I still got invited back for more 'research' at Mars later. Didn't see that coming.

Too bad about Pontiac though, have always like the marque, although those Aussie built GTO things fall into same Aztek mold of what the hell were you thinking?

I saw a piece yesterday on tv about "struggling Pontiac" and thought for a moment of American Motors and other orphans, once sales dip it seems all get that same moniker from press of "struggling" so see "struggling Saturn" or "struggling Olds" or "struggling whoever".

So goodbye Pontiac, I'll see you at the cruise nights and car shows there with my AMCs.
Eddie Stakes
713.464.8825
eddiestakes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.planethoustonamx.com


===========================

      http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_goodbye_pontiac

      "Anybody know what GTO stands for?"


      Yes.....long before the Aztek (which some had a different name for that subsituted the z for a couple of ss's)...American cars lost their 'passion' I think that was one of Detroit's big failings. Like a lot of marriages..people let it get boring and stale.

      http://www.amazon.com/Glory-Days-Horsepower-Passion-Detroit/dp/0837602084/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1288624107&sr=8-1

      Gran Turismo Omologato 

      "The name, which was DeLorean's idea, was inspired by the Ferrari 250 GTO, the successful race car. It is an acronym for Gran Turismo Omologato, Italian for homologated for racing in the Grand tourer class. The name drew protest from purists, who considered it close to sacrilege."


      "Car and Driver incited controversy when it printed that a GTO that had supposedly been tuned with the "Bobcat" kit offered by Ace Wilson's Royal Pontiac of Royal Oak, Michigan, was clocked at a quarter mile time of 12.8 seconds and a top speed of 112 mph (180 km/h) on racing slicks. Later reports strongly suggest that the Car and Driver GTOs were equipped with a 421 cu in (6.9 L) engine that was optional in full-sized Pontiacs. Since the two engines were difficult to distinguish externally, the subterfuge was not immediately obvious. In Jim Wanger's "Glory Days" he admitted after three decades of denial that the red drag strip GTO had its engine swapped to a 421 Bobcat unit. Since the car was damaged during the testing, and Wangers did not want anyone looking under the hood, he used the blue road course GTO to flat tow the red GTO 1500 miles back to Detroit. Frank Bridge's sales forecast proved inaccurate: the GTO package had sold 10,000 units before the beginning of t
 he 1964 calendar year, and total sales were 32,450." 

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