RIP PONTIAC

My car(s) throughout much of the 90s were hand-me-down 1987 white and silver Bonneville company cars from my dad. Both notoriously broke down, though I beat the ever-living shit out of both of them. My silver one once blew antifreeze in my face, which would have scarred me for life had the broken head gasket not prevented the antifreeze from circulating in the engine.

We stripped the parts off the silver one when it died, so I had a trunk full of water, oil, fuel pumps, etc., when they inevitably broke down on my white car. The trannie finally died on it shortly into my first job and I basically gave it to some hillbilly on the south side of Louisville.

I hate to see what's happening to GM. My grandfather managed a Buick/Olds dealership when I was a kid. I have an emotional attachment to GM, though I've been driving (gulp!) a Dodge since 2005.

 

OUTING ALERT: DS is Tim Horton.

Are you sure that wasn't a Ford Pantera?

 

I had a '97 Firebird for six or so years. Loved that car. Lost it in a wreck two years ago.

RIP, Pontiac.

 

This is the kind of car my parents brought me home from the hospital in - a white 1966 Pontiac Strato Chief. I believe they were made in Canada only and were similar to the Chevy Biscayne.

Pontiac will be missed. It's a sad day. :'(

 

can't find the exact model ... but my first was my uncle's old '64 tempest safari. this one is a few years earlier and mine was sort of a powder blue, but it's pretty close.

 

Here's hoping someone buys the right to revive this beauty:

 

I drive a '92 SE right now, and I really have to watch it to make sure I don't go above 80 too quick. It's a real nice car and I'm glad that elderly couple sold it to me for a song...well, a $1500 dollar song, but a nice car for me and my current life nonetheless. Sad to see Pontiac go.

 

Now what are they going to give away on "The Price is Right?"

My first new car was a 1989 Pontiac Sunbird that my dad bought me just before he split when I was in the 11th grade. Drove it through the last year-and-a-half of high school, all five years of college and my first year-and-a-half out of school until it blew a head gasket after 143,000 miles.

Lotta great memories in that car ...

 

Put a respectable set of chrome rims on the white one, remove any badging that might give local law enforcement the idea that they didn't exactly have the base engine, and those are mine. The white one went at 11 years and 95K, only because I took a "Keep Right" sign dead center on the front bumper and did a crapload of damage underneath. (Yes, I read the sign, but the slush on the road didn't cooperate.) 120 on the black one before I finally remembered I live on a hill in a place that gets a lot of snow, and grudgingly switched to an AWD Torrent. Think it's still running locally. Brakes sucked, but other than that, absolutely no complaints. Still miss 'em both.

 

The first new NEW car I ever bought is one I am driving now: a 1998 Chevy S10 truck that littorally* had 1.0 on the odometer when I drove it off the lot on Christmas Eve 1997. It was kinda our gift to each other, spouse wise.

Needless to say, I am still driving it (at 500K miles) and I still have the house, so I won twice.

* keeping future crossthread option open

 

I drive a 98 Grand Prix GT and still love it, handles well, lots of zip, very comfy.

I bought it a month after 9-11. I had been avoiding buying a car because I worried about having another looan but figured "screw it, life is too random and I am going to enjoy myself"

It has 170 K on it and when I loaned it to my dad recently he could not believe how nice of a ride it was.

Pontiac was probably the only domestic sedan that I would have considered buying again.

 

DS, that is a great story. The first Internet edition wouldn't be nearly as much fun.