Word: pontiac
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Pontiac •discontinuation of by General Motors...
...Unfortunately, my first new car - a 1979 Pontiac Sunbird - was an unfitting $5,300 homage to the old warrior. It was a lemon, a cut-rate and an ill-aimed stab at beating the Japanese competition in the growing market for smaller cars spawned by rising fuel prices. None of the Pontiac heritage had rubbed off on the Sunbird. After the car saw several years of gentle driving, mostly by my wife, an interior door handle popped off. The fan knob went kaput, and the radio played only intermittently. The final indignity was when the hood release broke, making...
...Pontiac, in fact, turned out to be the worst car I ever owned. And that's saying something, because it trumps my very first (used) car: a British 1960 Morris Minor 1000, complete with its rain-bedeviled Lucas electrical system that seemed to render the car immobile in the driveway whenever the weatherman forecast cloudy skies. For someone primed to love the Pontiac brand, the Sunbird was a disheartening experience. Everything from the trunk lining to the levers used to (manually) adjust the driver's seat seemed flimsy and prone to problems. Service at dealerships was mediocre at best. They...
...finally traded in my Sunbird for a 1986 Honda Accord that had earned rave reviews from a savvier journalistic colleague. In the years since - not wanting to be burned again - I've paid attention to the annual auto guide from Consumers Reports, checking to see whether Pontiacs rated better than the Honda or Toyotas I had become accustomed to buying. Didn't happen, although Pontiac had made some gains in recent years...
...real problem facing U.S. car companies is that my family's automotive path has been replicated in millions of garages across America. Unlike me, my kids didn't grow up in the backseat of a Pontiac. They grew up in the backseat of a Honda Accord, then a Toyota Camry and finally a Toyota Sienna minivan. So guess what? I suspect that when it's their turn to buy their first new cars, they'll be looking at the brands they know best, just as their father did a generation ago. Their old man wishes, in his heart, that they...