| The glory days of Smokey Yunick and Fireball | | | | sorts of signs touting the number three in sales |
| Roberts charging around the stock car tracks of | | | | and an institutional pride rarely seen in the |
| the south and Farmer Arnie Beswick tearing up | | | | business world. The company took a higher price |
| the drag strips through out the country are long | | | | product and went head to head with lower priced |
| gone... as are the Firebirds Burt Reynolds thrilled us | | | | Ford and Chevy. These were the victorious days |
| with on the big screen. Government Motors | | | | of Roberts and Beswick. Management at that |
| snuffed out the life of this once proud automaker | | | | time had taken a dull, stodgy, but reliable product |
| on April 27, 2009. Once number three in sales, | | | | and morphed it into one of the most desired cars |
| Pontiac had slipped down near the bottom in | | | | of the time. |
| recent years, a victim of union excesses, inept | | | | They worked on the concept that you could sell a |
| corporate management, insurance standards and | | | | young man's car to an old man, but you couldn't |
| government regulation. | | | | sell an old man's car to a young man... and it |
| Pontiac's story is one of the entire American auto | | | | worked. They turned out some of the baddest |
| industry. Union contracts that were almost | | | | street machines for their time and backed it up |
| reasonably workable when the industry was living | | | | with winning efforts in NASCAR, NHRA, USAC |
| high on the hog and making so much money they | | | | and who knows how many other forms of racing. |
| built amazing buildings as monuments to | | | | For myself, I had a Tri-Power '60 Ventura and, |
| themselves, seem oddly out of place when the | | | | later, a '64 GTO. Both were fun to drive and just |
| profitable sales have been lost to foreign | | | | a little nicer than their lower priced Chevrolet |
| competitors. The adversarial relationship that | | | | cousins. |
| seemed appropriate when the big three had the | | | | This was not to last, however, as fuel shortages, |
| US market all to themselves remains, to the | | | | insurance rates and government regulations put |
| detriment of all concerned. | | | | and end to the no holds barred competition |
| Times change, so do market conditions. The US | | | | between the auto companies... and we started the |
| automakers were up against foreign competition | | | | long, downward spiral to the indistinguishable |
| where labor and management understood they | | | | econobox lumps so popular today. |
| needed to work together to produce a product | | | | The point is that, for the most part, the |
| that would penetrate the US market. Somehow | | | | excitement of the "new car" has been beaten our |
| the this spirit of cooperation never caught on in | | | | of our society. Few really are exciting. They have |
| the US, even at Pontiac where once there | | | | become so expensive that without a rich daddy, |
| existed a pride in achievement. The unions kept | | | | young people can't afford anything remotely |
| asking for more and more and the greed and lack | | | | interesting. Foreign manufacturers, reading the |
| of resolve on the part of the companies made | | | | market better than their American counterparts, |
| avoiding the lost production of a strike outweigh | | | | brought annoying little cars the kids call "tuners" |
| the long term destruction of overpriced contracts. | | | | into this environment. Once again, the big three |
| Many other factors played into the downfall of | | | | were outmaneuvered. Parking lots that once were |
| the auto industry, not the least were government | | | | filled with Chevys, Fords and Pontiacs are now |
| regulations in the name of safety, fuel efficiency | | | | homes to Hondas, Mazdas and Hyundais. As |
| and others, just because they could. Some of us | | | | Chester A. Riley used to say, "What a revoltin' |
| remember the foolish "double nickel" speed limits | | | | development this is!" |
| imposed by our "benefactors" in Washington until | | | | So one more American icon is passing from the |
| sanity returned. What we saw in this case and | | | | scene. It's a sad day. However to the progressive |
| around the industry were companies that paid | | | | ideologues inside the beltway this is a good thing. |
| attention to their operations, but not the market | | | | The old must be destroyed to make room for |
| or environment they lived in. | | | | the new, the centrally planned Government |
| In the early '60s I was considering attending | | | | Motors car that looks like all the others and is |
| General Motors Institute... a fine engineering school | | | | certainly less than what are used to, but more |
| with the obvious emphasis on the automobile | | | | then they believe we deserve. For those familiar |
| industry. While checking into this I had the | | | | with the development of the first Volkswagens it |
| opportunity to visit the main offices of the | | | | is, to quote a great American philosopher, "It's |
| Pontiac Division. The place was adorned with all | | | | deja vu all over again. |