Missing Pontiac

I am in general not sentimental about General Motors. The company made very bad cars for a very long time. I once asked a friend who worked there why, as a research project, they didn't just buy Camries, take them apart, and try to put them back together again. He said they did--the taking apart, anyway. They never could figure it out.

But my first car was a 1973 Pontiac Grand Am. My parents gave it to me as a college graduation present in 1980. On a good day, the car got something like 16 mpg on the highway, because it had a 6.3 liter V-8 engine. But boy, could it go fast! It also handled really well.

I drove across the country a couple of times in it, and it was a great car in the city, because it was a bit of a beater, so the Mercedes and BMWs around me knew they had a lot more to lose than I were something unfortunate to happen if they cut me off.

So I have warm and fuzzy feelings about the Pontiac brand. On the other hand, I never later went out and bought one...