The 2009 SEMA Show in Las Vegas was officially sponsored by Ford. In an ironic twist of fate, however, it was not a Ford vehicle that took center stage at the show. Rather, it was the new Chevy Camaro that took the show by storm. It was Camaro overload. There were Camaros everywhere. It didn’t matter to which company the booth belonged. There was a Camaro in it.
We won’t delve into every bow tie sports car that was at the show, but the one in BASF’s booth really caught our attention. Although it was a V6, this particular Camaro had some major surgery done under the hood. With a twin turbocharger set up – with really clean, purposeful plumbing – it was flawlessly executed, not to mention the BASF paint job that enveloped the car.
Enough with the words. Here’s a short cross section of the Camaro phenomenon witnessed at SEMA.
Pontiac, the 83 year-old General Motors brand once dubbed as the “excitement division” of the Detroit OE manufacturer, will be eliminated Monday, April 27.
According to The Detroit News, the demise of the Pontiac brand is part of the government-supervised restructuring plan of the automotive industry. GM is also set to close additional production plants and cut jobs to further reduce its $28 billion in unsecured debt.
Sure, Pontiac may have been an “exciting” brand in the past with the venerable old school GTO introduced in the 60s. But there have been nothing exciting about the forgettable Aztek, the front wheel drive Grand Am (‘85 and up), the crappy G5 (rebadged Chevy Colbat), and the G6, which is just an updated & rebadged Grand Am. What about the latest GTO / G8? Both are made by Holden, GM’s subsidiary in Australia, and Holden is no General Motors (in a good way). What about the Pontiac Solstice? You can buy the same car as a Saturn or Opel (Germany), all sharing the same underpinnings. Hell, the Solstice’s roots can be traced back to the Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220. There’s nothing original about any of their cars.
Rather than being an exciting brand, Pontiac – much like GM’s other brands – have incited an endless chain of yawns. And having no small car strategy has for sure hurt this brand. Personally speaking, I have never considered a Pontiac vehicle when shopping for a new car. Needless to say, I won’t miss it one bit.