OT: Talking Cars Tuesday - The General
Last week was Henry's company, this week let's talk about the folks in Milford and Pontiac. The Ren Cen & Hamtramck. The definers of the term "Cadillac" to mean top-of-the line. Makers of glorious machines like the Bel Air... and everyone's way to Break Bad, the Aztek.
So, what are your GM stories? Do we need to pour one out for Pontiac, Olds, Saturn, Hummer, and the rest? Or is there just something about a Corvette with the T-Tops out rumbling by that makes you smile?
Family wagon growing up:
Just look at the size of that frickin' wayback. And it was all mine. My brothers were the carsick type if you turned them around facing backwards. When you're like eight years old, that kind of space is basically your own personal romper room on vacation. You could stretch out and sleep, or make faces at the drivers behind, and have all kinds of room for books toys games and everything else.
If there's one tragedy of the bankruptcies, it's the loss of Pontiac. I guess Oldsmobile ended up being a little redundant (and I have a big soft spot for Olds since that was my first car), but Pontiac had some absolute beauties in its past.
Did that come with the rally fun pack?
which one of the auto-smart types can probably corroborate as the biggest station wagon ever made. bigger engines, too. we had one identical, including color, to the one in the picture. called the 'dragon wagon' as told in a story a few weeks back. didn't own it, was just a kid with a shiney new driver's license and mom wasn't alive so i got to drive her car since nobody else needed it.
It's a beauty Clark!
This looks EXACTLY like my dad's company car circa 1978/1979. Olds Custom Cruiser, right? Me and a buddy drove it to Hilton Head on spring break our senior year from good ole Marshall High. Got pulled over with open beer at a speed trap in upstate SC, had to pour all the beer out and go directly to the courthouse to pay a fine. Met up with four other HS buddies at one of the guys' parents' Sea Pines condo there, trashed it for a week. Invited about 200 people from the beach to a toga party and I think most of them showed up. One of my buddies was an all state track athlete and I put a Jack Tatum hit on him playing beach football and knocked him out of the Twin Valley conference track meet the week after spring break. Driving back on the twisty I40 route in that beast was a death defying feat, plowing that thing around the curves at 70/80mph+.
My son is a HS senior next year and there is no way in hell I would give him and his buddies my car and send them off for a week. It was truly a different time then. It's a wonder we survived high school.
Ours was a 1986 Pontiac Parisienne. The error is forgivable, however, as GM was the absolute king of badge engineering. The same car might end up as a Chevy, Olds, Pontiac, and Caddy.
Currently down 1-0 in the standing, the Nashville Predators' existance is mostly thanks to the Saturn plant in Tennessee that saw lots of UAW relocations from hockey fans http://grantland.com/features/hockey-tennessee-face-social-economic-change/
While Ford can claim the F-150 is the best selling vehicle in America, the combined sales of the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra used to pass the F-150 all the time. They recently did again (for at least one month).
GM engineering was so siloed in the 1950s and 1960s that each group had their own powertrain division. Chevy had their famous 454ci motor, while Buick, Oldsmobile, and Pontiac EACH had their own 455ci.
The original Corvette was only available with a 2 speed automatic transmission and a 6 cylinder engine.
The Chevrolet Suburban is the longest running automotive nameplate in history. Chevy has been selling Suburbans every year since Model Year 1935.
If you really want a screaming chicken, you can get a kit to convert a new Camaro
You tricked me with "The General". I thought you going down the insurance route for cars.
At least there's a GM in their commercial.
When I saw "The General" in the topic headline, I thought it was going to be about this:
I'm planning to title next week's "Mopar or No Car" so bring those Duke boys back next Tuesday.
I'll save it for next Tuesday.
The first was an 80's Olds Delta 88 that was a lemon. Constant issues. The other was a 90's GMC Safari conversion van. Made a lot of trips in that van and I loved it, but the sliding door rattled so horribly that it seemed it would fall off.
Of the big three, GM is my least favorite. Most of this is probably due to the obnoxiously long period of time where their interior design seemed to consist of nothing but trying to see how many ugly, gray plastic buttons and switches they could throw on the dashboard. Their interiors have just recently begun to recover from this.
for 30ish years before retiring and starting his company. A close family friend was the foreman at Poletown when I got my wife a little pregnant 18 years ago and he offered me a job there.
I passed, but part of me wishes I had taken it sometimes. Sure, it's backbreaking work. But it's also simple, mindless, and way less stressful than what I do now. And I would have made a helluva lot more money in my 20's than I did.
I think the only GM car I've ever owned was my beloved 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Mint green paint, dark green vinyl top, bench seats, and a 350 rocket V8.
an Oldsmobile Cutlass with a 454 and four speed Hurst shifter. For a short time. Some friends and I in high school were confronted by two old guys in a souped up Camaro. We cursed them out and took off, leading to a high speed romp through the city's residential neighborhoods, came to a T in the road, spun sideways into the curb, the driver's side front and rear tires, hubs, all related mechanicals totally pancaked. I was sick about it. Ruined a great ride.
Mine wasn't nearly as cool as yours. 3 speed auto and not nearly as fast, but it was the perfect high school pussy wagon in the mid 90's. Way cooler than the beat to shit escorts that most of the other kids drove.
Mine also came to a tragic end.
I got to drive a family friend's 1965 GTO... It was amazing. I wish I had the money to get one.
I've bought domestic my whole life - mostly GM with some Ford and Chrysler sprinkeled in. My Trailblazer went 235,000 miles before I decided to sell it. I've never really had any big issues with any of my cars, but I've developed a disdain for GM for the questionable business decisions they've made over the years.
My dad graduated from GMI 55 years ago as a Sales Engineer. He went to California 50+ years ago and became a very successful Fleet Sales Manager for a GMC dealerhip in Pasadena. He became a legend in the business. Customers came from as far away as Arizona and Oregon to get their trucks from my dad. He developed relationships that lasted decades. My dad offered great customer service and GM had a line of trucks and chassis that were highly desirable for commerical applications. Hell, if you ever bought food from a lunch truck, chances are my dad sold the chassis to the truck body manufacturer.
Then one day, GM decided to exit the medium duty business. Just like that - poof. Gone. It was like watching a piece of my dad's soul get ripped from his body. It was crushing. Trucks are his life and his hobby. Nobody enjoys their line of work more than my dad. And after pouring everything he had into it for 40 years, GM shuttered the whole damn thing in one fell swoop. Sure he could sell light duty vehicles, but that's like telling Rober DeNiro, "we're not making movies any more, but you can narrate the PSAs at LAX." Man, it was hard listening to my dad talk about looking for a new line of work well into his 60s.
Fast forward to now and he's still kicking it at the same dealership. At nearly 78 years old, he's outselling everybody else at the dealership and having a little fun again. Like I said, selling trucks and servicing his customers is his hobby.
And to nobody's surprise, GM is once again looking to re-establish themselves in the medium duty truck business. If only those dopes didn't demolish the Truck & Bus plant in Pontiac. Fools.
The super rare GMI graduate! I went there for less than a year. We found out we were going to be the first class to have Kettering on our diplomas instead of GMI. As soon as the school confirme it, about 20 of us left. It might have been the only smart decision I ever made about my education. At that point in time, they were offering next to no support for their business students, so it was sort of like setting $20,000 on fire each year to attend.
My aunt has worked for GM for nearly 40 years and her discounts made my family a psuedo GM family. Here's a list that goes as far back as I can remember of family chariots/my own vehicles.
1989 Olds Custom Cruiser Wagon
1994 Pontiac Trans Sport
2001 Oldsmobile Silhouette (This was the first and only car we had with a DVD player and as an elementary school kid, this was the most badass thing on earth in my opinion)
2004 Pontiac Grand Prix (This ended up being my first car)
2004 Buick Rendezvous/2007 Buick Rendezvous (my mom loved the Aztek's cousin so much she leased a pair of them back to back)
2007 Saturn Aura (my dad and I split this as my second car)
2009 Buick LaCrosse
2009 Pontiac Torrent
2011 Cadillac CTS Wagon (still the best car my parents ever bought)
2014 Buick Regal (my first car that I leased)
2017/18: ??? - My lease on the regal is coming up and unless I magically can afford a Mustang 5.0, I'll probably end up with another GM car.
This was my mom's winter car. My parents baught it used for around $2,000 and this thing was great. It had a lot of room to carry a family of five and got great gas mileage, and my parents didn't have hardly any maintenance on it while it drove through 10 years of michigan winters and multiple summers of 16 year old boys learning how to drive. It had power nothing, which made it a pain in the ass to parallel park for such a small car, but that was it.
I also love the Pontiac G8. Whenever I see one, I just think it is one of the best looking sedans I've seen. clean lines, with perfect fender flares. Too bad Pontiac got the axe when they did, because they had a really interesting line up at the time.
I think Pontiac's often were the best looking cars in the GM family.
Not mine, but my first car was one of these that was considerably rougher.
The last GM car and only fun GM car I had was this:
8 mpg and would hesitate due to smog controls when cold. Mine was pearl white and looked nice but had a bondo job and rust was on it's way so I sold it after a couple of years.
8 mpg was no fun but smoking the tires was.
Lot's of GM trucks owned including my current 2017 Chevy Colorado
Had a 1990 Cavalier that was OK. No issues with it really. My biggest problem with GM is they do weird crap as far as engineering vehicles. Case in point.......
My sons 2006 Cobalt needs lower control arm replaced. Should be cake right? Just a single bolt going through the bushing/frame like every other vehicle right?
Wrong. There is a bolt that threads into a collar that is tack-welded to the frame. Those tack welds routinely break. So, as we're trying to unscrew the bolt, the entire collar just spins and we get nowhere.
Had to take it into the stealership to re-tack weld the collar in place on both sides of the car to get the bolts out, since the old "pry bar against the collar to stop it from spinning" didn't work in my garage, nor the stealerships garage. Pretty sad that you need to be able to weld to change a commonly replaced part on a car.
I do love a nice corvette though and damnit those 69-70s GTO's were sweet.
GM always was the company for me that, when they wanted to, did some stunning engineering work.
The Volt, the CTS-V's, the ATS-V's, the Corvette, the Camaro.... all world class automobiles.
The Malibu is more pedestrian but still a fine car.
If I had a GM car that really got me going, it'd be the old Split window Corvettes, along with the Goat's.
the Bolt. The Bolt is like the model 3, except it exists, and likely doesn't have the initial quality quirks Tesla has become known for.
Grandfather sold Chevrolets in the D during the 50s-70s. Then bought a dealership up north. After his passing, my uncle owned and operated the dealership. In my 24 years of driving, I have only driven 1 non-Chevy auto (and it was an Olds Cutlass)
1992 S-10...1995 Beretta... 1993 Beretta Z26.... 2000 Camaro Z-28... 1993 Cutlass... 2005 Trailblazer LTZ...2007 Trailblazer LTZ...2009 Malibu LTZ... 2010 Traverse.. 2008 Impala LTZ...2014 Traverse and 2012 Tahoe.
Rockin' the bowtie til I die.
I miss Pontiac :(
I've never owned a GM, not that I have anything against them. The CTS-V is on my short list for next vehicle though. 640 hp... sounds like a good time.
Rode in one at Milford a month or two ago. Can't floor it, even with 4 people in it, without lighting up the rears. Even with traction control on.
I loved it, that when GM was asked about the CTS-V wagon, their answer was basically "no, there's no good business reason for this car, it's just awesome."
bought a '79 Chevy Caprice Classic brand new. I was with him when he bought it and I remember seeing a Corvette at the dealer selling for $10,000! I was blown away that anyone would pay that much for a car.
After 8 years I got the Caprice when my Dad bought a Camry. that Caprice was the last car I can remember with a bench seat.
I kinda miss bench seats and column-mounted shifters. Probably not too many others do, though.
My folks had a few different GM cars while I was growing up. They had a Chevy Vega, which was the biggest piece of **** ever and an X car, I think it was the Pontiac Phoenix. The X cars ended up having a dismal reputation iirc but this one wasn't awful. It still wasn't missed when it was traded in.
I'll be interested to see the 2018 Traverse when it arrives, may end up being my next ride.
1964 Chevelle wagon (first car, never forget it; ultimately rusted in half)
1967 Corvair Monza hardtop (loved it, beat the hell out of that thing)
1972 Chevelle (GM orange w black vinyl hardtop; drove 2 yrs in HS, some numb nuts hit it while it was parked and totaled it my first year at college)
1989 Chevy Beretta (my first new car; 4cyl, 5spd manual, great car, taken out by a deer about a week after I sold it to one of my sister's friends)
1996 Cadillac DeVille (got this car when I traded my dad a 2001 Acura MDX with 40k miles on it for his caddy. My wife was not happy. Yes, I actually did this.)
2003 GMC Envoy XL (had lots of problems w it, but it probably saved me and my dad's life when we were hit head-on on M36. State Farm bought me a new one.)
2012 GMC Acadia Denali (again, some expensive quality problems, 140k miles on it and I'm very happy to have it now be the car that my son drives)
Considering a Cadillac XT5 lease right now for my wife, stay tuned.
Non GM: Ford Gran Torino, Merc Maverick, Cougar (convertible!); Honda/Acura: 2 Acura, 7 Honda