Now, for you MoPar fans.

Here, thanks to sloanbarri, is Chrysler's answer (their restructuring plan was also filed Tuesday) to the previous post, as sung by Jan and Dean.

Yeah, I know: what's a New York City dwelling, global warming hating, bleeding-heart liberal like me doing reminiscing about the gas-guzzling, non-catalytic convertered, irresponsibly driven muscle cars of yore?

No good answer.

Pontiac lives?

This morning's New York Times, reporting on the General Motors survival plan due to be released today, said that the company would reduce its automotive product lines to four: Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC, and Buick. Even though I've never owned a Pontiac, that announcement took me aback and made this song my earworm for the day (thanks to A2Grapevine):


In an update posted on line after the release of G.M.'s plan, the Times now notes that the plan says Pontiac "will have a much smaller role, if any, in G.M.'s future... ." The actual text of the Plan, to which the Times gives a link, says (on page 15) that Pontiac "will be a highly focused niche brand." It will be interesting to see what "niche" G.M. sees Pontiac as filling: the Solstice niche; the Torrent niche?

Alas, Saturn looks like a goner, unless someone buys it.

2.20 update: Today's Times has a front page piece on Pontiac's decline, noting that G.M.'s past efforts to cut costs by standardizing vehicle types across divisions made Pontiac products less appealing to the performance buffs who were the marque's ardent loyalists.

The Times article also mentions the source of the initials "GTO": the Ferrari Gran Turismo Omologato.

2.23 update: Gotta love Catnapping's comment on having owned a 1966 Pontiac LeMans with a '65 GTO engine:

God, I loved that car. I liked the lines of the later models better, but there was nothing like punching the accelerator, and jumping from 25 to 70 in the blink of an eye. Better 'an sex - hell, it WAS sex.