I’ve been wallowing in the 70s for long enough. Time to kick it up a notch and relive Pontiac’s final glory days. This commercial isn’t just a great review of all the powerful ponchos from the mid-80s, it’s a little time capsule of 80s style and culture. I see big moussed hair, sharp sports coats with the sleeves rolled up like some A&E Night At The Improv stand-up hack, neon, and glam metal bands.
The MTV and Miami Vice influences are strong here. And why not? Pontiac enjoyed a decent resurgence in the 80s, they had a consistent marketing campaign, and some of the more interesting cars in the GM stable. As a teenager, I can clearly recall 1982 as the year the performance woke up from a long slumber, and the new Firebird was one loud alarm clock. The Mustang GT 5.0 was back too, along with the Camaro Z/28. Gas prices started to stabilize and then drop, and country took on a more optimistic tone. We were Americans, by God, and we were gonna exercise our inalienable right to a heavy right foot. At least that’s how P.J. O’Rourke might have put it.
I think this spot aired in 1985, (it was 1987), if I’m reading the front and rear fascias correctly. Perhaps the peak of 80s attitude, and Pontiacs riding about with unabashed bravado. The big stock market crash was just 2 years off, and a nasty recession was to follow. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.
In the end, the ad makes me a bit sad, given the demise of the brand. I’m not a Pontiac guy, at least not for anything built after 1971, but why couldn’t they have hung on to become an American BMW of sorts? Or at least cashed in on the whole muscle car revival. Imagine (and yes, I know there are some re-bodied concept cars out there) a modern Firebird TransAm twin right along side its Camaro brother. When I see a Mustang Cobra – Challenger Hellcat, – Camaro ZL1 shootout, I can’t help but think someone’s missing.
RIP Pontiac. The 1980’s were a last hurrah for Pontiac. In 1982 the 3rd Generation Firebird arrived. It was more sleeker looking then the 1982 Vette(its last year in that guise), Ford Mustang and fellow F-Body mate the Camaro.
Then the Fiero arrived and though it was simply a areo body on Chevette bits and bobs, it still looked good. My favorite Poncho of that era was the 1985-1988 Grand Am. It looked good(yes it was slow and noisy in iron duke guise) They revised it in 1989 to at a new beak like front end and I was never got into that look.
In that commercial it shows several of the cars with manual transmissions. It looked like Pontiac as the “we build excitement” division was heavily pushing stick shift cars. Contrast that to nowadays were nobody pushes a stick shift car
I wonder what was the actual percentage of stick shifts vs. automatics produced. Slamming a big, meaty TransAm shifter into third gear looked great on TV, but I’m sure they still sold more automatics out the door. Of course that split must have varied widely by model. More TransAm guys wanted to stir it themselves vs. Fiero commuters wielding an Iron Duke four banger out back.
Speaking of the Fiero, I have to recant my rant in the last Muscle Cars to Malaise Era post, where I stated that the 2nd generation Toronado marked the end of GM being an adventurous company. You have to give them a lot of credit for building a mid-engine car of any stripe. True, it took them four or five years to really refine it and get it right (just in time to kill it, see the 1989 Fiero GT) but it looked distinctive and was a lot more fun than a Sunbird.
It was when Pontiac dropped their name recognition in favor of model names like G5, G6 and G8 is when it all started to fall apart. The Grand Am was all over the place, a daily sight on the roads. I still see Grand Prix’s and the occasional Bonneville. Heck even the Vibe is still a frequent sight – oh wait, that car had a real model name and it was screwed together halfway decently.
All car companies had their duds, including Pontiac (ie. Aztek, Transport). And i never cared for the red dash lighting – but Pontiac should still be a thing… instead we get rebadged Opels posing as Buicks. Just terrific. Great move there GM.
+1 Of all the Pontiacs I see daily it’s ubiquitously Grand Ams, and Grand Prixs as well. I can’t remember the last time I saw the much newer G5 or G6. That naming scheme deserves D/S status.
Also, in the spirit of Pontiac’s Wal-Mart BMW positioning, that’s where the red dash lighting came from.
I’m fairly sure Pontiac used red dash lighting before BMW did.
Funny how their grilles converged over the years, though, with the BMW kidneys spreading out from being a piece of chrome tacked onto the grille to being the entire grille while the Pontiac split grilles which had traditionally and typically incorporated the headlights separated from them and became more kidney-shaped.
The latest X1 reminds me of a 4/5 scale version of the last Montana (after the Trans Sport name was dropped and all the U-vans jacked up).
It was when Pontiac dropped their name recognition in favor of model names like G5, G6 and G8 is when it all started to fall apart
It is my understanding Potiac was in trouble long before then; according to some sources, Pontiac had not turned a profit for GM since 1998.
People bought the Vibe because it was a Toyota with GM discounts.
Car guys don’t diss the Vibe because it was a wagon you could get with a stick (although the same could be said about the PT Cruiser).
Pontiac lost out big on GM’s policy of strategic retreat from low-profit/highly competitive segments and when they started phoning it in with smaller cars. Chevy could get away with a minned-out Cavalier because it would always sell to fleets, but you can’t base a credibly premium sport compact on a bottom-of-the-class mass-market one.
Add in the fact that Pontiac completely missed out on the ’95-05 truck-and-SUV boom but few outside the division head office were complaining because the dealers were mostly paired with GMC by then,,,
Great point about the truck/SUV trend. It seems like any American car company that didn’t field a competitive entry in that class was doomed. The reason being that in order to be profitable, American car companies need that big per unit profit margin that giant trucks/SUVs can bring. You just don’t generate that much profit selling a few hundred thousand Grand Ams.
But I can’t imagine what a Pontiac truck would have looked like. Unless I can… perhaps a re-worked (not just rebadged) Avalanche. Make it a competitor to the F-150 SVT Lightning (note, not lightening which is what Ford tried to do with the current F series), and Dodge Ram R/T. That could serve as the halo truck to get people into the showrooms, and when your wife convinces you that maybe a 500 hp 9 mpg truck is a mite impractical, you sell ’em the nice 4-door crew cab version. For the SUV, a ‘performance’ version of the Tahoe might have worked well.
Greg, I’m really gonna break your heart with these few words: Imagine a Pontiac SSR.
They didn’t miss the SUV trend, they just missed the mark with the Aztek.
The Pontiac/GMC pairing goes back a lot farther than that. There were exceptions, most notably the standalone corporate-owned “factory branch” GMC dealers that specialized in mediums and heavies. They also sold the full line of light trucks, often at a substantial discount over their Pontiac/GMC store competitors due to their lower overhead (no franchise fees, invariably located in run-down industrial areas of town, etc)
Typically the only time one ran across an Olds or Buick dealer carrying GMCs was when there was no Pontiac dealer in town.
There was an attempt in 1978 for Pontiac to offer a version of the El Camino with a Grand Am front end. Only one was made before the project was axed and it still survives at GM’s Heritage Center
I think it looked pretty good.
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2008/03/11/a-little-bit-more-on-that-pontiac-grand-am-amino/
I always thought the GMC Sprint/Caballero should’ve used Pontiac (or maybe Buick or Olds if the split grille and “G M C” badge weren’t compatible) front sheetmetal and interior trim rather than the minimal brand differentiation they had.
I was a teenage MTV viewer when this ad was new. It reminds me that I prefer the ’70s to the ’80s.
Ohh boy, how I miss those weird times…
Even as a child that claim made me skeptical!
Ha!
Sam the record man on Young St in Toronto…
That’s right, for all its brash, over the top American bravado, Toronto was the location.
Kind of appropriate given that Pontiac traditionally had a larger market share in Canada than they did here at home.
Not to mention that seemingly everything was filmed in Vancouver or Toronto in late ’80s and into the ’90s. Cheaper labor, federal and provincial loans and tax breaks, you name it. Eventually the power of the Canadian craft unions grew along with the film industry to the point that it’s actually cheaper to stay in Hollywood.
A sorry end to a once great car maker.They never really recovered after the F bodies were dropped.The Monaro based GTO should have saved them but history repeated itself when the Mustang outsold it.
Some good bands from the 80s,stand out concerts I saw were Girlschool,Hanoi Rocks,Motley Crue and Twisted Sister
The problem with the Monaro-based GTO was Lutz cheaped-out on the transition, only changing stuff like the grille, hood, and taillights, retaining the basic body shape which, unfortunately, looked way too much like a Cavalier with a thyroid problem.
Truly sad since plans were in the works for the next gen GTO to get a much needed makeover, as well as bringing back an El Camino-style vehicle.
I never thought I’d see Pontiac,Oldsmobile,Mercury and Plymouth shut down
The bizarre thing was the was almost all new from the B pillar back. To meet American design rules, the fuel tank etc had to be relocated, heavier duty bumpers installed and other such revisions. They could have made it look very different!
It was a good looking Holden Monaro, but just didn’t work as a Pontiac GTO.
And it was way too expensive. Look back to the mid-60’s, compare the price of a LeMans to a GTO (by percentage, not actual dollars). Buzz forward forty years and compare a Grand Prix(? – this is no direct comparison) to the price of a GTO. Yes, there’s a difference. And not a good one.
Damn the 80s were cool.
I agree, other than the sharing of powertrains with Chevys at this point Ponitac did seem to recapture a small chunk of it’s former glory for a while. The relatively widespread use of popup headlights in the division at the time really made Pontiacs seem interesting to me as a kid, and in a way it was in the spirit of the divisions widespread use of hidden headlights in the late 60s. Plus the sloped nose of the Firebird actually made the long front overhang purposeful and attractive, I actually find the 3rd generation Firebird far more attractive as a sportscar(aesthetically) than the C4 Corvette.
Plus I miss when car companies advertised performance (even if it was anemic), especially compared what Ford and Toyota are doing now where they’re just interviewing idiots. As if I didn’t loath the designed by focus group outcome of the products themselves, I actually have to endure their actual speaking, ugh.
The Grand Am featured in this ad was a hot seller for Pontiac because Chevy didn’t get an N-body and Buick/Olds’ image pushed their versions right into the teeth of the swing back to bigger cars, especially later on between the controversial looks of their second-gen Ns and the Century/Ciera being pushed downmarket when the GM10 sedans finally came out.
Weren’t the Corsica/Beretta N-bodies in everything but name? Yes, they did come along a year or two late compared to thhe Grand Am.
Thoroughly agree on 3d gen Firebird vs C4 ‘Vette. I still think it looks good, and even in “screaming chicken” T/A guise, still looks less “cartoonish” than current Camaro.
Believe me, by the ’80’s the excitement was long gone. Pontiacs were notable cars in our family, starting with Dad’s 1953 Chieftain Deluxe. I still remember the unique, mellow sound of that straight 8. In my teens I lusted after GTO’s and a bit later the awesome, re-styled ’69 Grand Prix. I couldn’t wait until I had enough money one day to buy whatever awesome Pontiacs were sure to come.
But when that day finally came, the parade had passed me by. Wanted to buy a ’73 Firebird, but none were available due to a big GM strike, and their was talk at the time about discontinuing it anyway. In ’78 I bought the new re-styled Grand Am, which was marketed as the closest thing to a GTO. Really nothing more than a LeMans with different badging. Then a growing family and a ’84 6000 LE and a couple of Bonnevilles. Excitement? Hah! Each one seemed worse than the one that preceded it, although the ’96 was fairly responsive. Too bad it started disintegrating after 5 years.
Then I did the unthinkable and bought the first car our extended family ever had that wasn’t built in Michigan, an Acura, which opened my eyes to what a good car should be.
The last Pontiacs were plastic body cladded embarrassments. GM was on the ropes and instead of trying to transform the brand into an American BMW, just phoned it in before throwing it over the side. However, from its Oakland origins to the end It was a pretty good run with some memorable highlights. The salad years of the ’60s when the brand was revived thanks to John DeLorean’s genius and Bunkie Knudsen giving him the freedom to pursue it. But as with most good things in life they seem to eventually come to an end, and Pontiac was no different.
“We Build Excrement,” went one succinct and memorable Car and Driver letter to the editor at the time.
That would be for this one…..
I was wondering few days about what to add to this article concerning the 1988-1992 and 1993 updated Le Mans… North-Americas received this lil’ korean car with lots of criticism as it had not deserved the once legendary nameplate mostly by its poor performances in comparison with its all time predecessors. On the other hand here in Europe the ’80’s model was somewhat epitomized as the Kadett and Astra-Belmont. The Astra Mk-1 aka Kadett-D series with its all new aerodynamic body was a total opposite of its predecessor the Chevette/Kadett-C series. This model also introduced the front wheel drive. The Astra Mk-2/Kadett-E series was the successor and GM had made it a bit sophisticated than the Mk-1/D. Especially in euro terms the body was dramaticly aerodinamized again. In some Opel fan gangs the very few privately imported Daewoo LEMANS/Racer GTE and the “american/canadian” Pontiac Le_Mans/Optima/Asüna had been mentioned as the “Cadillac of the Kadetts”, mostly because its unusual comfort features by other differences like the sophisticated bumper design, two toned body colors, rear moldings, automatic transmission and white sidewall tyres. Nevertheless Europ liked IT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwCJMhM0RW8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTVMvj-Iw3A
This “aspirational” advertising worked! The characters depicted actually did come to buy Firebirds, Grand Ams, Grand Prix etc. Liberal “first time buyer programs” helped most of these buyers with dreams of Trans Ams leave in left over T1000’s ,Lemans value leaders, yellow stick/no air fieros, no air Sunbirds etc. A great number were sold, but sadly most were repossessed before they were able to make their 6 credit building payments to Trans Am ownership.
That spot was very well shot. Lays on the 80s pretty thick. I could really smell the Drakkar and Virginia Slims.
I would substitute Polo Cologne by Ralph Lauren and Bartles & Jaymes Wine coolers as the stench of the 80s, but that was just my personal experience.
Did we manage to get through the whole day of comments without anyone mentioning the dreaded “Y” word? Yes, yes we did.
I had to do a media literacy project in college on my favorite ad of all time and this was it. I analyzed it frame by frame, had to tell the types of cuts and shots were used, and researched the background of the ad project. I would have to find the paper, if it still exists, to remember what all I found, but the most interesting thing to me was the frame-by-frame when I realized that the woman around 32 seconds is flipping the cop off. I assume this was an almost subliminal way to reinforce the bad boy image Pontiac was looking for. I had watched the ad dozens of times (due to it being on a tv-recorded version of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan my dad had recorded when the ad aired) and never realized the bird-flipping until I slowed it down. I got an A on the project by the way, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
That’s very interesting, Alan. If you find the paper do you think you could post file up? I love stuff like that.
Sure. I’m in the process of moving right now, so if I run across it, I’ll post it. I took the class in 2000, I think, so I didn’t quite have the vast information sources we do now…I’d kinda like to see it myself to realize how much longer a research project took 15 years ago vs. today. I’ll bet I could find the same info in 20 minutes it took me hours to find then.
Btw, I’d have to post a picture of the actual paper. I’m sure the floppy disk disappeared years ago!
I actually found my hand-written notes from my phone conversations with people at GM, Pontiac, and D’arcy, Masius, Benton, Bowles, inc. (Ad agency). I also found my hand written notes on the intercuts, framing, etc. second by second as well as my notes for presentation, but not the paper itself. I took a picture of the notes with my iPhone, but cannot figure out how to post it here.
Btw, according to my notes, it was a September 29, 1987 airing of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock where I saw the ad, so I stand corrected…by my own notes!
I also cringingly misspelled autobahn in my notes as though it were a bird watching society…not so sure I want to post my findings of my youth after all!!!
Historical note, the market crash was not tied to or immediately followed by the early 90s recession that ended the “greed decade/Gordon Gekko era”. The recession didn’t hit until ’91-’92. There was a market crash in October ’87 but it didn’t translate to a long term setback; the economy continued to do well from really ’83-late ’90.
That ad was truly awful.
I imagine the visuals and music were composed by a boardroom full of middle-aged suits in Detroit after watching Miami Vice reruns.
Actually, many, many car commercials are still filmed in Canada, probably more so than in the 1980s. I can think of one current US 2015 Camry spot as well as VW, Ram and Honda. It remains much easier to film in Canada (far less union interference) plus a massive and very industry-friendly post-production and film industry infrastructure (electric, lighting, sound, catering, you name it) has developed over 35+ years. Toronto, as the hub of Canada’s own media sector, is the favourite, but Vancouver is a close second and other parts of the country still become film lots all summer long, just as much as they did when I was a kid in Vancouver.
The one that really got me was about 4 years ago when the outside of the flagship Hudson’s Bay store on Queen Street in central Toronto was briefly converted, for a feature film, into a Macys Herald Square (I think) circa mid-1930s (great cars, wish I’d taken pictures). It was the middle of summer, 30C/85F, and the set was set up for the middle of winter – fake snow, bit player in giant greatcoats, etc….
Greg, thanks for this totally radical throwback. Loved Pontiacs and their ad campaigns back then. Suddenly, I’m in middle school! I still have my 1987 Pontiac dealer brochure from the Detroit Auto Show.
Sounds like CC post in the making, maybe title it CC Brochures? I also save most of the old brochures I’ve picked up at dealerships and car shows over the years. They are becoming an endangered species as everyone shifts their marketing to digital.
Man, that song came back to me in a hurry and will probably be stuck in my head all day. Great commercial, great looking cars.
As originally conceived, Pontiac was a fancy Chevy. Companion to Oakland, slotted between Chevrolet and Oldsmobile.
ChryCo had a similar line: DeSoto. Ford’s was arguably Edsel. And we all know what happened to those marques.
When Chevrolet got fancier in the early 50’s…Pontiac, too, had lost its reason to exist. But for the intervention of Bunkie Knudsen and John DeLorean, the marque probably wouldn’t have made it to 1958.
But once Pontiac gained a new identity as the performance brand, the rebel brand, the excitement brand, they gained a profitable – and enviable – position on GM’s ladder.
But starting in 1971, Pontiac began its long decline with the Ventura II…a fancy Chevy.
Did GM think that because fancy Chevies sold so well in the Great White North, where Parisiennes, Beaumonts and Acadians remain revered to this day, they oughta try a little bit of that in the lower 48? IDK…
…but I’ll argue that after Pontiac ceased to offer its own engines in 1981, there wasn’t a reason for the line to exist. Name one of their “hits” after that period that couldn’t have been restyled a bit and offered up as a Chevrolet.
Yeah there were some great, legendary Pontiacs. But nothing…absolutely NOTHING after those “Smokey & The Bandit” era Trans-Ams is in that league.
Ok, maybe the Solstice. But IMO Chevy could’ve put its Nomad concept into production with that same drivetrain on the Kappa architecture.
I will hand it to Autoextremist Peter DeLorenzo whom, I believe, helped craft the whole “We Build Excitement” campaign…the ad guys probably gave Pontiac another 20 years, until it was just too obvious that all they were is exactly how they started out in 1926…
…a fancy Chevy.