I really enjoy meeting and getting to know my friends’ children, many of whom are now young adults. These sons and daughters often remind me of their parents, my peers, when we were that age. It’s interesting to see which traits these teenagers and young twenty-somethings possess that resemble those of the parent I had known from years ago, and how they’ve developed their own personas, demeanors, and aesthetics. It also makes me recall what it had felt like to meet my parents’ friends when I was younger, which was sometimes fun, awkward, or some combination of the two. When my mom was my current age, she and her friends just seemed so old. It’s also hard to believe that the ’56 Pontiac I wrote about a couple of months ago was as old when this Bonneville was new as this car is now. Let that blow your mind.
I have a genuine interest in the happiness, success, and well-being of my friends’ offspring. I’ve been blessed with a strong gift of recall while, if not perfectly accurate all of the time, has enabled me to remember many thoughts, feelings, and sensations experienced throughout my life. Not that this happens often, but whenever I meet with a friend and their kid, I’ll find myself inadvertently slipping back into using words I might have said as a college student in the mid-’90s. These include random slang terms like “diss”, “rad”, or the ever-present “awesome”. I might catch myself in the moment, and then try to use a more age-appropriate synonym. Most of my parents’ friends seemed to be affiliated with the university or church, and most spoke textbook-proper English, but I liken my use of old slang today to one of them telling the teenage me that my Sony Walkman was “hip” or “groovy”.
This actually would have been fine. I think that even then, I had a sense that different generations had jargon, identity, and an ethos that was specific to their respective age groups. Watching the original Roseanne sitcom (which I still love) reinforced this idea. Just thinking of my parents having been younger once was fun, and I used to spend untold hours turning the pages in the family photo albums to see what they and their friends had looked like in the ’60s and early ’70s. It takes a special gift for someone from an older generation to successfully relate to and engage with teenagers and young adults in a reciprocal way.
I had mentioned in an essay from this past February how I had been involved in the Flint Youth Theatre program, which facilitated interaction not only with other teens, but also with adults in a setting that didn’t involve authority, responsibility, or the threat of real discipline. I now realize that experiences with the FYT and involvement in my church’s youth group must have set some sort of template in my mind for how I would later try to listen and relate to not only my own nephews and nieces by blood, but also to my extended family of choice. Adults who can successfully set boundaries, yet still empathize and gain the trust, admiration, and buy-in of youths, are to be respected. I remember thinking that being around such “elders” at that time helped take the edge off of wondering what my own adulthood would eventually be like.
The first front-drive, H-body Pontiac Bonneville, introduced for the ’87 model year, was very much like the “cool adult” of full-sized cars. I liken it to a grownup, because it was a full-sized car, as contrasted with something like a Grand Am or even a Grand Prix, both of which had the size and footprint of a younger person. It definitely looked cool enough when new for me to have had a large poster of one included among the car ads that covered one of my bedroom walls. The persona and image of even the lower-tier Bonneville contrasted sharply with that of its Buick LeSabre and Oldsmobile Delta 88 divisional counterparts. Below the greenhouse, the new Bonneville looked slick and futuristic, its push-button exterior door handles notwithstanding.
I forgave its boxy roofline because the rest of the car looked so good. There was no coupe, but I didn’t miss it. I consider this one of the best efforts of the Irv Rybicki styling era at General Motors. Look at our featured 1990 Bonneville in comparison with a same-year Buick LeSabre, pictured above. If the Bonneville was the fun, youthful, engaging substitute teacher you wanted to lead your class for the day, the LeSabre was the stern traditionalist who didn’t allow talking or gum, or would give out only so many hall passes for the bathroom for the hour-long period. Granted, the sporty, top-line SSE did seem a bit desperate in a look-at-me! kind of way, but it spoke to me and I’m sure others in my age group who equated added plastic stick-ons and electronics with extra sportiness.
Powering our featured car is Buick’s 3.8 liter V6 with 165 horsepower, which was the only engine available in a Bonneville that year. Also according to a license plate search, this one was originally built in Wentzville, Missouri. By 1990, this design was in its fourth and second-to-last year of production. About 85,800 units were sold, down just over 10,000 from the year before, and from about 123,800 first-year ’87s. It should be noted that the flashy SSE accounted for a significant 13 – 15% of sales from its ’88 introduction through the end of this series for ’91, even outselling the SE in that last year.
I feel like this generation of Bonneville would have been acceptably cool to drive around for a teen, if one could secure the keys from the ‘rents (oops, I did that thing again). I have a friend whose parents, both GM employees at the time, had a new SSE that was nothing but trouble. For all of its electronic, gee-whiz gadgetry (its electronic Driver Information Center, multi-directional power seats, etc.), something always seemed not to be working right. Maybe this would be like the “cool adult” who always has the latest phone but can’t get it to function properly. Regardless, it was a pleasant surprise to run into what felt like an old friend in my neighborhood a few years ago. The jury’s out as to whether my friends’ kids think I’m cool, but like this 1990 Bonneville, I’m still here and in decent shape, so that counts for something.
Edgewater, Chicago, Illinois.
Friday, July 9, 2021.
Print ads for the 1990 Pontiac Bonneville SSE and Buick LeSabre were sourced from the internet.
My wife and I were driving a 1981 Bonneville Brougham when the new style came out. We went to the Miami car show, looking for what might replace that car. And we both liked the newer model. It was a car I would have considered.
But, we were in need of a new place to live and that ended up being a new home. So the 81 stayed with us until 1992 when SUV’s were a thing. So we leased a new 1992 S10 Blazer Sport.
The ’81 Bonneville – the last rear-drive biggie, how cool. I also respect that you prioritized between the new car and new home, which is something I also would have done.
Thank you for another fine article about a car which I did not see much when they were new. I have to say I do not agree much with you about the car though.
“I forgave its boxy roofline because the rest of the car looked so good.”
Hmmm, not for me. Looking at the front, the indicators droops away making the car look sorry for itself. Looking at the side profile, the rear wheel is set too much to the rear. The roof line is too flat. Volvo did it better. The rear lights are too generic and big. I bet the dashboard is a world of hard plastic. So, not much love from me to this car.
Three things that made me smile.
1, the door handles. You more or less say that these push buttons are not slick and futuristic. Maybe they are not. But for me this was (and still is) a positive fact, to have proper door handles, not the prone-to-break lift up plastic things.
2, when reading the article you showed the pic of the Buick and I thought – that is a much better looking car. A few lines on and that’s exactly what you were NOT thinking, haha.
3, you were so right to blow my mind that the time between the 56 and this 90 is about the same as between this car new and now. Amazing, this car does not look very old (to me) whereas I know a 1956 car looked a real classic to me back in 1990.
Thanks, Dion! I do remember thinking when the ’90 refresh came out that the taillamps looked slightly retrograde versus the original units from 1987 – ’89, even with the addition of amber turn signals sections. I really don’t have any problems with the way these look, and placement of the rear wheels reduces unnecessary overhang.
I will always have love for the LeSabres of this vintage, as i had taken drivers’ training in them. The front styling, though, with those big, blocky composite headlamps and rectangular grille always reminded me just slightly of an insect. Just a bit more visual interest could have been incorporated into the Buick. The Pontiac looked more finished.
At the DC auto show, I fell for the handsome dash and the radio buttons on the steering wheel and bought a new ’88 SE that I had for ten years. Another show goer said the cantilevered dash pad would bend over time, which silently I poo-pooed. Fate bit me on the bum, however. After a few years, the defroster grille wouldn’t stay down. I finally glued it down when tape wouldn’t hold it.
In ’89, they fixed the other 3 things I didn’t like in the interior: balky vents, small glovebox, and windshield tint an inch too low. I had the presence of mind to ask for an ’89 windshield when a bad hit and run in ’90 cracked the original. The worst thing about its performance was the weak brakes when the car was loaded.
Ralph, now that you mention the interior, I do remember seeing pictures of the dash and seats in the ’87 Pontiac brochure I got at the Detroit Auto Show, and being impressed with the Bonneville’s combination of modern and traditional. I’m glad to read you had a mostly positive ownership experience.
Agreed that this is one of GM’s better efforts from the Irv Rybicki era. My first car was another Pontiac from around this time, a ’82 J2000 LE (later renamed Sunbird), a styling success even if the drivetrain was disappointing, and I never realized how similar the design of these two cars was until looking at the second pic here. They definitely shared a design language and pulled it off better than most GM sedans of the ’80s.
I have to disagree though with your assessment of the relative coolness and youthfulness of the different H bodies though. Although Buick would unabashedly target older buyers in the ’90s, in the mid-’80s Buick, then under the auspices of Lloyd Reuss, was chasing younger enthusiasts with a full line of high-performance T-Type models. Of the three H-bodies (Bonneville, 88, LeSabre), the LeSabre was the sportiest-looking to my eyes. The three brands’ sedans shared doors, windows, and roofs, but Buick continued the look into the fenders with an unorthodox front-hinged wraparound hood rather like that fitted to Saab 900s, and crisply-folded bodywork not unlike what Giorgetto Giugiaro was penning for VW, Alfa, and Fiat as well as Saab at the time. Most importantly, Buick offered the T-Type as a rakish coupe, whereas the Bonneville was sold only as a staid, more upright sedan. Like the SSE, the T-Type was festooned with “aero” bolt-on trim, but somehow it wore the look better than the increasingly tacky plastic cladding on Pontiacs. The Pontiac’s more traditional styling continued inside with simulated woodgrain on the dash rather than the Buick’s grey trim and aluminum-spoked wheel. The LeSabre T-Type was really the “rad” car of the bunch, with the Delta 88 having the most traditional American-style luxury look and feel and the Bonneville somewhere in between.
I agree, The LeSabre T-Type is the cooler cousin pf the others. Don’t forget the styling Easter Egg of the drop in rear license plate housing. It is the last in a the line of sporty big Buicks, dating back to the original Century, then Skylark, Invicta, Wildcat, and the LeSabre Sport Coupe.. These T-Types are nice cars, I have had this Black one for some time, and it does seem to get increasing attention at shows, just on the cusp of being collectible.
I like the T-Type in the other colors in which it was offered, but it’s actually kind of stunning in black. I wonder how many survive in good condition. I now need to look at the rear license plate housing to see what you’ve mentioned.
I always thought these LeSabre T-type coupes at least looked the part of worthy successors to the Regal Grand National/GNX.
Just too bad the FWD platform wouldn’t pair well with that engine, and the supercharged 3800 V6s came too late for this generation; by the time they finally did arrive, Buick had already abandoned any pretense of aspiring to sporty youth appeal.
Having owned an ’88 LSTT it was a great car, having owned a Regal GS some years later that engine was even better and may have made the T-Type even better as well but frankly it was pretty much a perfect level of power as is without the supercharger.
The styling was its strongest suit, the engine its second best attribute. But what let the LeSabre T-type down was its interior. Not the comfort aspect (which was great), but the interior styling, instrument cluster and materials were as dull as dishwater and frankly almost repellent if at all familiar with what the rest of the world was doing at the time. In a normal LeSabre that same basic interior but with plasti-wood, chrome, and some red or blue or tan tones worked perfectly fine as a lounge on wheels, in the T-type not so much.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1988-buick-lesabre-t-type-a-young-man-buys-an-old-mans-car/
Jim, the interior thing is really interesting to me, given that the interior of the Bonneville SSE seemed significantly differentiated from that of the LE and SE. LeSabre T-Type volume seems like it was much lower, or at least a smaller percentage of overall sales, so maybe that was the reason that less development funds were located to its interior. Just my thoughts as I’m reading this. I remember being glad to read that you had liked yours.
Joe, well, I guess they did what they could, ditching the fake wood for fake aluminum and making most things inside gray or black…but the basic architecture was the same with minimal gauges (uh, “gages”) and mainly trim color changes.
It’s like Chevy with the Celebrity wagon – adding black trim, a red stripe, the 2.8V6, and rally wheels to make the “EuroSport” version does not make that car a BMW 528i M-Sport wagon. It’s still (just?) a Celebrity wagon with black trim and a red stripe.
And PS: I kinda like the Bonneville as you photographed it. It works as is and isn’t trying too hard. The SSE and fancier got too gingerbreaded for me, that was the appeal of the Buick LSTT, it was very subtle and understated yet seriously differentiated if you knew to look and what to compare to the regular one even if the engine was the same. Kind of like older BMWs, the hotted up ones were very subtle, nowadays they are heading way too far to the SSEi side of the equation…
I did like the T-Type LeSabres when new, but like them even more now. You mentioned some Italian-esque attributes in the styling, and with you having said that, I can kind of see it. The basic LeSabre of this vintage looked far too anodyne to me to think of it as a great-looking car (even if pleasant enough), but both your picture and the one in Jason’s comment below have me (again) sold on the T-Type LeSabre coupe.
I visited some friends in Miami in ’93. They were very much trend-setters, fashionable, etc. They had a 1991 Saab 9-5 and a 1992 Bonneville SE. Both cars impressed me in different ways (they felt the SSE was a little too “over the top” showy).
IIRC, the ’92 Bonneville was the first year of the significant redesign. I thought those looked okay, but a bit busy. I far prefer the more linear 1987 – ’91 models.
If I had to pick a brand of old domestic car that is most likely to still be be seen on the road today, it would be Pontiac, and specifically these FWD Bonnevilles. They were plentiful enough that spares are one of the easier to be found and, maybe, since it was the next rung up on the Sloan ladder, owners might have taken a bit better care of them. The 3800 was one of the better efforts (for a GM engine), too.
The 3800 V6 of this era was a great engine from most things I’ve read. If it was good for the J.D. Power Award-winning LeSabre, it was good for the Bonneville.
I have reached that age where we are attending several weddings each year involving the offspring of family and friends. I recently made the same observation to my wife about seeing echoes of their parents in young adults, both obvious and in some cases, startling, but welcome nonetheless. About a year ago, one of my friends was expressing frustration with a late-to-launch son and I reminded him that he himself hadn’t settled down until he was about thirty years old. Sure enough, a Christmas card photo revealed said son, now 28 years old, to be clean-cut, gainfully employed, and smitten with a cute significant other.
As for this Bonneville, I too agree that it is significantly more youthful looking than its Buick and Olds counterparts, but the plastic flash of the higher end models I found off-putting. I preferred the second-gen FWD Pontiacs introduced for 1992 for their exterior styling.
It’s so funny how often selective memory comes into play when parents start passing judgement on or questioning the choices of their children. Maybe, sometimes, this is because self-recognition is too painful. The weddings for the adult children of my peers have already started! Hard to wrap my brain around sometimes. LOL
I had a “whiteout” SSE of that year, with peanut butter hides. Fantastic car, never any trouble in nearly 200k miles. Long live the 3800!
That was a killer color combo on these. So great to read that you had good experiences and a good run with yours.
Pontiac tried to be “the we build excitement” group from GM, building on the image of the Firebird. Unfortunately they went a bit too far with the Firebird and the Bonneville SSE, which had their detailing end up being quite exaggerated.
I think that most of us have had the experience of having a “cool” aunt or uncle. Families used to have a wider range in sibling’s ages, as there was often the “bonus” child. These younger siblings of our parents, usually grew up being a bit spoiled and with relaxed standards from their parents. These cool older family relatives were often still single, and we didn’t have to see them as authority figures to their offspring. They were still interested in having fun, and they could share embarrassing stories about our parents!
When I use my own youthful vernacular with my kids, all in their 30’s, I do it just to hear the groans! Such fun!
“…I do it just to hear the groans! Such fun! – Jose, this is my favorite!
Great point about what used to be a wider range in age among siblings. Thinking about this idea, I’ve seen it in TV sitcoms and movies where the younger or youngest sibling of the parent was the one who was naturally more youthful and fun to be around.
With the some editions of the Firebird and Bonneville SSE, I wonder if there had been internal discussion as to whether Pontiac could actually go “too far”. I could see the thought process at the time being that excess is what would give greater distinction to certain GM products at a time when many might have felt they needed it. The SSE was extra so many ways, but I still really like it.
My take on these is a little different, probably owing to our age difference. And maybe owing to the only people I ever knew who bought one.
To me, this was the car equivalent of the adult who tries too hard to look cool by dressing and acting maybe 15 years younger than they really are. My parents were of the silent generation, born in the early to mid 1930’s. Most of their group acted their age – I think of guys like James Garner (especially in his role in The Rockford Files) who represent that group. Then there were the ones who grew their hair longer and wore more stylish clothes – they were the ones who looked like they were working too hard to chase a youth that they didn’t really possess.
This Pontiac was of the second kind to me. I respected a “traditional” larger car, and thought Buick nailed the look, both with this generation of LeSabre and with the one that followed. I even liked the 1977 Bonneville for the same reasons. But this Pontiac was a fail for me, in the way it tried to look more cool than it was.
The people who bought one were friends of my mother, and married late and never had kids. The husband had driven big Oldsmobile 98s for as long as I had known him, and those really suited his personality. But this Pontiac just didn’t seem to fit with them at all. Maybe a high-trim car like this one would have looked better, but they chose one that was quite plain. I tried to act enthusiastic when they came to show it to us, but probably failed.
JP, I always appreciate the generational perspective you provided here. I certainly thing our respective perspectives on this generation of Bonneville are influenced by this. This reminds me of many conversations I’ve had with my own peers about how many of us just don’t feel as “old” as our parents did when they were our current age. Watching Carroll O’Connor in All In The Family and recognizing that he was roughly my current age… there’s a real disconnect there.
Speaking of disconnect, I remember being blown away at the time that the Bonneville name was now affixed to a car that was as close to 180 degrees from what had come before it. This car? A “Bonneville”? I loved that it was now modern and sporty looking, even for a full-sized car. I remember these being seen in driveways of nice houses in nice areas.
Being in the same age group as you, I also appreciate the Irv Rybicki era of styling. A buddy of mine had 3 or 4 of this era Bonneville in his late teens to early 20s. Though I don’t think he was ever lucky enough to score a SSE. They were fast and super smooth, and handled well too. Never seemed to be any quality issues with the interior or body. And of course none with the 3800. Those bars were his babies for a long time.
The only issue seemed to be the running gear. The transaxle developed a hard 1-2 shift after about 130k miles, and this seemed to be the issue on many H bodies we knew of. I believe this is why GM held off putting the 3.8/440T4 in the U-van until the 4T60E was developed. Because otherwise it would have been a direct drop in from the 3.8 Century/Ciera. He couldn’t find a replacement trans that didn’t already have this problem, so he had one installed from a 6000 with the 3.33 final drive. That made the car insanely quick around town. The same trans in many of my A bodies never failed either. Not enough power from the 2.8/3.1.
He also went through a lot of wheel bearings. These cars used the same bearings and brakes as the A bodies, which weren’t really suited for the extra weight. Then again, Michigan roads leave a lot to be desired, even more so back then.
It would have been interesting if GM had carried out the 2 door to the Bonneville. Considering how much sleeker the 2 door looked as the 88 and Lesabre. A 2 door SSE, would have been really something. A 2 door naturally as a sports car, and Pontiac being the sport division, would have gone hand in hand.
Thanks for this, Troy. Thinking about the possibility of a two-door Bonneville of this generation, I tried to mentally photoshop it in my mind. Where I landed was somewhere near a bigger ’88 Grand Prix coupe. I wonder if there had been serious discussion of a two-door Bonneville and whether one would have cannibalized sales from the GP – Motor Trend’s Car Of The Year in ’88.
Any two-door Bonneville of this generation would almost certainly have used the same central body section and overall formula as its LeSabre and Olds 88 siblings, so just imagine the passenger cell and greenhouse from one of those with the Bonneville sedan’s front clip and tail grafted on, and there’s your Bonneville coupe.
We can only guess this possibility was at least investigated, but maybe the brass and/or stylists decided that approach just didn’t work visually with the Pontiac nose and tail very well, and any added sales for such a coupe wouldn’t recoup the alterations needed to make it work better, so they just nixed the idea altogether.
Reading this, I had a lovely song pop into my head….
The Poncho was the hippest!
I’ve never heard this, but I love it. Thanks for posting it.
I agree with you that the Bonneville had a different persona than the LeSabre or Delta 88, even though they were largely identical. Kudos to the Pontiac team for pulling that off. I like the styling of these lower-tier Bonnevilles a lot – I thought that the SSE or SSEi models, while a great idea, were just too festooned with accessories. Trying too hard to be cool… it just doesn’t work.
And it’s amusing being our age and realizing that you’re just another older guy to the kids now. When I can actually make a teen or young adult laugh about something, I consider it a major victory.
When I can actually make a teen or young adult laugh about something, I consider it a major victory. 100%, Eric. 100%.
Ah, the relativism of age!
I remember when my son was young, and wanted me to tell him stories of ‘The olden days, you know, when you were a boy.’ Harrumph. Olden days, yeah, right! That wasn’t even thirty years earlier. I think I trumped (no politics intended) his request by telling him stories passed on to me, of when his great-grandma was a girl, in the 1880s. Older is not necessarily better though; he wanted to hear about me, my time; the ‘olden days’ bit was incidental, an unfortunately-chosen phrase.
How language changes. Can we even use ‘trump’ any more as a verb, without it exciting political opinion? I’m not in America, so I don’t know. I remember when I was young, and my father seemed ancient to me; there was a 47-year age difference between us. When I was in my teens he tried talking to me using words which had been hip in his younger days, thinking I would understand. Now retro wasn’t cool yet in 1970, particularly when that retro was sampling the 1920s! The generation gap has never seemed so wide to me as it did that day. Nor was the awkward gawkiness of youth ever so apparent to me as I tried to respond in a tactful manner.
Which brings me to this Pontiac. With that interesting nose treatment and rounded taillights it feels as though Pontiac was trying to tactfully upgrade the gawky basic body and bring it into the nineties, without out-and-out telling Rybicki that his design was behind the times. Good try guys.
When my kids were little, I occasionally used the term “the olden days” to humorously refer to stories from when I was a kid. Amusingly, they’ve picked up that phrase and now use it often… as in: “back in the olden days when I was in elementary school…” – which was only about 5 years ago.
You’ve got me thinking about how I would actually feel about it if one of my younger people in my life had asked me about my own “olden days”. One nephew seemed to throw me a bone last year when he said he hoped to age as well as me. I think I just smiled, IIRC.
My late father was 45 and change when I was born. I realized after I had finished the final draft of this essay this that I had referenced only my mother “at my current age”, but yeah – when my dad was my current age, there was no way to really get a sense of his age relative to other grownups.
Regarding the “olden days” of one’s older relatives, I wish I had more presence of mind at an earlier age to ask directly to now deceased elders what it was like for them, in general. As it was, I never did this and only came by brief snippets or vignettes mostly through overhearing conversations, or if they offered some anecdotes to me. Old photos from an album rounded out the experience. I do remembering asking about specific things cars or steam locomotives. I do recall being amazed at how my grandfather would see ( if we ran across one ) and be able to identify the make. They all looked like Ford model Ts or As to me.
As it was, I believed that their whole world was rendered in black & white and that ragtime piano music permeated the atmosphere and that everybody walked in a quick, jaunty gait. 🙂
Thank you for a great read! I certainly think as you do with the relativism of time. A 25 year old car in 1990 was a 1965. Today that 25 year old car is going to shortly be a Y2K model. The difference perhaps being as apparent as realizing my parents in 1990 were not as old as I am now yet both looked and acted older.
I never had one of these H body cars, though they were very common used cars among the 20 something set in the 90s, at least in y area. Comfortable for driver with or without 3 friends, relatively fuel efficient, and so perfect for eating up long distances of rural driving. They seemed to be quite trouble free for most & cheap to repair when something did go wrong. At a time when cars depreciated enough in a decade I don’t recall them being terribly more than say a similar era K car.
Thanks, Mike! You bring up benefits of youth ownership a car of this Bonneville’s size as a used car, versus something smaller. Who wouldn’t want to be in this car with space to spare versus a smaller car powered by maybe even the same engine?
In the mid-90s I had my first mid-life crisis. Left my career in NYC and started full time grad studies in Richmond VA. My fathers older sister lived in Richmond, widowed, and recently moved into a brand new condo. Me being the interior designer, services always requested for free to relatives, I helped her put together her new home. At this time aunt was in her early 80s and full of energy (died at age 96). She would volunteer to help out at the “old folks home”, I rode with her just a few times in her car that looked very much like the feature auto, except Pontiacs & Buicks looked similar so I not sure which it was. I do remember it was a very comfortable car to ride in. This car was her last before her vision failed and when I see this body style will always think of her, a tornado of energy well into her 90s.
Strange thing about family dynamics. My Dad and his older sister were both hot-tempered and stubborn. They seldom spoke to each other accept when it was about me and the two times i lived in Richmond earning my degrees. I did get one last visit with my aunt before she died in Florida. Before the visit she asked me if I had my Dads Air Force medals (Dad had died years before). Yes, I had his medals, yes I took them to Florida with me. At this time her vision was gone and body failing, but her mind was sharp. She touched all his medals and told me stories about Dad and the WWII & Korea years. Dad never discussed his war years with me. I left Dads medals with her. Shortly after she died, I received in the mail my Dads Air Force medals and a book she kept with many period newspaper articles (clippings) about Dad during the war years. She had followed her younger brothers career. So there you have it, two siblings that never appeared close, but still loved each other to the end.
I love this so much. Alfred, thank you for sharing it. Your aunt sounds like one amazing lady. Family, man… It’s often complicated stuff.
These and the even more so the ’92s were very common in my childhood. My friend’s dad had a ’91 and then a ’94 (followed by a Buick and then an Infiniti.) I suspect that as GM put less investment/emphasis on sedans a lot of buyers of these went elsewhere and mostly to imports. The 2000s version seemed like a bloated crappier version of these tho the GXP toward the end was sort of cool.
Interestingly, this is probably the only 1990s GM full-sizer where a large plurality or even majority of its drivers are still alive. Another reason why underinvesting and then euthanizing Pontiac was a mistake.
As for the poster above maybe its a skewed perspective but many of the Xers and Millennials seem younger than their parents at said point in their lives. Then again I am 38 I just bought a ’24 XT5 in Emerald Green because its the closest thing to some of the 1990s Cadillacs I loved lol.
I gotta give a shout out to a guy that bought an Emerald Green Caddy XT5! (sounds amazing!) I bought my Candy Red Navigator as a substitute for the early ’50’s Cadillac that I really wanted. The cars that we loved are no more, we have to find a substitute that gives us a similar feeling.