Posts from ‘Pontiac’
Forgotten Concept: GMC Centaur
GMC Centaur
This is an installment in a series of posts looking back on show cars that we feel deserved a little more attention than they got. If you have a suggestion for a Forgotten Concept topic, please shoot us a line or leave a comment below.
1985 Dodge 600 ES
The bad news is that fewer than one of every hundred cars sold in the United States is a convertible. (I will spare you the fractional math required to pass along the number of manual-transmission-equipped convertibles sold on our shores last year, but it’s fewer still.)
1952 Pontiac Chieftain Station Wagon
Note: The following story was excerpted from the April 2009 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine
By Don Sikora II
The 1952 Pontiacs sported the third in a series of styling updates to the basic circa-1949 design. A new grille, fresh trim, and redesigned wheel covers were the major appearance changes.
Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast
Whether you drive a car, need a car, or just occasionally bum a ride with friends, you’ve come to the right place. Join the editors of Consumer Guide Automotive as they break down everything that’s going on in the auto world. New-car reviews, shopping tips, driving green, electric cars, classic cars, and plenty of great guests. This is the Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast.
1996 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi
by Don Sikora II
Note: The following story was excerpted from the June 2019 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
A Pontiac fixture since 1957, the Bonneville abandoned rear-wheel drive for its 1986 redesign. The big Pontiac was restyled again for ’92, and it’s in this second-generation front-drive Bonneville where we find our latest Cheap Wheels choice, the racy 1992-99 SSEi.
1956 Studebaker
We have shared classic wagon advertisements before, but the bounty of great ads out there has compelled us to revisit the subject.
1973 Ford Pinto
Most automotive styling affectations were born of functional vehicle features. Real wire wheels, for example, lead to the faux-wire hubcaps that were so common in the Eighties, especially on Buicks and Oldsmobiles. Likewise, the vinyl and landau roof craze of the Seventies and Eighties was born of the landaulet and carriage-roof vehicles from decades earlier.
What Was Radial Tuned Suspension?
One of the wonderful side effects of technological progress is the wake of marketing silliness that follows so closely behind. It makes sense that any improvement to a consumer-oriented product would be fodder for advertising and promotion, but oftentimes those improvements quickly become industry norms—and the initial hype surrounding them sometimes proves embarrassing in hindsight.
There’s almost no glamour to be found in flying these days. The events of September 11, 2001, certainly complicated the process of getting through an airport and onto a commercial flight, but even before that horrible day, flying was becoming more of a grind than an adventure for most travelers. We’ve all heard plenty of jokes about airline food…
1981 Fiat Spider Turbo
It’s a fairly simple concept: You force more air into an engine to improve volumetric efficiency and thus increase horsepower. Turbocharging is so common these days that cars are very rarely named or badged as turbos. Every single 2020 Ford Escape, for example, is turbocharged.
