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A Pontiac Requiem.
My condolences to you on the impending demise of One Pontiac Plaza.
To True Believers, it is more than just a building. It was the Pontiac Motor Division Headquarters spanking new circa 1969. Rendered in a bland, monotonous almost Soviet inspired style by Argonaut Realty (GM’s cost saving in-house real estate and architectural arm), in stark contrast to the Sarinen magnificence of the Tech Center, the facility lacked any redeeming visual appeal. Looking at the Pontiac building, it was hard to believe that a “We build excitement” crowd inhabited the place. You probably, pitched, proposed, pissed off and placated and many people within those gulag walls. If it had survived, Pontiac’s tag line today would honestly be “We build affordable excitement”. Ironic, but in many markets Pontiac dealers were dualed and prospered with a GMC truck franchise that was an enviable oxygen supply by today’s metrics. Sadly, the Grand Transition says that today’s markets aren’t born of yesterdays. “Honey, shall we take the Denali this Sunday afternoon?”
Nonetheless the place managed to birth the second-generation GTOs and Firebirds, the Fiero, Aztec, Sunbird/Sunfire, the later Grand Prixs, the last big B-body Bonnevilles, the beautiful Solstice, and the last hurrah G8. I won’t dwell on the desperate Korean collaborations.
Pontiac was always a very special flavor of GM. Hard to describe, but you tasted it when you saw and drove it. Somehow, I can’t abide Homerich demolition behemoths being dragged up Wide Track Blvd. on lowboys to demolish the site. But hey, PMD headquarters outlived the Silverdome. We did too for a new ICE age.
Dr. John
Phoenix, Arizona
Something like that.
If I may so bold as to distill today's excellent rant for those of short attention span, I believe what you are saying is "Some somebodies are going to be caught with their automotive pants down... likely sooner than later."
DJV
Wilmington, North Carolina
Detroit's future.
I think your comparison of Detroit to the Britain that was is realistic and fear that the outcome may be the same. Possibly sooner than you expect. The British did have the small advantage of overseas dominions that continued to absorb some of their production. As things stand, there are fewer parts of the world that are really interested in the vehicles offered to the American consumer and the car companies don't seem interested in catering for foreign needs. A quick look at gas prices might give a clue.
At $8 to $12 a gallon, huge trucks have a very limited appeal. Much of the Middle East isn't exactly fond of the USA at present either, so who's left?
Maybe it will require some executives with the vision of where their company ought to be looking, rather than plotting a route to the corner office on the floor where the bigwigs hang out. It will also need the True Believers to get suitable vehicles to market in spite of them.
John Meachen
Norwich, Connecticut
Raleigh, North Carolina
Canteens not needed.
Here in the fully paved Burbs, the only time most of those trucks will see off-road are in a few exclusive towns where the residents refuse to allow the local roads to be black topped. Hardcore Range Rover territory for what in most of the world is a very smooth dirt road (they need grading yearly). I'll concede that New York State DOT roads, unlike NJ or CT, are often conducive to needing big tires and high sidewalls, but the canteens on the outside are probably not needed in the tri-state area...
Casey Raskob, Esq
Green Leafy Burbs, New York City
Big SUVs? No, thanks.
I still like sedans, sports cars and pony cars. Last year I wrecked my 2016 Civic and though I briefly considered an electric car (nah, just joking), I ended up buying a new 2025 Civic Sport. They can keep the SUVs and Hyper Trucks and their ridiculous prices.
James P.
Antioch, California
You can (sometimes) meet the nicest people at auctions.
Just 21 days left until the annual mayhem on 17-mile drive in Monterey. With exceptions for the Amelia Island and Pebble Beach blue blazer/straw hat concours-affiliated competitions, for the most part I share in the distaste for the large volume big event “collector car” auto auctions. Over the last fifty years they have come to dominate public interest and participation in what was a pleasant hobby and turned it into today’s bacchanals of tasteless exhibitionist greed causing massive market dislocations and distortions in values of vintage vehicles. I will confess to recently having attended an “out of season” second tier Mecum event locally out of sheer curiosity. This was definitely not the blue blazer/straw hat crowd.
After strolling acres of auction inventory and displays, the food court is always a welcome relief. People gather randomly around large circular tables in friendly chat spontaneously sharing their affections and regrets over “the ones that got away” while downing the usual fare of fast food and soft drinks. A short perky lady sitting alone across from me at our table caught my attention. She had two very serious cameras around her neck and a long lens case dangling from her waist, all held by straps crisscrossed over her shoulders making her look like a Pancho Villa of photography. Turns out she was, sort of.
Somehow, she seemed curiously inviting. Although we had never met, I only suspected her by faint remote attribution. I introduced my first name self and she replied likewise, ”Brenda”. Her armamentarium had invited my inquiry. We began a casual chat. Then my shutter clicked. I asked, ”Are you Brenda Priddy??” “Yes,” she said. THE Brenda Priddy?? I asked in wide-eyed astonishment. "Yep" she replied.
I was having lunch with probably the most famous (or infamous) American automotive spy photographer the industry has ever known. She practically invented the modern mischievous craft. Dauntless demon of Oakwood and Rotunda Blvds. in Dearborn, Hickory Ridge Trail and Stobart Rd. in Milford and the M-52 Chelsea Manchester Hwy., she is the nemesis of all auto industry corporate security corps and PR minions. Among her precious trade secrets are every spy shot sight line from those avenues and many more. Not to mention she was always eluding the California Highway Patrol while staking out the Furnace Creek Highway into Death Valley to spy on all the manufacturers’ extreme heat trials. Hers were the lusted surreptitious vehicle spy pictures in the magazines of my youth. She commanded the genre, surely driving manufacturers to the vertiginous and nauseating digital geometric camo schemes that hide test vehicles today.
I remarked on the big Velcro boot she sported on her left foot and ankle. “Occupational hazard” she laughed. “Climbing down after those telephoto distance shots from high up on security fences and running out from behind big boulders are a little riskier now at my age”. Sometimes there are snakes too”!
She has mostly retired to Arizona from auto spy-craft and broadened her artistic automotive photographic repertoire. She can draw from a personal archive of nearly a million of her professional automotive photos, spy and artfully otherwise.
Bravo Brenda! Great to meet a real spy hero in person. And to the Grand Transition, ”You can run but you can’t hide!”
Auctions can still be fun.
Happy and healthy vacation.
Dr. John
Phoenix, Arizona