Showing posts with label Pontiac. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pontiac. Show all posts

4/2/14

GM Avoided Ignition Switch Redesign to Save About $1 Per Car


Some disturbing information has surfaced during the U.S. congressional hearings related to the ignition switch defect that has caused at least 13 deaths. According to an internal GM document provided to investigators, General Motors decided in 2005 not to replace the faulty ignition switch on new cars because it would have added less than a dollar to the cost of each vehicle.

11/8/13

This is the Aftermath of a Dutch Police Versus Classic Pontiac Firebird Chase


The Dutch police from the eastern Gelderland region had an unusual chase on their hands recently. Using various VW squad cars, including a Touran MPV and a Polo, they chased down and stopped a reckless driver at the wheel of a first-gen classic (1967-1969) Pontiac Firebird convertible.

Ramming was apparently law enforcement’s response, of course, and the Firebird was finally made to beach itself on a patch of grass, pinned between two cop cars. All vehicles involved suffered some kind of damage, but nothing too severe, because no matter what the driver did and why he was running, he was at the wheel of a very cool classic indeed.

He’s now behind bars awaiting prosecution.

Had this same chase taken place in Russia, we would have had it featured from at least two different angles – the Dutch use dash-mounted cameras too, but there aren’t enough of them cover all the interesting stuff that goes on around its network of roads. As it is now, there are two videos available, as well as a selection of photos courtesy of GinoPress, all showing the aftermath.

By Andrei Nedelea


PHOTO GALLERY

Dutch-Accident-Firebird-1Dutch-Accident-Firebird-10Dutch-Accident-Firebird-11Dutch-Accident-Firebird-12Dutch-Accident-Firebird-13Dutch-Accident-Firebird-14Dutch-Accident-Firebird-2Dutch-Accident-Firebird-3Dutch-Accident-Firebird-4Dutch-Accident-Firebird-5Dutch-Accident-Firebird-6Dutch-Accident-Firebird-7Dutch-Accident-Firebird-8Dutch-Accident-Firebird-9

VIDEO






12/23/11

Dodge Grand Caravan Spot Belittles GM's Deceased Pontiac and Saturn Brands


While General Motors may be taking a swipe at Chrysler with its announcement on the recovery of a stolen 300 sedan equipped with its aftermarket OnStar FMV system, the Auburn Hills-based carmaker had its own moment of Zen with a new commercial on the Dodge Grand Caravan.
The 30-second ad is called "The Right Tool for the Job" and it's part of a new campaign for the Dodge Grand Caravan that will be followed by four more spots in the first quarter of 2012.

10/27/11

Rare Find of the Day: Mid-Engined 1987 Zimmer Quicksilver


Here's another rare oddity found for sale on eBay Motors. The long-nose Zimmer Quicksilver is a custom made coupe with a mid-mounted V6 engine. And yes, as you may have already guessed, it's based on GM's Pontiac Fiero. The car's retro styling takes its inspiration from glitzy Lincoln and Cadillac models of the 1970s.

6/18/11

The Inspirational Archer without Arms Changes Pontiac Brakes with Feet


Matt Stutzsman is one truly gifted and talented individual whose attitude should be an inspiration to all. You see, Stutzsman was born without arms. And yet, despite all the challenges, he managed to adapt and do everything on his own using his legs and feet.
The 29-year old man from Iowa, whose birth parents gave him up for adoption when he has was just four months old because they couldn’t deal with the idea of raising a child with special needs (or so they thought), just recently qualified from the U.S. Olympic team in archery!

Pontiac Solstice gets an Engine Transplant from a Toyota Supra


In the world of engine swaps, anything goes but it’s always nice to see people experimenting with different kind of builds. For Car Lounge forum member ‘Phlow’, the patient was a Pontiac Solstice roadster with a weak heart - or so to say.
While most physicians would prescribe a local LS V8 transplant, this doctor went for something more exotic, to be precise a 2JZ, which is a code name for the Toyota Supra’s twin-turbocharged inline-six.

6/16/11

Pontiac Loans Heart and Body to Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder Superleggera Replica


From the creators of the Murcielago LP-640 Roadster wannabe we showed you back in 2009, comes a new Lamborghini doppelganger with fresh looks but the same Pontiac Solstice underpinnings.
This time, the car is supposed to resemble a Gallardo Spyder in a Superleggera outfit. The Lambo replica is finished in the usual for this type of conversions canary yellow and while the builders ditched the scissor door solution, they did add power controlled doors and a hood, which automatically open at the touch of a button – you know, just in case some of your friends weren’t already impressed […].

5/11/11

Defunct Brand Owners Shun GM and Ford


There are some three million former Saturn, Pontiac and Hummer customers in the United States, all of whom will unlikely ever have the pleasure of buying a newer model of their current make again. These are some of America’s defunct brands, all gone the same way as Plymouth, DeSoto, Packard and many others. These latest additions were culled following General Motors bankruptcy reorganisation in 2009. And Mercury owners are in the same boat.
Now, Ford and GM are desperately trying to hold onto these “brand-less” customers. Accoriding to a report from the Wall Street Journal, in this year alone, 70% Pontiac owners, 71% of Saturn owners and 65% of Mercury owners who traded in their vehicles left with something other than a Ford or GM product.

5/6/11

Pontiac GTO Judge Resurrected…Sort Of: Tuner Prepped Model Based on the Camaro


The makers of the fire-breathing Phoenix T/A that we saw at the 2009 SEMA show in Las Vegas are back with yet another proposal for a Pontiac model based on the latest iteration of Chevy’s Camaro pony car. This time the people over at Trans Am Depot will give birth to a modern day interpretation of Pontiac’s famed 1969 GTO Judge. The tuner named its creation “The GT9 Goat”.
The teaser renderings and photos of the faux-Pontiac reveal a bespoke front end with a split grille and a revised hood with air scoops, while at the back we find new tail lamp and bumper designs as well as a restyled trunk sporting a prominent wing. The characteristic profile side stripes, quad tail pipes and the newly styled alloy wheel options round off the exterior changes. There’s no word yet if there will be any kind of upgrades to the interior and the mechanical hardware of the Camaro.

5/2/11

Sport Truck Redux: New Rumors About the Holden Ute Heading to the U.S.A.


It’s a poorly kept secret that many Americans are quite fond of the Australian-made and Commodore-derived, Holden Ute, which we recently drove in Queensland. It’s big, brutish and comfortable with a bevy of engine and equipment options to suit virtually any budget or taste - so long as those tastes only extend to, “Big, brutish V6 or V8 engined utes”.
Before the Global Financial Crisis of 2009, the subsequent bankruptcy GM and the disillusion of the Pontiac brand, as many as half of the Holden Commodores built in Australia were destined for the U.S. and the world in the form of the Pontiac G8. A thinly disguised Holden Ute even made a showing at the 2008 New York Auto Show as the Pontiac G8 Sport Truck.

4/9/11

Holden Ute Series II SS V8 Arrives in Carscoop’s Garage


Our man Tristan has snagged the keys to a Holden Ute Series II SS V8 model for a first drive in Queensland, Australia this week, and just to make it a bit more interesting, he’ll be driving the Down Under-flavored El Camino to a classic car gathering in Brisbane.

Blurring the line between cars and trucks, the Holden Commodore-based sport pickup comes from a long line of Utes dating back to the middle of the previous century. The Ute almost made it to North America when Pontiac revealed the G8 Sport Truck at the 2008 New York Auto Show, but GM’s growing financial troubles at the time put a stop to that plan, and eventually the brand itself which was discontinued in 2009, and finally shut down in 2010.

4/5/11

VIDEO: Pontiac GTO Barks up the Wrong Tree at Houston Coffee and Cars Event


You can find one at every car event – you know, the show off type that ends up getting more attention than he bargained for. At the Houston Coffee and Cars event that took place on April 2, that special someone was the owner of a red Pontiac GTO (the Holden Monaro based model). The GTO driver tried to make a cool exit out of the corner but lost control of the Goat hopping over a curb and into a tree. No word if the killer shoe heel is a suspect for this latest mishap…. Watch the crash and the aftermath in the videos after the jump.

3/16/11

It Came from eBay Hell: The Porsche “Carriero GT”


I swear the Fiero Owner’s Club of America is not paying my salary, it just appears that way. Here we have yet another stunning replica based on that most prestigious of U.S. motoring icons: the Pontiac Fiero. GM’s indefatigable plastic-bodied, mid-engined two seater has gone on to become the underpinning of many a dodgy European thoroughbred imitator. Today’s target is the Porsche Carrera GT, perhaps one of the greatest cars to come out of Germany in recent years.
Our seller’s “Carriero GT” features a rebuilt engine and transmission (never a good sign in this sort of car) with the car said to have covered 6,900 miles since then.
The seller will have more than enough once he sells this beautiful and quality replica for the low, low price of US$21,500. Don’t believe me? The seller himself says, “THE PICTURES SHOW THE BEAUTY AND THE QUALITY BUILT INTO THIS REPLICA.” And you can really see it too, from the awkward body mouldings, botched-together interior and Costco brand fog lights.

3/14/11

Study Shows What Brands Captured the Interest of Pontiac Owners in 2010


A new survey from RL Polk & Co. suggests that most Pontiac owners who bought a new car in 2010 chose a product from General Motors. More specifically, of the 57,641 Pontiac customers looking to replace their car, GM was able to recapture 53.3% of them, with 33.5% being a Chevrolet vehicle, 11.7% a GMC, 6.7% a Buick, and 1.5% a Cadillac model.
A significant percentage of buyers defected to the Ford brand, which ranked 3rd overall with 10.5%, while the Chrysler Corporation saw the Dodge brand ranked 9th, capturing 3.2%. Jeep and Chrysler together were able to capture the interest of 1.7% of Pontiac owners looking for a new vehicle in 2010.

1/25/11

Blowing Kisses with the Lipstick Art Car

Blowing Kisses with the Lipstick Art Car
The Lipstick Art Car is a 2003 Pontiac Vibe embellished with kisses and other items installed solely in celebration of lipstick. Minneasota artist Patti Paulson created the car in 2010. During parades, Patti leaves her mark when she "lays the smack down" on the crowd to the beat of well known kissing songs blaring from her radio.

Blowing Kisses with the Lipstick Art Car

12/24/10

Man Turns Pontiac Fiero into an Amazing Replica of Lamborghini Miura!


All too often, Pontiac Fiero-based replicas are simply horrible, to say the least. But, once in a while, a truly unique build hits the internet forums like this LS3 V8-powered Lamborghini Miura wannabe. Dreamed up by the owner of Chop Top Fiero in Machesney Park, Illinios, the so-called Fiura (no need to explain that) has been carefully developed over a period of three years and it’s the mother of all replicas using Fiero underpinnings.
Part of its awesomeness is due to the fact that Archie, the man behind the project, went to enormous lengths to make it as accurate to the original as possible, but without spending a fortune.
If you have the patience to read all 19 pages of the thread on Pennock’s Fiero Forum, you’ll learn that Miura parts aren’t exactly cheap nor abundant, so Archie did a lot of fabricating and scavenged all over the internet for suitable donor parts.

12/23/10

Pontiac Fiero Goes All Ferrari F40


Is there some sort of underground movement in Germany we don’t know about devoted to converting Pontiac Fiero’s into shoddy Ferrari knockoffs? Is this a new national pastime over there or a devious ploy by Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and Audi to discredit their Italian competitors?
Whatever you may think, the Fiero-based Ferrari replica is here to stay. And, much like David Hasslehoff, there’s nowhere these things are more popular than in Germany. At least, that’s the impression that I get. Presumably built in Belgium (as it is registered there), this replica has 71,000 km (44,154 miles) on the clock, a manual transmission and a whopping 123 hp. That’s only 349 hp short of a real F40!

12/9/10

It Came from eBay Hell: V6 Powered Ferrari Fiero-rossa auf Deustchland zukommt*


Suppose you are a used car buyer in Germany, with €9,990 (US$13,199) to spend on some new wheels. Would you - even in your darkest, most masochistic hour - consider buying this...this thing? Let’s run down the list of why you shouldn’t buy this car:

1. It’s a Pontiac Fiero. Yes, it’s mid-engined and built in the good ol’ U.S.A., but it was built in the good ol’ U.S.A. in the 1980s and has a body made of plastic. That’s like saying, “She’s Latino and has a great body, but she has rotten teeth and herpes.”

11/22/10

New Rumors of the Pontiac G8 Returning to North America as a Chevrolet


The demise of the Pontiac brand in 2009 also brought about the death of the G8, the Americanized derivative of the Australian-built Holden Commodore SS. It was a sad day for Pontiac and Holden fans alike, the loss of the G8 export contract costing Holden millions of dollars and putting the future of its Elizabeth, South Australia plant - and the brand itself - in jeopardy.

When the Holden-derived Chevy Caprice Police Car was revealed for the North American market twelve months ago, rumors of a reborn G8 in the form of a Chevrolet were rife. Now, Aussie motoring website Drive is reporting that U.S. exports of the Holden Commodore SS are "imminent", with a launch expected before the end of the current model's lifespan.

11/10/10

LupiniPower's Chevrolet SportUte is a wild one; Packs 535HP from Supercharged V8


The Holden Commodore Ute may not have been given the chance for a career in the States as the G8 ST sport truck after the demise of Pontiac, but GM's modern-day El-Camino from Down-Under continues to be offered in markets outside Australia including South Africa were it is sold as the Chevy Ute SS.

LupiniPower, a local tuner from South Africa, has taken upon itself to introduce a hotted-up version sporting a 6.0-liter supercharged V8 with 535-hp and a massive 590 lb-ft (799 Nm) of torque. That's an increase of 173-hp and 200 lb-ft over the stock Ute with the naturally aspirated V8 engine.

Thanks to the added power, LupiniPower's SportUte completes the 0 to 60 mph (96km/h) sprint in 4.4 seconds instead of 6.0 seconds, while 0-100 mph (160km/h) goes by in 9.9 seconds, close to 4 seconds faster than the standard Ute.
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