The Big Block Blog

Only someone just like John Z. DeLorean could save Pontiac right now.

The Pontiac Division was in trouble. At one time, it had produced a successful line of cars, but because they now lacked style and sophistication, they had lost their public appeal. The dealers were upset with their sales, and there were even rumors that GM might drop the line. Obviously, only major changes could save the division.

~John Z. DeLorean, in his 1985 book “DeLorean”

Pontiac heard its own death rattle back in the late 1950s, when its engineering department was headed-up by an “old schooler” named George Delaney. When DeLorean met Delaney, he decided to opt out of the offer to work as an engineer at Pontiac Division, but when Delaney was replaced by a guy named Pete Etses, DeLorean had a change of heart. Pontiac general manager, Bunky Knudsen wanted DeLorean bad enugh to shuffle the deck and in doing so, he put together a winning team of Estes, Delorean and Russell Gee.

The rest – as so many of us know – is history.

There can only be one in every lifetime. This guy was one of them.

Now we see Pontiac spinning down the drain toward oblivion. This time, there’s no Bunky Knudsen, no Pete Estes…. no John DeLorean. This is more than a shame – it’s a travesty. One of General Motors’ most historic lines of cars is about to be euthanized and nobody was intelligent enough to figure out what went wrong or how to fix it.

Part of this cluelessness is typical of GM. When the insurance companies and environmentalist applied the thumbscrews to GM back in 1970, they had no idea how to fix their problems. What we got were the big bumper cars with embarrassingly lethargic engines that got shit for gas mileage and were as unreliable as a winning ticket in a Nigerian lottery.

The rest of the equation is simple: General Motors has been run by a gaggle of chicken shit pussies since Delorean resigned in April of 1973. To me, they became a company that was afraid to take chances. They have been led by uninspired followers – rather than true leaders, like those creative engineers who used to meet on the GM test tracks every Saturday in the early 60s.

Some may say, “Well, what were they supposed to design and build since the government began their gestapo-like rule over the Detroit automakers in the early 70s?”

The answer is simple; hire only the best designers, the best engineers, the most innovative sales and marketing people and never, ever, ever let the UAW have so much power over them and their decisions as a leading car company. When the unions came knockin’ GM should have had the balls to push back now and then. Remember what happened to the air traffic controllers? Remember Eastern Airlines?

GM needed to hire men – real men. The kind of men like Delorean and Estes. Guys that took chances and circumvented the red tape and stupid rules made by the sackless geeks who cowered in their offices at the mere stirring of the union, the government or their own overbearing wives.

Pontiac is fading away, and it didn’t have to happen like this.

I guess we’ve just run out of DeLoreans.