The test Vibe was a base model, but had the optional 2.4-liter, 158-horsepower four-cylinder engine. General Motors announced in June that it had chosen to end this partnership with Toyota (one more mistake but by now, who’s counting?). The Nova became the Geo Prism, and then in January 2002, the Pontiac Vibe. This partnership dates to 1986, when the little Chevrolet Nova was a twin to the Toyota Corolla, built in a joint-venture plant in California. As you may know, the Vibe is essentially a twin to the Toyota Matrix. The last Pontiac, and the only 2010 model, is the Vibe, which was redesigned for the 2009 model year. I didn’t realize that in 1977, but I knew it was an excellent car, during a period when Detroit arguably was at its lowest point.Įnough grousing. A couple of years ago I drove a vintage Trans-Am from that era, and it was a revelation: It was the oldest car I’ve driven that feels very much like new cars do today, with radial tires, a solid suspension, good brakes, precise steering. My family owned several Pontiacs – my mother still has a 1986 Grand-Am my father bought new shortly before he died – and my first Pontiac was a new 1977 Trans-Am. None, though, made me as sad as this last test drive of a Pontiac, a brand so mismanaged by General Motors that its death is more of an assassination than from natural causes. market – Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Peugeot, Daihatsu, Daewoo, Yugo, Eagle, Isuzu, TVR, Bitter, Laforza, Merkur, Renault, Sterling, Alfa-Romeo, AM General – and man, that list turned out to be a lot longer than I thought it would be when I started writing this sentence. I wrote my first test drive in 1984, and plenty of them were obituaries for departed brands that either died or left the U.S.
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