1978 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am Re-creation on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 2001 Pontiac Bonneville SSEi

The General's Pontiac Division sold Bonnevilles from 1958 through 2005, which turned out to be well over half of the marque's existence. Named after the Bonneville Salt Flats, some Bonnevilles were huge but pretty quick, others were slow-motion land yachts, and some were nearly indistinguishable from their Buick and Oldsmobile brethren. The final generation, sold for the 2000 through 2005 model years, were among the quickest and most distinctive-looking Bonnevilles ever built, but they arrived in showrooms at a time when the clock was ticking for the division's very survival. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those cars, an '01 with the hot-rod SSEi package. The Bonneville SSEi first appeared in the 1992 model year, just a year after the Buick Park Avenue Ultra was the first of many GM cars to get the 3.8-liter Buick V6 with an Eaton supercharger bolted on top. Production of the Bonneville SSEi continued through the 2003 model year, after which the GXP version and its Cadillac Northstar V8 took over. The 2001 version of this engine made 240 horsepower, good for plenty of torque-steery fun. Could you get this car with a manual transmission? What do you think? Some cursory research indicates that 1970 was the last model year for a three-pedal Bonneville, and even those cars must be incredibly rare. This one looks to have been in nice shape when it arrived here, with the original manuals still in the glovebox. By 2006, the Bonneville was gone; four years later, Pontiac was gone. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Stop all black Bonnevilles!

GM doing fine at retaining Pontiac owners

This isn't the first time we've reported positive news about General Motors retaining former Pontiac owners. Get a few more stories like this latest report from Edmund's Auto Observer, and it will mark an ongoing positive trend for GM. Edmunds.com crunched the numbers to see how well the General is hanging on to customers after shutting out the lights at Pontiac, and it found that nearly 40 percent of Pontiac owners stayed with a vehicle from a General Motors brand.
The numbers are a little lower than an earlier R.L. Polk & Company study, but Edmunds says General Motors is keeping more former Pontiac buyers than it has since 2007. Most are turning to vehicles from Chevrolet, especially during January and February of 2011, when GM incentivized Pontiac owners to stay under the umbrella. Those moves seem to have worked, and 28.1 percent of Pontiac owners trading up made the jump into a Bowtie.
Buyers that have gone elsewhere have largely stayed loyal to Domestic automakers, with Ford picking up the most conquests from Pontiac, with 9.4 percent switching. Toyota and Honda picked up 7.4 percent of the pool of former Pontiac drivers. The numbers are defying any predictions that Pontiac buyers would completely exit the General Motors fold, and have climbed up closer to parity with the retention figures of other GM brands from a 2009 low of only 16 percent retention.

Remember when Pontiac made a Trans Am Kammback grocery getter?

Despite muscle cars having strong reputations as some of the most impractical cars one can buy, they've occasionally had one of the most useful and practical features a car can sport: a hatchback. In the 1980s, General Motors' Chevrolet Camaro and Pontiac Firebird had one, and it added respectable utility to the sports cars. But the people at GM thought they could make the F-Body cars even more useful. So, after a few clay-model experiments, Pontiac built three examples of an extended-roof 1985 Pontiac Trans Am Kammback concept. Spotted by GM Authority, one of these Trans Am Kammbacks (although "shooting brake" seems like the more apt descriptor) is going on the block at the Mecum Kissimmee auction in early January 2019. Reportedly only three of these prototypes/experiments/test mules were built to driveable specs, and this example, VIN No. EX4796, has additional history that might make it the ultimate example. According to Mecum, the show car, which has made appearances at numerous auto shows, also spent some time at the race track — just not as a participant. It was used as a pace car for PPG and IMSA racing and temporarily had a light bar and "two-way communications equipment." Following its pace duty, and after GM stopped the project from going any further, it was put into Pontiac Engineering's private collection for 13 years. Famous Michigan car collector and Pontiac dealership owner John McMullen then bought the car. He eventually sent it to Pontiac specialist Scott Tiemann for a full restoration to the gorgeous condition it is in today. As seen in the photos, the Trans Am features white paint over a gray leather interior. It houses a 5.0-liter V8 under the hood and has a five-speed manual transmission. The wild concept is rare enough to be super cool, but we can't help but think of an infinitely more practical, more modern, more powerful, and arguably more interesting car we'd rather have. Manual Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon in Black Diamond anybody? Or, if you don't care about the extra doors, perhaps the Callaway's Corvette AeroWagen is more applicable. Either way, we're in full support of any shooting brakes we can find. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.