[LS1Hawk]

Originally Posted by BigAls87Z28

Give me a ****in break.
While executed like ****, the Aztek was one of the first "crossovers" and if they actually had a chassis that didnt look like **** to pin sheet metal too, it would have been a huge success for GM, giving them the edge.
I love how Myers is lynched for her "non-car experence" yet she had worked every day of her working life inside the halls of GM.
She had the forsight to develop a crossover before people knew wtf they were.
She had the forsight to make sure that the GTO wasnt some retro-red neck hunk of ****. The 04-06 GTO carries the same DNA as the 64 did.
But people get this crazy idea that muscle cars of yore were these fire breathing dragons, running 11's and just full of excitement.
GTO was a Lemans with hood scoops.
And when Pontiac listened to people, made cars faster, better handling, RWD V8 performance, no one turned up.

Grand Am sells like hot cakes.
GTO shows up with RWD, V8, manual trans, amazing handling and great quality and its shunned because it doesnt look like a Judge, but still erks out more sales then the Trans Am did in its final years.
GP and Bonnie are old FWD grandma cars, rebadged and zapped of soul, but sell like gangbusters.
G8 comes here, and it takes thousands of dollars in rebates to hit projections.
Fiero makes it, carries a big following, and there is tons of talk of bringing back a sports car to Pontiac. A true roadster, 2 seater fun car.
They bring it with a NA and turbo engine, and people pass over it.
********.

Al, Lynn Myers foresight put the final nails in Pontiac's coffin. Had she developed a crossover like the Enclave for Pontiac before there was a crossover market, I'd give her credit. But I highly doubt anyone looks to the Aztek as the harbinger of today's crossovers. And you have to remember, while the '04-'06 GTOs carried the DNA and the formula of the original, the GTO had been engraved in peoples memories for 40 years before the new one came out. Their expectations were not to get a car that looked like everything else on the road. They wanted something when you saw it coming down the street, it could not be mistaken for anything else but a GTO. What would you think if GM decided to take the Monaro and put Camaro on it? When you bring back your number one nameplate, if you are not going to do it 100% right, don't do it at all.