Debunking The JUICIEST Car Myth Out There Right Now!

Bring back Pontiac with V8s! Bring back Holden while you’re at it. Gm has been such a buzz kill for years now. They can’t get all their performance credibility just from the corvette…

I suppose if GM were to have a car division Pontiac would be a good idea.

Car and Driver is probably trying to get some of their '70s-'90s magic back, when they were the edgiest, funniest, most well written car magazine in the land. They haven't had that in decades, I see this ad as an homage to both Pontiac and to the way it was in vintage magazine land.

My take: Print magazine sales are slowly dying. Car & Driver probably couldn't sell that back page ad for this issue--the car makers aren't doing well and probably balked at the ad price. So, Car & Driver put a fake ad on the back page to "juice" magazine rack sales and get people talking about the magazine again. Some years back, a specialty magazine that I read ceased publication. I knew that they were in trouble when the ads on the inside front and inside back covers were for the magazine itself for several monthly issues. This looks like a similar type desperation move by the magazine.

The way they responded to you sounds to me like the classic way companies will say “you’re onto us, but we can’t tell you what we’re planning yet.”

A modern Pontiac G8 (a CT5 without the luxury stuff and a V8. Maybe a hybrid drivetrain) would be amazing.

I think there is absolutely a market for a new American muscle car. Only two American sports cars are left: the Mustang and the Corvette, and the Corvette at 70k to 90k is out of reach for the average person, which really only leaves one option for most people, the Mustang. I think it would be a brilliant move to revive Pontiac and bring back a modern Firebird! :)

Just to make a correction, when listing the brands killed off in the terms of the bailout, it wasn't Oldsmobile since they phased it out a few years earlier prior, the one you missed was SAAB.

Try Z-folding that page. I bet Car & Driver is invoking Mad Magazine. Maybe the bird turns into Alfred E. Neuman.

Wouldn't it be legally risky for Car and Driver to use the intellectual property of Pontiac (name, emblem) on a fake advertisement that might lead to real world expenses for GM responding to customer inquiries and other unforseen consequences?

This makes total sense if you're GM. GMC is your truck division. ChEVy is your EV car division. Hummer is your EV truck division. Pontiac is your performance car division. Buick is your SUV division. Cadillac is your luxury division.

If you'd get the government out of the auto-making business, and get the environazis corralled, Pontiac would be the most interesting division within GM.

Just when I thought Pontiac had the best cars out of all the GM manufacturers, GM discontinued them. That G8 was amazing. It’d be cool if GM brought them back as the purely “car” division of GM.

Pontiac was the very soul of an otherwise pretty boring corporation. It was too cool for school and stepped on corporate toes with the GTO. I doubt it could ever be the same but I personally never walked on a GM dealer's lot after Pontiac's demise. But I still have my memories of my GTOs and how they made you feel.

V8 demand is one truth but the bigger question is the price point to get huge sales numbers required to revive an abondand brand

Your magazine friend apparently didn’t tell you the back inside cover is expensive, the 3rd most expensive ad in the book, and if it goes unsold, that means Car and Driver has to run something else there. Their choices are: bonus another advertiser the space, which is bad because that advertiser will ask for it and all their ads at discount and never pay rate card again and C&D loses more money over time. Or, run a self-promo ad, which still loses C&D money because all self-promo ads, whether print, tv or radio, are unsold space that has to be filled with something else, at a loss and lowers the value of your book to other advertisers. Or, you can make a fake touchstone ad making an outrageous claim that will get people talking about the ad, the book and the possibility your fake ad is not fake after all , and maybe sell a few more copies than you would have otherwise. Which choice you think C&D made???

Considering Fords commitment to the V8 this could be a consideration. Worth noting is the ad has no TM or C symbols to be found anywhere.

Episode…..wow, I’ve not heard of that term for a paper magazine 😂. I think “Issue” is what you’re looking for there…😅

Obviously this is intended to create hype with the hopes of making a Pontiac come back viable. I think that someone at GM collaborated with Car & Driver to come up with the idea for the ad and secured permissions for the use of GM copyrighted materials but left the ad officially in the hands of Car & Driver to avoid backlash for a fake ad in the event that it doesn't create enough hype to make the comeback viable.

Man I sure hope GM brings back the Trans Am with a 70's style shaker hood!