Inland Empire car enthusiasts react to GM bankruptcy

Here's a longer version of a story set to run in Tuesday's edition:

By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer

There was once a time when the Pontiac GTO was so cool that the Ramones paid tribute to the muscle car in the lyrics of "Rock 'n' Roll High School."

"Well the girls out there knock me out, you know/
Rock, rock, rock 'n' roll high school/
Crusin' around in my GTO."

That time was 1979, and Joey Ramone's voice made the GTO sound like the ultimate teenage status symbol. But times change, and the Pontiac had ceased production of the GTO years before the Ramones honored the car in their music.

Now it seems that the Pontiac brand itself is going to go away. General Motors, itself an icon of American industry, on Monday became the largest manufacturer in American history to seek bankruptcy protection.

General Motors' failure to stay competitive means that the federal government will gain a controlling interest in what was once the world's largest automaker, thousands of men and women will lose their jobs and Pontiac could join the ranks of Studebaker and La Salle.

"The Pontiac guys are not really happy about Pontiac going away in 18 months," said Thom Trafford, president of the Inland Empire GTO Club.

"All the guys in the club, we're just Pontiac enthusiasts through and through," he added.
Pontiac isn't the only brand that General Motors is poised to shed in its bid to stay alive. The firm is expected to also drop Hummer, Saab and Saturn while maintaining Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC.

When Trafford was in high school, he was able to be the kid who cruised around in a GTO. Trafford said his stepfather owned a 1965 convertible model and let him drive the machine.
Trafford, who lives in Alta Loma, now owns a 1967 GTO that lets him "continue the dream of owning one."

"Right now it's red but it's actually going to be tiger orange," Trafford said.

Trafford thinks Pontiac's current lineup, like the Solstice coupe, would have potential to bring the brand back to prominence if given a chance to compete in a better economy.

"I think they just didn't have enough time to have an impact," he said.

Tim Abney cq of San Bernardino is another General Motors devotee. Abney the newsletter editor and former president of the Inland Empire Corvair Club. He said he's driven General Motors products for more than three decades.

He started with a 1962 Corvair that he purchased as a 17-year-old Chicago teenager in 1965. He volunteered for the draft and after returning from an "all expense paid trip to Southeast Asia," bought another Corvair -- a 1961 station wagon.

"It was just a rust bucket but we loved it," Abney said.

There would be more cars in Abney's life. He taught his three children to drive in a Volkswagon bus, but said he was primarily a General Motors loyalist. There was a 1954 Chevrolet pickup, Buicks and Cadillacs -- always convertibles -- and the 1965 Corvair Monza he bought in an eBay auction during the early part of the decade.

The seller lived in the Sacramento area. Abney bought a one-way jet ticket and drove his prize back to San Bernardino.

But General Motors is now more about cold reality than cool. The firm's restructuring will reportedly lead to the elimination of 21,000 jobs, which is about a third of its work force. What's more, 2,600 dealerships -- about 40 percent of General Motors' retail outlets -- are on the way out.

The federal government is slated to give General Motors $30 billion on top of the $20 million in bailout funds the automaker already borrowed from Uncle Sam. The Canadians are also set to chip in $9.5 billion.

The United States government is taking a 60 percent interest in General Motors, with the Canadian government acquiring 12.5 percent of the company.

To Abney, it puts a new twist on former General Motors CEO Charles E. Wilson's 1953 remark that "what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa."

"Now, the country owns GM. I guess what's now good for GM had better be good for the country," Abney said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.