Gone too soon?

If you are looking for an American hero, you can find one sitting at home during this World Cup in Landon Donovan. Donovan was passed over for the 2014 World Cup and I was a bit crushed because I was a big fan of his and I was extremely excited to watch him play. Honestly, I cried.

Now I won't claim to know that much about soccer or "fùtbol" as those people across the way call it, but it still broke my heart, much like the time Donovan broke every Algerian's heart in the 2010 World Cup. Does it still taste bad 4 years later Algeria?

However, I do claim to know a little bit about cars, such as the fact that if you actually want to get where you're going, you probably shouldn't buy a 42 year old, barely running sports car from a defunct dealership for $1000. Knowing that, I feel comfortable in saying that although they were left behind much like the American hero, Pontiac deserved to live on.

Flashback to 2009ish (because I'm too lazy to look up the actual year) when the auto industry was pretty much as broke as I am. General Motors had quite a few brands under their umbrella, and decided it was time to kill a few of them off in order to actually keep the company afloat. One of the brands that died was Pontiac.

At some point in its life, Pontiac was respected as a car brand and built some classic cars such as the GTO, the Camaro clone known as the Firebird, and of course, the car that could've changed everything but didn't, the Fiero. I'm honestly still bitter about the Fiero, but that's another story for another day. The problem with Pontiac is that they started making cars that were pretty much garbage. I mean I've driven a ~2003 Grand Am and I felt like it was going to fall apart and explode at any second. The radio also had this weird habit of refusing to lower it's volume when you turned the knob because I guess it really wanted every other person within a 2 mile radius to hear One Direction's "That's What Makes You Beautiful" (aka the jam) mixed in with some very audible cursing.

Around the time that Pontiac died however, they had a lot of future potential. Even though it was just a Holden, the  Pontiac G8 could've lived on along with a G6 replacement. A friend of mine believes that Pontiac could have survived as a sporty brand for GM and I honestly believe that is a good idea. Growing up, Pontiac cars always looked sporty but in reality they were merely Chevy's with a body kit and a hood scoop. If they had given them a little more power and built them with some care and quality, maybe Pontiac would've made it, and some 20 year old college kid wouldn't be writing a eulogy for them on his stupid blog. Its also possible that it would've all failed miserably and that GM would've crashed and burned.

But it's like I always say, you gotta risk it to get the biscuit.

Thanks for reading!