When we heard GM had decided to turn the storied Pontiac name into “a “focused brand” with fewer models,” it really ground our gears. How on earth do you kill a brand that brought us cars like this?

Or this?

Oh. By making cars like this:

Now, we quite agree that GM needs to trim some fat. Probably, they should just focus on Cadillac and Chevy. Yet they’ve decided to get rid of Saturn – the only decent American cars of the last 15 years – and keep Buick? Why? So the rest of us can know not to get stuck behind one? What do we think of when we see a Buick? How about: “Hang On A Second, I Gotta Pass Grandma.”

But the plot thickens:  From the 1954 Willys we drove in high school to the random  Merkurs, MGBs and Studebakers we see on the road today, enthusiasts keep the brands they’re passionate about in a sort of otherworldly automotive limbo. Neither dead nor alive, these zombie car brands never really die, no matter how hard their creators try to kill them. (We’re looking at you, Zombie Oldsmobile.) Kinda curious, no?

Anyway, here’s hoping Pontiac gets its mojo back – it shouldn’t be so easy to kill brands people write songs about.

Did you notice we got through that entire post without making a “braaaaaaaains” joke? Probably because we’re talking about GM.