Old an old article about Vibes

[carguyjohn350]

So I remmebered seeing an article obout the Vibe a couple of years ago in Car and Driver and Ive been meaning to dig through my stack of old issues since buying a Vibe back in March. This weekend I got around to it and just thought Id share.

[VforVIBE]

Good artical (mods can fix the title), but it points out Pontiac's problem:"We wanted to keep a clean look" assistant brand manager James Hunter.Pontiac shouldn't be about 'clean look', they are about 'wild and fun', these clean looks are killing pontiac, and it's all because GM is holding pontiac back.

[KNINE]

Pontiac used to get allot of criticism from the big car magazines about all the plastic side panels they used on their cars. Think about the Grand Am. It almost had a Bat Mobile look. So when Pontiac started coming out with new designs like the Vibe, G6, and Solstice, they did away with the side panels for the "clean look". I don't think it was GM holding them back so much as Pontiac trying to gain acceptance from the big car magazines. Those magazines seem to have a big Jap car bias in my humble opinion.

[kostby]

The base car for the original TV Batmobile was actually a 1950's Ford Motor Company (possibly Lincoln?) twin bubble-top concept car, refurbished for Batman duty by George Barris of 'Kustom Kar' fame.Don't know if I can find a web link, but I have a book on Barris Kustoms that shows the original and the Batmobile.EDIT: Ahh, the wonders of Google: Here's a link that shows both the 1955 Lincoln Futura, and the TV Batmobile --> http://www.1966batfan.com/futurabat.htm

[maxt]

Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »Pontiac used to get allot of criticism from the big car magazines about all the plastic side panels they used on their cars. Think about the Grand Am. It almost had a Bat Mobile look. So when Pontiac started coming out with new designs like the Vibe, G6, and Solstice, they did away with the side panels for the "clean look". I don't think it was GM holding them back so much as Pontiac trying to gain acceptance from the big car magazines. Those magazines seem to have a big Jap car bias in my humble opinion. you gotta be kidding. Crappy cladding that makes the car look so confused is what's killing GM. For once, they have a product thats clean. We bought one, but I would have never considered it if it was a previous gen product. Pontiac managed to make their version look cleaner then the Matrix (esp with the new front end) so they got our business. I feel comfortable saying that very cheezy body cladding is a good representation of whats wrong with US automakers

[maxt]

Quote, originally posted by K-NINE »Pontiac used to get allot of criticism from the big car magazines about all the plastic side panels they used on their cars. Think about the Grand Am. It almost had a Bat Mobile look. So when Pontiac started coming out with new designs like the Vibe, G6, and Solstice, they did away with the side panels for the "clean look". I don't think it was GM holding them back so much as Pontiac trying to gain acceptance from the big car magazines. Those magazines seem to have a big Jap car bias in my humble opinion. not so sure that they cleaned up their looks to please the car magazines as much as they did it to please a wider demographic by having a look thats not so polarizing. The Japanese are understated and conservative. not too much to hate about that.

[KNINE]

I never said I liked the cladding. I prefer the new Pontiac look.