Car Nuts - Stanley Fish Blog - NYTimes.com

Car Nuts - Stanley Fish Blog - NYTimes.com: "The name Pontiac strikes an elegiac and forlorn note (“Forlorn: the very word is like a bell”). The Pontiac is gone and the entire parent company may follow it. And then there’s all that talk about hybrids and plug-ins and the prediction, once more, of the demise of the internal combustion engine. I guess it’s all over.

Well, maybe not, for if you read the auto magazines, which I do religiously, especially in barber shops where you don’t have to pay for them, it’s still morning in America and, indeed, it’s still 1970. In the June issue of Road & Track, Douglas Kott celebrates the new Solstice: “Pontiac brings us a stunner.” (Is it a going-away present?) A longish piece in the June issue of Car and Driver lingers over the virtues and limitations of Chrysler’s Grand Caravan minivan. (Isn’t that the kind of car we want to get rid of?) And gracing the cover of Motor Trend are three “pony” cars (muscle cars to you): the Chevrolet Camaro, the Ford Mustang and the Dodge Challenger. The line above the pictures reads “The Showdown We’ve Waited 35 Years For.”"