Minneapolis Street Sighting: Chevrolet Celebrity Eurosport

In the 1980s, GM was trying to emphasize sportiness more-so than the other "Big Three" automakers. While Ford had the SHO, and Chrysler had its turbo cars, GM had a whole fleet of "sports sedans"; unfortunately, the majority of these sports sedans were in appearance only, and offered no real upgrades compared to more plebeian versions. They sure did look the part, though. Aside from the obvious better looking wheels, the Eurosport benefitted from red-colored trim on the rubstrips, a more "sinister" color palette that was comprised of grays, blacks and white, and it gained a slightly meaner front valance as well. Apart from these cosmetic changes, the car was mostly mediocre, performance-wise, although the Eurosport did benefit from a new  firmer suspension.

While the Celebrity did go away after 1990, the Eurosport name stuck around, and was affixed to the Celebrity's successor, the Lumina; like the Celebrity before it, the Lumina Eurosport also benefited from cosmetic upgrades and a suspension upgrade and various interior bits, but the really sporty Lumina would have to wait-- and readers will too. 

I feel bad; I had to do a quick shoot because the owner was walking to this as I was shooting it. This isa relatively clean example of a fairly rare variant of Chevrolet's A-body. The painted looked great and the wheels were in excellent shape. The only real rotten things here are the bumper damage, and slight rusting on the passenger front door; other than that, this Eurosport is definitely one of the nice ones I've seen, especially on the exterior.

Inside, again, this example was pretty solid; it did show some dash curl, and the steering wheel had its fair share of use, but overall, the interior looked pretty nice, especially considering the age of the driver.  (He was a pretty young guy, who didn't seem to look like he knew anything about cars, judging by his immediate reaction to me commenting on the rarity of his car.)

I am glad I shot this one now before it got totally covered in indie rock band stickers all over; I fear for what the future holds for this rare sedan, and I hope it doesn't stray too far from unsavable.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Pontiac G8 GT

I usually stay away from modern cars--but there are some that catch my fancy; one of these is the Pontiac G8. It was introduced in 2008, and only a year after it was introduced, it was killed (as was the whole Pontiac brand). For being fairly rare, I still see a good number out my way--but they're still not common by any stretch. Hailed as a cut-price BMW 550i, Car and Driver, Automobile, and Motor Trend liked the G8, whereas a number of foreign publications didn't. For $35,000 or thereabouts, one really couldn't go wrong; problem was, most Pontiac dealers (at least my way) didn't really know much about the cars, and I can recall more than once I asked an obvious question (is it rear-wheel-drive?) and the salespeople didn't know.

But that wasn't the main problem; like most modern cars that are considered niche products, the ads simply were not there. GM cited slow sales as the reason for killing Pontiac, but the only thing they really advertised was the fucking Grand Prix (which by this time was almost five years old), and the dowdy-looking G6 range.  So, how bout them dollars you could've spent advertising the G8?

Since this is a farily new car, I'm not going to bitch about the condition of the thing; I'm going to praise it. I love these things, and probably will for a very long time. 2008 was a shit year for GM. While GM did bring out a new Malibu (which they haven't topped yet), Saturn and Pontiac both got knocked out for good--right after redesigning the whole lineup to go from meh, to "wow, that's nice"... and the phrase "for a Pontiac" needn't be uttered. The G8 is simply a nice car.

I love these wheels on it, too; I know they're simple five spokes in brushed aluminum, but they look fantastic. And no cheesy Holden centrecaps either.  I would definitely drive one of these--hell, I'd even sport the V6 base model--and I don't say that with very many GM cars. Just goes to show that GM did make a mistake. Oh well, at least the Camaro is a hit.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Isuzu i-Mark RS Turbo

Bringing the audience back to the discussion of Isuzu, I want to showcase the quirky side of the brand. Isuzu is well known for building trucks and SUVs for themselves, but also Acura, Holden, Honda, Opel, and Vauxhall to name a few. The brands cars on the other hand, are less well-known. In the 1980s, turbocharging was all the rage, and it was thought that to be a good driver's car, it needed forced induction, a plethora of badges, bodykit, and specific wheel and tire packages.
The Isuzu i-Mark, like its truck cousins, has been sold under a variety of names including the Chevrolet and Holden Gemini, the Chevrolet and Geo Spectrum, and finally, the Pontiac Sunburst. Like most other small-time Japanese brands, Isuzu's car-making longevity was short-lived. After the Isuzu Stylus was dropped in 1993, Isuzu turned all of their attention to trucks and SUVs. But, lest we not forget about their cars. I have always sort-of liked the i-Mark for whatever reason. I love the oh-so-1980s color coded wheels, and I love the sporty-but-not-garish bodykit, too.











I nearly crapped myself; a few years ago, I saw a hatchback, and got some shots of it. It wasn't parked, so I couldn't really feature it here. I know this isn't technically "on the street", but c'mon. How common are these? In this day and age? There weren't exactly common when new, as Isuzu didn't really have a good dealer network. I remember seeing the Chevrolet and Geo Spectrum quite a bit, but never an i-Mark, let alone an RS model.
On the surface, this littel four-door seems to be quite straight. Other than a tiny patch of rust on the panel between the rear plate and the taillights, this i-Mark appear fairly straight. Upon close inspection, it does look like it's had a repaint at some paint--the back, anyway. The front looks clean, and original. Yes, the emblems have lost their luster, but what do you expect with a near 25 year old sedan? I hope the owner enjoys this car, and from the radio stickers plastered in the rear glass, I'm sure he does. I only hope he knows what it is, though, and doesn't see it as "just a cheap old car".
If this were mine, I'd claybar it, and really get it to shine. I'd tint the side glass, and put a new exhaust on, and have myself a nice, if not unique daily driver.
Cars like this need to be saved, and it's up to enthusiasts to do so. The budget sporty sedan has gone the way of the dodo unfortunately, so now all car enthusiasts are left merely with relics from a much better time in affordable sporty motoring. We will never have the 1980s and their endless stream of performance cars back, but if more and more performance heroes get restored, a new class of cars may spark a new kind of enthusiast.

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Pontiac G8 GT

In the early to late 2000s, GM was in the process of yet again trying to "redefine" Pontiac; gone were the atrocious bodycladded cars that the marked the turn of the 21st century. Cars like the Grand Am, and Grand Prix GTP, the Montana minivan, and then finally, the unloved (but quite practical) Aztek crossover utility were decent vehicles in their own right, but like most vehicles initially conceived in the late 1990s, styling didn't quite stand the test of time. In 2007, GMs design team took a drastic turn; instead of vehicles whose exteriors were filled to the brim with all sorts of cladding and scoops and multi-tone paintjobs, GM adopted a cleaner, more flush way of doing things; the first example of this was the 2007 Silverado/Sierra, and then its SUV counterparts; later the '08 Malibu would debut, alongside the range of Solstice and Sky roadsters. So where does that leave the Pontiac G8?
Unfortunately, its dead, along with the rest of the Pontiac brand, and accompanying Saturn. Just as the two brands were starting to turn around, too. Due to "poor sales" both branded shuttered at the end of 2009, after a brief, but successful turnaround.
While analysts and marketing execs would say that the two brands needed to be shut down save money, I disagree. What did them in (most notably Pontiac) was the lack of serious advertising; I mean, when the G8 was in production, how often was it advertised? I can distinctly remember hurriedly bolting into a Pontiac dealer in summer 2008, and asking about the new G8. Instead of enthusiasm, rather, I was met with blank stares across the board; these Pontiac dealership employees didn't even know their own product very well-- and that's expected to sell cars? With all this misadvertisement, one would expect the turnout of new Pontiacs to owners would be pretty slim, and that seems to be the case. I know G8s are supposed to be a niche automobile, but I see far more Solstices than G8s, and Solstices were generally more expensive if you add in the "adjusted" dealer markup
I would feel a little bit.. odd..lambasting the condition, because honestly this a "used car" that attracts a special following-- for a multitude of reasons: it's big and fast, it's RWD and American, and it just plain looks scores cooler than the only other RWD American sedan duo on sale currently-- the Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300. Granted, the new 300 Series impresses me still, but those weren't on sale when this was shot; we still had the quite bland first generation roaming the streets.
I loved these cars when they first came out, and I still do. Unlike many recent or current GM products, the Pontiac G8 is sure to be a serious investment later on down the road; I can see even the base V6 models fetching serious coin, especially given that the G8 had an unreasonably short lifespan. I won't even fathom how much cash a low mile GXP could bring; to be frank, I can only remember one on public roads, and that one has been hacksawed into a half-Holden, half-Vauxhall mashup. Shame really, because these rare birds certainly deserve to be treated better.