2005 Pontiac Bonneville GXP - Time To Let Go Of Things That Don't Matter

Years ago the notion of a Cadillac powered Pontiac was about as fathomable as radio with pictures or a man walking on the moon. That's because a major part of GM's brand essence was what was under the hood; even if what was visible looked very much the same across their myriad divisions. With Cadillac an exception to some degree - particularly before World War II.

Was a Buick "better" than say, an Oldsmobile? No, of course not but if you market it as such and buyers believe that it was then the answer to that question is an unqualified, "yes". Even if said makes and models were indistinguishable from each other. If you think that GM cars in the 1970's and 1980's looked alike, get a load of GM's new for 1933, "turret top" 1933 Buick...  

and 1933 Oldsmobile. Save for the vaguest of styling nuances, I mean, you really have to look hard at both of these cars to tell them apart, they are the same car. Oh, but one's a Buick and one's an Oldsmobile? Ok. 

Let's not forget lowly Pontiac which was slotted below Oldsmobile but a head of Chevrolet.  Without, again, any discernable difference aside from what GM told you the cars represented in some sort of bizarre caste. All part of Alfred Sloan's pricing ladder or a car for every wallet. 

Where you'd see a difference was in the interiors and power trains. The interior of this 1933 Chevrolet Master Six, again, note how similar it looks to Buick, Olds and Pontiac, all but an empty tin can in comparison to the lavishly trimmed interior of the Buick. Under hood, this Chevrolet makes due "only" with an in line six whereas the Buick, Oldsmobile and even the Pontiac had in line eight cylinder engines available. Were the Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac "Eights", they shared nothing with each other, superior to the Chevrolet "Six"? Debateable. Very. 

GM's engine hierarchy came to a screeching and embarrassing halt in 1977 when they found itself in a public relations snafu for not disclosing that it was using Chevrolet engines in Oldsmobiles. To make matters worse they charged more for the Chevrolet engine in an Oldsmobile than they did for the same engine in a Chevrolet. Not good. Even if they had disclosed it they would have gotten a fair amount of flack from a marketplace reared for years on Mr. Sloan's pricing ladder. Probably wouldn't have been as damaging to GM's reputation had it been ther other way around but still, it somewhat diminished whatever exclusivity the models had. Did it really matter from behind the wheel? No, but the "corporatization" of GM engines, were engines where not division specific, had begun. Amazingly, it took decades for it to completely unravel.

Along the way that unraveling took a strange turn or two. In 2004, for instance, GM started offering their once exclusive to Cadillac "Northstar" engine in the Pontiac Bonneville GXP and, amazingly, nary an eyebrow was raised. That having more to do with GM offering an "upmarket" engine in a "downmarket" automobile as much as it had to do with a buying public and automotive press that just didn't care [anymore]. And, yes, GM disclosed it that time but...was that not unlike a parent whom all of a sudden decides not to take things with their children as seriously as they once did? You can't not scold your kids for drinking straight out of the milk carton when they're young but not do it when they're older. A Cadillac engine in a Pontiac. As if.

The whole Cadillac in a Pontiac actually made very good dollars and sense since the Bonneville and Cadillac DTS shared so much mechanically; the Northstar made the Bonneville GXP a really nice, smooth runner too, much better than the supercharged 3800 V-6. The 2005 Buick Lucerne also had the Cadillac Northstar engine available.

Ford and Chrysler have had "corporate" engines for years, VW/Audi, Toyota/Lexus, Honda/Acura too. The list goes on and on. GM's bankruptcy only sped up the process of corporatizing their engines. It was time for GM to let go of things that didn't matter any more any way.