Bad Car Karma

To all you Pontiac fans out there, I'm sorry.

GM announced this week, as we all know, that part of their recombobulation as a company that makes cars rather than a health insurance and pension company that makes cars on the side that the venerable Pontiac line will be discontinued.

This is two for two for me.

Currently, I own a Pontiac Montana minivan. (I know, inside every man driving a minivan is a teenager wondering what the hell happened.) I rather like it. It's been a good vehicle for us and has taken us safely for many thousands of miles. Regular readers of this blog, however, will have noted that in the past year it, as many other GM vehicles, has suffered from a bit of automobile leprosy, but that's to be expected ina vehicle with nearly 200,000 miles on it.

So now the Pontiac line is dying.

I did mention I'm two for two. The vehicle I owned previous to this one was also from GM, but a sedan, namely an Oldsmobile Cutlass Calais S. It, too, suffered from automobile leprosy and, before I bought it, had suffered some kind of accident and subsequent cut-rate paint job that could best be described as "tiger-stripe." It looked ugly but the engine and transmission ran like a nut and it saw me through my last year of college and four years of marriage.

And, shortly after I bought it, GM announced it was discontinuing the Oldsmobile line. It's obvious I carry a bad car karma with me. (I have owned other cars, of course, but when I bought them their line had already died out, so I cannot be blamed for that.)

So, auto enthusiasts, if there's a brand out there you'd like killed, let me know. We're currently shopping for a new vehicle.

Addendum: Our Montana has only 123,000 miles on it, so I consider myself chastised. But the still-vengeful vehicle has another trick for us: A bulb has burned out in the dash, leaving part of the speedometer underilluminated. I'm sure it would cost $200 in labor to replace a 5 cent bulb, so that work isn't going to happen.