El Disastre
In driving excitement news, the Cheeto of automobiles has returned. Kind of.
“El Camino is the one name I wouldn’t put on that vehicle,” said Ed Welburn, GM’s vice president of design, insisting that the new Pontiac, with its long hood hiding a powerful V-8 engine and its short, open bed in the back, has nothing to do with the El Camino.
GM’s vice chairman and product maven, Bob Lutz, disagreed. “El Camino would be my personal choice,” he said. “It has name recognition.”
Rapper 50 Cent, who was hired by GM to introduce the vehicle, had a different idea. “We should call it the Curtis,” he said, perhaps because his real name is Curtis Jackson.
Ay carumba. Pontiac has had the pole position on GM’s highway to hell for years, but this is ridiculous. Not even Oprah could give away this hose beast. For the love of God, look at the thing. It’s a Subaru Baja dressed up for Halloween as Batman. Clooney Batman.
I don’t want to offend anybody out there in TASland, but I am the only one who has noticed that EVERY owner of an El Camino is totally crazy? (And I mean nasty, stay-away-from-them-if-unarmed crazy, not amsuing-oddball crazy).
— Jim Manzi · Mar 20, 09:48 PM · #
Good posting day for you, James. A minor quibble: wouldn’t the Subaru brat be more insulting?
I predict no one gets laid in the back of this car.
— Justin · Mar 20, 10:56 PM · #
I only know 1 Camino owner, but Jim’s analysis does hold up. I suspect purchasers of the new (not-)Camino will only be ironically crazy.
— Bo · Mar 20, 11:29 PM · #
Looks like fun, and probably pretty useful, but not worth the new car price. Is there anywhere i can go to secure an option to purchase a used, mildly battered 2008 el camino in 2016? With all of the exotic financial contracts available today, this should be possible.
— Ross G. · Mar 20, 11:34 PM · #