Pontiac. They were one of the few brands still left that had their priorities in the right place, valuing performance above luxury, to the point where they might have even been planning to head for an all-RWD lineup at some point. Unfortunately, GM's fiscal crisis woes cut that plan short, and with the way the markets and the regulatory climate are changing, I don't think anything short of a gearhead takeover of the education system could make a "performance brand", that skimps on luxury and quality to sell cheap performance, feasible ever again. As JMoney said of the Lancia Delta, it could never be as good as it once was - a lineup of true Pontiac cars, conspicuously bare of unnecessary lard, loud, and unrefined, wouldn't sell well in today's gadget-obsessed, driving-apathetic mainstream culture - given an extra $7,500 to spend on their car, most people would rather weigh it down with stupid garbage, screens everywhere and everything-by-wire and what have you, than stuff in a bigger engine. Meanwhile, the obnoxious meddlers in Washington D.C. would force dilution of the lineup with EVs and displacement-downsized high-fuel-efficiency compacts, with the latter being also the product of market forces - not enough people would be willing to sacrifice fuel economy for speed.
So, good luck to anyone attempting to abide by these sports-brand guiding principles:
-FWD sucks. It has no place in the lineup.
-Engines with four cylinders arranged in a line, and all engines with fewer than four cylinders, suck. They have no place in the lineup.
-Turbochargers do not replace displacement. That's just wrong on principle no matter how well it works.
-Anything that is related to controlling the mechanical bits of the car and includes the phrase "by wire", such as drive-by-wire, brake-by-wire, and steer-by-wire, also suck and have no place in the lineup. If we want to accelerate smoothly, we'll operate the gas and clutch in a smooth way, not rely on a computer to smooth out our inputs. 'Tis better to have to put out that small amount of effort than have a stupid DBW system continuing to dull your response when you want the full force the car is capable of.
-Electric power steering may also suck, and if it does it has no place in the lineup.
-True manual transmissions, however, do not suck. They must be available in every model offered, regardless of engine or other options.
-No touchscreens or other computerized "infotainment" devices allowed anywhere. If including a function makes the dash/console too complicated to operate without significant distraction, that function doesn't get included. As for navigation, may we suggest Rand McNally?
-SUVs are SUVs, wagons are wagons. Attempting to combine the two just makes them both worse.
-Anyone who uses a term like "specific output" or "horsepower per liter" will be fired on the spot.
-Engine displacement will be listed in official advertising materials in cubic inches, not liters.
If, on the other hand, you want to build boring, overly-posh, incredibly overweight cars like PostBankruptcyGM, simply contradict most of those principles.
