Pontiac

Back in the ’80s, you could find many budding car guys and gals sitting in front of their TVs watching Knight Rider. David Hasselhoff was the star of the show, but it was his talking Pontiac Trans Am sidekick K.I.T.T.

The Pontiac Aztek is arguably one of the ugliest vehicles ever created. While the early take on a crossover certainly wasn’t Pontiac’s proudest design moment, the brand did make lots of great sports cars over the years, with the 1970s Firebird Trans Am being one of the most iconic of its cars.

The much-derided Pontial Aztek sits atop many lists for being the ugliest car ever produced. And while it might have had some redeeming qualities, its exterior design most certainly was not one of them. But with a little nip here and a tuck there, could the Aztek have been a much better looking vehicle?

There’s no question that the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am is one of the most iconic cars of the 1970s and 1980s. After all, it was the car that Burt Reynolds and Sally Field used to evade the fuzz in Smokey and the Bandit.

Long before Kia put the name to good use, Pontiac took us to the “excitement edge” with its futuristic Stinger. The 1989 Stinger Concept was created as a sporty, recreational vehicle, and revealed just one year after the Pontiac Banshee concept.

All of the car-themed TV shows I watched growing up in the ’80s are part of the reason I am a car guy today. One of the ones I loved the most was Knight Rider. I watched that show each week, and after seeing the first episode where KITT transformed into pursuit mode, I prayed each new episode he would do it again.

There are few things that automotive journalists fully agree on, but if you put 100 auto journos in a room and asked them to name the five ugliest cars ever designed, I bet the Pontiac Aztek would be in everyone’s top three.

The thing I remember most about the original xXx flick with Vin Diesel was that sweet purple 1967 Pontiac GTO that has missiles in the headlights, and the roof that could be ejected. If you liked that car and thought it would be cool to drive it, here is your chance.

These are some rare birds indeed. The very first production Pontiac Firebirds built will soon go on sale at Barrett-Jackson, and you can bet they’ll command a staggering bounty. These 1967 Firebirds – a coupe and a convertible – rolled off the line at the Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant and immediately captured the hearts of muscle car mad gearheads, to the tune of selling more than 82,000 units in the first year.

Gregg Hamilton’s day job involves building and tuning cars for Ken Block. What does he do when he has time off from work? He builds and tunes his 1979 Pontiac Trans Am, of course. The transplanted New Zealander always wanted the quintessentially American V8 rear-wheel drive ride, and the Smokey and the Bandit style Trans Am perfectly fit the bill.

As a child of the ’80s, I have very fond memories of all the car shows I got to watch growing up. There was the Dukes of Hazzard, Starsky and Hutch, and Knight Rider to name a few.

Last year, the owner of the car you see here tried to sell the ride for 3/4 of a million dollars. Apparently, the car never sold. If you are wondering, it’s not a Corvette; this is a Pontiac Banshee prototype that never made it into production.

This man, seemingly best known as “Pops,” once was a 16-year-old in a green 1968 Pontiac GTO with a black vinyl top. He drove around with his girlfriend, who later became his wife, who then helped him create a few cool people.

If you’d like a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am that looks just like the one Burt Reynolds drove in Smokey and the Bandit, you can grab one for about $15,000 on eBay. But if you’d like a 1977 Pontiac Trans Am that was actually owned by Burt Reynolds, you’ll need to mortgage the house.

The 1980s television series Knight Rider turned the 1986 Pontiac Firebird into a legendary crime-fighting supercar. Not only was KITT the predecessor to Apple’s Siri, but he was also fitted with weapons and a host of crime-fighting gadgets and could drive by itself.