Starting in September if you are a Car Jacker you might want to see if your car is equipped with OnStar because it gives law enforcement all kinds of amazing powers. Like the ability to explode the nuclear device in your trunk. Monitor your bathroom breaks, or even worse shut off your car.

No seriously. OnStar is now equipped with Big Brother and can shut off your cars power.

GM continues it’s shift towards smaller more efficient vehicles as US sales of trucks and suvs nosedives here in the States. I’m betting all the other big brands will follow suit especially Dodge. Trucks could become a thing of consumer antiquity.

General Motors announced plans Tuesday to shut four truck and SUV plants that employ thousands of workers. It also said high gas prices are here to stay - and, with them, consumers’ growing preference for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

At a news conference in Wilmington, Del., GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner announced plans to roll out more fuel-efficient vehicles, including approval to start the production process on a vehicle that can run gas-free for trips up to 40 miles.

Source: CNN

Pontiac was considering naming it’s new Pontiac G8 Sport Truck, the El Camino. Luckily folks within Pontiac and Chevrolet had some discussions and decided it was just strange to toss a Chevy Brand on a Pontiac even though everything is made under the same roof. Customers have a hard enough time deciding what the heck they are going to buy with the current branding problems at General Motors, all they needed was an old vintage car name on a different branch of GM.

I do however think the El Camino brand has some juice left in the tank and I think they should bring it back. Just not under the Pontiac branch of things.

In an article just the other day we briefly discussed Pontiac’s wish to challenge BMW’s grip as what some believe to be the top sedan builder on the market. Well now they are making the fight personal with their latest commercial: Pontiac G8 GT vs BMW 550i. The first mention of such a comparison came in an Automobile Magazine article that pitted the cars against one another and actually reported favorably on the Pontiac G8 GT.

Both brands have been around long enough for drivers to build up a personal reflex to the mere image of the two auto makers grill. One instills a sense of breeding and sophistication, along with a sense for many of “I can’t afford that.” The other references to a long gone age of Excitement and a recent age of plastic interiors and average looks, or more poignantly a sense of “I’m not buying that!”

Pontiac’s new G8 GT, based off the Holden Commodore and rousing 361-hp, is GM’s attempt at a return of some of that Excitement and a reaching out for a new sense of class in cockpit styling. While it is going to take a lot of years to reverse the conditioned response of many car buyers to the Pontiac grill, the G8 GT is at least making an aggressive stab at it.

But do not rely solely on our estimation here… Check out the Pontiac commercial to follow the leap and see if they can convince you. If nothing else, enjoy the laugh as American advertisers are still able to achieve what American auto designers struggle at: Catching our Attention.