R.I.P. Jim Wangers

[31pontiac]

   Very sad news for the Pontiac world, Jim Wangers has passed away at the age of 96.

[Frosty]

I heard he was 97. Regardless, it is a sad day for the Pontiac world. We've lost yet another legend. Perhaps one of THE greatest Pontiac legends of all time.

[31pontiac]

Agreed!!!

    I was fortunate enough to meet him at the POCI Convention in Michigan in ‘79, and he held a seminar at our Convention in Downingtown, PA in 1988.  He shared many interesting insights about the inner workings of Pontiac and their advertising during their heyday.
    He will surely be missed.

[Frosty]

As I stated in another post, I met him three times and emailed him once up the death of my friend, Eric White.

The third time I met him in 2006 was at the GM Nationals in Carlisle PA. He was lecturing on the history of GTO TV advertising and how intentionally understated the TV ads were vs. the magazine ads. After the lecture I talked to Jim and suggested that Pontiac was STILL understating the GTO in it's TV advertising. He asked me how so...

I said look at all the TV ads for the new GTO. The '03 Super Bowl was a teaser were we saw only parts and pieces but not the whole car and it said "The Legend Returns". The next was a traffic light, a street race is forming and the car comes up and we see it just the back end of the car. The last commercial was a 3-car garage with a Bonneville and Vibe on either end and we hear a car going thru the gears. The GTO comes in at the last second, does a Rockford and calmly backs into the middle spot. Jim thought about it for a minute and said, you might be right.

Fast forward to when the GTO was cancelled, Jim wrote a scathing editorial of GM and Pontiac's mismanagement of the new GTO. A lot of Jim's points sound liked a lot like my points (to me at least). I can't help but wonder if I might have inspired Jim a little on that day.

[hdkeno]

RIP Jim.