12 Revivals of Classic Automotive Nameplates That Fell Flat
Pontiac simply couldn't stop cracking open the history books when naming cheap and disappointing cars at the end of the '80s. Not content with stirring up trouble with the Tempest, it also reinstated the LeMans badge on a vehicle that deserved it even less.
The LeMans was originally a trim level on the Tempest when it made its debut in 1961, but it graduated to its own model by 1964. Like the Tempest, it was an intermediate car, a mid-sizer with some zip if you ordered it with the right engine under the hood. More important, it was also the launch pad for the famed GTO, where it started as a LeMans trim level before it, too, became its own name plate.
The 1988 version? Rather than honor Le Mans as a racing circuit, or LeMans as the father of the GTO, it went about as far in the opposite direction as possible, rebadging a Korean subcompact called the Daewoo Cielo, which was itself a copy of a copy of the Opel Kadett. Not exactly a compelling branch in what had once been a respectable family tree, and a car that did more to turn people off the Pontiac brand than perhaps any other vehicle in its showroom.
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