U.S. automakers must return to making cars we dreamed about

Watching American automobile manufacturers struggle for survival is no happy sight. In fact, it's depressing, considering many of the greatest cars and trucks ever made were built with American ingenuity and hard work.

The latest victim is Pontiac, which General Motors announced would cease to exist as one of their brands. Other GM vehicles such as Saturn, Hummer and Saab also will be dropped.

Any of us who grew up loving Firebirds, GTOs, TransAms and other muscle cars understand the pain of losing a brand such as Pontiac. These were the cars we dreamed of back in the day. Something happened along the way, though, and killed this dream.

There's no getting around the fact that Detroit has been making too many cars that consumers just don't want. That's the bottom line, not unfairness in the market. Build quality cars people want and we wouldn't have this problem.

Only a few decades ago, Pontiac did just that. And Oldsmobile, which didn't make muscle cars, was known for making fantastic, affordable luxury vehicles, and it has been gone for a while as well. What's happened to our wonderful cars?

Few of us have the knowledge to know how to fix this problem. In fact, it seems no one does. What we do know is that we would rather be driving great cars made here at home. If they would have just built those cars, we'd be driving them.

If there's a silver lining, it's that GM, Ford and, we hope, Chrysler, will all respond to this crisis and make the improvements necessary to compete. We want and need for them to succeed. And we'll keep hoping that our automakers can rekindle the dreams we all used to have about some of the sweetest rides to ever hit the streets.