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Look back to the year 2008. Fuel prices are at the point where customers are flocking to smaller and more economical cars. The automotive and financial worlds are in crisis. January 2008, Dodge debuted their new Ram 1500 at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, Michigan. That truck is still on sale and is now 16 years old. That fourth-generation truck, which was still a Dodge, is still available for sale. Ram doesn't have a configuration set up yet. There are two trim levels for the Ram 1500 Classic. A work-friendly Tradesman trim and a more robust Warlock trim. Tradesman 1500 Classics offers buyers a single-cab/lob box layout, along with Quad and Crew Cab configurations. The Warlock trim can be had in a Quad or Crew cab. That can be some changes to the 2024 Ram 1500 Classic, but they're probably minor since this is a 16-year-old platform. Standard for both trim levels is a 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 with 305 horsepower and 269 lb-ft. An optional 5.7-liter Hemi V8 produces 395 horsepower and 410 lb-ft. Both engines are paired with an eight-speed automatic. An older 7.0-inch touchscreen is in the center stack with a more analog cabin. There's a plethora of buttons and knobs where newer trucks use capacitive buttons or the touchscreens. Pricing should be similar to the 2023 Ram 1500 Classic. The Tradesman starts at $34,340 for a Regular Cab eight-foot box and rear-wheel-drive. The 1500 Classic costs about $6,000 less than the regular 1500. Old tech and a reliable Hemi V8 in the Ram 1500 Classic is a good choice for local government officials, the military, and contractors. View full article

The reason why they did this was because GM started changing the missions of the brands in the early 1980's. Pontiac was struggling in the early 1980's. What later happened in 2009 under bankruptcy almost happened in the early 1980's. The brands got lost because GM did not keep up with the market changes, and there was fuel economy issues and changing regulations. The mission for each brand got lost. GM split the company into two groups: CPC and BOC. CPC was Chervrolet Pontiac Canada and their mission was to handle small and sporty cars and trucks. BOC Buick Oldsmobile Cadillac was to handle large and luxury cars. Keep in mind GM was planning to downsize all its larger cars. That started in the late 1970's and the results started to appear in the 1985 model year. Since Pontiacs mission was changing , a large car like the B body Bonneville did not fit their image. We know how the great downzing at GM turned out. When things changed again the merged Bonneville and Parisienne into one car:

I was looking into the Canadian market Parisiennes a while back and recall reading that they also had a Caprice based 2dr... and I think for '82 Canada got the Caprice based Parisienne like the US got for '83. I always thought it was odd that in the US for '82 they dropped the B-body Pontiacs and moved the Bonneville name to what had been the A-body LeMans sedan. Kind of a rogue move.

Parisienne (the US market one from '83-86) would be a 305. It was basically a facelifted Caprice (had the Chevy-based interior, and got the Pontiac rear 81 rear clip for '85-86). The Pontiac 301 was gone after '81, last year of the B-body Catalina and Bonneville. As far as 80s GMs, I wouldn't mind having an '80-84 Buick Electra Park Avenue, '80-89 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham de' Elegance (long name!), or '80-86 Caprice as an occasional drive around car.

I approve of the options on the list. I agree with what he said completely. What about the GM E Bodies? Cadillac Eldorado/Seville, Buick Riviera and Oldsmobile Toronado 1979-1985( Oldsmobile Toronado and Buick Riviera) and 1988-1992( All E/K-Bodies)? They used the 3800 V6 and the Oldsmobile 307, and Cadillacs much improved 4.5 and 4.9 liter V8 which was based off the HT 4100. A loaded Grand Marquis LS is sharp with digital gauges. The 1989-1993 Deville and Fleetwood I feel should be on the list too as well. I know he recently did a Deville video. He forgot the Pontiac Parisienne 1983-1986. I really enjoyed the video and footage. I smiled all the way through nodding my head. He did say any GM that used the 3800 V6. I went with two Oldsmobiles( 98 and Toronado) on that front.