1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am on 2040-cars

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Looking back at Oprah's free-car giveaway 10 years later

Oprah kicked off her 19th season in dramatic fashion by giving all 276 members of the studio audience a free car.
Molly Vielweber's Pontiac G6 appears unremarkable at first glance. It wears forest green paint, rolls on five-spoke aluminum wheels, and it has a sizeable scrape in the driver's side door, the scar of a decade's worth of hard use. You wouldn't notice it parked at a big box store or cruising on the highway. Pontiac made hundreds of thousands of G6s in the 2000s, and a lot are still on the road. It's unremarkable in every way except for the front license plate, which reads, "Oprah 6."

David Hasselhoff's own KITT replica up for auction

Depending on when and where you grew up, the name David Hasselhoff likely conjures up images of Knight Rider, Baywatch, pop singer, or possibly a washed-up TV actor, but one thing that can never be taken away from The Hoff is his connection to one of the greatest automotive icons in pop culture. The Knight Industries Two Thousand, usually shortened to simply KITT, was the real star of Knight Rider for many fans. Based on a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, the car combined snarky quips for comedy relief and stunts to provide much of the show's actions. Now, Julien's Auctions is selling Hasselhoff's own replica as part of a larger sale of the actor's personal memorabilia collection.
This recreation is based on a 1986 Firebird and comes with all of the tech on the inside that now seems hilariously outdated, like the yoke steering wheel and plethora of buttons. The interior also thoughtfully includes a voice box with over 4,000 sound clips from the show. With a 5.0-liter V8 and an automatic transmission, performance is likely adequate and period correct. According to the listing, this car was created by fans and given to the Hoff. Sadly, the replica doesn't convert to Super Pursuit Mode like KITT could in later seasons, and we most associate KITT with conventional front-hinged doors to go with the power t-tops and ejector seats.
Bidding currently sits $27,500 with eight bids, since starting at $15,000. Julien's predicts it will sell for between $30,000 and $50,000. If there is some nostalgia for KITT in your heart, there is still plenty of time to bid.

GM replacing passenger airbags in over 243,000 Pontiac Vibes

General Motors is repairing over 243,000 additional examples of the 2003-2007 Pontiac Vibe in the US and Canada to replace their Takata-supplied passenger-side airbag inflators. The company has no reports of irregular deployments in the models, though. These aren't actually newly included vehicles in the massive safety campaign. As a twin to the Toyota Matrix, the Vibe was already included in Toyota's figures, but as Pontiac-branded vehicles, GM dealers are taking care of these replacements. They have been covered as part of the Takata campaign in the past. Toyota expanded its own Takata recall to passenger-side components for 1.365 million vehicles on June 16. Earlier, General Motors also issued a campaign for 330,198 examples of the 2007 and 2008 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD, 3500HD, GMC Sierra 2500HD, and 3500HD pickups to replace their passenger-side parts. After exposure to moisture, it's possible for these inflators to ignite too quickly in an accident and spray shrapnel at occupants. GM Statement The Vibes are included in two Toyota recall campaigns - one for high absolute humidity (HAH) areas and one for non-HAH areas. Both are considered national recalls even though only vehicles in certain HAH states and territories are in the recall. Total Pontiac Vibe passenger air bag numbers for MY 2003-2007 (U.S. and Canada only): High Absolute Humidity 89,719 Non High Absolute Humidity areas 252,685 These are the totals, which include about 99,000 previously recalled. GM knows of no field issues - irregular deployments - with these air bag inflators.