Pontiac did not live past the year 2010, a victim of several problems and one serious recession. From the perspective of yours truly, the brand was always confused: were they a performance-only deal? Were they a mid-luxury car brand in the vein of Mercury, Buick and Oldsmobile? Sometimes, they did overstuffed and fluffy better than most, and other times they were the forefront of the power wars. Indeed, Pontiac is credited as the first manufacturer to truly produce a purpose-built “muscle car” with the 1964 GTO and even after the party ended for most in the 1970s, there were elements inside of the division who either didn’t get the memo or used the paper it was written on to roll up another one while trying to sneak in yet another GTO revival under the noses of Corporate.
You can look at all of the horribly badge-engineered cars of the 1980s, the reluctance to embrace the power revival in the mid-Eighties on, the death of the Firebird or the arrival of one of the biggest automotive punchlines in the last twenty years as circumstances, but whatever the case, the result was simple: in order to get the bailout they needed, GM had to eliminate brands. Axing Hummer was a no-brainer, Saab was sold off to Spyker, Oldsmobile was taken behind the shed and shot, and even with cars like the G8 proving that not all hope was lost, Pontiac died too, with Buick proving too profitable in China to ignore. Shame, really…especially when you see all of those continuation “Trans Am” Camaro conversions being made.
When you have to come with hat in hand to the government for $, you have people who don’t care about cars making decisions for you.
Exactly! Times one thousand. At least they survived but it’s painful to think of Pontiac’s and Oldsmobile’s demise. Poor corporate decision to not allow the brands execs to decide product development for themselves.
I love the old Pontiac’s, especially the full size Catalinas and Bonnevilles from 1960 to 1965, and obviously the GTO’s from 1964 to 1969. The 1961 Pontiac Catalina bubbletop is still one of my all time favorites. The latter Firebirds were also popular but just less appealing to me personally. When Pontiac had some control over its engineering and styling, they seemed to prosper, but when “badge engineering” became the norm there was too much brand overlap, they were no longer unique and bit the dust. As did Oldsmobile for largely the same reason. Mercury division of Ford suffered the same fate.
I had three new GTO’s and loved each one; 1967, 1969 and 1970. The ’69 was a rare Ram Air IV Judge with an automatic tranny. Very fast and lots of fun and received all kinds of looks.
GTO = “Grand Tempest Option”. That is a new one….
The move to corporate engines was the beginning of the end if you ask me. After that the badge engineering just kind of took off. The torquey character of Pontiac engines made the brand, the styling (which always looked better than Chevy) reinforced the performance image. I miss Pontiac Excitement!
Think about who shut the down…. Poor Ol Negro Thinks It’s A Cadilac. I knew the answer as soon as the word was out. No way he could pass on that opportunity. Nothing else makes a lick of sense.