Pontiac has formally ceased to exist

After being put on the chopping block last year, Pontiac no longer formally exists. The brands that didn't do well under the GM banner had to be gotten rid of, and Pontiac had been one of the first casualties. General Motors also laid Saturn, Hummer, Opel, and other brand names to rest along with it. The brand had been around since the 1920s. Pontiac was the embodiment of the muscle car, and its machines sold for incredibly reasonable costs.

Pontiac is gone

Pontiac had been just one of the brands that General Motors got rid of during its bankruptcy. GM decided it was time for Pontiac to go since it hadn’t been selling since 2008. Pontiac isn’t a corporate entity anymore. USA Today reports that this happened Sunday. Brand enthusiasts long lamented what they considered to be a severe mishandling of the brand by General Motors, which had been thought to simply field Chevrolet and Buick models in Pontiac trim. There were a lot of Pontiac muscle cars from the 1950s to the 1980s. Pontiac was known for this horsepower.

The history

Pontiac had been launched in 1926 as a budget brand for working class families. By the 1950s, sales were struggling and General Motors decided it was time to rethink the brand. Racing cars tended to be Pontiac cars for a when there. Then, the Detroit muscle car came out at the Pontiac GTO in 1965. Italian sport tour cars inspired GTO which stands for “Gran Turismo Omolagato”. A small team, headed by John DeLorean, created the car, built it on the Tempest frame and put a powerful 389-cubic-inch engine under the hood. The car became extremely popular. This is why, in 1968, 17 percent of GM sales came from this car. The Pontiac Trans Am of the Firebird line had been another huge success. Sadly, by the 1980s, the car had moved away from the horsepower it had been known for.

It wasn’t worth the money anymore

Pontiac changed to be not as much about performance from the 1980s to the 2000s. This was shown within the sales. In 2008, there weren’t many selling yearly. In fact, it was selling less than 275,000. The legend of Pontiac will be leaving us now which could be a really sad thing.

Details from

USA Today

usatoday.com/money/autos/2010-11-01-pontiac-vanishes_N.htm