Hold the Excitement: Pontiac Killed by GM – Feature

There’s no room for Pontiac in GM’s steadily shrinking—and still leaky—lifeboat. Here, a requiem for and history of the brand.

BY TONY SWAN

The killing of Pontiac is analogous to the sudden death of an old but distant friend; you were aware he wasn’t well, but you didn’t think it was as bad as all that. And when the news arrives, you wish you’d done something to help somehow, the regretful—and futile—hand-wringing that so often follows abrupt departures.

To be accurate, the brand’s departure won’t exactly be abrupt. GM’s initial announcement states merely that the division will suspend operations sometime in 2010. That leaves plenty of time to get good and bummed out.

But sentiment has little weight in business, and GM’s current desperate straits means the company has room for none at all. So we will apparently bid farewell to another of the General’s middle divisions, as Pontiac follows Oldsmobile into the sunset.

The Beginning

Pontiac was very much homegrown by GM, but not, as some historians seem to believe, a rebadged clone of the Oakland Motor Company range. Organized in 1907, Oakland became part of the General Motors empire since 1909, one of the earliest acquisitions of the irrepressible William Crapo Durant, who had established the giant-to-be earlier that same year. It held a solid position in the aspirational product hierarchy set up by GM president Alfred P. Sloan: Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Oakland, Buick, and Cadillac.

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