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The End of the Road for Pontiac                                                                                    

Posted at: Feb/21/2009 : Posted by: mel

Related Category: Economics,

I heard today that GM (General Motors) has announced the end of the road for the Pontiac brand. I guess we all saw it coming so there really isn’t any surprise here. GM has far too many brands and therefore, far too many models for the current market. In the last 15 years many of these brands have blended to the point where the only difference between some Pontiac and Chevrolet models are the color and badging (chrome pieces).

GM actually marketed Pontiac as a step up from Cheverolet, but not top end car. I am unsure if that identity ever real stuck.

As a baby boomer I remember the muscle car era with some nostalgic fondness. Big cars with big power that would do anything you wanted as long as you did it in a straight line. Pontiac did find its nitch in this era as it literally defined the era with cars like the GTO, Le Mans, and the Cuda. With their distinctive styling features like split grills and stacked headlights Pontiac created icons that are still highly sought in the collectors world.

The automotive landscape is significantly different now than then. I know, no one is buying cars, but that is not where I am going. Eventually people will buy cars again. Through the 70’s your new car had a realistic lifespan of 70K miles (I am old enough to remember). After 70K the repairs started to pile up and you looked at buying something new. Reliability has significantly improved since then and with reasonable maintenance you can get 200K out of a car. We just don’t need to buy new cars as often anymore. Now the market is flooded with choices and it is time to pare the menu down. A few years ago Chrysler eliminated the redundancy between Dodge and Plymouth, now GM is making some of the same decisions.

It would not surprize me to see the Saturn and Hummer brands fade away in the next year or two.

Don’t get me wrong, living in the past is foolish and naive, but Pontiac did define the muscle car. Now, as the American automotive industry redefines where they are and where they are going the list of brands shrinks just a little more. Pontiac is not the first and I doubt they well will be the last as they become part of a history with such notable company as Cord, Packard, Desoto, Eagle, Rambler, American Motors, Plymouth and Oldsmobile.

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