MOTORSNEWS:Pontiac was a brand with universal appeal, writes NICK CAREY, and its downfall – as a result of a scaling back in the 1990s – has come as a disappointment to many
AFTER 83 years of storied history and with a huge following for its famous older models, Pontiac this week became the latest high-profile victim of the US auto industry crisis with General Motors’s announcement the brand would cease to exist in 2010.
The death of a brand that captured the imagination of generations with the Firebird, Trans Am, Grand Am, Grand Prix and GTO left enthusiasts stunned.
“If you’re a car lover then this has to come as a real shock,” said automotive historian John Montville.
But after years as a high-performance brand, producing legendary models, industry experts said the brand’s recent decline and lack of investment by GM sealed its fate.
“Pontiac had become a repository for anything GM could muster,” said independent auto industry analyst Erich Merkle. “It’s very sad. But my sadness is for the brand as it was.”
GM also plans to phase out other brands sold in the US. It plans to cease production of Saturn vehicles, sell the Hummer SUV line and will let Swedish brand Saab go independent after its reorganisation.
GM introduced the Pontiac brand in 1926 when the company was led by American corporate giant Alfred P Sloan.
Named after an Native American chief who led a failed uprising against the British after the French and Indian War in 1763, Pontiac was originally launched as an affordable companion to GM’s Oakland brand. The brand’s appeal to smaller purses meant it soon outsold its parent.
“Pontiac was the son that outlasted the father, a rarity in the industry,” said automotive historian, James Wagner.
Oakland went out of production in 1932.
Up until the early 1950s, Pontiacs were unremarkable but solid. The brand gained strength in the late 1950s, but the brand’s real heyday came in the 1960s, which saw Pontiac turn into a performance brand, much of it under the leadership of the legendary John DeLorean.
The Grand Prix, the Firebird and GTO, all high performance “muscle cars”, made their debuts in the 1960s. GTO, short for “Gran Turismo Omologato” was regarded as DeLorean’s greatest contribution to the Pontiac brand.
Pontiac scored later successes with the Grand Am and Trans Am in the 1970s.
Surf the internet today and you can find fan sites and clubs celebrating Pontiac’s older famed models – including the GTO Association of America.
The Pontiac brand chugged along until the late 1990s when GM began to scale back on its performance image, launching minivans and “rebadged” vehicles from its other brands.
According to industry tracking firm Edmunds.com, Pontiac’s market share slid to 2.1 per cent in 2008 from 3.1 per cent in 2002.
“In recent years, Pontiac wasn’t the performance brand it was in the past,” said Aaron Bragman, a research analyst at IHS Global Insight. “It had lost its way and lost its following.
“There wasn’t much future left for Pontiac,” he added.
Although Pontiac’s latest G8 model was critically acclaimed, it was too little to save the brand from the knife, a decision GM chief executive Fritz Henderson said had not come easily.
“A tough decision. . . for many of us, because this is a brand that has a considerable heritage,” he said on Monday. “It is an intensely personal decision in many ways, but one that needed to be taken in light of the circumstances.”
– Reuters