Wednesday, February 18, 2009

So long, Pontiac


Not that it means a lot to Flint in terms of jobs, but it appears the Buick brand has survived the downsizing at G.M. Saturn and Pontiac weren't so lucky, if that's the right term in this situation.

Micheline Maynard of
The New York Times reports:

G.M. said Tuesday that it would phase out its Saturn brand by 2012. It does not plan to develop any more new vehicles for Saturn, which began 19 years ago as an effort to attract owners of small Japanese cars.

G.M. also said it was considering its options for the Pontiac division. The Pontiac name, part of the car business since 1932, could remain on some models, but may no longer be a separate division. G.M. said Pontiac would be a “focused brand” with fewer models.

The disclosures by G.M., contained in a viability plan submitted to the government, means that G.M. plans to cut its brands in half, to four: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC.

In loving memory of the Pontiac Trans Am...




2 comments:

  1. My Dad worked at Pontiac Motors. He drove an ugly ass late 70's green sunbird to work and racked 300,000 miles on it. My first car was an '83 Firebird. I still have my autographed picture of the 1984(?) Firebird Girl. Oh man she was smoking hot.

    ReplyDelete
  2. when I split from Flint for the very last time, I left in a beauty of a LeMans. White landau roof, a.m. and nothing else radio w/2 speakers. A backseat that didn't need to be folded out to be, uh, used. unfortunetly, it had a paint job that left a lot to be desired. kinda lemon meringue lookin'. And the weather here did Her in.Being buried to the roof under a snow drift did Her. it was w/reluctance I let Her go, and had even more regret a few years later when I saw She was a hot collectors car. oh, yeah, and Gebne Hackman drove one in "French Connection" chase scene. cheers!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.