Pontiac is dead (almost). Long live Pontiac.
And, the name will live on through names such as GTO, Firebird, Trans Am, Bonneville, Tempest and Star Chief, all iconic model names under the Pontiac banner. These are all Pontiacs that are favourites with many Australian enthusiasts.
The decision by GM to axe Pontiac from 2010 was necessary for the survival hopes of the parent company, which is $61 billion in debt, whose priorities now lie with Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC.
For Australia the decision has implications for the Pontiac G8: a re-badged Aussie-built Holden Commodore. The first Pontiac did not hit the roads until 1926, although the division's name date to 1893 when Edward M. Murphy established the Pontiac Buggy Company in Pontiac, Michigan.
Hence, the Pontiac name. Pontiac was named after Chief Pontiac, an Ottowa leader famous for his role in Pontiac's Rebellion 1763-1766, an American indian struggle against British military occupation of the Great Lakes area.
The company produced horse-drawn carriages and as it became clear the way of the future was the motorised buggy, Murphy started the Oakland Motor Car Company as an off-shoot in 1907. This was a year before the Model-T Ford was released. Two years later General Motors acquired half of Oakland in exchange for stock.
Murphy died soon after but Oakland was quite successful through to 1920, but GM was in turmoil (everything old is new again) and the company seven divisions were fighting for the same customers.
Not one of the divisions was positioned against Henry Ford's long-in-the-tooth Model T which sold for just $500. It was decided to create a car within GM that would fit in between entry level Chevrolet and Oldsmobile, and Pontiac was created under the auspices of Oakland. It was priced at $825 and sold 76,742 cars in its first year. From this foundation Pontiac was firmly embedded as a GM model line.
In 1954 Pontiac debuted the new Star Chief with power windows and air conditioning as options as did power steering. In 1955 when `I love Lucy' was blitzing TV ratings, Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel drove a Pontiac Star Chief convertible across the US to California for a series of episodes.
By 1956 `Bunkie Knudson , son of GM President William Knudson, became general manager of Pontiac and took the brand in a new direction: motorsport.
Pontiac's first official race was at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah where a stock 1956 two door Pontiac sedan with a modified V8 engine posted a new 24 hour record of 118.337 miles per hour over 2841 miles.
It was from this starting point that Pontiac became a performance brand of GM: and in time the Bonneville, GTO , Trans Am and Firebird became legendary vehicles, not just in the US, but also down under. In more recent times the Holden Monaro was rebadged as a Pontiac GTO for the US market between 2004-2006, but sales were slow and disappointing.
While Australians loved the `modern' Monaro, the Americans like their muscle cars to appear muscular and the likes of the Ford Mustang, Chrysler 300 and Dodge Charger and Magnum, had more appeal. GM even gave the GTO large bonnet scoops and a muscle makeover to toughen up the car's appearance.
Silly as it may seem, these Monaro GTOs sporting Pontiac badges, could actually benefit out of Pontiac's demise and become collector cars. As we said earlier the Pontiac name will live on and the limited run of GTO's may well be the cars that have appeal for US Pontiac lovers in years to come.
(sources: www.welovepontiacs.com) |
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