The Death of Pontiac?

General Motors will 'Shut Down' the 'excitement division' - Pontiac - by the end of 2010. Their decision to cut the long time muscle car brand was among several aggressive steps listed in a recently updated survival plan to the federal government. This leaves GM with four core brands to place their focus: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. Have we regressed to the beginning of the 20th century?

The fate of Saturn, Saab, and Hummer are still to be decided. At this time it appears they will either be sold or also shut down.

Interestingly enough, the problem for Pontiac was not sales, according to GM CEO Fritz Henderson. Instead, it was their long running addiction - profits. Indeed, Pontiac was the company's third best selling brand, lead by Chevy and GMC. Pontiac sold twice as many as Buick which is currently set to survive the federal shakeup.

Back to the 1950's

Pontiac's identity as a 'muscle car' brand goes back to the lat 1950's and early 1960's. These cars were originally designed with wider bodies and pushed out wheels. This 'wide track' design made the cars look agile and aggressive - and remained with the brand up until modern times.

After producing the now famous Pontiac Temptest LeMans GTO in 1964, Pontiac secured its place as the first true 'muscle car'.

"There was a time, a long way back now, when you knew exactly what Pontiac stood for," said Kevin Smith, editorial director for the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.

Recent efforts from vice chairman Bob Lutz tried to revive Pontiac's image. His plans called for Pontiac to produce mainly rear-drive 'modernized' muscle cars - such as the 2004 GTO or the rwd G8 sedan. This would have given them a unique selling point over other front wheel drive American cars, in addition to competing with RWD performance brands like BMW.

Unfortunately Pontiac's revival was not to be. Their most popular car remains the G6, followed by the Vibe. The australian based GTO and G8 had only dismal sales. Bob's plans were further crushed when gas prices soared and the EPA further tightened their grip on consumer transportation with tougher fuel economy regulations. So Pontiac returned to selling rebadged Chevrolet counterparts by offering the G3.

Pontiac's lack of providing true value as a brand may finally have brought its demise, said Smith. "That's just death in a marketplace where there's so much competition and so much quality," he said.

Keep Your Pontiac Excitement Alive with the Top Pontiac Resources on the Web at http://www.PontiacClubs.com - News, Clubs, Parts, Videos, more

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kevin_V

Foundations and Performance of Pontiac Car

Pontiac is a division of General Motors that was introduced in 1926. General Motors wanted Pontiac as another division separate for the Oakland Motor Car line that it had previously introduced. The name Pontiac was chosen for a Native American that fought against the British during the French and Indian War. While General Motors had introduced the Pontiac line to supplement Oakland Line up, the Pontiac was so successful when it was introduced that it completely eclipsed its parent line, Oakland. Pontiac sales rose sharply at the same time that sales of Oakland cars were declining. The gap was so pronounced in fact that Pontiac became the only companion line ever introduced to survive its parent company.

The Pontiac Chieftain was introduced in 1927 and immediately began outselling other cars in its class. In its first six months of production, the vehicle sold 39,000 units. The car was so popular because it was priced so low. The Chieftain was the cheapest selling vehicle with the inline 8 engine in the country and quickly became the top selling car in the United States. Pontiac held on to its spot from its days during the depression through until the post world war 2 days. It carried with it an image of a solid reliable if somewhat underpowered vehicle that fit very well into the budget of most American families at that time.

Unfortunately, it was this same imagine of reliance and dependability that would cause a problem for the line heading into the fifties and on into the sixties. The newer generation of young, up and coming citizens would view Pontiac as the old-fashioned car that had belonged to their parents. This generation wanted a vehicle that was new and fresh looking as themselves.

What Pontiac needed was a makeover and in 1956, the former dowdy line of cars got just what it needed. Bunkie Knudsen took over as the General Manager for Pontiac and went to work immediately on updating Pontiac's image. First to go were the hallmarks of the Pontiac line, the "silver streaks" that had been on the hoods of every Pontiac for years. With Knudsen joining in the middle of 1956, the immediate change would take place just a short time before the '57 models were rolled out on to the showroom floors. Knudsen was also responsible for the introduction of the Bonneville, Pontiacs first fuel injected car. With a completely new design form and offering many first time features, the Bonneville was priced at over $5700.00. For this price, one could go and pick up a new Cadillac and many of the Bonneville's critics expected to go over like a lead balloon. However, the public was intrigued with the new styling of the Bonneville, just as Knudsen had foreseen they would be. The car stirred the interest of consumers who had grown bored with all the look alike cars on the market at that time. The Bonneville was so successful in fact that it became its own line.

The Bonneville became one of the cornerstones of the Pontiac line up. It did receive help from some of the other popular cars that Pontiac introduced over the years such as the GTO and Pontiac's first pony car, the Firebird.

About the Author

Ronnie Tanner is a contributing writer at used Pontiac engines. He writes about used Pontiac engines and other industry specific topics.

History of the Pontiac Brand

You've probably seen the headline about GM getting ready to drop Pontiac. Big deal, right? To most people it's not important enough to warrant their attention, but if most people were to take a closer look they might stumble upon the significance of something like this.

In 1926 GM created Pontiac to accompany their Oakland brand of vehicles (much like GMC and Chevrolet today) and subsequently outsold Oakland which caused Oakland to be dropped by GM in 1932 (perhaps some foreshadowing). For the first part of Pontiac's life, up til the early 1950's that is, Pontiac cars were very quiet, well built cars, but not particularly fast. This problem was remedied in 1955 with the introduction of a 173 horsepower V8 which quickly boosted Pontiac's sales.

Pleasantly surprised with the results, Pontiac discontinued production of all 6 cylinder engines in full sized cars and had an all-V8-line of full sized cars until 1977 when GM when through a bout of corporate downsizing. A 6-cylinder engine was used in the Tempest model in 1966 as well as the Firebird.

Jump forward to the early '70s. This was the time when the era of the unrestricted motor was coming to an end. Furthering this idea was GM's regulation that all GM engines must be capable of using a lower-octane fuel, thus reducing compression ratios, fuel economy, and performance. It seemed like the classic American muscle car was on its deathbed - and it truly was. In 1974 laws were passed to regulate vehicle emissions and with gas prices on the rise, more economical engines took over.

But Pontiac was still around. It restyled its Grand Prix in 1973 along with introducing the Grand Am, a popular car until it's end in 2004.

However, Pontiac, like most GM cars, have lost quality and popularity in recent years. That's a good size of GM's current problems. Now days the only thing separating Pontiac from Buick and Chevrolet cars is the badging and some of the exterior body. And thus, due to sales and waning popularity, GM is ditching Pontiac to focus on its core group of vehicle brands: GMC, Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac.

Rest in peace, Pontiac.

To find Sioux City Pontiac dealers, or used cars Sioux City, shop at Siouxland Cars For Sale.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matthew_B._Bailey