Pontiac
Pontiac, an automobile brand General Motors (GM) established in 1926, was perhaps more popular in Canada, where for much of its history it sold as a low-priced vehicle, than in the USA. The last Pontiacs were built in early 2010; the final dealer franchises expired in October of that year.
The 1927 Pontiac Chief had a 3,100-cubic centimeter, six-cylinder engine with the shortest piston stroke of any American car at the time. The Chief sold 39,000 units in its first six months. By 1933, it was the least expensive car with a straight eight-cylinder engine. In February 1942, a Pontiac was the last civilian automobile manufactured in the USA during World War II as all automakers converted to military production.
From prewar years through the early 1950s, the Pontiac was a quiet, solid, but not especially powerful car with a side-valve, straight-eight engine. The first all-new Pontiacs appeared in 1949. The Chieftain line continued the Pontiac Indian theme. In 1955 came a new eight-cylinder, 173-horsepower, overhead-valve engine. With this V-8, six-cylinder engines discontinued, not to return to full-size Pontiacs until the 1977 GM downsizing. The six-cylinder engine of the 1966 Tempest and Firebird models was the first American mass-produced, overhead-camshaft engine.
A complete departure was the 1961 Tempest, one of the three (Buick-Oldsmobile-Pontiac) compacts of that year. All three combined frame and the body into a single construction that made them light and nimble, but the Tempest was the most radical with nearly a 50/50 weight balance and four-wheel independent suspension that improved handling, a feature no other American car could match but the Corvair. The Tempest won the Motor Trend Car of the Year award. In 1965, the entire Pontiac lineup was Motor Trend’s Car of the Year. The February 1965 issue featured stories on the division’s marketing, styling, engineering, and performance with road tests of several models.
For 1969, Pontiac removed the Grand Prix from the full-sized lineup and changed it into an intermediate car that offered the luxury and styling of the Buick Riviera and Ford Thunderbird for a much lower price. The new Grand Prix was such a sales success that dealers sold 112,000, more than four times the number sold in 1968. Pontiacs built in the late ’60s conformed to new federal safety standards: energy-absorbing steering columns, dual-circuit hydraulic brake systems, shoulder belts, side marker lights, and headrests. 1969 was the final year for the overhead-cam, six-cylinder engine in Firebirds and intermediates.
The 1976 models were the last of the traditional American full-sized cars with big V8 engines. Afterwards, all GM models would downsize in length, width, weight, and engine size. The 1976 Sunbird based on the Chevrolet Vega joined the line in its rear-wheel-drive configuration.
The 1984 Fiero was a major departure from anything in Pontiac’s past. A two-seat, mid-engined coupe aimed at the young, affluent buyer who wanted sporting performance reasonably priced, the Fiero was an instant success partially responsible for Pontiac’s first increase in sales in four years.
An all-new Firebird appeared in 1993 powered by either a 3,400-cubic centimeter, six-cylinder, 160-horsepower or a 5,700-cubic centimeter, eight-cylinder, 275-horsepower engine with a six-speed manual transmission. This Firebird outperformed the Ford Mustang easily but did not do so well in the marketplace.
The Bonneville ended production in 2005 after nearly 50 years. The Solstice went into production as a roadster and, for a few months in 2009, as a hard-top coupe, of which only 1,266 coupes made it off the assembly line before Pontiac’s demise shut it down. Over 64,000 Solstice convertibles came off that same line.
The last Pontiac was a 2010 G6 built when GM restarted the Orion assembly line so the final Pontiac would be manufactured at an American plant.
