From Muscle Car Glory to Graveyard: Pontiac Vanishes After 84 Years
source: http://www.theblogismine.com/2010/11/02/from-muscle-car-glory-to-graveyard-pontiac-vanishes-...
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General Motors shut down its 84-year-old Pontiac brand on Monday, the victim of a major overhaul of the U.S. automaker in recessionary times.
GM had said it would stop production of the brand a year ago when it emerged from bankruptcy. It was undone by a combination of poor corporate strategy and changing driver tastes. On Oct. 31st, 2010, GM’s agreements with Pontiac dealers expired.
The former GM executive Bill Hoglund said the bottom line was “there was no passion for the product” and it no longer fit “in the corporate system.” The 84-year-old brand that featured the American iconic Trans Am, Firebird, Catalina and the GTO had fast looks and blue-collar appeal, but sales had diminished in recent years.
Even before GM’s bankruptcy, Pontiac’s sales had fallen from their peak of nearly one million vehicle sales in 1968 – when the brand’s speedier models were prized for their powerful engines – to 267,000 in 2008. By early 2009, Pontiac had fallen to 12th position in the U.S. market sales, from No. 3 in the 1960s.
“They had a lot of glory years, but from the ’70s on, Pontiac just couldn’t meet the bar,” Mr. Kummer told the New York Times. “It was always living in the past.”
More: http://www.theblogismine.com/2010/11/02/from-muscle-car-glory-to-graveyard-ponti...
GM had said it would stop production of the brand a year ago when it emerged from bankruptcy. It was undone by a combination of poor corporate strategy and changing driver tastes. On Oct. 31st, 2010, GM’s agreements with Pontiac dealers expired.
The former GM executive Bill Hoglund said the bottom line was “there was no passion for the product” and it no longer fit “in the corporate system.” The 84-year-old brand that featured the American iconic Trans Am, Firebird, Catalina and the GTO had fast looks and blue-collar appeal, but sales had diminished in recent years.
Even before GM’s bankruptcy, Pontiac’s sales had fallen from their peak of nearly one million vehicle sales in 1968 – when the brand’s speedier models were prized for their powerful engines – to 267,000 in 2008. By early 2009, Pontiac had fallen to 12th position in the U.S. market sales, from No. 3 in the 1960s.
“They had a lot of glory years, but from the ’70s on, Pontiac just couldn’t meet the bar,” Mr. Kummer told the New York Times. “It was always living in the past.”
More: http://www.theblogismine.com/2010/11/02/from-muscle-car-glory-to-graveyard-ponti...
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