The Cars of Our Lives

Pontiac Cars have been visible and audible on the country’s roads and bridges since the beginning of the 20th century, tunneling the Chief’s head through automobile traffic and American history.

Growing up in Michigan, I recall distinct stages of Pontiac development, but the totem head hood ornament always drew me as by some mystical force, representing a solid and proud past.

First produced in 1926, and sold in the United States, Canada, and Mexico by General Motors (GM), Pontiac was marketed as an “athletic” brand, specializing in mainstream performance vehicles.

On November 25, 2009, a little after noon, the last Pontiac for the U.S. market, a pearl white Pontiac G6 sedan, turned off the lights at the Michigan plant.

The dueling “Muscle Cars” of the ’60s (just as I was getting my drivers license) and the roaring and colors in the streets were timed perfectly for the cultural revolution, James Bond and a new Rock and Roll. Names like Road Runner, Hemi, Barracuda, Firebird, 389, 409, 426, 442, and others were laying down $5 dollar patches of rubber from coast to coast along with the frenzied party.

Pontiac, Michigan, named for an American Indian chief, rolled out its first car in 1900 at the Pontiac Spring and Wagon Works. Bought by General Motors, the increasingly popular brand was redesigned and presented at the New York Auto Show in 1926 with its now famous Indian Head Logo.

1958 was the last year Pontiac would bear the “Indian” motif throughout the vehicles. In 1959, the car maker changed to its “V” emblem, with the star design in the middle.

General Motors conceived Pontiac as an affordable six-cylinder competing for the more inexpensive four-cylinder market.

The Pontiac Chief of 1927 offered a 40 hp straight 6-cylinder engine and sold 39,000 units within six months. The next year, it became the top-selling six in the U.S., ranking seventh in overall sales. By 1933, it was producing the least expensive straight eight-cylinder cars on the road.

1961 brought a complete re-think on design and engineering from famed maverick auto exec John DeLorean with his “compacts” introduced that year, the Buick Special and Skylark, Oldsmobile F-85 and Cutlass, and Pontiac Tempest and LeMans.

All were unibody cars, combining the frame and the body into a single construction, making them comparatively lighter and smaller. Unless customers checked an option, the Tempest’s powerplant was a 194.5 ci inline-four-cylinder motor. DeLorean put into production new technologies that GM had been working on for several years but the Tempest engineering was the most radical with a rear-mounted transaxle and four-wheel independent suspension that drastically improved handling.

The entire Pontiac lineup was honored as Motor Trend’s Car of the Year for 1965, the third time for Pontiac to receive such honors. The February, 1965 issue of Motor Trend was almost entirely devoted to Pontiac’s Car of the Year award.

During the 1960s General Motors engineers were busy on the proving grounds building and testing new ideas. One result was the installation of the company’s big 389 cubic inch V8 from its full-size Bonneville into a lighter LeMans/Tempest body.

Because the powerful “389” was too big an engine according to GM corporate guidelines of the day (nothing larger than Corvette’s 327), the engineers secretly built a few of the cars and gave them to regional sales reps, who in turn took them to dealers to gauge public reaction to the hot-rod LeMans.

They returned to Detroit with 5,000 orders which they laid on the table before the board of directors. The board observed that the car was against the rules. With orders in hand the engineering team asked, “What would you like us to do with these?” … The marketers named the new big-engine option package after the most popular Ferrari sports car of the day, the Gran Turismo Omologato.

Car & Driver immediately made comparison tests of the wide-track Pontiac GTO with the already classic, world class Ferrari. The Pontiac fans howled.

During the muscle car heydays of the ’60s, Pontiac introduced an overhead cam six-cylinder engine that promised the power of a V8 with the efficiency of a six-cylinder but the public ignored it.

At the same time, Ford was hard at work on the Mustang, which was just the company’s entry-level Falcon economy car dressed up with sleeker bodywork to be fondly christened with the name of a heroic World War II fighter plane. General Motors introduced its own Camaro and Firebird “pony cars” in 1967 to compete for Mustang buyers.

Pontiac’s all-time sales peaked in 1973, at 920,000 cars. Firebird provided the brand’s “excitement” through the 1970s, starring in the Burt Reynolds film “Smoky and the Bandit,” and prompting consumers across the country to make a run for black-and-gold Trans-Ams.

1982 came with the Fiero, a high-tech, mid-engined race design that was approved over bitter protests from Corvette executives worried about their “sports car” position.

The Fiero’s innovative space-frame chassis used plastic bodywork and clip on body panels. The factory was called a show place of new production methods. Regular tours were always fully booked.

Pontiac lasted just one year longer than Oldsmobile’s 20th century long run. Similar in so many respects, Oldsmobile never had the emotional connection with enthusiasts that Pontiac did. The Chief had 278,000 sales its last year and was purchased by the youngest average age of any GM brand.

Pontiac’s identity as a performance brand dates back to the late 1950s and early 1960s. The cars were designed with wider bodies and the wheels pushed out to match. “Wide-track” design became a selling point, advertised as giving Pontiacs a distinct cornering advantage over other cars.

But the public acceptance of Pontiac as a performance brand was solidified in 1964 with the creation of the Pontiac Tempest LeMans Gran Turismo Omologato. Quickly shortened, the GTO is often credited with creating a new class of American car, the Muscle Car.

Pontiac was originally a low-cost alternative in GM’s brand hierarchy, and a middle-class mainstay. However, Pontiac’s “muscle cars” of the ’60s and ’70s include some of our finest American classics. There was nothing more powerfully refined, on the streets, than the GTO.

Increasing insurance, fuel costs and Federal emissions and safety regulations put an end to the unrestricted, powerful engines of the 1960s. In 1971, GM issued a corporate edict mandating that all engines be capable of using lower-octane unleaded gasoline, which led to dramatic drops in compression ratios, along with performance and fuel economy. Safety, luxury and economy would become the new watch-words for the marketers.

1970s were cataclysmic for American automakers as oil cartels formed, raised gasoline prices and sent the consuming public flooding Japan and other Asian countries for smaller, cheaper more fuel efficient autos. Any plan of returning Pontiac to the thundering horsepower of the ’70s ended as gas prices continued always upward and Congress’ ever stricter fuel economy rules.

The golden age of muscle cars was over as GM shifted focus to an array of econo-cars which all failed to connect with consumers. Well, if you’re going to put someone in a beer can for 30k, the car should have an interesting design at least. Pontiac’s Swan Song earned the distinction of being ranked one of the ugliest designs ever with the pyramidal angled Aztek crossover vehicle.

So, now another farewell, to another true American original. Will Ford be the last American car company standing?

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