General Motors’ brand Pontiac has finally gone out of business.
GM took the decision to close Pontiac as part of its exit strategy from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last year, but the closure was finalised yesterday when GM’s contracts with dealers expired.
Pontiac had been in existence for 84 years and the last car to roll down the production line was a Vibe in August 2009.
The firm is credited with creating the muscle car with its GTO and in the US in the 1960s, only Chevrolet and Ford bettered Pontiac’s sales. Its peak for sales came in 1973, when the firm sold 973,000 cars.
Numerous attempts to revive the brand in the 1990s and 2000s failed; notable models in the last few years include the G6 saloon and Solstice sports car.
The firm’s dealers had fewer than 125 cars left at the end of August and only eight G6s were reportedly sold in September.
