Why Pontiac stopped production, a sad GM story

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Fire-medic

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Did you ever own a Pontiac? We did in my family, a Catalina, and I did, a '67 GTO convertible (used). You will be interested to see why Pontiac was killed by GM. Bob Lutz, a highly-place GM executive and a 'car guy' and motorhead if there ever was one, sheds light on why Pontiac ended production, and what was slated for it on the way-back to relevance and profitability before that decision was handed-down.

Lutz has a column in Road & Track, which is pretty-interesting.

http://jalopnik.com/the-feds-killed-pontiac-bob-lutz-says-1452735716
 
It is a shame that the Pontiac line died. It was my favorite in the whole GM lineup, the GTO has and always be my favorite American Muscle car. One important note however, part of Pontiac still lives on through the Holden brand in Australia (GM subsidiary). I have seen multiple new Holden cars that have definite signs of their Pontiac lineage. Maybe somewhere down the line we might get a new Pontiac with a bow-tie on it, time will tell.
 
I like Pontiac...I had several Trans Ams...and an X-wife had a grand am gt-1 when we got together.
 

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A colleague of mine just get rid of the "new" version of the GTO last year since he is a bit of a tree-hugger and wanted better gas mileage to protect the environment. If I had the extra cash laying around I would have picked it up. It was definitely not the GTO I know and love but it was nonetheless a fun, fast car to drive.
 
I also had two '77 Trans Am's including a 'Smokey & the Bandit' WS-6 400 Pontiac w/the Hurst-Hatch t-tops, I bought from the original owner, an old girlfriend. I held-onto that car for a long time, and put probably 100,000 miles on it. I only replaced things like master cyl, brakes, H2O pump, power steering pump, belts, hoses, spark plugs, tranny filters, & 1 radiator. It always got a lot of attention. I saw a '76 copycat around this past week, it looked pretty-good.
 
I've had a number of Pontiacs and don't generally sell much lol. I did sell my T/A's (79 10th ann and 80 Indy pace car). I'm even considering selling my 67 GTO Convertible, 65 GTO Post, and 65 Lemans Convertible if anyone is interested.
 
I had an 80 turbo pace car that I put a Pontiac 428 into. Every time I would get on it it would crack the windshield...lol
 
Lets see... 2 grand prix, 2 GTOs w tripower (bod cats), '68 Firebird w OHC 6, 70 Trans Am w ram air 4, Cat with 428 "bob cat", 2 428 bonies, a '69 firebird w 454 race car, a '64 lemans race car with a build 389, a Venture, a '78 Firebird w 383 small block and Paxton supercharger, and one of those late model "fake" GTOs with an LS-1 motor transplanted into it along with supercharger. Yeah, I used to love pontaics. Well, excepth the Trans Am with the tubro- that car I hated, although once I put a well built Small block in it, it was a great car.
 
1. 1964 GTO Convertible - New - First new car. 1964 - 1965.
2. 1969 Catalina Convertible - New - 1969 - 1971.
3. 1967 GTO - Used - 1971 - 1971.
4. 1979 Trans Am T/A 400 - 4 speed - New Spec Order - 1979 - 1980.

My actual favorite and best car with no problems was the 1969 Catalina convertible. All the rest had some kind of problem(s).
 

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