The Car That Could Have Saved Pontiac Arrived Too Late
Car companies come and go, but one of the saddest losses was Pontiac. The carmaker had a storyline that could have been lifted straight out of a John Hughes movie, where the unassuming bookworm becomes the coolest kid in school and suddenly has the world at its feet. Pontiac went from being a bit fuddy-duddy to the hottest carmaker in town in the ’60s, apparently unable to do a thing wrong. But unlike those feel-good Hollywood movies of the ’80s, there wasn’t a happy ending for Pontiac. The carmaker met with an untimely demise, and car fans (in particular muscle car fans) have been mourning the loss ever since. But could there have been a different version of the story, where Pontiac came back for a sequel, and went on to save the day? One concept certainly suggests so.
Pontiac Was One Of America’s Greatest Carmakers
Pontiac arrived in 1926 as a companion make to Oakland, but was so successful that it replaced the older brand completely six years later. Despite what we think of Pontiac these days (ignore the Aztek for a second), the company wasn’t always a young and trendy offering. By the ’50s, Pontiac had settled into its role as a grandpa car, with traditional styling elements that would appeal to the more mature owner. The trouble is, there weren’t enough grandpas and grandmas who wanted to buy Pontiacs, and by 1958 sales were as low as 217,303. Rather than abandon Pontiac, GM embarked on the most dramatic automotive reinvention the car world had ever seen.
Pontiac Had One Of The Greatest Reinventions The Car World Had Ever Seen
Pontiac quickly went after the youth market, putting money into NASCAR and the highly fashionable drag racing scene, while the stylish Wide-Track look was introduced with the 1959 Bonneville. Pete Estes and John DeLorean were drafted in, and the latter was quickly made chief engineer. This was a masterstroke, as DeLorean was in his mid-30s and brimming with ideas.
When DeLorean met Russ Gee and Bill Collins on Saturday mornings at the Milford Proving Grounds to drink coffee and brainstorm ideas, Collins apparently suggested to DeLorean that “it would take about 20 minutes” to stick a 389 in a 1964 LeMans coupe. DeLorean’s response was “let’s try it” and with those three words, the muscle car was born, and it was called the Pontiac GTO. Pontiac had gone from being forgotten, to being the pioneer of a brand-new car scene, one that would go on to define US car culture for the next 70 years. But by 2010, the company was closed for good.
Pontiac Was Working On A Car That Could Have Saved The Company
It would have been easy to think that Pontiac had seen the writing on the wall a few years before it was shut down in 2010, and let the company slowly peter out. But an announcement on GM’s Instagram account in 2024 revealed that actually, Pontiac was still fighting for survival when the lights were flickering. General Motors Design revealed the Pontiac G8 concept to the public for the first time. The car was no doubt pegged as a replacement for the production G8, a model sold from 2008 to 2009 and essentially a rebadged Holden Commodore. If anything, the concept seems to show that Pontiac was fighting back, ready to reinvent itself once again and ready to be more than just badge sharing. The G8 concept showed what would have happened if Pontiac had lived on.
The G8 Concept Offered A Futuristic Vision
Let’s be clear, this wasn’t just some hastily assembled clay model. GM called the car “a fully functioning vision of the future design language of Pontiac.” Definitely not the kind of thing you’d expect to hear about a car brand that was about to shut up shop. Just like the 1959 Bonneville, the G8 Concept introduced a bold new design language and aggressive styling. It bristles with muscle, with a wide stance and wheels stuffed into pushed-out arches. The front mixed the bold new styling of Cadillac at the time, with the look of Pontiac’s sporty Solstice in places too. The rear has a hint of Solstice to it, along with influences from Opels and Vauxhalls of the day. But overall, it is breathtakingly futuristic.
The Interior Is Out Of This World
Sure, it’s a concept, and these kinds of vehicles generally have pretty wild interiors. But the G8 Concept gives a taste of what Pontiacs could have been like. It could be likened to a modern Corvette, with a wraparound cabin that engulfs the driver and passenger, but also the interior foretold the future in other ways. Aside from the obligatory giant touchscreen in the middle, it is eerily close to the minimalist interiors we see these days, especially in EVs, which are devoid of large panels of physical buttons. It’s unlikely that the interior would have made it to production quite like this, but it would have been exciting to see how Pontiac would have translated that to a showroom car.
The Concept Is A Glimpse At Where Pontiac Should Have Headed
Pontiac was certainly on a clear path when the concept was conceived. Having had a slightly muddled line-up that included the ugly and awkward Aztek (which was actually more forward-thinking than we give it credit for), Solstice, and the Holden-derived GTO, Pontiac seemed to be going back to basics with the short-lived production G8. These sedans were available with a V6, but two models, the GT and the BMW M5-chasing GXP, had proper V8s. They were affordable too, which made them very much modern day muscle cars. The bold G8 Concept seems to suggest that Pontiac was running with this idea of contemporary four-door muscle, and was reinventing itself in the mold of its ’60s heyday. The problem is that it arrived too late.
The Concept Couldn’t Save Pontiac
The G8 Concept had all the ingredients of a car that could bring the ailing Pontiac to a more youthful market, one that was used to BMWs and Audis. In the same way that Cadillac rebranded itself as an alternative to the Germans with its V-Series, perhaps a sharp, angular model like the proposed new G8 could have done the same. But before GM could even reveal it, Pontiac was dead. In 2009, as part of its reorganization plan, cash-strapped GM made the announcement that the Pontiac brand would be phased out by 2010. This time, there would be no Bonneville or GTO or John DeLorean to save the day.
But though it is gone, Pontiac is not forgotten. The brand still has one of the most loyal fanbases out there, with rare models selling for more than a million bucks. There’s always plenty of interest when someone reimagines what a modern-day Pontiac would look like too. Whether Pontiac will ever return is uncertain, but it’s unlikely it will ever be the same. In the meantime, the G8 Concept shows what could have been.
Sources: Pontiac
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