Pontiac

[AmericanThunder]

So, Pontiac has been dead since 2008 but the majority of their car names towards the end were based on single letter and a single number, ie the Pontiac G6 and the Pontiac G8. Apparently this was to compete with European naming conventions.

But Pontiac used lots of cool race inspired names in the past:
LeMans
Grand Prix
TransAm
Bonneville
GTO
Grand Am

So, if Pontiac wasn’t dead what do you think they would be calling their cars?
Would they have stuck with the euro naming or would they have reintroduced names or perhaps started using other race inspired names?
Maybe a Pontiac Nurburgring?

 

[TransAmDan]

Maybe the old names would have come back, and perhaps some new ones like Chevy have done.

Dacia have pinched the Duster name.
There has been some unusual names from other car companies, like Mokka, just reminds me of coffee.

A lot of the old American car names were around the space race age, so got the names like Nova or Galaxie. What would we name things now?, the Pontiac Covid, or Covid SE.

 

[AmericanThunder]

Pontiac were known for bucking the system, doing things the GM executives didn’t like and exploiting loopholes. It’s how the first muscle car, the GTO, came to be.
And as arguably cool space related styling and names are I think the race track heritage is cooler.
Pontiac Laguna Seca or Pontiac Silverstone sound cool!
But perhaps nearer today’s truth would be Pontiac pothole or Pontiac traffic jam!!! Or maybe Pontiac licence and insurance!!

 

[AmericanThunder]

And depending on how the name is registered you might get away with Duster for a US market car. After all, the Pontiac GTO and the Ferrari GTO had the same name just continents apart!

 

[saleen 192]

pontiac apple , pontiac MAC pontiac Huawei ok better not use that one lol,

 

[TransAmDan]

Looks like a WV owner purchased his first Pontiac and added some wheels.

 

[AmericanThunder]

I reckon they would have capitalised on the resurgence of older names and bought back names from history on modern platforms.

 

[AmericanThunder]

Looks like a WV owner purchased his first Pontiac and added some wheels.
View attachment 160967

That’s awful. Thank goodness it’s illegal in this country.

 

[an88fiero]

Looks like a WV owner purchased his first Pontiac and added some wheels.
View attachment 160967

Why????

 

[Will]

Looks like a WV owner purchased his first Pontiac and added some wheels.
View attachment 160967

Indeed! I'd say those wheels and tires have somewhat ruined the look lol

 

[Will]

Back to the Pontiac names thread. Interesting subject AT .
Sure, latterly there were those shorter, number and letter names, but weren't many of the the original names retained throughout and until almost the cessation of Pontiac, like the Grand Prix, GTO and Firebird for example? (I thought Trans Am was a model variant of Firebird?).
If Pontiac we're still going I reckon they would have stuck with many of those names today. Actually, that appears to be quite an American thing. If you think of British GM's under the Vauxhall brand for example, I can't think of any of the earlier names that have been retained, like Viva, Victor, Ventora and Cresta. While others have come and gone, like Cavalier and Royale.
For me, Pontiac itself is a cool name, it's a shame they dropped it. I wonder if it might even be re-born one day?

 

[TransAmDan]

Where did the name Pontiac come from? was it the race of natives they wipped out?

 

[Will]

Where did the name Pontiac come from? was it the race of natives they wipped out?

I was wondering that too? Not about the natives lol, I mean the name Pontiac

 

[TransAmDan]

Ah, looks like named after the town, like Vauxhall was, and Bedford.

The Pontiac brand was introduced by General Motors in 1926 as the companion marque to GM's Oakland division, and shared the GM A platform. Purchased by General Motors in 1909, Oakland continued to produce modestly priced automobiles until 1931, when it was renamed Pontiac. It was named after the famous Ottawa chief, who had also given his name to the city of Pontiac, Michigan, where the car was produced

 

[AmericanThunder]

I think Grand Prix was the only model name that survived through to the end of Pontiac. All the other models current at Pontiacs demise were just identifiers.
Given how GM always treated Pontiac as underling to Chevrolet and forbade them to compete with the Corvette I think it’s just as well Pontiac has gone. I shudder to think what they would be churning out now. More crap like the Aztek and the Pontiac Matiz no doubt. Shameful crap considering the Pontiac widetrack heritage.
When you consider the Pontiac Banshee and how similar the C3 Corvette was after GM took the designs and gave them to Chevrolet and how GM would not allow Pontiac to fit a V8 to the Fiero because it would be faster and out handle the Corvette, I reckon Pontiac is probably best remembered for the innovations they created in their hey day.
As for model names now? Pontiac Dreary perhaps? Or maybe Pontiac MallCart?

 

[Will]

I actually wrote "almost" until the cessation of Pontiac, which, proportionally speaking is quite true when you think that the brand began 1926 and was defunct in 2010. They used the Firebird name until 2002, GTO until 2006 and Grand Prix until 2008. (Although, that model of GTO was actually a Holden Monaro.. I'd still have one of those though ).
I agree, some of Pontiac's later creations were nothing short of ugly. It makes me wonder if they knew they were going to wind the brand down, so maybe produced those cars to reduce the sense of disappointment for it's followers lol.
But whatever, for me that doesn't detract from the great cars it had produced. I was sad to see it end and read that a whole lot of Americans were too.
As for a possible Pontiac re-birth, that would be awesome. Interestingly, I found this...

Pontiac is Coming Back to Life With Nothing Less Than GTO – Autowise

autowise.com