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The Fate of the Very Last Pontiac Ever Built


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From GM Authority.com - by Trey Hawkins - 10/14/2022

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2022/10/heres-what-happened-to-the-very-last-pontiac-ever-built/

Pontiac, originally intended to slot between Chevy and Oldsmobile, has quite the storied history. The brand is particularly known for kickstarting the muscle car era with the introduction of the 1964 GTO, and for soldiering through the malaise era with the Firebird Trans Am models.

Around the turn of the 20th century, Pontiac was posting poor sales as GM struggled to find a successful identity for the brand, becoming increasingly stagnant and diluted within GM’s portfolio. In the mid-2000s, Pontiac started to turn a corner and find its stride with the introduction of performance models like the 2004 GTO and 2009 G8 GXP. In fact, it was later reveled that Pontiac was intended to become GM’s performance brand during this renaissance, similar to what Dodge has become today.

Unfortunately, GM’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 and subsequent government bailout forced the Detroit-based automaker to axe the brand entirely. The feds wanted GM to remove brands from its lineup and only keep one the ones that were necessary. As such, Cadillac was kept as the luxury division, Chevy was kept as the volume division, Buick was kept for interests in international markets (China), and GMC was kept because it was profitable. This left Pontiac, along with Hummer, Saab and Saturn, as the odd men brands out, spelling Pontiac’s discontinuation in 2010. Interestingly, the last car produced to ever bear the iconic red badge was a 2010 Pontiac G6.

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The Last Pontiac G6 runs down the assembly line

The G6 in question carried a VIN of 1G2ZA5EB5A4166962, and was equipped with a 2.4 L VVT DOHC four-cylinder engine. Sadly configured as a fleet vehicle, it was painted in Summit White and furnished with an Ebony interior. Even more sad is that the car experienced a relatively short life.

According to a thread on Reddit, the last mileage report to GM had the car around 60,000 miles. Then, two years later on September 1st, 2015, it was allegedly totaled and received a branded title. GM then voided all open warranties on the car, thus ending the G6’s record.

 

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The last Pontiac ever built, this 2010 G6 in Summit White paint, was totaled and received a branded title.


For a brand as iconic Pontiac, it’s downright tragic to read this story. Just as the brand came to an abrupt and unexpected end, so too did the last vehicle it ever produced.

Edited by Frosty
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A similar story from The Drive with some more interesting details.

By Rob Stumpf

https://www.thedrive.com/news/the-last-pontiac-ever-built-met-an-unfortunate-end

Pontiac was one of four General Motors-owned brands to hit the cutting-room floor amid GM's late-2000s bankruptcy and bailout. By 2010, the brand would be discontinued alongside Hummer, Saab, and Saturn, but not before pumping out one last vehicle from the Orion Assembly plant: a white 2010 Pontiac G6 with a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder and spec'd for fleet use.

While this might seem like a lackluster end for the once-venerable red badge (it's no GTO, after all), it's still part of GM's history. And as such, it led one interested Redditor down a rabbit hole to find out what exactly happened to the car once it left the factory. Had it ended up in a museum? A private collector's personal inventory, or perhaps parked in the driveway of its original owner still?

Sadly, it was none of those. And while GM hasn't officially confirmed that the VIN sleuthed out by Reddit belonged to the very last Pontiac, the year, color, and spec match old reports, boosting confidence that they may have tracked down the correct one. The story of the last Pontiac ever made ends just as anticlimactic as it began.

After rolling off the assembly line in Orion, Michigan, this 2010 Pontiac G6 was titled in Hawaii as a rental vehicle in January 2010, which makes sense given that it was built as a fleet-spec vehicle. It remained in service for more than a year until it was sent to auction in May 2011 where it was then purchased by a dealership and titled in California with just 27,725 miles on the odometer.

Three months later, it was sold to its last owner who drove it for nearly 60,000 miles before it was reported as a total loss in February 2015.

The G6 was when sent to a salvage auction where it was sold for $450—less than 3% of its original MSRP. In February 2016, a year after it was reported as a loss, the G6 was exported to Mexico and never registered in the U.S. again.

Ironically, the second-to-last Pontiac built was also totaled back in 2020 with around 67,000 miles on the odometer. It too was sold at auction, but for a heftier $1,500. According to a poster on Reddit, this example was rebuilt and is still on the road somewhere in Indiana, perhaps the final example to roll off the lines from the brand that left in the U.S. Godspeed, little Pontiac.

GM shuttering Pontiac was a fairly big blow for fans of the marque, especially given its rather rumbly history of muscle cars and enthusiast-focused vehicles throughout its heritage. For the automaker to end production with a regular ol' G6 is kind of a slap in the face, even if it was dying of bailout-induced circumstances. Hell, GM even gave Oldsmobile a send-off with the Final 500 Edition of the Alero years earlier. But Pontiac? Nothing. A boring, fleet-spec sedan. The more I think about it, the very last G6's ending is almost a bittersweet ode to the brand's overall sendoff: appropriate, yet unfortunate.

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This story has a far better end than one could hope for. This is what I get for missing club meetings. 
 

The Michigan Widetrackers had their monthly club meeting at Golling Buick-GMC in Lake Orion, Michigan. Lake Orion is a northern suburb of Pontiac. Lake Orion is also home to FM’s Lake Orion Assembly plant, where the last Pontiacs were built.

Tim Dye, from the Pontiac Transportation Museum, brought the last Pontiac ever built to the meeting. Tim investigated the internet reports of the cars above and he discovered it there was one last Pontiac G6 that rolled off the line. This is clearly the last since all the assembly line workers signed the car! 
 

This car was sold to Avis Rental and then sold to a private owner in Kansas. Tim bought the car from this owner!

These photos were sent to me courtesy of Widetrackers president Tim May. It’s nice to know that the last Pontiac is safe and in good hands!

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