The automotive world has lost a lot of brands over the past twenty-some years, most of them American. Some brands were starved of new product and wasted away before succumbing; others had promising futures and exciting new offerings but were unceremoniously axed. Which brand had the best lineup when it was terminated?
The first casualty in recent history was Eagle. Only ten years old and created purely to give Jeep dealers some passenger cars to sell, Eagle represented a rather half-assed attempt at an import brand for Chrysler. Initially, the Renault Medallion and Premier were offered but Chrysler dumped those as soon as it could. The Premier’s replacement, the Vision, was arguably the most desirable of the dramatic new LH cars and the Talon was one of the market’s best compact sports coupes, much like its Mitsubishi Eclipse and Plymouth Laser siblings. But otherwise, Eagle was yet another outlet through which Chrysler sold rebadged Mitsubishi compacts like the Summit, a Mirage by another name. By 1997, the brand still hadn’t made any traction and was down to the Vision and Talon; by 1998, it was gone.
The next brand on the chopping block was another one of Chrysler’s albeit one with a lot more history. Plymouth, first launched in 1928, had been treated poorly by its corporate parent for many years. Everything Plymouth received to sell in the 1970s and 1980s, Dodge also received with few exceptions. Dodge was marketed as the more sporty brand in the Chrysler stable, although Plymouth received a rebadged Mitsubishi Eclipse (the Laser) in 1990. This was a red herring, as Plymouth became firmly ensconced as the “budget” brand in the family. The 1997 Prowler was a radical departure from this mission and was to be joined by the PT Cruiser before then-DaimlerChrysler pulled the plug on the Plymouth brand. Other than the Prowler, the last Plymouths sold were the Breeze, Neon and Voyager: all rebadged Dodges sold only in value-priced trim levels. 2001 was the brand’s last stand, with Plymouth’s only unique model shuffled over to the Chrysler brand.
Next to die was Oldsmobile. Millions of dollars had been poured into a complete overhaul of the 107-year old brand, with its staid old lineup replaced with import fighters like the flashy flagship Aurora and the clean and elegant Intrigue and Alero. Alas, market share was showing little meaningful improvement. The announcement of General Motors’ shuttering of the brand coincided with the release of the third-generation Bravada, a much-improved SUV offering. Oldsmobile’s range was axed one-by-one between 2002 and 2004. The last Oldsmobile produced was an Alero GLS sedan. Although none of the lineup could be called bonafide class-leaders, they were all competitive offerings and arguably Oldsmobile’s best lineup in years.
The next three brands to go were all shuttered during General Motors’ bankruptcy proceedings. Hummer had become an albatross around GM’s neck with an undesirable image and sales severely crippled by high gas prices. The lineup had been expanded with pickup versions of the H2 and H3 and rumors abounded of a possible smaller Hummer. Although GM was in talks to sell the brand to a Chinese buyer, the deal fell through and Hummer was no more.
Saturn had seemingly picked up where Oldsmobile left off, with a full lineup of import fighters. The compact Astra was actually an import, coming from Opel, while the new Vue (featuring a segment-first two-mode hybrid) and the Sky were sold in Europe with Opel badges. The Outlook and Aura rounded out the range and received critical acclaim. Again, GM sought a buyer for the brand but this also fell through. Buick would be the recipient of the planned next-generation Aura, the Opel Insignia, and has continued to offer Opel models in Saturn’s absence.
not pictured: G3
Pontiac’s demise was the most mourned by enthusiasts of GM’s mass culling in 2008. The brand had showed signs of promise with the Solstice roadster and coupe and the Australian G8. GM’s joint venture with Toyota resulted in the well-rounded Vibe, while the mid-size G6 came in sedan, coupe and folding hardtop convertible variants. The rest of the lineup – G3, G5 and Torrent – were, unfortunately, cynical rebadges. Plans were in motion to thin the herd and establish Pontiac as a niche performance brand. Bankruptcy stopped those plans from coming to fruition.
Finally, the most recent casualty was Mercury. First established in 1938, the brand never really had a strong identity and for many years offered only thinly-disguised Fords and little in the way of unique models. That was how it was for the messenger brand in 2011 when it was shut down: the Milan, Mountaineer, Mariner, Grand Marquis were simply Fords with waterfall grilles and slightly different interior trim. Sure, the Mountaineer and Milan in particular were more stylish than their Blue Oval counterparts, but ultimately the brand existed only to give Lincoln dealers a bigger range to sell.
What say you? Which brand had the best lineup at the time of its axing?
Saturn, due large in part to the Opel DNA in most of their final models. GM is following a similar strategy with the current Buick lineup. You could almost say it’s become Saturn 2.0 in a sense.
Pontiac, by far.
+1
+2
+3…
I really would’ve loved to have seen a Firebird/Formula/Trans-Am. Sure, it would’ve just been a ‘badge engineered’ Camaro (well, ok, maybe with some performance enhancements), but it would’ve been nice to see what Pontiac came up with if GM would have stuck it out with the brand.
Of course my opinion may be biased. While it’s the only GM car I’ve ever owned (barring any spousal contributions in their choices), I really loved my ’97 Grand Prix GTP, and was actually considering a G8.
And yes, in the picture below, it’s parked on a scale right after I filled the tank. Check the display. At 3500 pounds (+ my 200 pounds), it would still move out quite nicely with that Supercharged 3800 Series II engine. ;o)
That generation Grand Prix coupe was one of the very few GM products I was deeply attracted to in my lifetime, they still look good.
Yeah, being a Ford guy for so long (83 thru 97 T-Birds mostly), it was really strange that THIS car for me was the only “love at first sight car” and I just had to have it type of purchase. It was a good car too.
+4, add me to the Pontiac bandwagon primarily for the G8 and Solstice in its final days!
I agree with it being Pontiac. Was sad to see the “Excitement” division get the axe.
First car 68 Firebird – Sentimental journey
71 GTO
76 Bonneville (hand-me-down)
2001 Grand Prix GT <— best car ever
2005 Grand Prix GT Int. Steering Shaft be danged
Timing gear on the GTO was only non-scheduled maintenance I ever needed to perform…. on any of them
Sales figures don't lie but, I will always believe GM made a mistake in killing Pontiac and not Buick
Saturn, followed by Oldsmobile showed the greatest steps in the right direction, with a new image and a handful of newer models that were more appealing as well as distinctive than the cars they replaced. Still, just too many brands and not enough differentiation.
The final Mercurys were all nice-looking cars, much more attractive than their related Fords in my opinion, but lacked any real value proposition besides looks. Their interiors were barely any different than Fords, with a much greater gap between Mercury’s interiors and Lincoln’s.
Apart from the G8, there was noting else really promising in Pontiac’s lineup, and Hummer and Eagle were more or less lost causes throughout their entire short existences.
Plymouth’s final lineup was also appealing and full of attractively-styled vehicles that looked better than their Dodge brethren. It’s just that there were too few of them and no real reason to buy one over a Dodge, which offered a wider variety of trim levels an options.
One only has to wonder though if Plymouth had made it a few more years to see the PT Cruiser and its proposed relatives make it to production under the Plymouth brand. The Pronto and Pronto Spyder concepts represented truly unique looking vehicles and segments currently unoccupied by Chrysler.
I still say that Plymouth should have been made Chrysler’s volume brand with the widest variety of offerings, much like Ford and Chevrolet, and as it had been decades ago. This would have allowed them to take the Chrysler brand further upmarket and make the Dodge brand focus on performance and RAM on trucks, much like the two latter are today. No need for confusing SRT subrands.
Plymouth was in part crippled by having to share space with Chryslers in the dealer showrooms. Ford and Chevrolet are large enough to be standalone dealerships but Plymouth wasn’t after the mid-1970s, As you say, Plymouth would have been helped by having a wider lineup but the dealers made more profit off the pricier Chrysler models, so it was the latter brand that got the biggest model expansion. Plymouth got stuck with the lower-end and duller products with the notable exception of the Prowler.
You make a very interesting point regarding Plymouth and the Pronto / eventual PT Cruiser. The PT was a very successful vehicle, and much more aligned with Plymouth’s market position and pricing structure. It makes me wonder what might have happened if Chry. Corp. chose to gave it to Plymouth, and then drop the Town and Country from Chrysler’s lineup once the Pacifica came around (or ideally introduce it two years sooner). It might have kept Plymouth viable while at the same time avoiding the problems the initial Pacifica faced of buyers thinking it was too expensive relative to what it’s intended purpose was.
Ok, everyone knows I am a professed pony car fan, so this wish will come as no surprise, but in Plymouth’s case, like my post above about wanting to see a new retro Firebird, wouldn’t it have been awesome if the Plymouth name could be resurrected just long enough to give us a Barracuda based on the Challenger? C’mon, you KNOW you all want to see it! ;o)
From reading the comments on this site, I know most here aren’t fans of ‘Badge Engineering’, but this could SO be done right. A modern Hemi-Cuda if you will….
The funny thing is the current Challenger actually has closer to ‘Cuda proportions, some of the front end kits I’ve seen to give it 71 Cuda gills and grille treatment look more natural than many are willing to admit. The original Challenger really emphasized long and sleek in it’s lines, more like a Cougar, whereas the Cuda had a shorter more traditional pony car look like a Camaro.
Funny you should mention the longer sleeker look of the Cougar. I love the ’67 Mustang, but the ’67 Cougar XR-7… Wow was that a pretty car. A friend of mine back in high school (late seventies for me) had one in an emerald green color. Yeah, I liked that a lot better than another friend’s ’66 Mustang.
I actually never realized that the Plymouth Barracuda was actually shorter than the Dodge Challenger back then. I just thought it was a visual thing, like an optical illusion. I learned that fact from THIS awesome website, just like I learned that the Cougar and Mustang were sister cars back in ’67. I honestly thought they were different platforms. I’ve learned a lot here.
PONTIAC, no questions about it. I still mourn for this brand having owned two between 1996-2001. Both were excellent cars.
Pontiac, definitely. Of all the dead brands it was the only one that was really on a bit of a product upswing in the GM family by the end, only problem was the awful G naming scheme and really bad timing. cjiguy makes a good point about Saturn though. Buick basically owes it’s current marketplace existence to that very similar product line.
Mercury died with the demise of the RWD Cougar as far as I’m concerned, in the end you couldn’t even accuse them of being fancy Fords, they were just Fords with a waterfall grill, pick your preference. Olds wasn’t much better, the Aurora really lost any of it’s 90s distinctiveness by this point and it certainly didn’t look as good either, the rest of the lineup were typical badge jobs.
You forget Saturn was on a product upswing the same time as Pontiac, Matt.
Yeah, at the Motor Trend International Auto Show in Baltimore about a year or so before Saturn and Pontiac’s demise, they had a Saturn concept car up on a pedestal that looked a lot like a Grand Prix… It was either another W-Body, or something new in that size class. Nice looking car, actually.
Plymouth was supposed to compete with Ford and Chevy but it always struck me as a “slightly” cheaper car. If Ford, Chevy, and Plymouth were fast food restaurants then Plymouth would be Krystals/White Castle to Chevy’s McDonald’s and Ford’s Burger King.
As a fan of Plymouths, I had the feeling that beginning in the mid 80s Plymouth was the Chrysler Corporation dumping ground for failing products. The Breeze, at first, was the only car that Chrysler marketed correctly. It had the “small” /Neon 4 cylinder and supposedly an available manual transmission with only the “big” 4 as a possible powertrain upgrade.
If not a cheap car nameplate, then imagine it as the purveyor of Chrysler’s boutique models….the Prowler and PT Cruiser could have been Plymouths.
As far as which “dead” brand could have lived on, I would say Oldsmobile because if Saturn had lived, where would GM get it’s raw material for Buick and not overlap another GM division.
Not so. everything in a chevy was extra my father
in laws 1978 nova didn’t even have rear arm rests it had cheep straps. plymouth always gave you a little more
That strap would have been on the upper level trim. The door straps, which were common with the higher priced lines were a “Brougham”feature. And the armrests were molded into the door panel.
Straps were for upper level models. Arm rests weren’t molded as I had thought.
I was totally wrong. My apologies. Just found a few pictures of that strap.
Thanks for helping me learn something new !
It’s interesting how timing plays into this. The Talon had the good luck to have left the DSM band before lead singer Eclipse’s Fat Elvis days. The Astra OTOH had the devil’s own timing, first shown at NAIAS 2008 just before gas spiked from just under $3 to $5 a gallon in a month or two, it didn’t ship until very late summer just in time for Carpocalypse.
Mercury stands out as the weakest final year. They had had the Grand Marquis to themselves since 2008, new Crown Vics were fleet only. So, it was their top seller, an arch- traditional car for arch-traditional people. The rest of the line was for people who wanted a Fusion or Escape but had bad experiences with Ford dealers.
Strongest? Pontiac probably had the most cars and highest percentage of the lineup that enthusiasts liked and wanted, and couldn’t be had anywhere else.
I deal with Buick’s gradual shift to becoming Saturn 2.0 here:
http://driventowrite.com/2015/11/15/buicks-path-towards-being-an-import-brand/
It’s a bit of a shame. Opel is not only losing its own soul but Buick is joining it. It parallels Ford now in Europe and the way British Fords and German Fords became EuroFords in the 80s.
I’d have to give it to Pontiac. Sure, the Torrent and G5 were slapdash rebadges, and the G6 was getting old (though at least it was better differentiated from its Malibu/Aura siblings). But the Solstice and G8 were desirable performance offerings (I think the G8 would have sold far better than it did if it wasn’t under the cloud of Pontiac’s impending demise for most of the run). And the Vibe was, under the skin, mostly Corolla. Echoes of NUMMI with the attendant reliability.
I would call a tie between Pontiac and Plymouth. Plymouth was doing what it was supposed to do, anchor the lower more basic end of the lineup, leaving room for the nicer stuff at the other end of the Chry-Ply showroom. With the Prowler thrown in for some spice.
Pontiac was doing some cool things at the end with the G-8 and the Solstice. Had the G-8 come out maybe 3 years earlier, Pontiac might have built up some volume from it. But it came out at absolutely the worst time possible.
Of course, if we go back just a few years more, there is only one answer to the question. 🙂
Shoot; you beat me to it! Who can top a Lark Daytona, Wagonaire, Gran Turismo and…the Avanti? Nobody.
A little before Brendan’s time, so I won’t hold it against him, even if we are (were) having an impromptu Studebaker Week. 🙂
Up to the end, Studebaker still had the Champ pickup, as well.
It seems two questions are being answered here. The question asked by the article, namely which brand had the best lineup when axed, and also which had the most potential to be remade if us car folks could have ran the show. I would agree with many others on the site that Pontiac probably had the highest quality lineup when axed, what with the excellent G8 and Vibe. As far as potential goes I would again say Pontiac. It could very easily have become a performance brand a la Dodge today, only with access to GM’s arguably better engines and platforms. I currently drive an ’04 Grand Marquis so I do have to say my piece about Mercury. IMO Mercury should exist in the spot Lincoln does right now and Lincoln should be taken way upmarket…cool article.
Well obviously none of em. If they had the best lineup they would have sold in large enough numbers to not be given the ax in the first place.
Cut straight to the heart of the matter, guy. Pontiac may have had an “enthusiast’s” line up, but the enthusiasts didn’t actually buy what they claimed they wanted.
I agree, Studebaker!
I think Pontiac had the best lineup.
They had the Vibe (which was ironically the most reliable vehicle that GM offered from 2003-2010 because it had Toyota DNA). Everybody that I knew that owned a Vibe(myself included) loved the thing. They had great space utilization.
The G6 was a nice midsize car that was offered in convertible form with a retractable hard top.
There was the G8 which you could take to the track on Sunday and driven to work on Monday or used to take your family on a trip.
The Solstice was a nice roadster that could be used on the weekends for 2 person cruising.
Mercury was done by 1997 and Saturn actually had a chance with the Aura of course had Saturn not screwed with success and killed off the S series(of which there seems to be butt tons still on the road)
Hummer, well nothing says a person is compensating for something then driving one of those.
I would like to add GMC to the list as I can’t see a reason for this brand still being around since everything they offer can be bought as a Chevy
What?! No votes for Hummer? What man couldn’t use a testosterone boost? 😉
In all seriousness, hmm… toss up between Oldsmobile and Pontiac? Both had history and improving lineups.
Daewoo.
I would have to say Saturn. It had a fully re-vamped lineup and a coherent look. It was one of the few brands axed that looked, for a time, as though it might be bought by a third party.
Duesenberg.
Well played, sir.
First and second runners up: Cord and Auburn.
I was going to say Auburn! – I love the Auburn Speedster. The Cord is so cool too.
Pontiac had a re-badged Toyota product, the Vibe. Mercury had a rebadged Mazda 6, the Milan/Fusion; however, a lot of Ford influence is in that product compared to straight badge and grille change with the Matrix/Vibe. Hummer is a Chevy Suburban as far as I’m concerned, while Saturn is mostly Opel and *not* Toyota and completely dull. Plymouth can be lauded for their 1 – 4 gen. minivans but my sister still complains miserably about its annoying flaws such as power locks buzzing loudly etc – so that whips that vote even if I am partial to Mopar products. Finally Oldsmobile… I loved my Uncle’s 1982 B-body Delta 88 way-back-when, but the latter 90 and 00s models left behind little inspiration except for maybe the original primo Aurora.
My gut instinct goes with Pontiac even if I am a Ford-Mazda and Mopar kinda guy.
To me, all these brands were pretty sad before they died, and in the case of the older brands (Olds, Pontiac, Mercury, Plymouth), the offerings in their final years were sadly inferior to what they offered in their heyday (hence the death…).
I’d rank them like this:
1. Oldsmobile–at the end they finally had a few cars (Aurora, Intrigue) that seemed better than other GM offerings, with clean styling and decent handling.
2. Pontiac–some legitimate sporty offerings, fitting for the brand, but needed that attitude applied consistently across the line-up.
Mercury was a dead brand walking for years–their last reasonably unique brand offerings were from the 1990s. Plymouth’s were even older–I’d say that brand actually died as a distinct marque in the 1970s.
Eagle, Saturn and Hummer were all marketing exercises that created unneeded extra brands and/or tried to exploit narrow market niches. Other than a quick burst of energy around Saturn (good marketing at launch) and Hummer (vulgarity rules), these brands were practically born dead.
Surely Fisker needs to be included in this list, born 2008 although the first cars were built in 2011, died 2012. Not that it had the best lineup when it axed of course!
I wonder what other car companies have died in the last 30 years? I would say that probably fewer than any previous 30 year period, literally hundreds would have started and shut down in the first 30 years of last century.
Remember the Fiskers that caught fire during hurricane sandy? Was like a Viking funeral for that brand.
At the time it was gone, Pontiac had the best line-up. The performance group idea with Pontiac at GM was a good one. Dodge is essentially doing just that at FCA.
One of GM’s problems was that the traditional divisional brands lost much of their meaning; there was nothing after the Sloan’s “A car for every purse and purpose” concept.
Managed properly, focusing Pontiac on performance, Chevy on mass market value, Oldsmobile or Buick or Saturn (just need 1 of the 3, I would prefer Olds) on what Chevy couldn’t cover, and then make Cadillac a true premium marque might have worked.
With the GM makes, all of them are based on a generic GM platforms. The Pontiac G8 is a Holden platform (and now we have a Chevy version). So the end of them really changes nothing much at GM.
Toyota has a basic line of cars (like GM’s Chevrolet line) and a luxury line which is nothing like Cadillac, but for GM to have a basic line and a luxury line seems like the proper thing. Honda and Nissan are doing much the same thing.
I am not quite sure what the point of the question is, but at one time GM’s makes made sense in that the Chevy through Buick divisions covered a range of sizes and prices. By the 1960’s this was no longer the case and the GM line was a mess.
Rambler! then Studebaker. As for the recently departed, I would have to go for Saturn. The others were mostly rebadged clones. Boring.
With the exception of Eagle, at the time of their demise, all of the brands William put up for consideration arguably had the best and / or most extensive line ups they had offered over the several years prior to their demise. That’s truly the oddest thing about these brands. They had either been allowed to languish (particularly Plymouth) or had suffered through some periods of severe mismanagement (particularly Oldsmobile). Then, new and improved product was poured in, sales were sometimes on the upswing, and some of these brands actually sold better than other brands that survived them.
Poncho! My first was a ’62 Catalina. First in a long line of great Pontiacs. Favorite was a 70 Grand Prix Model J. Last one was a 2009 Vibe, which the daughter now has. One of the most reliable vehicles to ever serve the family. It makes me misty just to think of them.
I believe Plymouth had the most promise and I wish Diamler Chrysler had all the passenger vehicles that were Dodges become Plymouths. That would leave Dodge to sell the SUVs Pickups, and Fullsized Vans which is kind of what Ram does now.
For me, Pontiac.
G6 sedan, coupe & convertible.
Solstice.
G8 – V6 or V8, it didn’t matter to me because it was a cool car.
2nd place: Saturn, because they had some nice cars at the last gasp. I especially loved the Astra coupe – very sharp, and the Aura was a knock-out when it debuted.
Certainly not Saturn! I think killing off Pontiac was a mistake. Even though the last of the Pontiacs were mostly clones or compromises, Pontiac always seemed like they were at least trying to make something special out of the crap they had to work with. Keeping Buick , supposedly because of it’s popularity in China , seemed short sighted. As part of the GM reboot , they should have dug up Roger Smith , kicked him in his Ass , then start the rebuilding process.
I think Pontiac (I don’t really consider Auburn, Cord or even the more recent Studebaker as “brands” … these were basically entire companies that exited the business). With GTO and G8, we finally had the opportunity to buy a high-performance Australian car in the US. And no, the final Capri didn’t count. I think Pontiac’s lineup was sufficiently different from mainstream GM, compared to Olds, or Plymouth vs. Dodge and Chrysler, to be missed and to have had potential to bounce back. Saturn? some nice, more European Opel-based cars but mostly irrelevant by its end. No plastic body panels, no Spring Hill, no fixed pricing: not a Saturn IMO.
Pontiac !
Especially the Solstice.
International light trucks and SUVs!
2nd
Checker
I like your original thinking!
Before Pontiac was shuttered, they had the best line up. Even the G5 GT was a reasonable application of the Pontiac mindset to the Delta body. I would suggest Saturn next, then Oldsmobile. I thoroughly miss the 2nd gen Aurora, the Intrigue and the Alero. I’m currently daily driving a 2004 Silhouette minivan and loving it.
Plymouth before it’s demise was close to what it had been originally intended, an inexpensive car for folks on a budget. Too bad it couldn’t continue. It would have been nice to have seen a combined Plymouth/Eagle store, with Plymouth holding down the entry level and Eagle doing the upper end.
By the time the Great Recession caused the havoc it did, Chrysler had the right idea, bring all of their brands under one roof. I like the idea of going to a store that has all of the Mopars I could want. It allows Dodge to be Dodge and the others to be who they are without the redundancies of past years.
I wish GM had adopted a similar strategy. We may still have Pontiac and Saturn with us if that happened.
Pontiac was the greatest loss, without a doubt.
On a tangent, as far as models go, the biggest loss in recent memory was the Ford Crown Victoria, especially the P71 Interceptor model. Law enforcement everywhere (and their mechanics, myself included) have lamented this loss greatly. I understand it was cut in order to meet US Federal CAFE standards, BUT it could have continued in limited production, ONLY for Police use. Ford would have sold those more quickly than they could have made them!
I questioned for the last 7 years of Panther production why they stuck with the 4.6 2V/4R70w combo for powertrain. A 5 or 6 speed auto, more efficient, more powerful and equally as robust engines, that would easily fit and were available under the company umbrella. The weight is pretty much the same between a current police package Taurus and an one P71.
It actually wasn’t CAFE standards that killed it (especially given that it was fleet-only since ’08, so effectively police/taxi.) It was the fact that stability control became required on all passenger cars in 2012 and they could not retrofit the car with it (or at least not for a sum of money they deemed feasible.)
I’d go with Saturn. Unique style, wide range of the market, tremendous potential. Had they gotten this injection of new products they so desperately needed in 1995, they most likely wouldn’t be a part of this conversation. If anything, Olds and Saturn could have been rolled together with Olds handling the mid-size, full-size and luxury aspects. The Buick nameplate should have remained for China-only.
With the exception of the (slow-selling) G8 and 60%-of-a-Miata Solstice, Pontiac had too much negative market ennui to claw back from. Cladding and trailer parks etc.
I would say Oldsmobile and Pontiac. I wasn’t of driving age when the last generation Oldsmobiles were new but I remember my 13 year old self liking the looks of them. My sister had an Alero that I really liked and I still like the looks of the Aurora and Intrigue. I currently have an 04 Alero that while dated now I still think is a decent looked. I thought the Bravada’s styling was much more interesting than it’s siblings as well, although I do like it’s replacement, Rainier’s front end. I’ve often wondered what second generation Aleros and Intrigues would look like and if the Bravada would become one of the crossover sisters. I could do without the image of a big snouted Silhouette though. I really liked Pontiac’s lineup toward the end and Pontiac as a brand in general. I think GMC should have gotten the boot and Pontiac been saved. I have a hard time seeing the purpose of GMC, as to me they are the biggest offenders of GM’s badge engineering from Chevys still today. always hope that one day a teaser will be released from GM hinting at a new Olds or Pontiac but I know it’s a far fetched dream. Not that it would make sense at this point anyway.