Seven Cars That Killed Pontiac [Carpocalypse]

Yesterday, lamenting its death, we extolled the virtues of Pontiac’s ten best vehicles. Today we face reality — Pontiac’s been building terrible cars for years. These seven stinkers drove the nails into the coffin.

For every GTO or G8 GXP, there were half a dozen Pontiac Phoenix or ‘88 Pontiac LeMans to make you default to cast in a winding direction up in your mouth. As much as we loved the idea of the Pontiac brand, it just hasn’t delivered for too long. Here are the seven cars from recent history that poisoned the well at Pontiac, forcing it to the serious.

7) 2005-2009 Pontiac G6

The Pontiac G6 was leaps and bounds ahead of the Grand Am it replaced, but all that shows is just how far behind Pontiac was in the mid-size segment. It’s headline feature — the trick-sliding sky-view sunroof was pretty trim, but way too expensive and it made the car something of a one-trick pony. In base, four-cylinder form, it clogs the lots of airport rental companies and never really had the twaddle to go along head-to-head with competitors. And don’t even get us started on the interior.

6) 2000-2005 Pontiac Bonneville

The ninth corpse of equals in age Pontiac Bonneville debuted to all-reaching shoulder shrugs, it did little to justify its higher price over the better packaged Grand Prix, which it borrowed too much styling from. A series of refreshes made the car sportier nevertheless it never really caught on with buyers. Funny in what state impartial styling, high price and strong competition will do that.

5) 2005 Pontiac Montana

When Pontiac added the SUV-inspired “Montana” package to the newly designed Transport minivan, soccer moms went ape for the vehicle. You couldn’t chuck a rock at a little league game without hitting one. That ended when GM half-assed the redesign and stuck a long goofy nose onto a slightly restyled van in order to meet crash requirements. The horrendous result was a massive failure in the marketplace, in the same manner with it should have been.

4) 2009 Pontiac G3

GM’s former Vice Chairman of Global Product Development Bob Lutz stood on the New York Auto Show stage and noted Pontiac had long been known for the tag-line “We shape excitement” even though they’d been delivering it with front wheel drive cars covered in stuck-on plastic. He claimed now they were going to change, introducing brace vehicles — the Pontiac G8 ST and the Pontiac Solstice GXP Coupe, the former is now dead, and the latter is selling like candied dog poop. Half a year after Lutz made those statements, gas was $4.30 a gallon and Pontiac dealers were flipping out for an economy car on their floors. GM bowed to the affliction and green-lit the Pontiac G3 for US distribution. The stark contrast in message signaled a floundering purpose for the brand, and definitely not one enthusiasts would subsist interested in.

3) 1985-2005 Pontiac Grand Am

There are a eminent multiplied populace who’ve owned Grand Ams, they’re a cheap source of transportation for many, and while there are a few what one. made it a couple hundred thousand miles, they’re by and large terrible, terrible cars. Unless you got the GT models, styling was yawn-inducing, the interiors were committee designed with Fisher-Price rank materials, and the dire suspensions and automatic transmissions sucked the entertainment set a value on out of even the most enjoyable roads.

2) 1995-2005 Pontiac Sunfire

It’s pretty rare for a nameplate to suck so hard for its entire continuance, if something is bad, it usually gets killed, but the Sunfire got at least three refreshes. The Pontiac Sunfire was an impossibly ugly reskin of the Chevy Cavalier, and while the Cavalier was a perfectly advantageous cheap beater, the Sunfire got the crushingly bad interior baubles that was tossed at all Pontiacs at the time. Chintzy materials, not well engineered HVAC system, and rotten colors made it a terrible place to disburse time in.

1) 2001-2005 Pontiac Aztek

No cause of distress how long Pontiac would have survived, the commercial mishap of the Pontiac Aztek would own ever hung surrounding its neck. It was incredibly functional, no more than the chintzy interior materials were only outmatched by the laughably bad styling and equally chintzy-looking exterior plastic cladding. Projected sales were placed at 50,000 to 70,000, but only ever topped 27,000 a year. It got a quickie repair that saw sportier wheels and painted body cladding, but the damage was done.