I’m in mourning. 

In case you haven’t heard, General Motors announced on Monday that in intends to kill Pontiac by 2010.  The blow was announced at a news conference on Monday morning by Fritz Henderson, president and chief executive of General Motors.  Mr. Henderson also said Hummer and Saturn will be gone by the end of this year.

I am devastated. 

While I figured they might stop manufacturing some models that didn’t sell well, and while yes I did hear that they were considering unloading the entire Pontiac line – I honestly didn’t think they really would. 

They did.

When I was 19, I owned a Pontiac Firebird.  She was blue and ran like a top for a used car of that era.  She never let me down and was one of the very few cars I ever owned that was virtually problem free.  When it was time to sell her (I was pregnant and married by then and needed a larger car), I cried.

My son is a huge Pontiac fan.  He loves his Bonneville and has owned two since 2003.  He was looking forward to trading his Bonneville in on a brand new Pontiac G8, which is one really sweet ride.  While he can still trade it in, the chances of actually finding one later this year may be slim, especially since GM will discontinue the G8 this year.  The G8, which is built by GM’s Holden unit in Australia, says they can’t justify keeping it.

Sadness.

GM says they plan to move forward with four brands – Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick, and yet, many analysts believe GM only needs two, Chevrolet and Cadillac.

Henderson said GM expects to have a buyer for Hummer; however they will not build them past 2009.  He also said production of Saturn will be phased out by the end of this year unless there’s a good offer on the table which could justify future assembly, but that currently there isn’t an offer which is considered to be anything close to being successful.

Many are questioning why GM has decided to keep both its truck lines GMC and Chevrolet – rather than opting to save Pontiac instead, believing Pontiac to be the more affordable vehicle for most consumers, while two truck lines are not a necessity.

Of course, the other crappy thing is that even more people in the automotive industry will find themselves out of work, as GM plans to cut 21,000 jobs by the end of next year. It will also restructure its dealer organization in the United States by reducing dealer count by more than 40 percent by the end of next year – a reduction of 500 more dealers.

In its hey-day – between the 1960′s and 1970′s – Pontiac certainly showed the world how to do it and garnered a reputation for performance as it offered up one of America’s first real muscle cars, the Pontiac GTO. The high-performance Grand Prix and Firebird were also at the forefront of the muscle-car era. 

In 1986, Pontiac reached its peak by selling 841,441 cars three times as many as last year.

RIP Pontiac. You will be missed.

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