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N0KFQ > TODAY 27.04.17 14:16l 53 Lines 2441 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 30712_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Apr 27
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IR1UAW<IQ5KG<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 170427/1215Z 30712@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
2009
GM announces plans to phase out Pontiac
On this day in 2009, the struggling American auto giant General
Motors (GM) says it plans to discontinue production of its more
than 80-year-old Pontiac brand.
Pontiac's origins date back to the Oakland Motor Car, which was
founded in 1907 in Pontiac, Michigan, by Edward Murphy, a
horse-drawn carriage manufacturer. In 1909, Oakland became part
of General Motors, a conglomerate formed the previous year by
another former buggy company executive, William Durant. The first
Pontiac model made its debut as part of the Oakland line in the
1920s. The car, which featured a six-cylinder engine, proved so
popular that the Oakland name was eventually dropped and Pontiac
became its own GM division by the early 1930s.
Pontiac was initially known for making sedans; however, by the
1960s it had gained acclaim for its fast, sporty "muscle cars,"
including the GTO, the Firebird and the Trans Am. The GTO, which
was developed by auto industry maverick John DeLorean, was named
after a Ferarri coupe, the Gran Turismo Omologato. According to
The New York Times: "More than any other G.M. brand, Pontiac
stood for performance, speed and sex appeal." Pontiacs were
featured in such movies as 1977's "Smokey and the Bandit," in
which actor Burt Reynolds drove a black Pontiac Trans Am, and the
1980s hit TV show "Knight Rider," which starred a Pontiac Trans
Am as KITT, a talking car with artificial intelligence, alongside
David Hasselhoff as crime fighter Michael Knight.
By the mid-1980s, Pontiac's sales reached their peak. Experts
believe GM hurt the Pontiac brand in the 1970s and 1980s by
opting for a money-saving strategy requiring Pontiacs to share
platforms with cars from other divisions. In 2008, General
Motors, which had been the world's top-selling automaker since
the early 1930s, lost the No. 1 position to Japan-based Toyota.
That same year, GM, with sales slumping in the midst of a global
recession, was forced to ask the federal government for a
multi-billion-dollar loan to remain afloat. On April 27, 2009, as
part of its reorganization plan, GM announced it would phase out
the Pontiac brand by 2010. A little over a month later, on June
1, GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, becoming the
fourth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Winlink: n0kfq@winlink.org
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