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G.M. to Close Hummer After Sale Collapses NICK BUNKLEY February 24, 2010 DETROIT — Hummer, the brand of big sport-utility vehicles that became synonymous with the term “gas guzzler,” is being shut down after a deal to sell it to a Chinese manufacturer fell apart, General Motors said Wednesday. G.M. said only that its planned sale of Hummer to the Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Company “cannot be completed,” without giving a reason, but the $150 million deal had been stalled as the companies awaited approval from the Chinese government. G.M. had been trying to sell Hummer for a year,...

PONTIAC, Mich., Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Authorities in Michigan said a man was hospitalized with second-degree burns when his homemade sledding rocket pack exploded. The Oakland County Sheriff's Office said the 62-year-old Independence Township man constructed a backpack from a motorcycle muffler filled with gasoline and gunpowder and put on a motorcycle helmet before sledding down his back yard hill with the fuse lit, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday. "At some point during the ride, the device exploded," Undersheriff Mike McCabe told The Detroit News. "Apparently, he has this sledding party every year, and he always does outrageous things...

General Motors Co. is offering its dealers hefty incentives to move thousands of leftover vehicles from its discontinued Saturn and Pontiac brands. The unusual tactic could inflate the car maker's December sales and cut the cost to car buyers by as much as 46% off the sticker price. In what is equivalent to a year-end fire sale, GM sent letters to dealers Dec. 23 saying it would pay them $7,000 for every new Saturn or Pontiac on their lot that is moved to rental-vehicle or service-vehicle fleets operated by the dealers. Dealers can then sell the vehicles at a more...

Buyers Weigh the Prospects for Shuttered or Endangered Car Models; Where Can You Find Parts? Like many drivers, Edward Suchodolski is facing the prospect of life with an orphan car. The 43-year-old construction manager bought a sporty Pontiac G8 GXP in March, about a month before General Motors Co. announced it would discontinue the Pontiac brand. While he loves the car for its power, its handling and the fun of shifting its manual transmission, he is starting to worry about the future. The anxiety is just enough, he says, to cut into his enjoyment. I find myself driving it less,"...

Lonnie Holloway is laid to rest at the age of 90 in his 1973 Pontiac Catalina with his gun. Watch: http://www.cardealerreviews.org/?p=118374

With all the rubbernecking surrounding GM's bankruptcy, you'd think that more time would have been spent considering the most critical part of the deal -- what's left. Which of GM's famous brands are being kept, which are being thrown out and which are being sold? Many won't know that these questions have already been answered by top GM executives and the White House automotive task force. Fewer still will realize that the decisionmakers have erred badly, succumbing to the same mix of internal power politics, protectionism and aversion to engineering risk that set GM on its downward spiral almost 50...

Jay Leno Says Goodbye to Pontiac: A Tribute to GM’s Performance Brand If you haven't heard, Pontiac is no more. In an exclusive story for PM, Jay Leno looks back at the 83-year-old brand, focusing on Pontiac’s historic muscle cars and surprisingly innovative technology. By Jay Leno Published on: April 28, 2009 I was always a fan of those "Wide Track" Pontiacs of the '60s. When I was a little kid there was no sexier wheel—either in the aftermarket or in regular production—than the 8-lug Pontiac wheel. I remember first seeing them around 1962 on some of the big Bonnevilles....

LOS ANGELES – It could crash through burning buildings, make a fool of any number of small-town Southern sheriffs, help save the world from giant robots, even take criminals off to jail while engaging in witty repartee with its driver. In the end, about the only thing a Pontiac automobile couldn't do anymore was persuade enough people to keep buying it. So General Motors announced this past week that it is killing off the Pontiac brand, maker of muscular, noisy, gas-guzzling V-8-powered vehicles immortalized in song and movies for the way they seemed to shout to every other car on...

We told you months ago Pontiac was dead, but today GM CEO Fritz Henderson made it official. Now that the pointy-arrow brand is gone, we'll mourn by celebrating our ten favorite examples of driving excitement. [snip]

The U.S. Treasury would own at least a 50 percent stake in General Motors under a plan the company released today to avoid bankruptcy. The strategy would essentially formalize the government's control over one of the icons of corporate America.

General Motors is expected to announce Monday that it plans to kill its Pontiac brand, rather than maintain it as a niche brand with one or two models into the future as had been previously announced by company officials.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- General Motors is preparing to announce that the Pontiac car brand, once marketed as GM's "Excitement division," will be killed off, according to a source familiar with the decision. An official announcement is expected Monday. GM spokesman Jim Hopson declined to comment on Pontiac's fate, saying the automaker has no announcements to make at this time. In its most recent "viability plan" - which will be updated to reflect this new brand cut - Pontiac was not named as one of GM's four "core brands." Those are Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac. But Pontiac was also...

GM to Shed Pontiac, Close More Plants General Motors is preparing to shed its Pontiac brand and close more factories in a move to eliminate billions in debt, people familiar with the matter said Friday. FOXNews.com Friday, April 24, 2009 General Motors Corp. is readying plans to shed its Pontiac brand, shutter more factories and launch a bond exchange aimed at eliminating billions in debt, people familiar with the matter said Friday, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The auto maker, facing a June 1 federal deadline to dramatically restructure or go bankrupt, is preparing early next...

General Motors Corp. is readying plans to shed its Pontiac brand, shutter more factories and launch a bond exchange aimed at eliminating billions in debt, people familiar with the matter said Friday. The auto maker, facing a June 1 federal deadline to dramatically restructure or go bankrupt, is preparing early next week to detail the progress it has made on the stepped-up recovery plan demanded by the Obama administration. GM is expected to announce plans to eliminate or sell its poorly performing Pontiac brand, according to several people who have been briefed on the plan. Previously, GM said it...

Pontiac's days are "numbered."

DETROIT — According to a source at General Motors, the company will announce next Monday its new "faster, deeper" reorganization plan, which will likely include a death sentence for the Pontiac brand. Inside Line called Tom Wilkinson, news relations PR man for General Motors, who said: "There's nothing I can share with you at this time. Keep your eyes on our media site. Officially, nothing has changed with Pontiac's niche-brand status, until you hear differently." The one-time "Excitement" division and creator of legends such as the GTO and Firebird was relegated to "niche" or "specialty" brand status by General Motors...

Our sources tell us GM's viability plan set to be released at 5:00PM will kill the Saturn brand by 2011. Pontiac will also go away as a division. But the nameplate will sorta live on

Tom Daschle hasn't always been driven around in corporate paid limos. Once upon a time, back in the days of political expediency, Tommy D could barely afford floormats and Penzoil. Before he began telling us how to treat our health lives, he was telling us how to live our financial lives. In this timely YouTube recovery, Tom railed on the ills of Washington's limousine-elite, a mere decade before he became one. link...Get your dirty farm hands off my paintjob!... Don't hate Tom Daschle because he changed. Hate Tom Daschle because he is didn't pay his taxes, tried to get his...

After more than two decades, the ghost of the El Camino has finally risen from the grave, at least for U.S. drivers. It never actually went away in Australia. Now that the Pontiac G8 has ushered in a new era of affordable rear-wheel-drive performance at General Motors, the car-based pickup truck, or Ute as they are called Down Under, is coming back. Rumors have been flying for months about a G8 Ute and GM even showed the GMC Denali XT concept at the Chicago Auto Show last month – a four-door ute with a two-mode hybrid power-train that may or...

A few weeks ago we, along with our friends at PickupTruck.com, were given exclusive access to a vehicle whose return we've been anticipating for what seems like forever. Today our prayers to the General have been answered -- the El Camino is back! In January we reported this re-bodied Holden Ute would be called the 2010 Pontiac G8 ST, and like a Phoenix rising screamin' from the ashes of a bygone era of car-platformed trucks, this new heir to the truck-car throne would emerge from the over-built and over-spec'd world of modern haulers. Just like the Phoenix, this business-up-front and...