With 2022 upon us, it’s hard to imagine that we’ve been without Pontiac for a dozen years. Some brand loyalists opine that Pontiac ceased to exist after 1979 when the last large-cube 400-ci was installed into a limited number of Formulas and Trans Ams that year. Others argue the marque’s flame extinguished in March 1981 when the very last Pontiac V-8—a short-deck 265-ci—was produced at Plant 9. Yet another camp strongly believes that despite corporate engines, Pontiac excitement was alive and well throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and until the late 2000s when GM dropped the brand.
No matter how you feel about the timing that Pontiac’s demise actually occurred, few will argue that the 1960s proved the brand’s greatest era. Exciting performance from its Super Duty, H.O., and Ram Air engines, trendsetting vehicles like the Grand Prix, GTO, 2+2, and Firebird, and innovative concepts such as the Endura bumper helped solidify Pontiac’s position as America’s third largest automaker behind Chevrolet and Ford for much of the decade. In speaking with many former Pontiac employees, I learned they saw Chevrolet—its intercorporate brethren—as Pontiac’s closest competitor. Oldsmobile and Buick were close behind. This strong intercorporate competition (along with symbiotic technology resources) made General Motors the world’s greatest corporation for decades.
Looking east down West Fifth Street in Wahoo, Nebraska around 1970 reveals Pontiac and Buick dealerships on the left and Chevrolet and Oldsmobile dealerships on the right. At a time when Pontiac was America’s third largest automaker, it’s exciting to think about new Pontiacs that this dealership might have delivered.
What prompted this reflection, you might ask? I happen across an image in my photo collection depicting a quintessential view down Main Street in small-town USA. The actual setting is Wahoo, Nebraska—a small rural community located approximately 30 miles west of Omaha. The photo looking east on West Fifth Street was taken around 1970 when Wahoo’s census population was 3,835. Hanging from the buildings in the foreground are Pontiac, Buick, Chevrolet, and Oldsmobile advertising signs. I can only wonder what supercars this Pontiac dealership (along with the others) may have delivered during the 1960s and 1970s, but what I find nearly as intriguing is that these brands were once so strong that a village of less than 4,000 residents (along with those of the surrounding smaller communities and farmsteads that Wahoo served) could support four independent GM dealerships.
The dealership advertising signs of the time are “signs of a time” when General Motors was great, and its divisions were too. Today, it may be hard for younger hobbyists to conceptualize volume great enough that separate Pontiac, Buick, Chevrolet and Oldsmobile dealerships could survive in rural America. These times were real, and identical settings could be found in any number of small towns across the country (and Canada). These were times when Chevrolet was Number 1 and Pontiac was Number 3. These were times when within a few short years Oldsmobile was producing America’s Number 1 selling vehicle. These accomplishments and countless others were the result of GM’s divisions successfully executing a corporate strategy—and it worked.
That same street view via Google Maps reveals what West Fifth Street looked like in 2012. The buildings that once housed the various dealerships remain but there’s no trace of their former lineage.
This week I heard that today’s GM—now less Pontiac and Oldsmobile—was surpassed by Toyota as America’s largest automaker, which GM reasoned was the result of microchip supply issues. While I’ll remain a GM loyalist because of its heritage, I must admit that images like that of Wahoo, Nebraska has me longing for the GM of old. One that included Pontiac.
How about you?