Pontiac, or formally the Pontiac Motor Division of General Motors, was an American automobile brand owned, manufactured, and commercialized by General Motors. It was originally introduced as a companion make for GM's more expensive line of Oakland automobiles. Pontiac quickly overtook Oakland in popularity and supplanted its parent entirely by 1933, in turn establishing its position as one of GM's dominant divisions.
The Grand Prix is a line of automobiles produced by the Pontiac Division of General Motors from 1962 until 2002 as coupes and from 1989 through 2008 model years as four-door sedans.
The Pontiac Bonneville is a model line of full-size or mid-size front-engine rear drive cars manufactured and marketed by Pontiac from 1957 until 2005, with a hiatus for model years 1982-1986.
The Chevrolet Monza is a subcompact automobile produced by Chevrolet for the 1975 through 1980 model years. The Monza is based on the Chevrolet Vega, sharing its wheelbase, width, and standard inline-four engine. The car was designed to accommodate the GM-Wankel rotary engine, but due to mediocre fuel economy and emissions-compliance issues the engine was cancelled, and a V8 engine option was substituted. The Monza name has also been used for several other cars.
The General Motors Motorama was an auto show staged by GM from 1949 to 1961. These automobile extravaganzas were designed to whet public appetite and boost automobile sales with displays of fancy concept cars and other special or halo models. Motorama grew out of Alfred P. Sloan's yearly industrial luncheons at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, beginning in 1931. They were almost invariably held in conjunction with the New York Auto Show, that for many years was held traditionally in the first week of January.
The Pontiac straight-8 engine is an inline eight-cylinder automobile engine produced by Pontiac from 1933 to 1954. Introduced in the fall of 1932 for the 1933 models, it was Pontiac's most powerful engine at the time and the least expensive eight-cylinder engine built by an American automotive manufacturer. During its 21-year run displacement of the "eight" increased twice as platforms grew. It was superseded by Pontiac's new V8, the 287, in 1955. Engine block and cylinder heads were cast at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations then assembled at Tonawanda Engine before delivery to Pontiac Assembly for installation.
The Cadillac Series 40-62 is a series of cars which was produced by Cadillac from 1940 through 1964. Originally designed to complement the entry level Series 61, it became the Cadillac Series 6200 in 1959, and remained that until it was renamed to Cadillac Calais for the 1965 model year. The Series 62 was also marketed as the Sixty-Two and the Series Sixty-Two. The Series 62 was used to introduce the Cadillac Coupe de Ville and the Cadillac Eldorado which started out as special appearance packages that were later placed into production.
The Pontiac Safari is a line of station wagons that was produced by Pontiac from 1955 to 1989. Initially introduced as the Pontiac counterpart of the two-door Chevrolet Nomad, the division adopted the nameplate across its full-size wagon range in 1957. Through its production, the Safari was positioned between Chevrolet full-size station wagons and below its Buick and Oldsmobile counterparts. During the mid-1960s, the Safari added simulated woodgrain trim to the exterior, becoming a feature associated with the model line.
The Vauxhall Cresta is a British automobile which was produced by Vauxhall from 1954 to 1972. The Cresta was introduced in 1954 as an upmarket version of the Vauxhall Velox, itself a six-cylinder version of the Vauxhall Wyvern. The Cresta models were the E (1954–1957), PA (1957–1962), PB (1962–1965) and PC (1965–1972). The Viscount (1966–1972) was an upmarket Cresta PC.
The Pontiac Star Chief is an automobile model that was manufactured by Pontiac between 1954 and 1966. It was Pontiac's top trim package on the Pontiac Chieftain, with later generations built on longer wheelbases, and serving as the foundation platform for the Pontiac Bonneville. The car was easily identified by three and four star-like trim features along varying areas of the car, a feature all Star Chiefs were equipped with star arrangements as follows in generation discussions.
The Pontiac Chieftain is an automobile which was produced by Pontiac from 1949 to 1958. The 1949 Chieftain and Streamliner models were the first all new car designs to come from Pontiac in the post World War II years. Previous cars had been 1942 models with minor revisions.
Chevrolet Nomad is a nameplate used by Chevrolet in North America from the 1950s to the 1970s, applied largely to station wagons. Three different Nomads were produced as a distinct model line, with Chevrolet subsequently using the name as a trim package.
The Hudson Hornet is a full-size car manufactured by Hudson Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan from 1951 until 1954, when Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson merged to form American Motors Corporation (AMC). Hudson automobiles continued to be marketed under the Hudson brand name through the 1957 model year.
The Pontiac Club de Mer was a purpose-built, experimental car that was built by Pontiac for the General Motors Motorama in 1956 to celebrate General Motors' commitment to futuristic design. The brainchild of GM engineer-designer, Harley Earl, the "de Mer", or French for "of the sea", was a two-door sport roadster that incorporated innovative breakthrough styling like a sleek, low-profile body encasing a large powerplant, a design trend used widely in LSR trials at Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah during the 1950s. One Club de Mer prototype was constructed and unveiled, along with another quarter-scale model, in Miami, Florida. As per GM's "kill order", it was reportedly scrapped in 1958.
The Buick Super is a full-sized automobile produced by Buick from 1940 through the 1958 model years, with a brief hiatus from 1943 through 1945. The first generation shared the longer wheelbase with the top level Roadmaster while offering the smaller displacement engine from the Buick Special. The Super prioritized passenger comfort over engine performance. For several years, it was called the "Buick Eight" or "Super Eight" due to the engravement on the grille while all Buick's since 1931 were all installed with the Buick Straight-8 engine with varying engine displacement.
The Pontiac Streamliner is a full-size car produced under the Pontiac brand by General Motors from 1942 until 1952. A mass-produced and popular vehicle, it was a significant automobile during the recovery from the Great Depression, and during and immediately after the Second World War.
The Oldsmobile Golden Rocket was a two-seater show car built by Oldsmobile for the 1956 General Motors Motorama. The radically styled fiberglass concept, designed to resemble a rocket on wheels, was revised several times and displayed at various other auto shows, most notably at the 1957 Paris Motor Show where it generated much fanfare, 18 months after it was first revealed. The car was featured in the promotional short film Design for Dreaming along with the rest of the 1956 General Motors lineup.
The Pontiac Strato-Streak was a show car built by Pontiac for the 1954 General Motors Motorama. Its design was inspired by Pontiac's Catalina and mechanically it was based on the Star Chief's underpinnings, it had a 124 in (3,149.6 mm) wheelbase and was only 54.7 in (1,389.4 mm) high. The Strato-Streak was designed as a fiberglass 4-door hardtop, with four swivel bucket seats for easier entry, no center "B" pillar and with the four doors of the sedan opening from the center outwards. As the rear doors opened into the wind, these were fitted with special locks to prevent opening unless the car was stopped and in neutral.
The Buick XP-300 is a concept car created by General Motors in 1951. It is a counterpart to GM's Le Sabre concept, with which it shares many mechanical components, including its supercharged V8 engine, which could run on either gasoline or methanol. The XP-300 is representative of GM's "long and low" design philosophy in the 1950s, and includes numerous innovative features ranging from push-button power windows and seats to hydraulic jacks and de Dion axles.
The Pontiac 6 was a more affordable version of its predecessor Oakland Six that was introduced in 1926, sold through Oakland Dealerships. Pontiac was the first of General Motors companion make program where brands were introduced to fill in pricing gaps that had developed between Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland and Chevrolet. The original marketing approach began when GM was incorporated in 1908 was to offer a range of vehicles in various body styles based on affordable to extravagant, and the customer base would gradually trade up every few years to the next hierarchy brand. Pontiac was introduced as an affordable Oakland, followed by LaSalle for Cadillac, Marquette for Buick and Viking for Oldsmobile. Pontiac's introduction was a sales success while customers shied away from the more expensive Oakland, and once the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression followed, both Pontiac and Oakland were being considered for cancellation but the decision was made to keep Pontiac as the economy began to recover.
