Pontiac cars for sale

Overview

Pontiac was General Motors’ performance division — "We Build Excitement" — and it has a strong Australian connection, because in its final years several of its most interesting cars were Holdens with a different badge.

History

Introduced in 1926 as a companion marque to the more expensive Oakland, and named after the Odawa leader Pontiac. It sat between Chevrolet and Oldsmobile in GM’s hierarchy, and from 1959 sold itself on lifestyle and performance, with "Wide-Track" styling as its signature.

The modern muscle car arguably starts here: in 1964 John DeLorean, then running the division, put a 389-cubic-inch engine into the mid-size LeMans as the GTO, circumventing GM’s own restrictions on engine size in intermediates. The Firebird (1967–2002) fought the Camaro and became a cultural fixture through Smokey and the Bandit. The mid-engined Fiero ran from 1984 to 1988. GM eliminated the division during its 2008–09 restructuring; the final Pontiac, a white G6, was built on 4 January 2010.

The Holden connection

Two of the last interesting Pontiacs were built in Australia. The 2004–06 GTO was a Holden Monaro, and the 2008–09 G8 was a VE Commodore. Both were exported from Elizabeth in South Australia, and both are now sought after in the United States — which occasionally makes a well-kept Monaro or Commodore worth more to an overseas buyer than a local one.