Who was Pontiac?

[Thepoorman]

The Oakland Motor Car Company was founded in 1907 in Pontiac, Michigan, by Edward Murphy, a manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages. The following year, another former buggy company executive, William C. Durant, founded General Motors in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for the Buick Motor Company. In 1909 Oakland became part of GM.

In 1926 the Pontiac Series 6-27 was introduced as a junior brand to Oakland which featured a six-cylinder engine. The Pontiac was more popular than the senior brand and became its own GM division when Oakland was canceled in 1931.

It was named after the famous Odawa chief, who had also given his name to the city of Pontiac, Michigan where the car was produced.

By emphasizing its "Wide Track" design, Pontiac billed itself as the "performance division" of General Motors that marketed cars with the "we build excitement" tag line.

GM facing financial problems needed to restructure. As a perquisite for a $53 billion government bailout, GM agreed to discontinue the Pontiac brand. The final Pontiac, a white G6, was assembled in January 2010.