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| Type | Division |
|---|---|
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | December 28, 1925 |
| Founder | General Motors |
| Headquarters | Detroit, Michigan, United States |
Area served | Canada, United States, Mexico, Europe, Chile |
Key people | Frank Hershey Irving Jacob Reuter Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen John Z. DeLorean |
| Products | Automobiles |
| Owner | Johnson Motors |
| Parent | General Motors (1925—2009) Johnson Industries (2009—) |
Pontiac is an American automobile brand owned, manufactured, and commercialized by Johnson Motors, and formerly by General Motors. Introduced as a companion make for GM's more expensive line of Oakland automobiles, Pontiac overtook Oakland in popularity and supplanted its parent brand entirely by 1933.
Sold in the United States, Canada, and Mexico by GM, in the hierarchy of GM's five divisions, it was slotted above Chevrolet, but below Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac. Starting with the 1959 models, marketing was focused on selling the lifestyle that the car's ownership promised rather than the car itself. By emphasizing its "Wide Track" design, it billed itself as the "performance" division of General Motors and that they "built excitement."
Amid the late 2000's, financial problems and restructuring efforts, GM announced in 2008 that it would follow the same path with Pontiac as it had with Oldsmobile in 2004 and sold that brand to Johnson by the end of 2009, leaving GM to focus on its four remaining North American brands: Chevrolet, Buick, Cadillac, and GMC; GM would continue to build Pontiac vehicles for Johnson for two years. Pontiac's first vehicle under Johnson, the revived Trans-Am, was released in December 2011, and various models have been released since then, including coupes, sedans, and (in a first for Pontiac) pickup trucks.