How The Pontiac Trans Am Went From Iconic Movie Car To Extinct

While Pontiac’s muscle had returned, it would be bittersweet as sales of both the Firebird and Camaro had declined to the point that GM decided to nix both cars. Pontiac was without a fast coupe until it began importing the Australian Holden Monaro as the Pontiac GTO in 2004, but it failed to garner the excitement of the Trans Am. While it is a powerful and capable car with an LS1 and LS2 V8, the styling is a bit understated and bland for those wanting a car from the “We Build Excitement” brand, and it was discontinued after the 2006 model year (via Autoblog).

The Trans Am moniker may have been ripe for a return if not for the events of the 2008 global financial crisis. Faced with bankruptcy and government bailouts, GM had to act decisively to survive and keep the entire company from folding. Ultimately, management decided to axe some of its core brands, and that included Hummer, Saturn, Saab, and Pontiac. According to GM Authority, the decision to end Pontiac came from its troubled profitability in recent years and the fact that Buick was one of the most popular brands in China, which, at the time, was the fastest-growing car market in the world with the potential to become many times larger than even GM’s home market. Thus, the revival of the Camaro in 2010 would not be accompanied by the Firebird or Trans Am.

[Featured image by Jeremy via Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and scaled | CC BY 2.0]