Late last year, General Motors-focused news sites were aflutter over reports that someone located the last-ever Pontiac. The car, a 2010 G6 with VIN 1G2ZA5EB5A4166962, saw its face torn off in a collision. That car was a total loss, earning a salvage title and it was sold for just $450 at auction. A car that was believed to be the second-to-last Pontiac, another G6, was also destroyed in a crash and sold off in an insurance auction. But the truth is, neither of them was really the Final Pontiacs.
Thankfully, what appears to be the one, true Final Pontiac has been located, making those other cars merely the second and third-to-last Pontiacs. And this car, also a G6, has lived a far better life.
This news comes to us from Nick Hernandez from our Discord server. I have updated my original article about these cars, but I also think this is big enough news that it deserves its own standalone follow-up. Thanks to Pontiac fanatics and a museum, the brand now has a more fitting, heartwarming finale than a salvage auction.
The Final Pontiac is a 2010 G6 painted in white and it was located by the historians of the Pontiac Transportation Museum. A week ago, the museum published a video about this car, which has a VIN ending in 963, making it a later production example than the prior two vehicles believed to be the last ones:
As is well-known today, part of GM’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009 involved trimming fat by killing off brands and getting funding from the federal government. One of several brands that wouldn’t make it out of the other end was Pontiac. By the end of 2009, what had until recently been GM’s “sporty” brand managed to sell just 178,300 cars. This was a far cry from Pontiac’s best-ever sales year in 1984 when the brand moved 850,000 cars.
The last car to get adorned with Pontiac’s red badge is a 2010 G6 that was built at the Orion Township Assembly Line in January 2010. Like the other GM brands that fell to the ax, Pontiac died with little fanfare. There were no official celebrations, no tributes, and the brand didn’t even get to go out by building something epic. Just a failure in perhaps the saddest chapter in American motoring history. Pontiac, a brand that was known for its excitement and cars worthy of hanging up on your bedroom walls, ended an impressive 84-year run by fading into the night. The last cars to roll out of its plants weren’t even cars to be sold to regular customers, but rental fleets.
There have long been guesses and estimations about what was the very last Pontiac. At one point, it was believed that the last Pontiac was a G3 Wave that was built in Mexico in December 2009. However, a set of rental-spec G6 sedans beat it by being manufactured in January 2010. We now know that at the very least, two of the final three rental G6 sedans met a terrible fate. Oftentimes, the final vehicle of a brand is saved, either by a dealership, an enthusiast, or maybe even the brand itself.
For example, the very last Plymouth was a Neon and it was saved by Darrell Davis, former Senior Vice President of Parts and Service for DaimlerChrysler. Sure, the Neon wasn’t the greatest vehicle to ever roll out of the Plymouth’s Belvidere, Illinois, assembly line, but Davis felt the car represented a part of automotive history that deserved to be preserved.
That didn’t happen for Pontiac and that’s still sad to think about.
The Real Final Pontiac
When Tim Dye, Executive Director of the Pontiac Transportation Museum, read about the “final” Pontiac in the news, he had to figure out how true it was. It should be noted that Dye also started the Pontiac-Oakland Museum & Resource Center in Pontiac, Illinois. I’ve been to that museum before and it made for a wonderful intake of history right in the middle of a road trip.
Anyway, Dye reached out to a friend who used to run a Pontiac dealership for their opinion. As luck would have it, that friend happened to be holding onto printouts of data regarding the very last Pontiacs to be built. The friend searched through those documents and found one more car, VIN ending 963. This car was built after the previous “Final Pontiac,” VIN engine in 962, and after the previous second-to-last Pontiac, VIN 961. According to those documents, which came from GM’s system, this car should be the true Final Pontiac.
Dye wasn’t satiated with just knowing there was one more last Pontiac. He had to know more about it. Dye pulled up the vehicle’s CarFax and found that after assembly, it was shipped out to Boise, Idaho, where it served as an airport rental car with Avis. The car was a rental for around nine or 11 months before the rental agency put it up for auction. A former Pontiac dealership in Golden, Colorado picked up the vehicle. When the dealer found no buyers, it was put up for auction again. This time, another former Pontiac dealer in Scott City, Kansas, picked up the vehicle.
Two days after listing it for sale, an 82-year-old woman purchased the last Pontiac as her daily driver and apparently, she had no idea what she was driving. The car then enjoyed a life of routine maintenance and dry weather.
Dye says the museum reached out to the owner’s daughter looking to purchase the vehicle. At first, the woman wasn’t really on board since the vehicle represented freedom and she didn’t want to give it up. After four months, the woman decided to let the car go. Dye’s friend purchased the car and donated it to the museum.
Amazingly, when they popped the trunk, the signatures from those Ohio factory workers were still there. (Editor’s Note: Kudos to whoever penned in that Wu-Tang clan symbol on the right. —PG)
The woman who owned the car for 11 to 12 years and just never opened up the spare tire well under the trunk, where the signatures were. The car needed detailing and some paint to bring it into museum condition, but otherwise, it appeared to be in good shape.
A More Fitting End To Pontiac
Now that the Final Pontiac is safe and sound in a museum, I think the Pontiac story can now close on a more positive note. It may have left the factory without fanfare, but its builders certainly cared enough to leave their names on it for someone to find in the future. The woman who bought the G6 used the vehicle to give her the kind of freedom many car enthusiasts get from their own rides.
If you’re interested in taking in nearly a century of Pontiac history, including this car, pay Dye’s museums a visit. Both are in the Midwest. I’ve been to the Pontiac-Oakland Museum & Resource Center in Pontiac, Illinois, and it’s extremely well done. Admission is technically free, but the museum suggests a $5 donation for each adult, which I think is more than fair. It looks like the true Final Pontiac is at the Pontiac Transportation Museum in Pontiac, Michigan. The museum doesn’t say on its site what admission to the Michigan location is, but I bet it’s worth it.
Pontiac may not have gone out in a blaze of glory, but I think giving someone mobility and workers something to be proud of is still a fitting end. If anything, it’s way better to go than a pair of insurance auctions. Good job, Dye and friends!
(Images: Pontiac Transportation Museum, unless otherwise noted.)
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At that time when the bankruptcy was happening GM was in an odd place with what they did with concepts and important cars. I remember some of the GM Heritage Collection was put up for auction. Now these were concepts, some without vins, but they were sold at Barrett Jackson.
When I toured the GM heritage collection, they had a lot of first produced cars. Some of them were the duds like the Vega and Chevette. They did not have the final cars for the boring ones. Now one final car they did have on display was a 2002 Camaro. The end of the line for the first run from 67.
I don’t think GM people thought the G6 was important, and what disappoints me is that they did not think Pontiac was important. Maybe if it was the end of the plant’s life that car would have been put in the GM collection? I hope the last Cruze was put in the GM collection since it was the last car made at Lordstown.
I love seeing the signatures. I had a car where I took off a quarter panel and found a socket inside someone dropped. Don’t know who’s it was but I wondered how long it had been in there. Same with some spot welds a friend and I drilled out to fix wreck damage. The replacement parts didn’t line up with original spot welds; was cool to think they were all done by hand.
Many are lamenting that the last one was such a plebeian car, but we have to remember that it’s the regular rides that fund the good stuff. I mean, I can’t conceive of owning a car for years without checking the spare tire, but most people don’t think of it until there’s a flat-and they are way less frequent this century.
I’m more interested in the signatures of the people who built it. Imagine having bolted your particular component on this thing and knowing you’ll never do that again—that it won’t be done again.
Had a 1990 Pontiac Grand Am SE with Quad 4 as first new car out of college. It was a good car for the era.
This is peak GM. A white rental spec car was the last hurrah in white no less. Also with spotty record keeping as to what was actually last car. If this isn’t the definition of mediocrity I don’t know what is.
99% of cars are mediocre though, it’s not like this is some kind of GM specific thing. They’re not doing anything differently than any other major car company if you’re being honest about it
I can sleep peacefully now knowing the very last Pontiac ever built has not only survived rental work with little harm and is now sitting in a museum, but that it granted a little old lady the kind of freedom only an American built sedan could provide.
Signed by… Mona Lisa? Must be Mona Lisa Vito!
God bless those workers who treated this humble car with the respect it deserved. And a big FU to the GM execs who were so embarrassed by killing Pontiac that they refused to do anything at all to recognize the final car. They let a storied marque die without acknowledging it’s long illustrious history. Modern GM in a nutshell.
A big shout out to Nick on Discord. He has been holding down the Discord server VERY well, loves cars, has a crazy amount of knowledge about cars.
He needs to get WAY more credit for what he is doing for this community.
What, no screaming chicken?
The last Pontiac should have had a screaming chicken! How else will the brand rise again?
What GM did to Pontiac, Buick and Olds is a sin. Buick doesn’t even have a single sedan in America, and the others were murdered. Buick might as well be.
While Pontiac itself may have ended with little fanfare, it’s good to see that the final Pontiac didn’t meet an untimely death and will be preserved.
This Pontiac lived the best life. Not only did it get lovingly dispatched by the very workers at the factory, but it got to live REAL CAR LIFE for ~11 years driven by a little old lady. And then! if that was not enough it get’s cleaned up and admired in a museum. I bet the G6 wasn’t expecting that when it was born.
Seriously, this should be the basis for the next Pixar film.
I heard tell of places given sumbudy a new car to swap with them valuble cars they got.
And 500,000 of them were Fieros. 🙂
Good stuff, Mercedes!
My college roommate drove a dark blue 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ with a 455 and white vinyl roof. That would have been an excellent car to end Pontiac’s run. To this day I think it was the classiest car of its era, and one of the best ever for appearance. Sure it wasn’t the sportiest Pontiac, and definitely not the most economical to run, but it could flat out fly in a straight line and just ate highway miles for breakfast. That G6? Let’s just say it’s too bad Pontiac hung around long enough to end on that note.
I had a g6 for a rental. It was nothing great but if i was buying and a good deal could be had i would have bought one.
I still say Pontiac could have become a license to print money in the late-aughts horsepower renaissance if they had been allowed by The General to return to their best form. As in: swipe the Sigma platform from Cadillac, shorten the option list but keep all the performance, shrink the price tag to Impala/Taurus size, and call it the Tempest. There’s your Pontiac excitement. Put it on updated 18″ honeycomb wheels, and I’ll buy two.
When has any performance car ever been a license to print money though?
Think about what you’re asking for here, a car that costs the same as a rental special but it makes 400 horsepower and is low volume. It would end up like the SS or the Camaro, people that spend money on these sorts of cars buy something up market and everyone on this website goes “Awesome! I can’t wait to buy a used one in 5 years!”
My Dad bought a GP dealer demo from Belford Pontiac in Davison, Michigan back in ’71 — and for the rest of his days called that his favorite car he’d ever owned.
That’s great news!
I was born in the same hospital as Madonna in Pontiac, Michigan. This would be a better story if I was conceived in the same Pontiac as Madonna.
I’m betting Madonna logged a lot of backseat time in many Pontiacs.
What was it for Madonna a Chieftan?
A guy I worked with went to high school (Rochester Mich) with her. He said she started on the path to fame with a very risque performance in a school variety/talent show.
That kinda tracks
Nice update and good find by Nick! I was surprised by how well equipped this car was, considering it was going to rental fleets. I rarely saw heated seats, chrome rims, upgraded engines or leather wrapped steering wheels on anything I rented 13 years ago. It’s truly a shame that Pontiac when out this way. Oldsmobile at least got some black cherry paint and some badging on their last 500 of each model. I guess at least the last car wasn’t a G3.
I had a G6 as a rental a few times, and all I distinctly remember it having a huge turning radius for such a small car. I remember it being a underwhelming car.
Is this nugget from Wikipedia true? Why would they change it for the last model year? “In 2010, the G6 had white back-lit dashboard lights instead of the traditional red, Pontiac color scheme.”
It wouldn’t be at all surprising as a change that wasn’t intentional, but rather, “we ran out of red, here’s what parts we do have, deal with it.”
That’s all I could think it would have been.
It tracks, even though Dodge Dart and Plymouth Valiant production was ending in late spring 1976, Dodge flipped the turn signal lenses and bulbs from clear lenses with amber bulbs to amber lenses with clear bulbs (which they didn’t even bother to depict on the brochure cover), and the rearview mirror mounting point was moved.
I have one of the very last Yugos imported to the US, and the two front headrests don’t match. 😀
Very well could have been using up parts inventories and just throwing what they had in there
A lot of American cars in rental fleets these days are surprisingly well equipped; I’m not sure if they’re just run-off from what gets sent to dealerships but we’ve rented Chrysler vans with electric doors and the full roof-mounted console with all the little cubbies and mood lighting whereas the Quest we rented came with manual sliding doors and zero fun features.
I have a bit of a theory on this that is pure speculation and not supported by any facts, which I believe is perfect for internet commentary. I think domestic manufacturers intentionally sell well equipped models to rental companies at a steep discount to lure new customers away from “foreign” makes. No better test drive than using a vehicle for a week and paying for the privilege. I have bought a few former rentals. My 2013 Chevy Sonic was a mid-grade LT trim and had some nice features. My current 2018 Kia Sportage is as bare-bones as possible.
My go-to rental from Hertz is the Pacifica, they are always high trim models and they rule.
I’d imagine it might also relate to retail value. Funny thing about Enterprise, they’re actual business model is as a used car lot. if you look at all the ones they sell every model is getting sold at about the same mileage, because they’ve figured out the highest resale value. They buy in such bulk that with their discount the rental fees only need to cover their overhead and then they sell the car for more than they paid for it a year or so later.
This too, and goes for the same if they get shipped to auctions. At one point I noticed a pattern of cars that were obviously no longer rentals but still had a rental bar code or QR code (before they were “in” again when there was a phase those were getting put on cars to “learn more about this vehicle!”) – 9 times out of 10 it was a mid-trim model from the lineup, like say an SV AWD Rogues or LT Equinoxes.
Another one – Chevy Captiva Sports, which were only sold to fleets, mostly when I saw them they have body-color trim and polished wheels and roof rails, not the basic entry model with unpainted trim or small painted alloys and the like.
What a disappointing last car. As a Pontiac lifer, I’ve had 3 and still own a Solstice, the G6 was really the last circle of the drain.
“…the G6 was really the last circle of the drain.”
My wife got into a fender-bender in her car when the G-6 was still a rental car thing, and had to drive a G-6 for a couple of weeks while her car was in the shop.
She swore that I’d chosen the G-6 as punishment for her bad driving….so I tried it – she was right; what a beating. You hit gas, nothing happened; you hit the brakes, nothing happened; you turned the steering wheel nothing happened; you went around an exit ramp – all hell broke loose.
The last one should definitely be kept in a museum …so no one ever drives it again.
That’s a little harsh, my man. My wife bought a 2009 G6 new on Valentine’s Day 2009, and she still has it. It’s served as our primary car for road trips and daily errands for 14 years, and honestly we’ve had very few problems with it. It’s not my Jag by any means, but it’s honest, reliable transport and frankly she’s going to be sad to see it go, when it eventually gets replaced.
I wish Pontiac were still here (I have two Firebirds). GM saved Buick because China, a move that is looking less and less prescient. At least you could count on the guys at Pontiac doing something kind of batshit every once in a while.
yeah all these stupid hawt taeks here about how bad this appliance was are just seeking attention
I too have owned plenty of Pontiacs, and was also disappointed the last one was a rental G6. It feels like GM just kicked Pontiac while it was down by making the last car a G6 when it could have been a special version of the G8 or Solstice. But then again, GM could have been really mean and made it a G3…
Thanks for this Mercedes. My first car I got out of college was a new 2000 Grand Prix. I loved that car and had it 6 years. I then bought a new 2006 Grand Prix and loved that car. I drove that one for 12 years and put a lot of miles on it. I was so sad when it finally died and I couldn’t buy a new Grand Prix to replace it. Such is life, I guess.
Funnily enough I just saw your post in the Discord abought revisiting the story. This is really cool and while it wasn’t an amazing car we at least have some true closure and know what was truly the final Pontiac.
Also this is a true testament to what you guys are building here. I didn’t know that I cared about finding out what the last Pontiac was but it turns out I did care. Thanks for the update and thanks Nick for the tip.
What a great story, Mercedes! Thanks! This is what I enjoy about Autopian… deep dives into unknown or little-known automotive stories that have great human interest stories behind them. And if that’s that actual car in the photo with the Pontiac crew (which I assume it is…), that’s even more touching… Not really a Pontiac aficionado, but that brought a tear to the eye.
A bit sad it was a G6, but at least it had a V6.
There MUST be more hidden signatures on the car.
I bet if you pull interior panels and carpeting, they’ll be there.
Or just wait a few years, the panels will just fall off.