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by Stephen Dyrgas

Own a Piece of History in a Long Island Pontiac

Article by Robin Hewitt

If you called your first dream car a “Goat” and know what a “Screaming Chicken” is, then you might want to head to your Pontiac Long Island Chevrolet dealer and check out history for sale.Although Pontiac had a humble beginning when Edward M. Murphy opened the Pontiac Buggy Company in 1893, by 1926 his business has been bought out by General Motors and the first Pontiac rolled off the production line. The first auto to feature an enclosed driving area, the Series 6-27 sold over 76,000 cars at a price of 5 in the first model year. By mid-year demand outpaced production and GM began plans for the largest US construction project of the year: a million assembly plant situated in, of course, Pontiac, Michigan.By 1932 the country was in the throes of the Great Depression, and car sales suffered with the rest of the economy. GM hired Harry J. Klinger as general manager of Pontiac, and an aggressive marketing plan allowed the brand to survive. The following years boasted a fistful of “firsts” for the Pontiac brand:

1935 – Independent front suspension and all-steel tops1938 – Column- mounted gearshift1948 – Optional HydraMatic automatic transmission1953 – Power steering, air conditioning, and electric power windows became options1955 – A Pontiac Star Chief was driven cross country on “I Love Lucy.”1957 – First fuel-injected Pontiac engineThe 8 millionth Pontiac rolled off the line in 1962, with the help of two new models: the Grand Prix and the LeMans.Pontiac’s biggest innovation occurred in 1964 and changed the way Americans thought about cars: the introduction of the LeMans Gran Turismo Omologato, or GTO. Considered the forerunner of Detroit’s Muscle Car Era, the GTO was more of a dragster than a sports car, and street legal, to boot. The next year GM’s Pontiac division received Motor Trend’s Car of the Year award, and in 1967 Pontiac debuted a modified version of the Camaro, which was named Firebird—sans the flaming decal hood emblem affectionately called a “Screaming Chicken,” which would be added six years later.The seventies saw the introduction of the Grand Am, Sunbird, and the 10th Anniversary Trans Am, which was the first Pontiac Firebird with a price tag over ,000. Despite being in the midst of a fuel crisis, Pontiac sold almost a million cars in 1979. In 1984 the Fiero was unveiled; although it was originally designed for fuel efficiency the Fiero was embraced by sports car aficionados: instead of the modest sales projections of fifty to sixty thousand nearly 140,000 Fieros rolled off the line. By 1990 Pontiac decided America needed something they would call a “minivan,” and the Trans Sport was born—complete with removable seating, another Pontiac innovation. In 1993 the last LeMans was made, and two years later the Sunfire was introduced as an affordable small car with sport and safety features. 2001 brought another brainstorm: combining a sporty sedan, a minivan, and an SUV into a sports recreation vehicle, which was named “Aztec.”In April 2009 General Motors announced the Pontiac brand would be discontinued. The last Pontiac to be made in the United States rolled off the Orion Assembly plant on November 25, 2009, marking the end of Pontiac’s 83 years of car manufacturing.The good news is that many Pontiacs are still available at local dealers such as your Pontiac Long Island Chevrolet. GM dealers still service Pontiacs and also carry a full line of parts, so if your dream car is a Pontiac, visit your Long Island Chevrolet today.

About the Author

Robin Hewitt is a freelance writer working with Potamkin Cadillac to inform the public about Pontiac Long Island options. For more information on Long Island Chevrolet, visit our website or showroom today!