https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...af163cc69a5b7b
What Really Happened to Pontiac
Guest Editorial – Jim Mattison
Smoke Signals April 2013
The demise of Pontiac didn’t take almost 50 years as some have proclaimed. Nor were
the general managers of the 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s to blame, as some have suggested. I
believe that I am qualified to comment on the subject as I was there, inside the walls of
Pontiac’s headquarters from 1989-1997.
It all began in 1992 when the GM Board of Directors decided to go outside the
corporation and hire new leadership. They were out to remove the current Chairman and
CEO, Bob Stemple, who was a good automobile man, engineer and person. They elected
former Board member John Smale as the new Chairman.
Smale hired an exec from Bausch and Lomb, Ron Zarrella to move GM forward into the
new millennium, Zarrella was supposedly a whiz at mass marketing and was put in
charge of all GM North American Operations.
He was later found to not have a clue of how to run a car company. Additionally, his
credentials and masters degree were later found to be false.
Zarrella brought in many of his cronies and placed them in key positions through-out the
company. Many of you may remember that it was during this time period that
Oldsmobile Division was closed.
At the time the current GM vice president and general manager of Pontiac Division was
John Middlebrook. John became general manager in 1989 and had literally spent his
entire career at Pontiac and was originally hired into Pontiac directly by John DeLorean.
John was a bright business person and a staunch advocate for Pontiac at GM corporate
meetings. Among other things he championed the redesigned ’97 Grand Prix, 4th
generation Firebird and all Ram Air programs.
However, in 1996 Zarrella decided to merge Pontiac and GMC Divisions into one. This
was not a merger… it was a takeover. In every instance, the key positions within this new
Pontiac-GMC Division were staffed by a body from GMC. Middlebrook got promoted
and moved over to become the new general manager of Chevy, replacing Jim Perkins.
Meanwhile, Roy Roberts, the previous general manager of GMC Division became the
general manager of the newly created Pontiac-GMC Division. This, in my opinion, was
the beginning of the end for Pontiac.
Roy Roberts never spent so much as a single day running Pontiac-GMC. His trucks were
selling well and he put the division on “auto pilot” while he spent all of his time
gathering cultural diversity awards around the countryside. Finally, in 1999 Roberts was
forced into retirement and replaced by Lynn Myers as general marketing manager of
Pontiac-GMC.
Lynn held that position from 1999 until 2004, when she retired. Her accomplishments at
Pontiac-GMC included the Aztek and the mishandling of the return of the GTO. She was
also the one who pulled Pontiac out of NASCAR racing.
Lynn was a very nice lady, but she was no general manager or leader. Whatever the
corporation wanted she would go along with. She relied heavily on another of the
Zarrella cronies named Bob Kraut, who she put in charge of Grand Prix, Firebird and
GTO brands. The excitement was gone from the Excitement Division!
Maybe you are starting to see what was happening, “No One Was Watching the Store”
from 1996 to 2004! It didn’t take 40 or 50 years to sink Pontiac, it only took eight.
However, there were a few bright spots; the first was a man named Bob Lutz and the
other Jim Bunnell a die-hard Pontiac man, who replaced Lynn Myers as general
marketing manager.
Lutz and Bunnell tried to revive Pontiac as a specialty division with products like the
Solstice and others that were ready, but it was too little too late.
When the GM bankruptcy came, the federal government determined that GM had too
many divisions and some had to go. First went Hummer and Saturn, then it became a
toss-up between Pontiac and Buick. Pontiac was out selling Buick almost 6 to 1 in North
America. However, there was a new market emerging in China and the name Buick was
popular there, thanks to the emperor of China who saw Buick as an emblem of
status…Pontiac was out and officially closed their door on 10/31/2010.
