After 83 years, GM has decided to scrap the Pontiac brand. (© GM Corp.)

Sadly, there’s more bad news out of Detroit today. In a statement released earlier this morning, General Motors officially announced “The Pontiac brand will be phased out by the end of 2010.”

I’m sure most of you had heard the rumors circulating last week regarding the Pontiac brand, but I still think it’s worth a few minutes to take a quick look at the official press release from GM. In addition, the statement is packed full of information like sales volume and market share projections and even methods that GM will use to reduce structural costs and lower its break even point in the areas of manufacturing, employment and labor costs.

Yup…you read that right. It looks like there will be another 21,000 job cuts coming for GM’s U.S. hourly workforce in 2010, and at least another 2,000 job cuts coming in 2011.

Moving ahead, GM plans to keep the spotlight on its “four core brands in the U.S. — Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC.” Hmmm…does it seem like there might be a few brands missing from that short list? Oh yeah, that’s right…there was one more foreboding line from the same press release that read, “The revised plan moves up the resolution of Saab, Saturn, and Hummer to the end of 2009, at the latest.” Again, speculation about the future of these brands has been pretty fierce in the past few months and I really think we can all see where this is going, but we’d better hold off on any gossip until we get the official word.

Today’s a sad day for me, and I know it is for many other car guys and car girls, too. How could you not be sad? I mean, Pontiac has been around since 1926. It gave us automotive icons like the Grand Prix, GTO, Bonneville and the Firebird, among several others. And who could forget Bandit’s Trans Am from the “Smokey and the Bandit” movies? In fact, my very first car was a Pontiac. A black 1978 Pontiac Trans Am, to be exact…just like the Bandit’s. I miss that car (but only sometimes). So, does anyone else find it upsetting that an 83-year-old U.S. car company has left us today?

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