The Last Pontiac Built in the US

Back in April, General Motors was announcing that it will kill the Pontiac brand as part of their survival plan for 2009. Unfortunately, for those who still had hopes for a miracle, the brand had finally reached the end of the line on Wednesday, when the last Pontiac rolled off the assembly line in Orion Township.

The last model built was a white, G6 sedan. According to The Detroit News, there were no festivities to mark the end of an 83-year-old brand.

The journalists were denied access to the facility, but their place was taken by a a group of “final process” workers, who were there to supervise the last 100 G6 models assembled, and took their time to take some photos of the cars.

The final G6 models will be sold as part of a fleet order, the aforementioned source revealed. As for the Orion Township plant, it will be idled and retooled to produce a new small car in 2011.

"We want to survive the next 18 months until we start building GM's next small car," said Pat Sweeney, president of UAW Local 5960, the union that represents workers at the factory. Sweeney said it was a bittersweet time for the plant's 2,400 employees. In fact, many of the same workers were building the Oldsmobile Aurora sedan when GM decided to discontinue Olds in December 2000.

In December, the automaker will end production of the Pontiac G3 Wave, a subcompact built in Mexico and sold only in Canada, marking the official end of production for the brand.