We may earn revenue from the products available on this page and participate in affiliate programs. Learn more ›
Pontiac was one of four General Motors-owned brands to hit the cutting-room floor amid GM’s late-2000s bankruptcy and bailout. By 2010, the brand would be discontinued alongside Hummer, Saab, and Saturn, but not before pumping out one last vehicle from the Orion Assembly plant: a white 2010 Pontiac G6 with a 2.4-liter 4-cylinder and spec’d for fleet use.
While this might seem like a lackluster end for the once-venerable red badge (it’s no GTO, after all), it’s still part of GM’s history. And as such, it led one interested Redditor down a rabbit hole to find out what exactly happened to the car once it left the factory. Had it ended up in a museum? A private collector’s personal inventory, or perhaps parked in the driveway of its original owner still?
Sadly, it was none of those. And while GM hasn’t officially confirmed that the VIN sleuthed out by Reddit belonged to the very last Pontiac, the year, color, and spec match old reports, boosting confidence that they may have tracked down the correct one. The story of the last Pontiac ever made ends just as anticlimactic as it began.
After rolling off the assembly line in Orion, Michigan, this 2010 Pontiac G6 was titled in Hawaii as a rental vehicle in January 2010, which makes sense given that it was built as a fleet-spec vehicle. It remained in service for more than a year until it was sent to auction in May 2011 where it was then purchased by a dealership and titled in California with just 27,725 miles on the odometer.
Three months later, it was sold to its last owner who drove it for nearly 60,000 miles before it was reported as a total loss in February 2015.
The G6 was when sent to a salvage auction where it was sold for $450—less than 3% of its original MSRP. In February 2016, a year after it was reported as a loss, the G6 was exported to Mexico and never registered in the U.S. again.
Ironically, the second-to-last Pontiac built was also totaled back in 2020 with around 67,000 miles on the odometer. It too was sold at auction, but for a heftier $1,500. According to a poster on Reddit, this example was rebuilt and is still on the road somewhere in Indiana, perhaps the final example to roll off the lines from the brand that left in the U.S. Godspeed, little Pontiac.
GM shuttering Pontiac was a fairly big blow for fans of the marque, especially given its rather rumbly history of muscle cars and enthusiast-focused vehicles throughout its heritage. For the automaker to end production with a regular ol’ G6 is kind of a slap in the face, even if it was dying of bailout-induced circumstances. Hell, GM even gave Oldsmobile a send-off with the Final 500 Edition of the Alero years earlier. But Pontiac? Nothing. A boring, fleet-spec sedan. The more I think about it, the very last G6’s ending is almost a bittersweet ode to the brand’s overall sendoff: appropriate, yet unfortunate.
Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: rob@thedrive.com
