Motorauthority has this on the demise of Pontiac.
Pontiac as a brand evolved from the Oakland brand in the late 1920s. Through much of its life it has a been a step up rung on GMs ladder of brands. In the 1960s Pontiac stole the performance halo from sister brand Oldsmobile with the GTO (for which John Z. DeLorean gets too much credit).
The brand was very successful in the 1990s with Grand Am and Grand Prix models. They were never all that good as drivers but they appealed to buyers looking for something visually splashy with a high tech image. Pontiac has had a split grille front end actually longer than BMW.
Speaking of BMW, Bob Lutz, who was an executive at BMW during his long career, was hoping to bring that cachet to Pontiac. The problem was that buyers of Pontiac didn't necessarily want a car with the driving dynamics of a BMW as much as they wanted a car festooned with the cladding and chintz that appealed to them. Pontiac had a decently sized audience for its products but in migrating towards RWD and less conspicuous styling they may have alienated their potential customers.
My favorite Pontiac, besides the odd duck SOHC inline six Firebird, was the 1935 coupe, a hot rod version shown here.
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