November 23, 2024

Four American Auto Brands Go Out Of Business

By Jay Levi

Pontiac, Mercury, Saturn and Hummer have all been discontinued from production. Many of them never stood a chance in this economy so car companies had to cut them.

Pontiac – Long known as General Motors performance brand, which brought us some memorable muscle cars like the Firebird Trans Am and GTO, and also some forgettable cars like the ugly Aztek, suffered in sales and the auto line is now being pulled from GM.

Mercury – Was Founded in the year 1939 by Ford Motors founder Henry Ford’s son, Edsel Ford, Mercury most recently served as an example of poor badge engineering, with cars like the Grand Marquis, Mariner, and Milan.

Hummer – The military vehicle made popular by Austrian-born bodybuilder turned actor/governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, these off-road-minded mammoth truck/suvs proved far too inefficient for these hard economic times, these gas guzzlers are not practical and would eat a hole through your wallet.

Saturn – Known for being marketed as a budget car, tried in the previous years to break that image of being a plastic-bodied car for soccer moms by introducing its sporty Saturn SKY roadster but failed to gain a crossover market and was greatly held back by a lack of unique and new autos.

Saturn Sky roadster
Photo of the now defunct Saturn Sky roadster