Pontiac Assembly was one of four

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

assembly plants in

Pontiac, Michigan Pontiac ( ') is a city in and the county seat of Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located roughly northwest of downtown Detroit, Pontiac is part of the Metro Detroit, Detroit metropolitan area, and is vari ...

located along Baldwin Avenue. It served as the home factory for GM's Pontiac Motor Division since it was built in 1927. It was across the street from the currently operational Pontiac Metal Center, which was the original location for the Oakland Motor Car Company, which Pontiac evolved out of.

History

The location that Oakland inhabited was the original site of Cartercar when GM bought the company in 1909 by William Durant. The plant ceased production of full-size Pontiacs after the 1980 model year but continued to build mid-size Pontiacs ('81-82 Grand Prix, '81 LeMans, '82 Bonneville G) until being idled on August 6, 1982. Pontiac Assembly used VIN P and from 1965 until 1969 Buick vehicles at the nearby Pontiac Central Assembly VIN V factory. During World War Two, civilian automobile production was changed over to wartime support, with the last passenger car assembled in 1942. The factory produced mostly field guns like the Bofors 40mm mobile field gun for the Army, the

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models empl ...

used on naval vessels, along with other items. At nearby Pontiac West Assembly, the GMC transit bus was built for wartime civilian use. The factory earned six Navy "E" flags and two Army-Navy pennants in recognition of its manufacturing efforts. Another production line was opened in 1983 to build the Fiero at Fisher Body plant #17. The old production line was reopened January 14, 1985 to build the GM "G" body

Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme The Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme is a mid-size car produced by Oldsmobile between 1966 and 1997. It was positioned as a premium offering at the top of the Oldsmobile Cutlass, Cutlass range. It began as a trim package, developed its own roofline, ...

and

Buick Regal The Buick Regal is a line of mid-size cars marketed by Buick since 1973. Serving as the premium mid-size/intermediate car of the Buick product range for nearly its entire production, the Regal initially served as the divisional counterpart of t ...

, as the

Lansing Lansing () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. It is the sixth-most populous city in Michigan with a popul ...

and

Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Historically, flint was widely used to make stone tools and start ...

plants which built them had been converted to new front-wheel-drive car lines.

Chevrolet Monte Carlo The Chevrolet Monte Carlo is a two-door coupe that was manufactured and marketed by the Chevrolet division of General Motors. Deriving its name from the Monte Carlo, city in Monaco, the Monte Carlo was marketed as the first personal luxury car ...

production was added for 1987, and

Pontiac Grand Prix The Grand Prix is a line of automobiles produced by the Pontiac (automobile), Pontiac Division of General Motors from 1962 until 2002 as coupes and from 1989 through 2008 model years as four-door sedans. First introduced as a full-size car, full ...

production returned in October 1987. Production ended when a Buick Grand National was completed on December 11, 1987. Fiero production ended on August 16, 1988, and the plant was permanently closed. Manufacturing operations were transferred to

Orion Assembly Orion Assembly is an automotive assembly plant in Orion Township, Michigan, United States, owned and operated by General Motors. From late 2025, the plant is slated to assemble the Chevrolet Silverado EV and GMC Sierra EV battery electric p ...

in Orion Township, Michigan. Engine block and cylinder heads were cast at Saginaw Metal Casting Operations, internal engine components were created at Bay City Powertrain and the engines were then assembled at

Tonawanda Engine Tonawanda Engine is a General Motors engine factory in Buffalo, New York. The plant consists of three facilities totaling and sits upon . The factory receives cast engine blocks from Defiance Foundry in Defiance, Ohio and Saginaw Metal Casting ...

and Romulus Engine.

Vehicles built

Oakland

* Oakland Four * Oakland Six

Pontiac

* Six * 2+2 (1964–1970) * Bonneville (1957–1980) * Catalina (1959–1981) *

Chieftain A tribal chief, chieftain, or headman is a leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies There is no definition for "tribe". The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of weste ...

(1950–1958) * Custom S (1969) * De-Lux (1937) *

Executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

(1967–1970) * Fiero (1984–1988) * Grand Am (1973–1975, 1978–1980) * Grand Prix (1962–1986) * Grand Safari (1971–1978) * Grand Ville (1971–1975) * GTO (1964–1973) * LeMans (1962–1981) *

Safari A safari (; originally ) is an overland journey to observe wildlife, wild animals, especially in East Africa. The so-called big five game, "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, African leopard, leopard, rhinoceros, African elephant, elep ...

(1955–1980) * Star Chief (1954–1966) *

Streamliner A streamliner is a vehicle incorporating streamlining in a shape providing reduced air resistance. The term is applied to high-speed railway trainsets of the 1930s to 1950s, and to their successor " bullet trains". Less commonly, the term i ...

(1941–1951) *

Super Chief The ''Super Chief'' was one of the List of named passenger trains, named train, passenger trains and the flagship of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. The then-modern streamliner was touted in its heyday as "The Train of the Stars" b ...

(1957–1958) * Tempest (1961–1970) *

Torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, such ...

(1940–1948) * Ventura (1960–1970)

Aftermath

The Pontiac Metal Center currently provides material for dozens of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac products: * Chevrolet: Sonic, Traverse, Express, Colorado, Silverado, Tahoe, Suburban and Corvette * Buick: Enclave * GMC: Acadia, Sierra, Savana, Yukon and Canyon * Cadillac: Escalade

References

{{coord, 42.66195, N, 83.29850, W, type:landmark_region:US-MI, display=title General Motors factories Motor vehicle assembly plants in Michigan 1927 establishments in Michigan