Why GM Killed Pontiac

In 1968, Pontiac sold more than nine hundred thousand cars and ranked third in America, behind only Chevrolet and Ford. On April twenty-seventh, 2009, General Motors announced it would shut the brand down for good. But the strangest part sits in the sales figures from that final stretch. Pontiac still outsold Buick in America by more than seventy thousand cars that year, and GM kept Buick anyway. So why would a car company fighting for its life throw away the brand that built the GTO and the Trans Am?