2010 Pontiac G6 Spotted in a Colorado Junkyard

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The death of an automotive marque is sad, especially for one that's been a familiar presence for many years. One of the things I look for when I'm walking the rows of a car graveyard is examples of vehicles built during a marque's final model year. Today's Junkyard Treasure is a painful yet significant bit of automotive history: one of the last Pontiacs ever made.

General Motors discontinued the Geo brand in 1997, though the Tracker, Metro, and Prizm continued to be sold with Chevrolet badging after that. Oldsmobile got the axe in 2004, followed by a farewell to Isuzu passenger cars in 2009. The 2010 model year saw the demise of Saturn and Pontiac. Saab was next (2011), with Suzuki departing the United States in 2013.

Of all those, the demise of Pontiac caused me the worst heartache. I have some personal history with Oldsmobiles, but Pontiacs were critical to my formative automotive years. As a teenager I owned an exceptionally hooptie 1967 Pontiac GTO (price: $113) and drove a luxurious gold 1978 Pontiac Bonneville to my high school prom.

Our reviewer approved of the G6 when it appeared as a 2005 model, replacing the aging Grand Am. GM hit rough financial waters soon after that, however, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the wake of the Great Recession. GM announced in the spring of 2009 that the Pontiac Division would be discontinued after the 2010 model year, after selling its first cars as 1926 models.

Solstice production ceased in May of 2009, followed by the Vibe three months later. That left just the G6 (plus a handful of G5s for Mexico and Canada), and the very last G6 rolled off the Orion, Michigan, assembly line in January of 2010.

Today's Junkyard Treasure was built in November of 2009, about 4000 cars before Pontiac was gone forever. Discarded 2010 G6s remain tough to find, still being a bit new to get thrown away, though I've managed to document one built in July of 2009 and another built in October of that year.

There had been coupe and convertible versions of the G6 in earlier years, but by 2010 the base sedan and its 2.4-liter Ecotec were all that remained. Fleet customers bought most of these final Pontiacs.

The G6 was built on the same platform as the Chevrolet Malibu, Saturn Aura, and Saab 9-3. Dig that rental-spec interior.

The Stick Figure Family sticker craze peaked around the time this car was new. Now we're in the Stick Figure Family Backlash Era.

The G6 was the future.

The Pontiac Division began building cars for General Motors in 1926, but Pontiac couldn't survive GM's difficulties of the late 2000s.

This car was built in November of 2009, making it the newest Pontiac I've ever found in a junkyard. The very last G6s were built in January of 2010.