GM May Shrink Pontiac lineup to just one model

General Motors Corp. peddled Pontiacs for years with the slogan “We Build Excitement." To stay afloat, it’s producing fewer thrills — and models.

The company may shrink the Pontiac division to a single model from six following a drop in sales every year since 1999. “It might be just one model," Mark LaNeve, GM’s North American sales chief, said in an interview.

GM joins Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. in trimming brands as U.S. sales sag amid the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. GM has said it will run out of cash by the end of the month and is seeking financial aid from the government to avoid a collapse.

While GM told Congress on Dec. 2 that it would shrink the number of models it sells, including at Pontiac, it hasn’t said previously that it might jettison all but one Pontiac brand.

Paring Pontiac to a lone model would deprive GM of its third highest-selling brand after Chevrolet and GMC, and almost 2.2 points of U.S. market share accounted for by Pontiac’s sales of 358,022 vehicles in 2007. GM’s market share has dwindled to 22.1 percent from a peak of 51.1 percent in 1962. Bloomberg