ushered in the era of the vehicle as status symbol . Watch GM 's CEO explain why the company is cutting Pontiac '' `` It was a chick magnet , for God 's sake . Even from a girl 's standpoint , '' Lindsay said . Pontiac 's other emblematic performance car , the Firebird Trans Am , featured the outline of a firebird on the hood -- the whole hood . It enjoyed a rise in popularity and brisk sales after being featured in the `` Smokey and the Bandit '' movie franchise beginning in the late 1970s . But like even the most sturdy odometer , the numbers , years ago , had begun to work against Detroit . After years of watching their market share erode to foreign automakers , GM , Ford and Chrysler were beset by a perfect storm of declining sales , slow innovation and a dogged recession . While all three shed jobs , GM and Chrysler took bailouts to survive ; Ford chose to rely on its cash reserves to ride out the storm . In February , GM announced the end of the Saturn and Hummer lines while casting a ray
-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Pontiac lovers are feeling nostalgic and mournful Monday amid General Motors announcement that it will end production of the car . Pontiac models , such as the 1969 GTO , helped usher in the era of the muscle cars , enthusiasts say . Jean Lindsay of western New York fondly recalls the muscle cars in her family 's driveway : Two 1967 GTOs . `` I had two brothers , and they each had one of these cars , '' she said . `` The GTO represented the suburban culture of its time , heavily laden with root beer and plain beer . '' `` Those were the days of Bob 's Big Boy -LSB- hamburger restaurant -RSB- , when girls wore skates . Back then we pleasantly wasted gas looking for fun . It was a social thing . '' Debuting in 1964 , the Pontiac GTO is widely regarded as the original muscle car . It was a risky model in that it featured a big-block engine in an intermediate-size frame . The GTO 's success not only buoyed GM but helped jumpstart the high-performance market for Detroit 's Big Three automakers -- and