In 1893 Edward Murphy established a carriage building factory in Michigan, USA, under the name Pontiac Buggy Company. A few years later it became clear that the future did not lie in carriages, but in cars. Edward Murphy founded the Oakland Motor Company in 1907 to be involved in the manufacture of automobiles as well. It was a time of pioneering and collaboration. In 1908, Ford introduced its T Ford, a milestone in automotive history.

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Ford's great counterpart, General Motors (GM), was constantly looking for talent to find the right answer to Ford's success. A friend of Edward Murphy, William Durant, the founder of GM, was impressed by Edward Murphy and so bought half the shares of the Oakland Motor Company. This happened in January 1909. However, Murphy died unexpectedly in the summer of 1909, after which GM decided to take over the rest of the company.

The Oakland brand, now called Oakland Motors Division, grew and was quite successful. Within the GM group, Oakland had been placed just above Chevrolet and just below the premium brands Oldsmobile and Buick.

The GM concern had to contend with production and quality problems in the early 1920s. To tackle these problems, a group-wide program was set up that managed to solve the problems. The next problem that emerged within the group was that the programs of Chevrolet, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac were not well matched in terms of price. To solve this problem, Cadillac was ordered to create the LaSalle brand, Buick the Marquette brand and Oldsmobile the Viking brand. In this way the gaps between the different brands had to be closed. To close the gap between Chevrolet and Oakland, Oakland was commissioned to create the Pontiac brand. And that brand is what this article is all about.

In 1926 the time has come. From the Oakland division, GM introduces the new Pontiac brand. The public can get to know the new brand for the first time at the New York Motor Show in 1926. The first Pontiac to be presented is the six-cylinder Pontiac Chief (Pontiac Series 6-27), a six-cylinder for the price of a four-cylinder that was an immediate hit. In the first year of production, 76,742 Pontiacs were made, in the following year there are already 127,883 and Pontiac occupies sixth place in the list of best-selling brands in the US. At the end of 1927, Pontiac introduced a new series for the 1928 model year, the Pontiac Series 6-28. The logo with the silhouette of an Indian head appears for the first time on this model. This logo would remain until 1956.

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In the meantime, sales are starting to gain momentum and production capacity needs to be expanded. In the state of Michigan, a new factory is being built in Pontiac. The Series 6-28 is a hit and sales continue to climb. For 1929, Pontiac introduces the 6-29 Big Six. This was actually not a new model but a Vauxhall. Not long before that, GM had taken over the English company Vauxhall. The 6-29 Big Six was the first Pontiac also available as a convertible. In 1929 the 500,000th Pontiac leaves the factory. Pontiac's future looks bright.

But then things go wrong. In October 1929, the financial market collapsed. Wall Street is on fire. A difficult time is dawning in the United States. The demand for cars, which had increased every year until the stock market crash, is collapsing. Pontiac cannot escape this either. Despite a 15% price reduction, only 62,888 of the Pontiac 6-30B are made.

In 1931 Pontiac bounces back a bit when the new Series 401 turns out to be doing well. But the Pontiacs sold in 1932, 47,926 units, suffered a loss of $125.35 each. Rumor has it that Pontiac, along with Buick and Cadillac, would be discontinued. GM won't let it get that far, though. The recession does mean the end of the Oakland brand. Since the start of the Pontiac brand, the brand has played a less and less important role. Pontiac's sales numbers are eclipsing Oakland's numbers by big numbers. In 1931, GM decided to discontinue the Oakland brand.

From 1933 Pontiac is no longer dependent on the central GM Art & Color design department for the design of its models, but Pontiac gets its own design studio. The new chief designer Frank Hershey is dissatisfied with the current models and has everything redesigned in two weeks. The result of this action was a cheap 8-cylinder, which, however, had the appearance of the much more expensive models on the market. To keep the price of the Pontiacs low, many parts are borrowed from Chevrolet, including the body. With the new 8-cylinder, Pontiac's image gets a big boost and sales are almost double digits compared to 1932, 85,348 compared to 47,926 units. With the wind at its back again, Pontiac was the first division of GM to put a car with independent front suspension into production in 1934. The sales figures continue to rise and in 1935 sales rise to 140,000 units. The increase continues in 1936 to 172,000 Pontiacs and in 1940 even 217,000 cars are built. In that year, the millionth Pontiac also leaves the factory.

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In 1941 Pontiac was the first to offer buyers a choice between different engines. Production rose to 330,061 units that year.

Meanwhile, World War II was about to take on global proportions. On March 1, 1941 Pontiac starts producing an anti-aircraft gun, the Oerlikon 20 mm, for the US Navy. From 1942, American car manufacturers were obliged to use almost no more chrome. All Pontiac parts, except the bumpers, which were normally made of chrome, were now painted steel. These models, which were much less beautiful, are known as blackout models. In addition, the brand also began to produce automatic machine guns, axles for tanks, parts for diesel engines and aircraft torpedoes.

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After the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States also became directly involved in World War II. On February 10, 1942, the last pre-war Pontiac is made and the whole factory switches to war production.

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Towards the end of the war it was time to return to normal production. New machines, which were to double production to 500,000, are placed in the factory. However, in December 1945, the UAW, the US auto industry union, begins a strike for more pay. It was not until 3 March 1946 that the strike was ended with a wage increase. Pontiac is also affected by the strike. The first post-war models are slightly modified models from 1942, but the demand for cars immediately after the war was so great that sales rose from 113,109 in 1946 to 206,411 in 1947.

For new Pontiac models, the public has to wait until 1949. Pontiac does introduce the Hydra-matic automatic gearbox in 1948, which is available as an option. Just before Pontiac's new post-war models go into production, spy photos revealed that Ford would come with a nearly identical radiator grille. Because the Ford models would come on the market earlier, Pontiac decided to quickly  a newly designed radiator grille.

In 1950 Pontiac launched the Catalina. The Super De Luxe version of the Catalina was the most luxurious model of that period. At the same time, the brand also had the cheapest 8-in-line in the country. A production of 446,429 units was achieved in that year. The 1950s saw the rise of automatic transmissions and V8 engines and Pontiac also concentrated on the development of a V8 engine coupled to an automatic gearbox.

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In 1951 production was curtailed by the Korean War and in 1952 the use of chromium was again curtailed. Sales at the time were 337,821 and 266,351 units respectively. In 1953 a new type, the Pontiac Star Chief, was launched, with optional power windows, air conditioning and power steering. In 1953, 385,692 cars were sold. Until 1955 Pontiac remains a strong brand.

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In 1956 Pontiac debuts in motorsport. Ab Jenkins, 73, set a new speed record for the 24 hours with a modified Pontiac. He drove an average of 190 km/h over a distance of 4572 km. The initiative for Pontiac's participation is credited to Semon Knudsen, the brand's new manager. Knudsen had to upgrade the brand, which was known for durable and reliable but not for eye-catching cars. This was necessary because sales started to decline in 1956. Knudsen took even more steps to achieve this. Shortly before the production of the 1957 models, Knudsen had the until then characteristic radiator grille removed. He also replaced the Indian head decal that had been on all Pontiac cars since 1928. In February, the Pontiac Bonneville was launched as a top model. Only 630 copies were planned, all convertibles. The V8 delivered more than 300 hp and gave the car a top speed of 209 km/h.