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For every GTO or G8 GXP, there were half a dozen Pontiac Phoenix or '88 Pontiac LeMans to make you want to throw up in your mouth. As much as we loved the idea of the Pontiac brand, it just hasn't delivered for too long. Here are the seven cars from recent history which poisoned the well at Pontiac, forcing it to the grave.

7) 2005-2009 Pontiac G6

The Pontiac G6 was leaps and bounds ahead of the Grand Am it replaced, but all that shows is just how far behind Pontiac was in the mid-size segment. It's headline feature — the trick-sliding sky-view sunroof was pretty neat, but way too expensive and it made the car something of a one-trick pony. In base, four-cylinder form, it clogs the lots of airport rental companies and never really had the stuff to go head-to-head with competitors. And don't even get us started on the interior.

6) 2000-2005 Pontiac Bonneville

The ninth generation Pontiac Bonneville debuted to universal shoulder shrugs, it did little to justify its higher price over the better packaged Grand Prix, which it borrowed too much styling from. A series of refreshes made the car sportier but it never really caught on with buyers. Funny how indifferent styling, high price and strong competition will do that.

5) 2005 Pontiac Montana

When Pontiac added the SUV-inspired "Montana" package to the newly designed Transport minivan, soccer moms went ape for the vehicle. You couldn't chuck a rock at a little league game without hitting one. That ended when GM half-assed the redesign and stuck a long goofy nose onto a slightly restyled van in order to meet crash requirements. The horrendous result was a massive failure in the marketplace, as it should have been.

4) 2009 Pontiac G3

GM's former Vice Chairman of Global Product Development Bob Lutz stood on the New York Auto Show stage and noted Pontiac had long been known for the tag-line "We build excitement" even though they'd been delivering it with front wheel drive cars covered in stuck-on plastic. He claimed now they were going to change, introducing two vehicles — the Pontiac G8 ST and the Pontiac Solstice GXP Coupe, the former is now dead, and the latter is selling like candied dog poop. Half a year after Lutz made those statements, gas was $4.30 a gallon and Pontiac dealers were flipping out for an economy car on their floors. GM bowed to the pressure and green-lit the Pontiac G3 for US distribution. The stark contrast in message signaled a floundering purpose for the brand, and definitely not one which would interest enthusiasts.

3) 1985-2005 Pontiac Grand Am

There are a great many people who've owned Grand Ams, they're a cheap source of transportation, and while there are a few which made it a couple hundred thousand miles, they're by and large terrible, terrible cars. Unless you got the GT models, styling was yawn-inducing, the interiors were committee designed with Fisher-Price grade materials, and the awful suspensions and automatic transmissions sucked the entertainment value out of even the most enjoyable roads.

2) 1995-2005 Pontiac Sunfire

It's pretty rare for a nameplate to suck so hard for its entire existence, if something is bad, it usually gets killed, but the Sunfire got at least three refreshes. The Pontiac Sunfire was an impossibly ugly reskin of the Chevy Cavalier, and while the Cavalier was a perfectly good cheap beater, the Sunfire got the crushingly bad interior baubles that was tossed at all Pontiacs at the time. Chintzy materials, poorly engineered HVAC system, and rotten colors made it a terrible place to spend time.

1) 2001-2005 Pontiac Aztek

No matter how long Pontiac would have survived, the commercial disaster of the Pontiac Aztek would have always hung around its neck. It was incredibly functional, but the chintzy interior materials were only outmatched by the laughably bad styling and equally chintzy-looking exterior plastic cladding. Projected sales were placed at 50,000 to 70,000, but only ever topped 27,000 a year. It got a quickie refresh which saw sportier wheels and painted body cladding, but the damage was done.

Considering the absurd prices that folks pay for factory concept cars, $24,900 for one isn't all that much… but, of course, this is a Pontiac Aztek. It's sad that GM took some uncharacteristically daring chances with the design of this vehicle- which was actually quite useful in the real world- only to have it swept into the dustbin of automotive history because it was, frankly, hideous. But that makes this one quite interesting, historically significant, all that stuff. We're not talking about some nightmarish Monkey Aztek here; this is an Eaton-blown, custom-painted show vehicle with weird late-dot-com-boom extras such as "overseat backpacks." Nice Price? Crack Pipe? You decide!
[Craigslist Phoenix, go here if the ad disappears]

If these get you in a Classic Ad Watch sort of mood, you might enjoy checking out our favorite Super Bowl Car Ads, then keep going with our Top 20 Vintage Datsun ads, Top 20 Vintage Toyota ads, and Top 20 Vintage Chrysler ads. If that's still not enough, you can go to the Top Car Commercials Of The 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. And now, our favorite (non-Chevrolet) vintage General Motors ads from North America, Europe, Australia, and South Africa:

1962 Oldsmobile Jetfire Turbo	1942 Oldsmobile B-44	1991 Oldsmobile Silhouette	1988 Pontiac Grand Am
1956 Oldsmobile 88	1973 Pontiac Grand Am	1968 Pontiac GTO	1970 Pontiac T37
1982 Pontiac 6000	1981 Vauxhall Cavalier	1969 Pontiacs	1985 Pontiac Fiero GT
1990 Geo Tracker	1979 Holdens	1973 Opels	1972 Holden Kingswood
1985 Pontiac Fiero	1971 Oldsmobile Delta 88	1985 Vauxhall Nova	1992 Opels (South Africa)
1985 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera	1970 Pontiac Firebird	1968 Opel GT	1982 Holden Station Wagons
2001 Pontiac Aztek	1986 Holden Astra	1960 Opel Kapitän	1974 Cadillacs

But what are the worst names? Is it insane to call a 350Z a Fairlady Z? What about the VW wish to name most of their cars after wind patterns? The Touareg, Routan and Tiguan sound more like diseases than cars. "Oh, you hear about Franky? He's got the Routan." These are just off the top of our heads — what do you consider the worst car name of all time?

[Photo: SugarCloud.com]

"Back in the late 1990s, market research folks at General Motors Corp. apparently warned the automaker not to build the notoriously ungainly Pontiac Aztec SUV, but their pleas went unheeded.

The snippet of automotive history came from John Krafcik, vice president of product development and strategic planning for Hyundai Motor America, as part of a presentation on the value of market data in product development in Traverse City.

Krafcik said Hyundai interviewed a researcher involved in the Aztec project as part of an effort to improve its data gathering.

"For whatever reason, the advice wasn't followed," Krafcik said. "And the rest was history.""

We all remember the Pontiac Aztek, our generation's Edsel. A car so bad, Pontiac even managed to spell the name wrong. Design-wise, the worst element (besides the gas-cap wound) was all that damn cladding. But then, after Pontiac only sold four cars in 18 months (or whatever), GM did the unthinkable – they restyled the duckling. And... they didn't do such a bad job. Granted, the Aztek was as doomed as the Titanic from the initial marketing focus group. But, at least it died in my mind with a modicum of dignity. When I first saw the new Lexus flagship I liked the headlights and the back seat, but thought the car itself pretty blobby and dull. But, sitting on the floor of an auto show is one thing. Seeing these hulking leviathans on the road is another. The top dog Lexi (Lexuses?) posses mad amounts of uberholprestige. That's German for, "Get out of my way or I'm driving up your tailpipe." I gotta admit, these have grown on me. You? – Jonny Lieberman

[The Jalopnik Question of the Day asks the tough questions. Sometimes. Do you have a question you want answered? Email it to tips@jalopnik.com with the subject line "QOTD"]

Related:
How Far Will You Go For The Car Of Your Dreams?; The Jalopnik Question of the Day [Internal]
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