Finding Their Way
After four years at Packard, John took a position as an engineer at the Pontiac division at General Motors. In the ‘50s, GM was the place to work. As one of the best automotive companies at the time, it was home to some of the greatest engineers of the period. But while the company as a whole was doing well, the Pontiac division struggled with its brand identity.
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Young Americans suddenly became a huge consumer force in the automotive industry, and they didn’t connect with the brand. Pontiac seemed to make only stuffy cars for older adults, not sleek cars for kids in their early twenties. The division was “really in trouble,” author J. Patrick Wright wrote. “It was like an old person’s division. When DeLorean left, [Pontiac] had become the third-best nameplate in the auto industry, right behind Chevy and Ford.”