From muscle car to memory

General Motors Corp. said that it would close its Pontiac division by the end of next year. And just like that, D'Arezzo's 1979 Quazar-blue Pontiac Firebird complete with 8-track cassette player felt like a historic relic of America's muscle car era.

"Today's cars are all jelly bean cars - they all look the same, have the same shape," said D'Arezzo, a warehouse worker in Methuen and treasurer of the New England Firebird Auto Club. "You take a look at a Firebird and you know what it is. You see that big flaming bird coming down the road at you and you know what it is."

Pontiac made powerful cars with such widespread appeal that they became pop culture symbols. Ronny & The Daytonas immortalized the Pontiac GTO in song. Firebird sales hit the roof after the movie "Smokey and the Bandit." And K.I.T.T., a Pontiac Trans Am, was the star of the 1980s TV show "Knight Rider." But it appears the brand will go away with a fizzle, not a bang.

GM said eliminating the Pontiac brand is part of an overall restructuring plan, in which the Detroit automaker also will cut jobs by the end of next year.

GM, which also manufactures brands like Hummer, Saab, and Saturn, is racing to restructure by June 1 and to create an operating plan that will satisfy President Obama's administration. The company has said it will sharpen its focus on its four core brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC.

Pontiac was an easy target. The brand, once the ultimate symbol of strength and cool, has struggled to gain recognition in recent years. It never seemed able to recapture the nation's imagination with cars like the Solstice or the Torrent. And the low-budget Pontiac Vibe never had enough mojo to make it to the big screen. Sales suffered.

Ray Ciccolo, president of the Massachusetts State Auto Dealers Association, said he could think of only one remaining Pontiac dealer in Massachusetts. Most have been replaced by Hyundai, Honda, and Nissan showrooms, he said.

And while most new car sales have been down about 35 percent due to the recession, he said, Pontiac's sales have dropped even more sharply, by about 60 percent in recent months.

"The writing was on the wall a while ago," Ciccolo said of Pontiac. "They've continued to lose market share for the last 25 years."

A Pontiac dealership in Westborough, one of the few listed Pontiac dealers in Massachusetts, declined to comment.

Shawn Vetere, general sales manager at Vendetti Buick GMC in Franklin, said that dealership stopped selling Pontiacs a month ago. He said they will turn the old Pontiac showroom into a used car dealership. Vetere said that while he felt bad for recent buyers, dealers, and people working on Pontiac's assembly lines, the decision to stop selling the cars was not extremely difficult.

"They made some really nice cars over the years," he said. "But we've moved on."

Not that Pontiac doesn't still have its fans. There are clubs and discussion boards and car show meetings nearly every weekend for the GTO, Firebird, or Trans Am or a combination of the three. And women who are brand diehards can still get a black Pontiac handbag, complete with a seat belt buckle clasp and silver racing stripes, for $35 online.

But for some, it is a sentimental attachment to cars of another era.

At least one Pontiac fan, Paul Cullen, said the company's glory days are over. Cullen, a Westford resident who has rebuilt at least five Trans Ams, said his friends often call him Knight Rider because he has built an exact replica of the car made famous in the TV series. The car even pretends to talk to its driver through a digital red scanner on the dashboard, just as the car on the show could.

Cullen said it was only one of several Pontiacs he has restored, including a 1974 midnight blue Firebird with a white interior and a blue 1987 Trans Am.

"When I was younger, I liked the Trans Am because it was loud and fast, you'd get attention when you drive," he said. "These days, I don't care as much about the fact that it's fast. It's the style that attracts me to a car now."

Times change, and the 53-year-old software engineer said he drives a Chrysler PT Cruiser daily - the first non-GM car he has owned in decades.

He rarely drives his Knight Rider replica car, except on special occasions or car shows.

"You hate to see any brand go away," he said of Pontiac. "But they just haven't done anything with it."

Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse@globe.com.