I think the untimely demise of Pontiac came about sometime before the bailout and was a business decision made by GM having more to do with their business in China than anything to do with the bailout. I know this may sound confusing and my thought comes from conversations with our GM Rep. and what I was reading in the trade magazines and papers at the time. I was working for a Buick-Pontiac-GMC Truck franchise at the time. What we were told by some GM people who were not supposed to tell us anything, but did share this little bit off the record, or maybe they just made it up I don't know. Buick was considered a very upscale car in China and people with the where with all were even using them with a hired drivers in China. The problem was that they were selling more Buicks in China than the U.S. and in U.S. buyers were ageing out very fast and either they drop Buick here and that would make the China sales questionable is what they were saying. In this country Pontiac out sold Buick by a substantial number and profit. G.M. in their infinite wisdom killed Pontiac in this country to keep Buick sales in China since what they were saying was that they made more from Buick sales in China than Buick and Pontiac combined here. I find this all hard to believe myself because we had no problem selling Bonneville's / Grand Prix / Grand Am and even the mini van. Buicks were only a very small fraction of our business. So way would G.M. shot themselves in the foot ? I know they have made many other expensive business decisions in the past but this made no other sense then what we were being told "under the table" as the saying goes.