Pontiac Sold to Amish Entrepreneurs

(Thanks to Greg from Team Prius for alerting me to this news item)

The Associated Press

Detroit, Michigan | Published: 04.29.2009

DETROIT, Mich. — In a surprising move, General Motor announced today that it is selling its Pontiac brand and assets to an Amish investment group headquartered in Leola, Pennsylvania. The automaker announced its plans for Pontiac today during a press conference outlining dramatic updates to its restructuring efforts.

The move took industry experts by surprise since the Amish Plain Sect community is not customarily associated with motor vehicles.

A spokesman for Bird-In-Hand Enterprises, LLC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the Amish corporation intends to reposition Pontiac as a taxi manufacturer.

"We fear, with the likely demise of Chrysler, and with General Motors' abandoning of the minivan market, that we will not have access in the future to suitable 'Amish taxis' to serve our community. The acquisition of Pontiac will ensure long-term access to taxi services for us," he said.

The source provided little detail of the repositioning of the brand, other than noting that final engineering still needs to be worked out. The source did add, however, that Amish engineers involved previously with Amish Roll-and-Glow Electric Fireplaces developed a working prototype of the proposed Pontiac Amish Taxi and have recently authorized the release of an image of the Pontiac taxi.