The Pontiac Torrent is a sport utility vehicle

Sport utility vehicle

A sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...

 (SUV) that was offered by the Pontiac

Pontiac

Pontiac was an automobile brand that was established in 1926 as a companion make for General Motors' Oakland. Quickly overtaking its parent in popularity, it supplanted the Oakland brand entirely by 1933 and, for most of its life, became a companion make for Chevrolet. Pontiac was sold in the...

 division of General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

, being the successor of the discontinued Pontiac Aztek

Pontiac Aztek

The Pontiac Aztek was a mid-size crossover, the first offered by General Motors, that was produced by Pontiac from the 2001 model year to the 2005 model year. The Aztek was heavily criticized on its exterior styling, with Time magazine in 2007 calling the Aztek one of the worst cars of all time,...

. It was manufactured at CAMI Automotive

CAMI Automotive

CAMI Automotive, originally known as Canadian Automotive Manufacturing Inc., was an independently incorporated joint venture of automobile manufacturing in Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada and formed the third step of GM's three-pronged initiative of the mid-1980s to capture and practice the Japanese...

 in Ingersoll, Ontario

Ingersoll, Ontario

Ingersoll is a town in Oxford County on the Thames River in southwestern Ontario, Canada. The nearest cities are Woodstock to the east and London to the west....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and it replaced the U-body

GM U platform

The U-platform is a front wheel drive minivan and crossover SUV platform from General Motors produced since 1990. North American sales ended in 2009, but Chinese production continues. The minivans were divided into three generations, 1990-1996, 1997-2005 and 2005-current...

 Aztek as the company's crossover SUV

Crossover SUV

A crossover SUV is a vehicle built on a car platform and combining, in highly variable degrees, features of a sport utility vehicle with features from a passenger vehicle, especially those of a station wagon or hatchback.Using the unibody construction typical of passenger vehicles, the crossover...

 for 2006. The Torrent was essentially a Chevrolet Equinox

Chevrolet Equinox

The second generation Equinox was announced by GM on December 21, 2008, and debuted at the 2009 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The 2010 Equinox went on sale in June 2009. It is built on a stiffened version of the same "Theta" platform used in the previous model. The new Equinox...

 on the Theta platform

GM Theta platform

Theta is General Motors' compact and mid-size crossover SUV automobile platform. The architecture debuted in 2002 with the Saturn Vue and was later used for the Chevrolet Equinox and Captiva and similar models.-Development:...

. The Torrent was introduced at the 2005 Los Angeles Auto Show and went on sale in late summer 2005.

The Torrent shared its basic body structure and mechanicals with the Equinox; however, the Torrent had a different front and rear end which makes it appear like a Pontiac rather than a Chevrolet

Chevrolet

Chevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...

.