This just in: the Pontiac Vibe, a car that should have sold better than it did, will no longer be produced after August, 2009. In a statement just released, GM declared, “As part of its long-term viability plan and recent decision to phase out the Pontiac brand, General Motors has decided to discontinue production of the Pontiac Vibe.” This is a somewhat abrupt — but not wholly unexpected — turnaround, considering that other sources had indicated that the Vibe would last through the 2010 model year.

The Vibe was produced in Fremont, Calif. at the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant, better known as NUMMI. This joint venture between GM and Toyota was established in the 1980s and has since then concentrated largely on producing rebadged Toyota Corollas and Matrixes (Matrices?) for the Chevrolet and Pontiac divisions, respectively. At the time, GM CEO Roger Smith had hoped to get a peek under the veil of what made Toyotas so darn good; he thought it was robots, but it turned out that Toyota was simply better at using ordinary people to put cars together. GM, having failed to learn the lesson it had hoped to, instead learned almost nothing from the NUMMI plant. Toyota, meanwhile, found a neat way to skirt “voluntary” import restrictions.

Anyhow, so much for the Vibe. If you want this nifty looking, practical and inexpensive five-door hatchback, you’d better get one quick.