GM to pull the plug on Pontiac car brand - Apr. 24, 2009

 

A good friend of mine recently picked up a G8. This is a shame, because that G8 is actually a very nice car.

That article seemed to be a lot of speculation and reading between the lines though.

 

I think it's a shame also. Pontiac's are the nicest cars they make imo.
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Same here.

Only GM vehicles I would consider buying:

G8
Solstice Coupe
GTO

 

gto has been discontinued for a couple years now i think. g8 is its replacement.

 

Pontiac's been on the chopping block for a decade. Maybe not carrying dead weight and building 3 different versions of the same car will save some coin.

 

Oh, well, that sucks. It still sells in Australia, right?

I say get rid of Saturn and Cadillac.

 

As much I hate to say it, it makes sense to get rid of Pontiac.

Pontiac and Chevrolet overlap way to much in product line up...and GM is not going to get rid of Chevrolet.

 

Saturn was actually a good idea. The problem is that they GM'd Saturn, rather than Saturning GM. Saturns that were actually Saturns, rather than rebagded whatevers, were decent cars. Sort of the same could have been done with Pontiac, but the question is whether it's better to have lots of brands with a few models each to fill different markets, or to have a few brands with lots of models each. I don't know squat about marketing.

 

I thought I heard that Saturn dealerships and other private investors were considering buying the brand if GM got rid of it.

 

I would leave Pontiac as the performance niche. Although, you might see a Chevy Solstice, Chevy Sky or a Chevy G8. Chevrolet needs an nice infusion to bolster the line. I cannot imagine that they would abandon the models that actually have rave reviews and high marks of quality. Chevy has the Volt, Cruze and the Spark coming in the next couple of years. That covers the fuel misers of the line up. Then keep the Malibu as your mainstream sedan, Solstice/Sky for the 'verts, keep the G8 GXP for the high performance sedan, Corvette, because it is Corvette. For trucks and SUV, make the Silverado, Suburban and finally the Traverse as your X-over. You cover all the bases with that lineup.

I would keep Cadillac for the luxury brand because they are kicking ***.

Saab, GMC, Buick, Saturn, Hummer would be toast.

 

I also hear they're keeping Buick because the Asian countries love it. Asians are weird.

 

Yeah, that's their biggest problem. I find it silly to make the same car with 3 different names. I once had a Pontiac Torrent which was pretty much an Equinox. You rarely saw Torrents on the road but the Equinox everywhere. I say keep Pontiac but make it, it's own brand. Don't just rebadge cars.
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It doesn't matter how good the car is. Put that Pontiac grill on it and upper middle class people won't buy it. No cache to the brand at all. I'd happily buy the G8 or the G6 coupe in the Euro versions. They are great looking cars. The Pontiac name and grill ruined them both for me.

Vauxhall version of the G8


Opel version of the G6 coupe


Put a Lexus, Infiniti, Acura, Mercedes, Audi, etc. badge on that black Opel and no one would question it was a nice car. Put that Pontiac grill on the front and it's a POS.

 

Same here. I hear pontiac and I think fat slutty college girl driving a beat up, needs a new exhaust, grand am with a rainbow colored lei and graduation cap tassels hanging from the rear-view.

 

Yeah, with GM still supplying most of the parts/components/cars, possibly as a minority shareholder.

All of this is hypothetical, though. I honestly wonder how many of these "stories" are just the result of somebody overhearing some GM employee say something to another in line at Starbucks, which then gets repeated and repeated until it becomes internet wisdom and truth. Kind of like the "new NSX/RX-7/S2000/Supra/whatever will be out 2 years from now" rumors that make their way around the interwebs periodically.

 

I don't understand how Buick isn't going first. I've seen very few new Buick's around here lately. Pontiac's seem to still be moving off the lots. Oh well, everyone at GM is retarded anyway.I think all of GM needs to pull their heads out of their asses and look at what other companies are doing right, and what they (GM) are doing wrong, which is a lot in my opinion.

I would keep Pontiac and Cadillac and sell of the rest. Pontiac for the more fun cars, and Cadillac for the more luxury based cars. I was actually thinking hard about a GTO soon for a daily, but if Pontiac is gone, what would one do about support for existing Pontiac cars? I'm hoping other GM dealers would cover whats left of Pontiac.

 

There was a good article in wired about why Saturn failed. It's also on the chopping block.

The other interesting GM tidbit was why the white house is talking about a 'controlled' or 'mini' bankruptcy of GM.

It turns out their dealer network is way way too large. You can't just cancel the contracts in place with several thousand dealers, so the original plan was to buy them out. That costs too much..... so if you allow a bankruptcy, you can just walk away from the dealers.

So, let's see... you own a car dealership in small town. One that your grandfather started, your father ran successfully, and now GM's 'mini' bankruptcy strips it from you without having to pay you a dime.

Nice. I hope there is a howl of protest as they roundly screw the small businesses to bail the large one out.

 

Is it the small town single dealerships getting reamed or is it the 5 dealerships within 4 miles of each other in a suburb of a large metro area?

seriously, in silicon valley, you can buy a car almost as many places as a slurpee.

 

Buick is huge in the Asian markets, particularly China.