đź“° Auto News Edmunds Report: Pontiac Is Dead

Mook

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DETROIT — According to a source at General Motors, the company will announce next Monday its new "faster, deeper" reorganization plan, which will likely include a death sentence for the Pontiac brand.

Inside Line called Tom Wilkinson, news relations PR man for General Motors, who said: "There's nothing I can share with you at this time. Keep your eyes on our media site. Officially, nothing has changed with Pontiac's niche-brand status, until you hear differently."

The one-time "Excitement" division and creator of legends such as the GTO and Firebird was relegated to "niche" or "specialty" brand status by General Motors in its first viability plan in December of last year.

The company toyed with competing proposals to either turn the brand into GM's version of Scion or to make Pontiac a very focused purveyor of performance cars based around the critically well-received G8. But ultimately, Pontiac was chosen as the easiest to kill since it was cut from GM's self-defined herd of four "core brands," Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick. Most Pontiac franchises have already been combined with Buick and GMC.

If true, Pontiac will join Saab, Saturn and Hummer as brands that will not survive GM's current troubles — at least not as a component of General Motors.

Inside Line says: Just as the G8 reawakened our interest in 83-year-old Pontiac, the brand falls victim to bad times and old mistakes. — Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit
 

slowchevy

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Sep 10, 2007
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kidding.

i liked the gxp. but the base model was a little boring even with a five speed manual.

the gxp was nice once the turbo came into play.. but it was an automatic (five speed?) so it was kinda not as fun as it could've been, i know someone who has a solstice gxp and he loves it.
 

Oreif

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Inside Line says: Just as the G8 reawakened our interest in 83-year-old Pontiac, the brand falls victim to bad times and old mistakes. — Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit


Pity that GM has a LOOONNGGG history of doing this and not to just the Pontiac's but to many cars they have come up with in the past. They find something that is a hit right about the time they cancel/kill it.

Just when they got the Fiero right they killed it.
Just when they upped the horsepower and updated the suspension they killed the GN/GNX.
They caused a huge stir with GMC when they came out with the Cyclone and Typhoon, Then killed it.
Just when the F-body's were getting the same power as the Corvette, they stop them.

All that is just the last 25 years. There were other mistakes that GM pulled as well. As much as I hate to see the Pontiac nameplate go away, In my opinion it is the back assward management that has hurt them.
 

Boreas

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Pity that GM has a LOOONNGGG history of doing this and not to just the Pontiac's but to many cars they have come up with in the past. They find something that is a hit right about the time they cancel/kill it.

Just when they got the Fiero right they killed it.
Just when they upped the horsepower and updated the suspension they killed the GN/GNX.
They caused a huge stir with GMC when they came out with the Cyclone and Typhoon, Then killed it.
Just when the F-body's were getting the same power as the Corvette, they stop them.

All that is just the last 25 years. There were other mistakes that GM pulled as well. As much as I hate to see the Pontiac nameplate go away, In my opinion it is the back assward management that has hurt them.

%100 spot on. Anything GM starts to do good, they stop doing it.
 

Mook

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Rumors from late last week have come home to roost, and as part of its restructuring efforts, General Motors has just announced that Pontiac will be "phased out by the end of 2010." GM will continue to build its accelerated viability plan around four brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC.

As part of its latest announcement, GM also announced that it plans to have "the resolution" of Saab, Saturn, and Hummer by the end of 2009 "at the latest." In total, GM plans to end up with just 34 nameplates for 2010, as compared to 48 for 2008 – a reduction of some 29%. Further, as part of its viability plan tendered to President Obama's Auto Task Force, the automaker's revised viability plan projects that GM's total market share will dip to 18.4 to 18.9% – the plan is banking on a 19.5 percent share for this year.

it is done
 

Eagle

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wow buick over pontiac....who would of thought. why GMC? seems redundant

Buick is a flagship brand in many markets, like in Asian markets for example. Pontiac has always been a performance oriented brand and I'm sure someone in the gvt told GM to off it if they expected to continue to receive their support. :tear:

Oh well. RIP PONTIAC! :eek3:
 

Smoke

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Buick is a flagship brand in many markets, like in Asian markets for example. Pontiac has always been a performance oriented brand and I'm sure someone in the gvt told GM to off it if they expected to continue to receive their support. :tear:

Oh well. RIP PONTIAC! :eek3:

But couldnt GM just discontinue the US arm, then keep Buicks in China?
Id rather buy a G8 V6 than a V8 Lacrosse.....:rofl:
 
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