Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

[stratman]

http://jalopnik.com/the-feds-killed-pontiac-bob-lutz-says-1452735716

[mrslcom]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

It is old news. The Feds wanted GM to drop Pontiac because it had been bleeding red ink for years. They don't want GM to risk their bail-out money on a new marketing venture. The government is not in the car business. They only focused on GM's long term survivability. Too bad though since Pontiac was on a turn-around and could have been a rising star in GM's portfolio.

If Pontiac continued as a niche performance brand with true sport-oriented RWD or AWD vehicles instead of mostly re-badges, I would have been a loyal customer for life. Chevys and Buicks are as boring as Toyotas and Hondas.

[dre256]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

Unfortunately, Pontiac had no special cars really besides the G8 and the G6 coupe. Everything else was a rebadge of something. Ok, Pontiac had the Solstice first but then the Saturn Sky came along. G3 was a Chevy Aveo, G5 was a Colbolt, G6 was a Malibu, Torrent was an Equinox. And now the G8 because the car has reached its refresh cycle GM is aloud to rebadge it without facing franchise issues from shutting down Pontiac to sell it as the Chevy SS. Only car they didn't save was the Solstice because its plant in Delaware was sold and at the end the Solstice had the biggest surplus with slow sells then any other GM product. So at the end of the day GM lost nothing by shutting Pontiac down.

[CruisinG6]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

The article mentioned Pontiac was on its way to an all RWD lineup. Apparently the feds wants GM to only run Chevy and Cadillac. "One prestige brand, one mass market brand"

Sad either way, Pontiac did seem to start climbing back into greatness. Oh well.

But it is true they wasted a bunch of years just re-branding other GM cars, had they made more effort earlier on perhaps we'd still have Pontiac being produced today.

Hopefully we'll get a reboot... haha

[mrslcom]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

It's hard to take Pontiac seriously as a performance division with vehicles like the G3, G5, Vibe, Montana, and the Aztek.

[CruisinG6]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

Yea. All fairly awful vehicles. I actually have yet to see a G3 anywhere that isn't a dealership.

[ckeelan2087]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

Never even heard of the G3, just googled it and needless to say.... Its horrid.

Why pontiac, why?!?!

Should have stuck to GTO, G8, G6, performance cars....

[dre256]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

I dont think Pontiac would have gone all RWD. CAFE regulations would make it hard as cars get better MPG in a FWD platform. The issue with the GTO was slow sales and would hurt Camaro sales today and this the first time ever the Camaro has out sold the Mustang and has every year since 2010. And they could keep the G6 coupe as a Malibu coupe but all mid size coupe sales suck and only mid size coupe still being sold is the Accord. Eclipse is done, Altima coupe all done due to poor sales

[CruisinG6]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

Good point. I forgot about the regulations pushing for MPGs

[mrslcom]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

If Pontiac was to become a performance division obviously fuel economy will suffer. That's why I was a good idea for GM to make it a premium niche brand instead of a mass market brand like Chevrolet. They don't need to sell in large volume to affect CAFE. They don't need a wide range of models, and they could be sold in Chevrolet dealerships instead of a separate network.

[dre256]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

If Pontiac was to become a performance division obviously fuel economy will suffer. That's why I was a good idea for GM to make it a premium niche brand instead of a mass market brand like Chevrolet. They don't need to sell in large volume to affect CAFE. They don't need a wide range of models, and they could be sold in Chevrolet dealerships instead of a separate network.

that could have worked making it into a small ninche brand and sell through Chevy or GMC network. I just dont know the franchise laws if that would be legal with a preexisting Pontiac network to drop them all and shelter them into another network.

[mrslcom]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

that could have worked making it into a small ninche brand and sell through Chevy or GMC network. I just dont know the franchise laws if that would be legal with a preexisting Pontiac network to drop them all and shelter them into another network.

It may not be feasible under the old GM network. But after the bankruptcy, the new GM emerges as an entirely new company and can technically restructure its entire operation from scratch.

[samurai]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

the gtp may have had the same engine as a malibu ss but is drove nothing like the malibue ss to me. I test trove both cars and the g6 gtp was way more sleek, had a way more sprty performance inspired interior and sounded a lot better. the biggest difference was the handeling of the gtp. it handled completely different from the malibu and and the gt/v6 models. from switching lanes to corning it had a tight gokart sporty feel. when I talked to a tech at the dealer he said it's because the gtp model was built with a different axle/wheel angle or something along those lines to give it a more sporty tight handling feel.

[Rannin Ravensight]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

Heritage and Nostalgia are both big deals, ask MOPAR and the people making $40-100k a pop on vintage steel.

Seems like Pontiac will probably be remembered in the same light as Nash, AMC, or Oldsmobile... Once great brands that were let go because of lack-luster sales and/or quality brought on by years of neglect and poor management.

[WS6 RACING]

Re: Feds told GM to drop Pontiac...

I am in hopes since GM kept the name that they are planning to resurrect Pontiac when the economy is better aka no more Obama.