Pontiac Is Dead

[AWD Chaser]

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=146706

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.


So what this news article is saying is there is some anouncment to come on monday regarding the word on Pontiac... lol

[Fairlane]

Someone explained to me why GMC is a core brand for a car company?

Hope it is untrue, because I think Pontiac is about the best brand GM has in NA. Buick, sure they sell in China, but i think it needs the bullet. A core of Chev, Pontiac & Cadillac, plus the overseas divisions of GM DAT and GM China would be the best option for long term survival.

Saturn and Hummer should be dead already. Opel/Vauxhall should be flogged off for good money and well Holden could be merged with Opel before the spinoff.

[Mark351]

Pickups, of which they sell a lot of.

[Bud Bud]

Originally Posted by Mark351

Pickups, of which they sell a lot of.

Yeh but they already sell Chev pickups. Aren’t GMC pickups just re-badged Chevs anyway?

I think that if Holden survive under the "new" GM banner, then the G8 still might have a home in America with Chev as an SS Lumina or something. There still will be left hand drive versions for the Middle East on hand and they are already Chevs anyway.

[Rob]

Other than the Monaro, Pontiac doesn't have anything going for it, unless that Solstice thing made it into production.

[Paxton]

Originally Posted by Rob

Other than the Monaro, Pontiac doesn't have anything going for it, unless that Solstice thing made it into production.

What, so the Australian built G8 is nothing then?

Pontiac's death will directly affect Holden. The Commodore Hatchback and Ute's development were directly tied into exporting them to Pontiac. I think it will be an interesting time ahead for Holden.

[TZENU]

I thought the new GM CEO was planning on holding onto the Four brands under GM, that being, Chev, Buick, Pontiac and Cadillac and had included that wording in their business plan??? Sudden change of heart now?

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by Paxton

What, so the Australian built G8 is nothing then?

Pontiac's death will directly affect Holden. The Commodore Hatchback and Ute's development were directly tied into exporting them to Pontiac. I think it will be an interesting time ahead for Holden.

The G8 ST was shitcanned quite a while ago, and I never heard of any plan to export the Sportwagen (see what I did there) to the US. Personally, whilst I agree that this will affect Holden adversely, it won't be that bad as Middle East exports are more valuable to Holden than North American ones.

[ebxr8240]

There is some negatives over there on imported Monaro's..
G.M didn't advertise them..

[Fev]

Atleast vauxhall got some good advertising through Top Gear :P

[AWD Chaser]

Maybe Holden's new ad campain could go something like:


Holden means a great deal to Australia.... China.... and America....

or

Donate today and adopt a Holden. This rare breed is disapearing fast and needs your help to stay alive.

or

This little car is a GM. Just like his family, he is very poor, impoverished, and gets sick all the time. But you can make a difference. From as little as $14 a day, you can help little GM and his family.

or

The all new 2015 Commodore - it features a mind blowing 175kw straight to the front wheels that comes from its highly engineered all European V6. With more FWD power then any Falcon ever produced, a more carpark sized body, a boot big enough to fit a suitcase and a whoping 1500kg towing capacity, you'll wonder why bigger was ever better...

[boss-290]

Originally Posted by barbarian

Good news has made my day so far, its like music to my ears

fingers crossed Holden shares the same fate

You're a tool.

Think of all the jobs being lost.

Think before you speak you .

[TUF_302]

Agreed, also if Holden went, Ford aus wouldnt be far behind!

So yer think before posting! :

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by Rob

Other than the Monaro, Pontiac doesn't have anything going for it, unless that Solstice thing made it into production.

Monaro is dead. Its the G8 they sell there now.

[XR6_190]

No surprise, while it is sad to lose the brand name, and the jobs going is unfortunate, but it is a necessary move for GM to have a chance of survival.

Originally Posted by barbarian

Good news has made my day so far, its like music to my ears fingers crossed Holden shares the same fate

That is NOT the attitude to have, you just make yourself out to be very immature and selfish.

Not to mention ill informed. If Holden do go, Ford Australia's chances of survival are going to be very slim, and Toyota will not likely stay in the country if they are the sole local manufacturer.

[MethodX]

Would be a shame, Pontiac has a great history with some classic cars.
GTO, Firebird, Transam, Bonnevile, Grand Prix.

They slowly let the brand die with crap cars for too long.
The Aztec and lots of fwd junk.
They even sell a version of the current barina.

[snappy]

Pontiac wont die it will just go to sleep for a while .

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by snappy84

Pontiac wont die it will just go to sleep for a while .

Like Oldsmobile?

[Polyal]

I too think that Pontiac was dead ages ago, they never had the right vehicles/strategies. Shame really but GM has also had to many brands for ages.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by snappy84

Pontiac wont die it will just go to sleep for a while .

Ford never do this; Fairmont, Fairlane, Cortina, Capri, Landau, LTD, Laser etc etc etc....

[buickman]

Originally Posted by ebxr8240

There is some negatives over there on imported Monaro's..
G.M didn't advertise them..

On a around America trip I only seen 3 GTO 's (Monaro's) on the road and one at a dealer in Califorina. The most Monaros I had seen were at Disney world in Florida at the GM crash dummy ride they were parked near the ride as display cars .
The cars were cheap enough to buy but you have snow in most states so large P/UP's are more popular as transport.


[IMG][/IMG]

[uranium_death]

Through this global collapse, many things will and have disappeared.
Change is inevitable, and Pontiac may be gone, like so many other car manufacturers before.

Also, if somebody posts something bad, don't wish harm upon them just for your own amusement. It really does reflect poorly on all.

Let's feel the love!

[EgoFG]

Originally Posted by uranium_death

Through this global collapse,.....

Please, let us call it the USFC (United States [of America] Financial Crisis)

Puts the blame squarely where it should lie.

[buggerlugs]

http://www.news.com.au/business/stor...55-462,00.html and more, a slightly different angle..........

[chevypower]

Seriously, who cares? Get rid of Pontiac! I called it ages ago, GM will shrink down to just 3 brands. Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac.

[Dr Smith]

It's a sad irony that Falcon and it's lack of exports was going to be it's demise according to all the doomsayers. Now it's Holden through it's parents massive troubles and failure to reorganise itself in the same way Ford US seems to have successfully achieved that they could lose a huge chunk of their market, coupled with the Mid-east's slow down. The saviour of exports and the abilty to amortise costs over larger volumes could come back to hurt badly. Relying on exports to take 50% of your manufacturing volume will hurt Holden more then Ford having no exports for Falcon in the current climate. If the future Focus/Territory/Falcon can take up full production capacity at Campbellfield then the future is not so bad.

[4Vman]

Originally Posted by Dr Smith

It's a sad irony that Falcon and it's lack of exports was going to be it's demise according to all the doomsayers. Now it's Holden through it's parents massive troubles and failure to reorganise itself in the same way Ford US seems to have successfully achieved that they could lose a huge chunk of their market, coupled with the Mid-east's slow down. The saviour of exports and the abilty to amortise costs over larger volumes could come back to hurt badly. Relying on exports to take 50% of your manufacturing volume will hurt Holden more then Ford having no exports for Falcon in the current climate. If the future Focus/Territory/Falcon can take up full production capacity at Campbellfield then the future is not so bad.

Very true.. if you ratchet your expenses forward to cope with anticipated volume based on a business case needing export volume to amortise costs and survive and you loose money on each sale you're doomed....
Ford have been criticized for having no export vision, but atleast they're in a position to bunker down and weather the storm, unlike pontiac/holden/gm or what ever they're called for the moment...