well, i've fell a little lax on my "poll of the week" scenario, so here's to catching up

since pontiac is supposedly not getting cut, what would you do to improve the brand?
would you make it cars only and introduce some new models?
or would you try to make everything in it's lineup more sporty and keep the minivans/suvs?

 

i believe so. minivan and performance division don't go together :\

 

It should be cars only. Same with Buick. Let Saturn, Chevy, and GMC sell the vans and minvans.

 

I think GM really needs to "focus" it's brands and stop throwing money towards badge engineering and overlap.....concentrate on building better cars, not more variations of cars and trucks.

 

GM has to ask itself -

If the Pontiac image is supposed to be "Driving Excitement" and "Performance."

Does the Torrent fit into the Pontiac image?
Does a Minivan fit into the Pontiac image?
Did the Aztec fit into the Pontiac Image?
Does the Vibe fit into the Pontiac Image (while Chevy gets a supercharged Cobalt)?

 

All cars (mostly RWD and AWD) manuals as option on all. Maybe include one crossover

 

EXACTLY!

 

No.


Was Grand prix the average best seller in the line-up?

 

I don't disagree with you, but I also don't think that you can take all of the performance and excitement out of all of the other brands, or knock GM for having that in another brand.

I have always been a chevy guy since I was 11 or 12, and for me, putting anything but a bow tie on the cobalt would make it less appealing. My first vehicle was a 84 GMC Jimmy S-10. I did everything I could to remove anything that said GMC or Jimmy, just because it wasn't a Chevy emblem. For some people (myself included) the name "Chevrolet" is what sells the car.

 

And that's fine for all the other GM divisions to have performance models in their lineup. Every division save for Saturn has had an "hot performance" model or two in its history of cars. But the problem that Pontiac has/is having is that it's brand image is that of "Driving Excitement" and the "Performance Division" of GM. And yet other than the GTO, and the GTP/GXP model of the Grand Prix, there isn't much excitement in Pontiac's lineup. And as the subject of this topic is asking, should Pontiac be offering minivans and crossovers in its lineup if it's supposed to be a performance division? And what about AWD/RWD as well as manually equipped cars? Pontiac needs to have sporty cars that perform better, handle better, and are more aggressive looking than any other GM division counter part.

Again, I'll state that the other divisions can still have performance driven cars in their lineup, just that Pontiac should offer across the board performance cars.

 

Excitment and performance can come in many different shapes and forms, I don't believe they have to be reduced to selling Sports Coupes to be "Exciting". But they should build "Excitment" into whatever they sell under that branding, if they wish to persue that labeling.
Take the Pontiac TransPort, it had the same under-pinnings as the Lumina and Sillouette but it had a deffinite Sporty'er look!...(Inside and Out)

Build "Excitment" into the Pontiac Models, not Pontiac models into "Excitment"...

 

YES.


There seems to be more agreement on this than any other GM topic I've seen. Looking around various boards, it looks like most of us think Pontiac should go this way.


An AWD sportwagon that trounces the Magnum would be awful nice.

 

If Pontiac survives as a "BRAND" in the next 5 years I would be surprised.

 

Da, Ja, Si, and in english YES!!
Get rid of the crappy minivans and crossovers!

 

I personally think that pontiac should be a cars only brand, and they should make cars that actually earn the 'excitement' label. In the past, 'excitement' meant taking a chevrolet vehicle and putting plastic cladding all over it. I want some real excitement.
On the other hand, I bet alot of pontiac dealers love having minivans and suvs to sell. These markets are hot, and the dealers would probably raise a pretty big stink if they lost them.