The future Pontiac lineup seems likely to be small and straightforward. I'm guessing three RWD sedans (small, medium and large), a RWD five-passenger coupe (GTO), and Solstice, and that's it. Maybe the Vibe will stick around, maybe not, but no more trucks or SUVs or minivans and possibly no more FWD. Together these cars will constitute the "excitement" portion of your local Pontiac-GMC-Buick dealership's offerings.

If you start thinking of those three brands as a single line of vehicles, suddenly lots of things make more sense, BTW.

 

Now that you put it like that...then yeah there might not be room for a Trans Am in the lineup. Hmm...so the GTO is set to return like the modern Charger? That would be interesting...

 

There has been no official word on that yet, but it's the most likely conclusion gathered from what few "clues" we have been given . Not too sure about when its potential launch would be, but probably somewhere around ~late 2009 / early 2010 maybe? (<--- just a guess, don't beat me up if you don't agree!! )

 

Honestly George, I think that's too many products. There is the intent to limit Pontiac to 3 or 4, under the new sales channel.


By 2011 or so, I think we'll see a completely new Pontiac. Perhaps, we'll see a locally made G8 replacement. Perhaps not.

 

I know where there's a plant that will have the capacity to do that!!

 

i wouldnt mind a ute!!!

 

I agree completely! The Holden Ute, if freshened up a bit, would sell like crazy . . . At least I would buy one, anyway.

 

Small RWD sedan, Zeta sedan, GTO, and Solstice? That actually makes more sense to me.

 

Lutz has dropped some pretty heavy hints about a GTO. I'm guessing we'll see it a year after Camaro debuts, though I don't know whether it'll be made in Oshawa or Australia.

 

That, he has. He dropped alot of hints about the BelAir as well.

 

Trans Am?

Ain't gonna happen.

Let's put it this way:

Firebird is like Elvis Presley. You know he's dead, but there are still people who think he's still alive somewhere, and may one day reappear.

Trans Am is like....... well.....did you get to see that cellphone video someone made of Saddam Hussain hanging at the end of a rope with his eyes open, and his neck twisted in an impossible position where you just KNOW he ain't coming back????



Not bashing the Trans Am. Being a product of the late 70s, Trans Am was one of my favorite cars, so I'm probally about as opposite of a Firebird Trans Am hater as you're going to find.

Truth is, Sports Car Club of America racing organization owns the rights to the name (it's a race series.... John Delorean attempted to steal the name for Pontiac as he did with Bonneville, Grand Prix, & LeMans...... unlike everyone else, the SCCA promptly responded with a lawsuit).

They settled with GM when they agreed to a royalty of $5 per car for the length of production when the car was going to have a short run and a few thousand models. No one expected the car to last more than a few years. By 1978, Trans Am became a a household name and SCCA had no ability to raise the royalties.

On the other side, those 93,000 Trans Ams GM sold in '78 cost GM $465,000. Even at that amount, GM attempted to get out of paying the SCCA anything by changing the name to T/A when the 3rd gen 'Birds came out (GM's intro pictures of the '82 Trans Am wore T/A badging, not Trans Am). That idea was dropped at the last minute when GM's lawyers concluded that they could still be taken to court and sued.

If GM abandoned the "Trans Am" name, they would have to renegotiate terms to reuse the name.

If you think the Pep Boys Auto store had the power to demand money for using the Futura name (Ford refused & used Fusion), and Ford had to back down from using GT40 when payment negotiations broke down over someone who claimed the GT40 name and use "GT", and those are just small beans regarding relatively small royalties, just imagine what the SCCA is going to demand to use the "Trans Am" name!

$5 in 1969 is about $35-40 today. Even IF they agreed to the same relative royalty payment (Fat Chance) GM isn't about to pay ANYONE for a name when they either own or can create names or model levels themselves.

 

Really? I missed those. He wasn't referring to the 2002 Bel Air concept, was he? That thing was... not quite right, IMO.

 

Well, at least we know the Pontiac G8 is gonna be the Zeta-based Holden Commodore V8 SS from Australia!
http://www.leftlanenews.com/index.ph...den+Pontiac+G8

Best regardSS,

Elie

 

I dunno... the flip side of that argument is that the Trans Am racing series doesn't have 1/zillionth the prominence now that it did in the late '60s. If SCCA were smart (which they generally aren't) they'd see the advantages in a strong well-promoted marketing partnership with GM around the Trans Am brand generally (assuming that GM were going to build a Firebird, which they aren't, so never mind...)

Anyway. In the extremely unlikely event that GM decided to build another Firebird, I don't think the obstacles to using the Trans Am name would be as significant as you make them out to be.

 

That's the one. Actually I think BL came out later and said that "it didn't turn out they way they wanted", or words to that effect.

But at it's intro, he was even quoting a price tag for the production car. Something like $20-$25,000.

As far as the Trans Am series, I think we should all chip in and buy the rights. Who's in?