I said don't believe bad news or product cuts till you actually hear them officially. Well, here's the opening salvo (if it hasn't already been posted):

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...A01-127736.htm

 

It would suck to lose a few more brands, but if it cuts out dead weight, redundency, and streamlines the product process, then I do think it will be a good idea..

 

GM's gotta do what they gotta do and if they get rid of Pontiac, then I've gotta do what I've gotta do........bye bye GM

 

Can Daewoo and Fiat!!

Stupid ****s at GM!

RIP "GTO"

 

GM needs to stop making so many FWD V6 cars and make some AWD, RWD, Hybrids, Diesels, Turbos, more V8s. It isn't like GM has every market covered, they just have the same markets covered more than one.

Build Pontiac a $19K-$25K Kappa sedan/coupe. basically a 1 series. How a bout a FI AWD G6??? AWD V8 Grand Prix????

The Pontiac SUV should have 260HP DOHC V6 and 18" rims STANDARD. They should be going after the Nissan Morrano with that thing, not stealing 'nox sales.

Lets get rid of Saab is the USA

 

Of the two, i hope Buick goes. Pontiac has some serious potential if GM would just give them an extreme makeover.

 

What has Saturn done to deserve to stay,It should've gotten the axe over Oldsmobile and now we'll lose another storied car brand rather than throwing out the Brand that has never really gotten off the ground. If the buying experience is more memorable than the car,that's a BIG problem. I don't understand GM at all,of course,that is the GM M.O.
........Finally get something right,then kill it. How the hell has the Corvette survived all these years,does GM even know they make it?

 

Corvette has had its share of close calls with the chopping block as well.

 

Saturn is GM's little experiment ("a different kind of car, from a different kind of company"). Probably the main reason that it's still around.

 

Which begs the question...

Why try something new, when you can't do anything old right?

Whats the point of 31 flavors if vanilla sucks?

 

I thought GM refused to close any more brands after the olds closeout cost them a hell of a lot buying out dealerships alone.

 

Just another news story about how the UAW is causing problems.

 

All I can say is wow. Although this is not official confirmation that GM is going to axe any divisions, it is pretty upsetting to me that it is being analyzed. I'll say this, if GM axes Pontiac, I'm with Raven99 and saying bye bye to GM. I currently own a 2002 WS6 as well as a '97 Grand Prix GT for as a daily driver. I just finished paying off the WS6, and other than looking into purchasing a house, the GTO is at the top of my list for a new car (with the Solstice right there considering it's price). I'm only 23 years old, and I'm a staunch Pontiac supporter, and by extension GM, but this just chaps my a$$.

There's no way GM can axe another storied division. It just seems insane to do so. AS mentioned in other threads as well as this, how about GM actually starts building exciting, well made cars and see if sales picks up? And actually define the divisions and don't overlap the cars within all the divisions. It just seems so easy to me: make affordable, well built cars for Chevy, actual performance cars for Pontiac with manuals, keep Caddy in its current direction and have GMC take care of trucks and suvs. How hard is that to do? Apparently for GM it is.

I know we've been all told not to believe all the doom and gloom until anything is official, and axing brands is probably the last measure for GM, but this is startling news nonetheless. If GM axes Pontiac, they just axed one more customer.

 

I agree,

More money for Chevy

More models of Camaro

 

And now it's neither. It started out as its own corporation outside of GM (a different kind of car company) selling models not shared with any other GM division (a different kind of car).

Now, it's been brought into the GM fold and shares all its cars with other divisions:

Ion --> Cobalt
Vue --> Equinox
Aura --> Malibu
Sky --> Solstice

Wow! They are uncannily different! I think there are two reasons they'll probably get to stay.

#1. GM just can't seem to own up to what a stupid, stupid, stupid mistake the company was in the first place (with all the money that they poured into the Saturn "experiment" they could have built Chevrolet into a company that could compete with the best of the Japanese on its own merits rather than jaw droppingly huge incentives).

#2. Since Saturn dealers are "stand-alone" I bet shutting them down would cost GM way more than getting rid of Pontiac and/or Buick who oftentimes share showroom space with another GM brand.

I would be extremely sad to see Pontiac or Buick either one go. Pontiac is my favorite brand and Buick is the company that GM was "built" on to begin with, but it's going to be a tough road trying to keep the current, unweildy GM going with their freefalling market share. I think they keep making the mistake of trying to make every division a "full line" division. If they want to keep going with all the divisions they have now, each should only have 2 or 3 cars right in the heart of their segment rather than a model on every platform GM is building.

Buick shouldn't be selling trucks or minivans. They should have a near luxury mid-size (Invicta?) and a more luxurious, rear-drive full-sizer (Roadmaster).

Pontiac should have the GTO, Grand Prix, Solstice, maybe G6 coupe and 'vert, but do they really need the G6 sedan (though I like it) when it's so like the Malibu (and soon Aura). Pontiac doesn't need any SUVs. I actually own a Vibe, and love the car, but in my "theory" lets let Pontiac hold up more of the "sporty mid-market")

Chevy should have Cobalt (small) Malibu, (mid), Impala (large), Equinox, Trucks, Camaro (priced comparable to Mustang trim for trim) and Corvette. I actually don't think Chevy is on a bad path if they could get over the public perception of them.

Cadillac I think are doing pretty well. Not 100% all of the time, but look great compared to much of GM. I wonder, however, if you want to make a case for GMC if they shouldn't be the "Cadillac" of trucks rather than having actual Cadillac trucks.