Jason E

My wife and I were talking, and we are seriously considering buying a G8 GT while we can still find one. 0% or $3k cash back doesn't sound too bad to us. Resale isn't much of an issue because we'll keep the car indefinitely. She drives less than 10k miles a year, and I have no issue owning an older car.

She loves Pontiac. I love Pontiac. We both want a Pontiac before we can't get a Pontiac anymore. I'm probably one of the few sales GM will pull ahead by killing Pontiac I know...I sold Olds' until the end, too

The only problem is, being a Chrysler dealer GSM, you bet your *** I'm waiting until I know if I'll have a job or not!!!!!

Jason E

May I be the latest one on here to call you an idiot. I know its happened before...

Assuming it was the task force, when GM with EIGHT BRANDS barely has more market share than Toyota's THREE BRANDS, what rational person WOULDN'T tell them to **** can a few extra brands????????? Pontiac has been over 50% rental sales for YEARS!!!!! GM is too dumb to figure that out on its own!

I love Pontiac...but the Pontiac lineup today isn't what it was...not even close!!!

Josh452

You can throw insults out there all day long, I have thick skin. Just go ahead and show your immaturity.

The Pontiac G8 was GM's best selling retail car in March. The G8 is the foundation of which Pontiac is supposed to be centered around. The company doesn't want to kill Pontiac, the company has to kill Pontiac because the Automotive Task Force said "not enough."

Think what you want to, but I know.

mdenz3

So slap a bowtie on the G8, call it an Impalla, and fix two problems at once.

Josh452

That's what they're going to do.

Z28x

I'm fine with Pontiac offering 4cyls. because some people just want a sporty car, not necessarily a fast car. But when the V6 G6 puts out 200HP or 220HP and the Malibu V6 puts out 256HP and Honda/Nissan/Toyota all have 250HP+ in their family sedans something is wrong.

Pontiac whored out the "GT" sub brand too.

guionM

Yep.. I called it.

And gave reasons why.

And it panned out exactly as I said.

Quick summary.

Just before the G6 came out, Pontiac was selling a Gazillion Grand Ams, and Grand Prix was still an extremely strong seller. Most everyone else was ranting and raving about bringing back Firebirds, but it was obviously the G6 that Pontiac's future depended on.

The G6 was supposed to move Pontiac out of the fleet and car rental business, and as Fbodfather once called the G6, it was a "Blank Canvass". It was a car that you could do anything with.... and GM PLANNED to do alot with the car.

It was supposed to have an AWD version, it was supposed to get a turbo V6, it was the only manual transmission North American Espilon with a manual transmission (even the new Malibu SS wasn't going to have one). It was the only Espilon in North America that was going to come in coupe form. GM invested good money in making a retractable hardtop for the car. This was THE car that was going to take on Toyota, Honda, and Nissan.... and it was also going to be the centerpiece of Pontiac.

And it had some huge shoes to fill.

When the G6 turned into another fleet & rental car, and GM did their normal routine of cutting one plan to save a few dollars, then another, then another, then another, then even a mid life styling update, the G6 turned into just another rental that fell behind what Japanese brands were doing with their cars.... they certainly weren't standing still like GM tends to do.

The G8 is a great car... but it didn't come from General Motors North America. And it is by no means a mainstream car capable of sustaining Pontiac alone. What sustains a car division is a high volume, retail car. That's what the G6 was.


I agree 100% that GM seemed to purposely kill off Pontiac over the past decade. When you look at how Pontiac was managed within GM, and how much of Pontiac's sales were frittered away, one can come to no other conclusion. Anyone who actually believed Pontiac would have survived as a nich brand of a couple of models might want to stand in line to purchase the bridge I'm selling.


The blame is squarely on GM.

super83Z

How do you know this?

RussStang

The FoxNews is strong with this one.

guionM

Josh... I simply don't believe you honestly believe either of the points you're trying to say.

While I agree that's what's most likely going to happen (yes guys, since it was brought up I'm not even bothering using a winkie or hint this time), being that the NA RWD Impala was killed last year, that would indicate that GM planned that Pontiac was going to lose the G8 well before last year's elections, and therefore the President of the United States hardly picked up the phone, dialed Fritz over at GM and ordered him to kill off the Pontiac Motor Division.

The firesales were on cars that needed to be cleared out and were originally high volume and the dealers were toast.

Most all Pontiac dealers are Buick & GMC dealers, so there isn't the desparation there was with Olds.

You aren't going to see fire sales on G8s. If anything, I'd expect to see them on G6s and G5s.

Because that's the plan.

The idea was that G8's replacement was going to Chevrolet & the current G8 (and Solstice) would run out it's final days in a Buick-GMC showroom. One of the reasons why the G8-ST was killed after all the work was done.

Any and all future Zetas sold in North America will come from Holden. GM cancelled plans of setting up a North American Zeta OEM network, but kept the option open of bringing additional Zeta models to the US from Australia or Korea.

It was a cost cutting move GM initiated nearly a year ago.

GM-North America retained the option of importing the Holden Caprice-Statesman as either a Buick or Cadillac, and the next gen Commodore would have been Chevrolet's large sedan.... though I doubt it would have been called Impala.

Going with Holden over Oshawa on Zeta hedged GM's bets on both CAFE and the risk on public acceptence on large RWD sedans. Getting these sedans from Holden elimiated any substantial investments of resources GM simply didn't have, and needed to allocate to items with higher priority.

Although carmaker plans are always in a state of flux (and can change at anytime up till machinary is ordered and contracts are made) there are quite a few people who are/were aware of what was going on.

The demands the Feds are making on GM are helping to keep plans like this (and the new RWD Alpha cars) from getting the traditional GM treatment.... killed on save-a-nickel-and-lose-a-dollar decision.....

.... like Pontiac G6 has been.

flowmotion

While a turbo and AWD would have been nice, what really killed this car (IMO) was GM's "high value" OHV V6. The vast majority of midsize sales are 4-cylinders that get better than 30MPG, and GM didn't get that configuration into the G6 until the 2009 model year.

Also time has not been kind to the car's interior design.

super83Z

When do you think we will see the Chevrolet version?

guionM

Shortly after Holden redoes the Commodore. The same year GM has delayed the new Impala to, coincidentially.

Currently, the idea is to sell the next Lumina in both the Middle East and in North America.

Again, I don't know if this will be called Impala. Oshawa has dibs on the Impala name just like Ste. Therese had dibs on both Camaro & Firebird names.

Unlike Ste Therese, it's extremely unlikely (or a virtural certainty) that GM isn't going to bulldoze Oshawa, freeing up the name to grace a vehicle someplace else.

Again, although on the surface, this seems like a move for enthusiasts (like the RWD Alpha program), it's actually a cost cutting move that would have never happened under the old, territorial, snailspace General Motors.

It's far cheaper for General Motors to cancel spending on the Espilon Impala replacement and instead ship over Holden's updated Commodore/Chevrolet Lumina, while creating a clear stepup model in the process. Even considering the far fewer Impalas GM will sell, they will save themselves at least a billion in development while generating more profit on each Impala sold.


The talk has been of using the Holden Statesman from either Korea or Australia for Cadillac or Buick ever since those cars were cancelled here. Importing a Korean made Statesman would give GM a pretty amazing profit-per-vehicle compared to importing it from Australia or making it here. And don't think for a moment that they haven't been aware of that.


The revised Commodore will be slightly lighter (but don't expect miracles), and some areas will likely filter over to the Camaro.... much like how Ford took weight out of the last S197 Mustang over the years (about 50 pounds despite a running change that uses heavier guage metal for the floorpan). I'd expect not much more than a 100 pound drop.

A lot of things will likely come out once the dust settles, and GM (and the press) aren't focused on GM simply surviving the next month let alone the next year.

There's far more upside than down.

Silverhawk

You know, rather than lamenting the fact that Pontiac will no longer be around, why don't all you fans go out and buy one of the last models to be around? The G8 is an absolutely fantastic car.....I went out and bought one!!

No better time to buy than now....the deals are fantastic (especially on G8s) and you have an opportunity to keep a piece of automobile nostalgia.....

Of course I'm sad to see them go, but I'm also damn proud of my '99 Firehawk and my recently purchased G8......great cars!! And I'm happy to say that I bought part of their history!!

formula79

We have been hearing rumors of GM cancelling/starving to death/stopping investment in Pontiac for the last year now...so I won't blame the administration for something GM already had in the cards. Supposedly early last year, the board had to decide which brand (either GMC or Pontiac) to move forward with and invest in over the next few years, and they chose Pontiac. That decision was obviously based on the fact that Pontiac would take a lot more work to fix, and still make less money than a half assed GMC. I honeslty assumed Pontiac would get the same treatment Buick did when GM dumped a ton of money in Saturn. I figured basically GM would shrink Pontiac to 3 models, call it damaged...then in 3 years when they realize Buick won't cut it here, decide to reinvest and grow Pontiac. However with the bailout, what I think happened, is the auto task force saw this was the plan, and told GM cut the crap and just do it now if your going to.

I do think this is a mistake...I know it seriously cuts the number of GM cars I would buy. For instance...Malibu or Mazda 6? I pick the Mazda 6. If I wanted a bigger sedan I would get the new Taurus. People buy brands like Pontiac, Nissan, and Mazda because they want cars that are more expressive than mainstream. Cancelling Pontiac will not make those customers buy Chevy's (where only the Camaro and Corvette can be considered "expressive"...it will just push them to imports. Now..if the G8 becomes a Chevy that is a step in the right direction...as long as it is is not the LWB version.

I still am dumbfounded why Buick is