This is where I think Pontiac needs to step in with a bunch of small, rwd, fun turbo cars. Even fun fwd cars. Pontiac needs to cater to this market and this market only. Make it so the whole division is nothing but fun, fast and affordable cars. No need for V8's here, turbo 4's and maybe small v6's.

IMO Pontiac is probably the only division that could pull this off. Maybe Saturn, but even Saturn has negetive conotations associated with it. Case in point, the other day a Sky drove by me and some friends at work. I made a comment about wanting it and my co-worker said "That? Its a Saturn!?"

Pontiac seem to be the lone GM brand that has the least amount of bad karma with the younger gen...

 

I find this topic to be highly accurate. The way I look at it, what would DRAW me into GM today? A Cobalt SS, maybe? A GTO? A Solstice? A G6 GTP coupe? A GXP Grand Prix? That's about all...and even then, those are maybes...

To be honest, the reason I love GM is not because of what they make NOW, but because of what shaped my love of cars YEARS ago. 3rd gen Camaros...Firebirds...Grand Nationals...Monte Carlo SSs...Fieros...yes, even 195hp '91 Cutlass Calais 442s were pretty damn neat to read about The problem is that years ago, GM made more aggressive offerings that stood out more in a less-crowded marketplace...this due mostly to F bodies.

I wonder, were it not for my own family's loyalty to GM, and cutting my teeth on an '89 Camaro handed down from my mother, what would have made me a lifetime GM owner? When you have cars such as Mazdaspeed 3s, Mustangs, Infiniti G35s, reliable and popular offerings such as Accords and Camrys, what WOULD make me walk into a GM showroom today were it not for interests I've had from long ago?

In NO WAY am I downing what is available today...but being 26 years old, I wonder if I had ZERO bias towards GM, would I go out of my way to go into a GM showroom today? Until the Camaro comes out, I probably would not have. I would not know how great so many of them drive, how far they've come, how reliable they are, and what a great value so many of them represent...

Why? Because if you look at the media today and "whats hot," there's no way in hell I'd know any of the above.

 

Id also like to add that Chevy should quit this "Chevy face" garbage.

Make a Malibu, a Malibu. An Impala, an Impala. If you want to add a mini van, make it it's own unique soul. Not just a Chevy variant.

Enough with the "Face" thing.

Brand identity probably scares away just as many buyers as it could add.

 

Sounds like by "young people" they mean "people born after 1964" -- people in their 40s and younger, not just their 20s. So, this is a much greater problem than just not having a sporty tuner car or something.

But, its good to hear that GM is finally operating on the "brutal honesty" policy.

 

I gotta admit, even though I'm pro Big three, there's not much out there that:
A) I want and
B) I can afford

There are cars I want (Corvette Z51 or Z06, Mustank Cobra (gt500), ChargerChallenger-if it came with a stick and weighed less than 3500lbs or an SRT-4-if they still made it and got better mpg or Wrangler Rubicon)

And I figure I could probably swing the payments on most sub $20k tin boxes they make, but none appeal to me.
My '98 neon R/T handles/shifts 'feels' way better than my Dad's 5 speed Alero. Granted it's a bigger car but the shifter is sloppy, as is the suspension (supposedly the 'sport suspension' riiiiigghhhttt.....), the cluch pedal is very long throw and vauge. All this compared to a much older and much maliagned design. Granted, it has an after market shifter, everything else stands. Also I don't sit ON the seats in the Neon, I sit IN them.

It's unlikely I'll get a new car anytime soon (I'm 25 and poor, I have better things to spend my $$ on, like my Trans Am ), but if I was looking, the Mazdaspeed 3 would be way high on the list. It seems to have addressed the handling characteristics I dislike in the regular 3s. Helps I work at a Mazda dealer, so I get to work on / drive them often. Obviously I could get a discount on one, but the guy who owns the dealership owns at least one of each kind of dealer.

A 6-speed G35 would be on the list too if I can find a suger-mama

 

There's no real magic bullet. GM is just going to have to keep consistently bring out new and great products, along with good media and racing/event coverage... And when money starts flowing in the black again, GM efforts will have to be stepped up even more.

 

I don't see that. Quite the opposite, actually.

Pontiac, to me, means muscular cars with big honkin' engines and RWD...that makes it cool to me.

Saturn and Olds were supposed to be the "import fighters" and lack of decent marketing killed that with Olds and I suppose the same is happening to Saturn--those who keep up with Saturn know better than me in that regard, though...

Wanna do glorified ricer fighters, make it Chevy. Chevy is the budget line in the GM tree these days, so that's the better choice there.

As for why I wouldn't explore the entry level offerings, well, being 27, I don't see myself looking at an Echo-like egg mobile (failure for kiddie crowd) or trying to work on a FWD v6 car at all these days. Plus, with the crap that (insert automaker of your choice that poured crap off the assembly line in the 70s and 80s here) hasn't faded from memories yet, that's a big hole to dig from.

Oh, yeah, if the vehicle I am considering calls for me to pull the whole dash apart to make some semi-minor fix (heater core, for example), then I look away...

P.S. Making commercials that get the point out about how much better the cars are these days would help. Not some stupid commercial with a flying big rig or the Black Eyed Peas in the background (that's music???) pimping the next round of rebates...

 

They play lots of video games with these junk boxes, so when they grow up big and strong, from eating all their Wheaties, they want those same junkboxes from their video games! Besides the many other forces, hard at work.

 

They did , they still do have race cars and They do already have a force inducted affordable compact . They back the sub $22K Cobalt SS to the hilt . Had a factory backed race car , they are completely involved in drag racing , managed to covert a honda legend ( Jason Whitfield ) into building a very high profile Cobalt street/strip car that runs mid 9's using ALOT of GM parts , and can be street driven as well . They fully back the grand am cup Cobalt SS's , a series the SS does quite well in . More .......theres 2 versions of catback exhaust , a ported manifold , cold air intakes , stage 1 , stage 2 and recently released stage 3( which has a adjustable rev limit to 8000 rpm and the calibration is set up to automatically recognize a 50 hp shot of nitrous ...yes from GM ) <<<< all of that is covered under warranty except stage 3 . GM offers turbo swap parts for the ecotec , such as turbo manifolds and fabricated intake manifolds , MLS head gaskets , a race ecotec block , CNC ported heads and many more hardcore race parts . They published a cobalt build book that lays out several ways to build your ecotec from mild to wild , all the way ip to 1000 plus HP with exact build specs and part #'s to boot .....in GREAT DETAIL . They just released a 6 chapter book that totally shows how , step by step with highly detailed REAL pictures of how to remove a engine and trans from a 2005-2007 cobalt SS from start to finish , how to install all the GM staged kits and they give ALL torque specs , show all wiring connections .....at the end they show a detailed chapter on building the 2.0 supercharged engine to 300 hp , again with detailed pics , part #'s .

GM backs the ecotec engine , the cobalt and Ion , solstice and sky to the absolute HILT . The only other car Ive seen get this much factory backing is the Ford Mustang .

Sorry for the long post , but GM isnt slacking supporting this market

 

Exactly. I think part of the problem with the low end cars is the high end cars.

When I talk about some of the GM cars I want people are like. WTF is that? Cars like I dont know the RSX get a good deal of sales not from people who are going to rice it out, but who think the TL is God's gift to automobilia and get the next, errr, next next, best thing.

GMs volume cars that you see everday leave some to be desired so most people arent even looking to see if something better is offered.

 

I think GMs design and marketing has not really focused on the youth market, whereas Mazda and Honda has captured the young generation's fancy. Just look at their styling. They have a lot more "pizzazz" compared to GMs entry level car. Plus, Mazda's future designs are quite youth oriented. Just look at their entry level rwd compact coupe, the Kabura. That I think, when it goes into production, young people would really drool over. GMs making some headway w/ the Solstice though.