Again...in business one thing I love to repeat is that you cannot shrink youself better. Never works in the long term.

 

Well, it's not easy, because every time Pontiac comes out with a performance car, it doesn't sell. The last Firebird died on the lot. The GTO had Pontiac's most famous marquee and still bombed. The G8 doesn't seem to be catching on fire.

Back in reality, Pontiac actually has the highest female buyer rate in the industry. Their main customer base is younger 'pink collar' women who like sporty small cars. Their big hit is the Vibe.

The fact that even people at enthusiast sites don't "get" GM's brands just indicates how meaninglesss and silly they are. Why is GM pretending that Pontiac is some great 'performance' brand when Chevrolet is obviously much better at selling performance cars? It just doesn't make any sense.

 

The problem is..Mazda builds a better Pontiac then Pontiac.

 

whatever GM needs to do inorder to keep chevy and caddy afloat i think they will be in good shape. my two fav GMs and anything else id say is addon for GM. keep it simple and keep it nice

 

So true.

 

Just hope Pontiac is around long enough for a 3 year run of G8ST and Soltice coupe.

 

Imagine if they only make one year of G8STs... would be a pretty good collectors item.

 

Why not kill Buick and keep Pontiac?

 

Buick is a cash cow in China.

 

If Pontiac were to remain, it would have to be VASTLY DIFFERENT from the rest of GM's vehicles.
I envision a small division with only RWD vehicles.

We'd have the Solstice, a Mazda3 sized vehicle and/or an Alpha vehicle (one of those could go if they are too close to each other), the G8 (with a coupe variant), and a Firebird.

And these new Pontiacs would have to recall and embrace what made Pontiac great in the '60s and early '70s while not blantantly ripping them off. GM seems to not want to let Pontiac remember what made them so good back then.

That's it. That's all you need.

 

Well, Zeta and Kappa don't have a very bright future. And Pontiac might not even be around by the time the first Alpha rolls off the assembly line.


To some extent Pontiac has displayed a failure to thrive in it's advertised position as a "performance brand". I mean GM has certainly lavished lots of interesting products on Pontiac over the past decade. Solstice, GTO, G8. The best and most developed W-car ever, the GP GXP. A coupe and convertible version of the G6 - and the only G6 which was certified with a stick for awhile. During the 4th gen F-car days, the Firebird was blessed with a budget completely uncommensurate with the tiny sales volume it had.

Obviously this whole "American BMW" thing for Pontiac, hasn't stuck with the American public. Those that want a BMW, just go and buy the real thing. Those who are looking for something else, buy a Mazda or Scion. For a long time, I had wanted Pontiac to transform itself into a "youth brand", (regardless of which demographic actually purchased their cars), like Scion or Mazda or even Mini Cooper. It may be too late for even that now.

 

I seem to remember this being the plan before shortly before everything went haywire with the oil bubble & credit crisis. There was even an article on Jalopnik about a possible RWD G6 replacement.

 

I remember all that. Then GM said they couldn't do RWD because of the mileage penalty it would incur. This was just after the new CAFE regs were passed. It turned out to be 1 MPG. 1 MP freakin' G. And that was on a larger Zeta sized sedan.
I still say BS. Their engineers could EASILY figure out how to get 1 MPG more. That's not a big leap.

And I'm not even talking about large sedans. If Pontiac would need an economy car, that's fine. Just make it RWD and fun to drive.
My mom had an '81 Corolla years ago (despite my objections) and it was RWD and had a little 1.8 L 4 banger. It was a pig but it got good mileage.
And before that, we had a '77 Sunbird with the 2.5 L Iron Duke. It was a pig, but it got good mileage AND was RWD.

There's no reason in this day and age that a car company could not make a smaller, affordable, fun to drive, economical RWD car. And that's what Pontiac would need if it were to survive.

 

to be fair it didn't stick with GM either

i wonder what line of BMW's the pontiac aveo is to compete with...

 

How could it have stuck with the public when GM NEVER TRIED to give the public an American BMW? We got, what?, 3 Pontiacs in the last 6 years that might have been considered an American BMW (Solstice, GTO, G8)? Maybe?

I think we were all waiting for these great products from the Pontiac channel and they never arrived.

Don't blame the public on this one. This was clearly GM's fault for not delivering what they said they would.