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04-27-2009, 09:11 AM | #1 | ||
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Officially Official: GM kills Pontiac
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04-27-2009, 09:18 AM | #2 |
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Later, Chief. |
04-27-2009, 09:27 AM | #3 |
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Why the hell would you keep GMC? I mean, really. GMC?!
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04-27-2009, 09:32 AM | #4 |
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OMFG...................
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04-27-2009, 09:38 AM | #5 |
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This plan also is FAIL
they failed on the fail. but at least they are closing almost half of all GM car dealerships by end of the year. can you buy a Camaro at WalMart yet. |
04-27-2009, 09:45 AM | #6 |
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04-27-2009, 09:49 AM | #7 |
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04-27-2009, 09:56 AM | #8 |
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GM is headed in the right direction.
Might not seem like it now, and it's sad to see Pontiac go, but concentrating all their efforts on their remaining brands is absolutely the right thing to do - it will make all future GM products that much more competitive. |
04-27-2009, 10:18 AM | #9 |
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If GM kills of the Silverado and other truck/SUV's and only sells them via GMC I could see a reason for it. GMC as the Truck and SUV for professionals and everyone else. Buick is more for China but maybe they have some ideas for it. There are no standalone Buick/Pontiac or GMC dealers so it's really three retail sales channels so same as Ford/Lincoln and Mercury.
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04-27-2009, 10:21 AM | #10 |
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I just hope GM does the right thing and rebrands the G8...it was the best thing Pontiac had going.
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04-27-2009, 10:23 AM | #11 |
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04-27-2009, 10:23 AM | #12 |
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04-27-2009, 10:27 AM | #13 |
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Looking at all the past generation Pontiacs sold in the Chicago-land area, Pontiac was not the problem. The problem started when Bob Lutz got a bug up his butt about making Pontiac the US version of BMW. They created cars so out of step with what buyers were used to, they walked away. The cars still were not good enough though to draw the customers they wanted away from imports.
Hence they lost the loyal customers, and didnt gain many new ones. The same thing happened with Saturn. Let this be a lesson to every domestic company. Magazines and publications may rag on your products. (Body cladding, ribbing on cars, fwd, etc) But changing the product to satisfy the car magazines does not mean success. I would not want to be a domestic car company, as auto enthusiasts we often forget what the simple common non-car-person buyer really wants in this country... Edit: I just saw this article: http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/27/autos/pontiac_obit/ Pontiac, even with a product line that confused customers, still outsold Buick and Cadillac. I am aware Buick sells well in Asia, but this still adds confusion to the decision... Last edited by Tristar Racing; 04-27-2009 at 10:33 AM. |
04-27-2009, 10:32 AM | #14 |
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RIP, my friend...RIP. |
04-27-2009, 10:40 AM | #15 |
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its not body cladding. Please...never use that again.
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04-27-2009, 10:40 AM | #16 |
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04-27-2009, 10:41 AM | #17 |
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Is that guy puking on the rear window?
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04-27-2009, 10:46 AM | #18 |
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Oh yeah! Good episode of the office and nice pic for pontiac today.
I will miss the pontiac brand. It always seemed like the brand that was least American of GM's brands. I am sad about the G8, but more seriously for GM will there now be a Chevy Vibe? I mean that car has ALWAYS been a great used deal. Toyota for domestic money. I hope they continue on with that relationship. |
04-27-2009, 10:48 AM | #19 |
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04-27-2009, 10:56 AM | #20 | |
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So you are saying that they should have continued to build POS like... ...because all the Cletus' and other slack-jawed yokels in the MidWest, who only bought them due to blind Patriotism and because they had a $5000 rebate, was the way to getting Pontiac's image out of the gutter that they have been since the 70s?? No way. No how. Pontiac was headed in the right direction with cars like the G8 and Solstice, but they were unluck with their timing (gas prices and severe recession) and unluck that GM simply didn't have the resources anymore to dump billions of more dollars into giving Pontiac the models that it deserved to have to truly become a "Performance Division". Lutz would have been Pontiac's savior except that limited time and limited resources were working against them. |
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04-27-2009, 11:18 AM | #21 | |
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Look at the sales numbers of that Grand Am from 1994 compared to anything in the lineup today. Also, there were no 5k rebates on Grand Ams in that time period. Once again, remove yourself from being a car enthusiast. Try to think like the common buyer who wants a roomer, comfortable daily driver at a decent price. I was not a fan of the Grand Am, but MANY were. They liked the style and value. Im not saying they shouldnt have tried to improve; what I am saying is they shouldnt have tried to re-focus the target audience. Pontiac never had a shot at being the domestic BMW. Lutz had good ideas, but you cannot argue his change in direction for Pontiac resulted in lower sales. The G8 is a great car. Who is buying though? I was a huge Lutz fan in the Chrysler days and remained that way while at GM, but something has to give. His decisions have not helped GM. Even the Volt is being questioned, based on price and constant delays. Slack jaw yokels? Clearly you have never been to the Chicagoland area. Unluck? You mean unlucky? Whos the yokel now? |
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04-27-2009, 11:37 AM | #22 |
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^^ Yeah, but that's the thing - GM already had at least one other division that would have met the need of those "average joes". I do understand what you are saying, but Pontiac can't be the car for non-enthusiasts if they already have Chevy and Buick (and even Saturn).
Lutz was right - Pontiac had to try going up-market, it's just that it never got the time/products to fulfill those goals. The car market has been flipped totally on it's head over the past 2 years and GM wasn't doing a consistent job on pushing Pontiac's "performance" credentials. They were very wishy-washy - coming out with decent products like the G8 and Solstice, but then diluting the brand with craptacular efforts like the G3 and G4 which was being mostly pushed by their dealers. |
04-27-2009, 11:45 AM | #23 |
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I believe the only reason GMC was created is so that non Chevrolet GM dealers would have a truck to sell. With the restructuring, this will stoll hold true for the Buick or Cadillac dealers.
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04-27-2009, 11:51 AM | #24 |
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They need to cut Saab and Hummer while they're at it.
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04-27-2009, 12:09 PM | #25 |
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Personally I have mixed emotions over the whole thing. Overall I believe the decision is in the right direction. When all of these problems came to a head for GM they kept saying they would cut the fat out of the brand but gave no real concrete time table. I honestly thought they were all talk and they would do nothing but hit rock bottom and all the brands would disintegrate. I guess what I'm saying is at least they are trying something now, I hope for them it's enough.
So now onto the real question where do I get my G8 for a song? How does this work? Do I just show up at a Pontiac dealer and go "HA! All your bases are belong to us" or something and we both laugh a lot and they just give me one? |
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