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Saving Pontiac.
Too bad about Pontiac being hampered by a Field of Dreams marketing strategy.
They actually are building some good stuff and no-one knows.
Someone at GM should read that Harley Davidson ad if they really want to get it.
If there isn't anyone in the corporation who gives a damn about Pontiac, why should the rest of us?
Rick Sand
Boynton Beach, FL
McCain, etc.
Frankly, McCain and his "your jobs aren't coming back--who needs manufacturing? Everybody can train to be in the service sector" scares the hell out of me. He's not even paying lip service to the importance of manufacturing to the economy.
I agree, the gas tax holiday is a stupid idea, but come on--saying you expect better from McCain is like the fuss when Toyota opposed the CAFE increases, and the greenies were shocked, SHOCKED to see that Toyota likes to make money.
VEH
Metro Detroit
Pontiac.
A die hard Pontiac fan since the early 60's, with my last Pontiac being a 04 Grand Prix GTP, which in my opinion was an over priced Grand Am. I looked at Pontiac to replace it when the lease was up, all Pontiac offered was a Neon looking G6, a stale Grand Prix, a Chevy Torrent and Chevy G5. Bunkie, John Z and Pete E must be rolling over in their graves. Pontiac today is like taking your dad's old sedan, going down to K-Mart to purchase fake mag wheel covers, fake hood scoops, spoiler, a glass pack for sound, then call it a performance car.
Mark M.
Bloomfield Hills, MI
GM.
Maybe the suits at GM should have read Cadillac's old "The Penalty of Leadership" ad before bailing out of the "EVO" class at LeMans.
Rich Adrian
Michigan City, Indiana
Detroit is dead.
GM and Ford will not gain market share just by offering great products that match Honda and Toyota. They must leapfrog the competition if they really want to snatch consumers who are in the folds of Honda,Toyota and perhaps even Nissan.
The best GM and Ford can hope for is that their new cars and higher mileage CUVs retain the customers who used to buy those big trucks and SUVs. Their problem of course, is that their business plan was predicated on the high margin SUV segment which they almost owned. The car and CUV market is much more competitive and is much more expensive in terms engineering and manufacturing costs (no body on frame to take you through...)
With 4.00 a gallon gas here to stay, we're almost back to 1976. And I don't think that GM and Ford are even ready to consider the fact that even 26mpg cars will be immune. The future requires stuff like the Honda Fit (shades of the 76 CVCC and Corolla SR5) and I just don't see Ford and GM ready to create a well made world car that makes them money at that low price point.
Yes, the G8 is a nice car.. a bit too plasticky on the inside for me, but you can't bet the farm on a car like that when gas is at 4 bucks and change.
And Chrysler... are they still around? They're advertising some new SUV with mileage "up to 26mpg". Huh? Earth to Chrysler.... wake up...
TonyE.
Irvine, CA
Nowhere to nest.
Pontiac's success during the Knudsen/DeLorean years was tied to the exploding youth market of that time. Today's youth market is smaller and decidedly internationalist. They are wedded to the brand (or even model), and not the nation that builds it. So if Pontiac's famed Screamin' Chicken were to be reborn, it might not have a niche to land on.
Jay Scott
Boca Raton, FL
Good work, GM!
So, GM is cancelling the one form of racing that will demonstrate in harsh conditions the technology required to meet the silly new fuel economy standards to go SPECCAR racing with vehicles that bear no resemblance to anything I could buy at a dealership and 40+ year-old technology. Brilliant! Keep up the good work guys! You deserve to lose money with ideas like that.
H.A.
Troy, OH
C'mon, Bud, you're killin' us!
I love reading you (just about) every week and have been refreshing this page for the last hour or so NOW you will post by the end of the day!!?!?!
Sighh... Killin' us out here. We gotta know the latest!? Who got shot and when?
Antonio
Baldwin, NY
GM and Pontiac, etc.
Four cars would be nice, but Pontiac would have three on message products NOW if they had the balls or the cash flow to build their brand instead of Hertz's rentals. The G8 is the Bonneville we've been waiting for. Lose the V6 (no one's interested anyway), and bring on the GXP ASAP. Pontiac adopts and Chevy loses the Cobalt SS, an already excellent entry in the sport tuner world (check out the almost universally pleasantly surprised reviews around the Net). Which gets a suitably SEMA exterior re-do. And a name change to what, Tempest? Pontiac should OWN the WRX crowd, and if it's not extreme enough for SEMA, it doesn't belong in the showroom. Finally, I say keep Solstice (GXP only), crank the hp up to 300 (it's apparently already in the works), and bring on the fire breathing coupe version as well. GTO anyone?
As to the others, Saturn needs to return to its roots, which is as GM's Scion. Inexpensive cars sold mainly to young people by friendly non-threatening dealers. That means base versions of Astra, Aura and Vue only, with $25K loaded as the price cap. The next gen models can funkify the styling, but for now cosmetics (color, wheels, etc.) will be good enough. And if it must survive, Saab teams with Saturn.
Chevy drops the Impala, which competes with Malibu and goes mainly to fleets, and replaces Aveo with Beat as quickly as the Koreans can re-tool the factory.
GMC should be heavy duty trucks only. And team Hummer with GMC, not Cadillac for God's sake. As to Hummer, H4 can't come soon enough.
Buick would do fine with just Enclave, Invicta, and a Lucerne replacement. Which will also be the Cadillac DTS replacement, 'cause that sucker needs to be forcibly removed from Caddy showrooms.
With a few deft emendations, every GM division from top to bottom would have a clear brand message. But you'd also lose volume whores like G6, Impala and DTS in the process. In the long run sales would grow (as Al Reis points out, Saturn stores were industry volume leaders with just ONE product before the division went off message). But having hemmed and hawed all these years, does GM have a long run?
GW
San Francisco, CA
A sad state of affairs...
It makes me sad to think of Pontiac gone. But then I think of the plastic-clad crap they put out in the last 20 years...and I think. Ah, well: Oldsmobile put out some fantastic vehicles in the old days and now they're gone, so what the hell. It seems that nothing lasts. I'm beginning to think that GM can't last as an AMERICAN car company. Someday, Toyota and Honda will put all those out-of-work car workers back to work and that'll be the end of a lot of history. People will have jobs and cars will be built. They just won't be Pontiacs. Or Chevys. Or Cadillacs. Or whatever. Sad.
Steve Kopcha
Colombia, Missouri
Learning the hard way...
Bud, when you were a child and your mother told you not to touch the stove because it will burn you, touching the stove was the natural response. Answering the phone knowing it was past midnite with Nadine's number lit up was just like touching that stove. You ain't 3 years old anymore so what's your excuse? Voice mail not good enough?
Jack J.
Black Rock, CT
York is on to something.
I know Jerry York's a bit of a "Kirk's Brain" kinda guy (or, perhaps, would like to think of himself as such) but I don't disagree entirely with the sell Mercury idea.
I felt that GM should have done the same with Oldsmobile and Chrysler, the same with Plymouth. If you're going to walk away from a brand, especially one that has as long a history and can only be associated with one class of product (motor vehicles), why not just sell it? Isn't that what we just saw Ford do with it's PAG collection of playing cards? I know, there were factories and other assets involved but, frankly, just as GM did with Hummer, the reason Ford bought these brands was for, yes, THE BRANDS, not the capabilities to do things that each manufacturer brought with them that Ford was incapable of doing themselves. Otherwise, how is it that the Aston Lagonda V12 concept had a Ford engine in it and Ford did the awesome GT themselves (and, apparently, now for Saleen in the form of the S5S) and NOT Aston or Jaguar?
I remember having this conversation with someone at work and being somewhat overly berated because Oldsmobile (in this case) was "damaged" and "who would buy 'your father's Oldsmobile', anyway?"
Well, first, let's not forget the heritage of Oldsmobile as one of the first motor vehicle brands in history; There's value there, if only stopping at that historic footnote. Secondly, let's also not forget that there's a whole brave new world out there that the vast majority of Americans will never visit, much less understand... but that is the source of strength for that OTHER GM brand that seemed to be even more likely to go the "Oldsmobile route", BUICK. Where does Buick do exceedingly well these days? China. And, isn't it in China where you had a couple of would-be international exporters go after the remnants of Rover, at least partly for the brand (protected, if only temporarily, by caretaker Ford), only to be denied and settle on Roewe as a substitute? China's not the only place where companies are looking to expand beyond their borders, either (see India) and some of these "damaged" brands can serve to add much-needed cache to these emerging OEMs.
Just because a company like GM has so clearly lost any sense of respect and value in a brand that it closes shop on it, does not mean that another party will not pay ANYthing for the right to wear the hand-me-downs. And, frankly, if it's because it's felt that there might be a future for the brand at some point, let's be clear that the chances a GM would EVER re-introduce Oldsmobile are just ridiculously short. In the meantime, any possible benefit that the brand might have literally withers and blows away with the sands of time.
No, spin off and sell the brand... make some money... And, if it's a to a legitimate enough party, it's possible that the dealers will be happy for the chance to sell for a new and hungry OEM rather than see their brand cremated. If you need to sweeten the pot a bit to close a deal, sell an engine, platform, whole vehicle (sort like seeing Stratuses running around Moscow). You don't think the old Olds 3.5L V6 in an Intrigue, with the Quad 4 thrown in as a bonus, wouldn't have been a decent inducement? Right there, you have a mid-size car with 4-valve I4 and V6 engines (I didn't say Best In Class).
I say the same with Mercury... Toss in the Grand Marquis/Crown Vic/Town Car, perhaps the LS and see if you can't sell off the old lady. Either that, or REALLY do something with it (Merkur, anybody?)
That's all... Good night.
PM
Ann Arbor, MI
Missing Pontiac.
I miss the Pontiac's that had attitude in the 80s and 90s. I know that the cars weren't exactly the best in terms of performance, but at least they weren't bland and boring like the ones that are out now. Pontiac became boring and their nomenclature and lack of redesigns are killing the division. The G8 should be called Bonneville. The G6 should be a Grand Am. Throwing out a name made no sense. Look at the Malibu. It's a nice car for the money and by redesigning the vehicle to make it a world class vehicle, the name recognition will only help in terms of sales.
I went from a Sunbird as my "college" car to a Grand Prix GTP coupe as my first car out of college. I then went into a BMW 3 series and then an Acura TL. I'd gladly go back to a Pontiac if GM would get serious about some cool styling on their Pontiacs. I find the Cadillac CTS to be on target.
Pontiac is slipping into oblivion.
It's a shame that Buick is already down that same road as well.
Faris Qussar
Troy, MI
More on Pontiac...and Cadillac too.
I have worked at liking the 'new' GTO and the G8, but they are just not Pontiacs. These < http://www.ritzsite.net/Pontiac66/Pontiac_1966_01.htm> were Pontiacs! And the new Cadillacs are not the 'old' Cadillac -- but, I happily bought the 2008 CTS!! Thanks, Mr. Lutz, for a great ride.
Chuck Childers
Greenville, TX
Harley Brand Building.
Pushing brand building to the max, Harley is now giving away free bandanas with the "Screw it. Let's Ride!" ad copy printed on them. Just stop by an H-D dealer and ask for one, while supplies last.
Jay Scott
Boca Raton, FL
Tri-Power Nights.
The magic that PMD created in the 1960's was extraordinary. Bunkie Knudson, Pete Estes, John DeLorean and numerous others at Central Office created a culture that transformed the Division. Ace Wilson, Jim Wangers, Dick Jesse and Milt Schornak at Royal Pontiac in Royal Oak created a culture that transformed Woodward Avenue. Pontiac was more than a Division...it was a religion. My first new car was a very carefully optioned 1965 Tri-Power GTO. After college I attended the GMI Field Management Program and became a PMD District Manager. Today, I sell new BMWs at a large dealer in the midwest. Although the Glory Days were long ago and I am a geezer in training, I will always remember those hot summer Tri-Power nights.
Dennis J. Walker
Milwaukee, WI