Say good-bye to Pontiac

[Band1t]

GM to shed 21,000 U.S. factory jobs, Pontiac

Automaker faces June 1 deadline to restructure, get more U.S. money


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30431844/

[chiller2484]

GM...you're doing it wrong.

[third_shift|studios]

In Nomine Patris Et Filii Et Spiritus Sancti

[chiller2484]

well i hope they at least move the G8 to a different platform. i've been looking forward to owning one of those for quite some time now...

[third_shift|studios]

well i hope they at least move the G8 to a different platform. i've been looking forward to owning one of those for quite some time now...

Me too! It would work well as an Impala. Then they can make the sport truck version AND CALL IT AN EL CAMINO!!!!!!

[ibanez7]

GM...you're doing it wrong.

agreed, taking a loan from the government was the wrong thing to do.

GM should have filed bankruptcy and abolished the union contracts, while leaning out their fleet but not dropping brand names.

[ibanez7]

Me too! It would work well as an Impala. Then they can make the sport truck version AND CALL IT AN EL CAMINO!!!!!!

Too bad the ST was already cancelled. lol

[chiller2484]

i agree them taking money from the gov't was the first mistake. the rest has just fallen into place. the UAW needs to be gone. period. they need to say "If you want to work for GM, you'll do it by our rules. We'll be fair and just, but we ain't putting up with no shit from a union. If you want to strike, we'll find someone who will work". The union workers will eventually realize "Hey, we need jobs and this union sucks so we are going to work for normal wages and be fucking happy".

[Tobynine9]

I would have guessed they'd go bankrupt, shed as much UAW involvement as possible, ditch Pontiac and GMC (roll their product lines into Chevy - The G8 makes sense as an Impala and the Solstice is a perfect baby brother to the Vette), ditch the BPG dealership franchises altogether, and re-org Cadillac dealerships into exclusive Caddy/Buick shops. They'd have two lines, consumer and luxury. One-stop-shop for non-luxury purchases and the ability to focus on high-end service and buying experience with the CB shops.

Sad to see Pontiac die but let's face it, it's probably got the worst brand reputation of them all.

[Detroit Power]

Pontiac....going the way of AMC and Eagle.

[SMWS6TA]

Only positive outlook for me is that they just made our cars (Trans Ams, GTOs) more valuable & precious...

The Solstice was a fun car, saw one with an LS1 in it, one bad little kitty, the rest....did not care for....
How come when ever SLP puts a "Firehawk" label on a Pontiac it dies???? They just came out with a "Firehawk" G8......

[pecha]

AFAIK pontiac was selling more cars than buick, cadillac, saturn, saab
and it's getting slashed
RIP

[Tobynine9]

They were all low-margin, fleet sales.

The cool stuff never sold well.

[BlackHawk#36]

I would have guessed they'd go bankrupt, shed as much UAW involvement as possible, ditch Pontiac and GMC (roll their product lines into Chevy - The G8 makes sense as an Impala and the Solstice is a perfect baby brother to the Vette), ditch the BPG dealership franchises altogether, and re-org Cadillac dealerships into exclusive Caddy/Buick shops. They'd have two lines, consumer and luxury. One-stop-shop for non-luxury purchases and the ability to focus on high-end service and buying experience with the CB shops.

Sad to see Pontiac die but let's face it, it's probably got the worst brand reputation of them all.

I totally agree...
Except I think that they should keep Cadillac as just Cadillac here in the US. I think that what they should do with Buick is kill it here in the US. But don't completely kill the line, restructure it into the Asian/Chinese division of Cadillac (similar to Holden's role for GM in Australia.) Re-badge the Cadillac line up as Buicks and sell them to that market... GM does really well with Buick in that market because it's viewed as a status symbol (like Americans and Mercedez Benz.) Not because they love Tiger Woods or the current vehicle line up. On that same note... Dump Tiger Woods and replace him with Yao Ming.

Since nobody is going to buy Hummer, scale them back to only sell vehicles in the Middle East (Sounds crazy, but Saudi's and Iraqi's with money love Hummers.) Don't pump any money into that division for future development just sell the current line up until the fad fades away and then let the entire division to just fade away or sell it to someone in the Middle East.

They should turn Saturn into the "green" company and primarily push their Hybrid and Electric car development for this line. Move the Volt over here. This could grow well and they might feel less public resistance as much of the public doesn't think of Saturn as being GM. This division has a better chance at selling to the current import loving Toyota-Honda crowd than Chevy does.
Keep Opel in Europe but plan on eventually linking them to Saturn allowing them to add Opel branded Saturn hybrids and electric cars to their lines.

Keep Holden as it is in Oz.

Dump Saab... I don't see any future use for this line.

Just my $.02

[fox1x]

Don't forget that this is the last year for Hummer and Saturn also:

http://wot.motortrend.com/6530052/au...ear/index.html

[86 IROC-Z]

Don't forget that this is the last year for Hummer and Saturn also:

http://wot.motortrend.com/6530052/au...ear/index.html

So, another 3 down, 5 to go.

[2k-Trans]

CNN had a decent writeup on the reason why http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/27/auto...ion=2009042711

Apparently, although they had the sales they were not as profitable as the others.

Meh I was so hoping they'd bring back the Trans Am one day oh well maybe some day.....

[86 IROC-Z]

CNN had a decent writeup on the reason why http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/27/auto...ion=2009042711

Apparently, although they had the sales they were not as profitable as the others.

Meh I was so hoping they'd bring back the Trans Am one day oh well maybe some day.....

I didn't read the article but they probably weren't profitable because they had higher performance options (High cost) but were mostly ugly (Low sales).

[cammed goat]

Score another for the blue oval.

[86 IROC-Z]

In one of my Finance classes today, my professor was making jokes about GM throughout the whole duration of the lecture