It's official, the end of Pontiac

[421HO]

Well GM in its infinite wisdom decided to phase out Pontiac, the number three seller behind Chevy and GMC. Buick got a free pass for now because they are selling well in China, not going to do much for the US dealers who sell Buicks. I also read some troubling news that GM is now majority owned by the government, GM=Government Motors. Say goodby to performance cars and hello to green machines. I doubt this will work as the government has proven that it has no fiscal responsibility either, blind leading the blind. Too bad GM is not trying to sell the brand, but it makes sense that they would terminate it. Pontiac has always been a threat to Chevy and I can see GM execs not wanting to unleash a Pontiac that is not controlled by them into the auto industry.

A local newspaper found that I have two Pontiacs and did an interview with me this morning, now I know what some of my Plymouth and Olds friends were feeling.

[willyrich]

yea....very sad day indeed:thumpdown:

[Allegedman]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

http://cinplicity.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/darth_vader_nooooooo.gif

Ken, dev team, everybody, I got tears spilling on my keyboard.

you guys could save the american car companies please send them emails notes whatever you can do! please tell them about what we are doing here. Pray to god they take notice of us.

[Ayce]

Well, I saw that earlier on CNN. Sad days ahead indeed for performance car lovers.:(
I've always thought of Pontiac as the sportier version of Chevy.:cool:

Chevrolet = Good basic starter cars / trucks
Pontiac = Sports version
Buick = Sport/luxury
Oldsmobile = Base luxury
Cadillac = Full luxury
GMC = Heavy duty trucks
That's my personal breakdown of GM, before they went a bit brand crazy. :eek:


Best way to think about it? Pontiac could live on..................here, in MWO.:D:D

[SgtDoxey75]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! How could they the old GTO the Trans Am how sad indeed those heartless mean fools they have torn out my heart and snuffed out the reason for love of car and speed oh the pain the torment the tears will never stop this time.

[willyrich]

A local newspaper found that I have two Pontiacs and did an interview with me this morning, now I know what some of my Plymouth and Olds friends were feeling.

well thats cool...:burnout:
you'll hafta link us to the article when it comes out

[421HO]

Here is the link to the article I was interviewed for.

http://www.post-trib.com/business/1546532,pontiac.article

The Pontiac dealer they interviewed, Paul Sur Pontiac, is the dealership I used to work for. I will probably stop by later this week to see how the guys are doing.

I will say this, if I had a few million I would buy the division and bring Pontiac back to its roots. No Torrent's, no Montana's, no Vibes, and absolutely no G anything, especially the G3, what a joke. I would bring back the traditional name plates that Pontiac is known for, Firebird, GTO, Grand Prix, etc, and first I would develop my halo car and paint a bullseye on the Corvette much like Delorean did with the 1964 Banshee. No burecratic BS to stop me, no having to detune the car to keep it slower than the Corvette. I would go for the throat.

[Tate]

I will say this, if I had a few million I would buy the division and bring Pontiac back to its roots. No Torrent's, no Montana's, no Vibes, and absolutely no G anything, especially the G3, what a joke. I would bring back the traditional name plates that Pontiac is known for, Firebird, GTO, Grand Prix, etc, and first I would develop my halo car and paint a bullseye on the Corvette much like Delorean did with the 1964 Banshee. No burecratic BS to stop me, no having to detune the car to keep it slower than the Corvette. I would go for the throat.

You know it brother :rock:
:cheers:

[mike71]

They will just roll the cars into the other makes "not just GM makes" since everyone is working with everyone lol

It will only be a problem if say GM as a whole falls off the planet. 0.o

[DreadZer0]

I will say this, if I had a few million I would buy the division and bring Pontiac back to its roots. No Torrent's, no Montana's, no Vibes, and absolutely no G anything, especially the G3, what a joke. I would bring back the traditional name plates that Pontiac is known for, Firebird, GTO, Grand Prix, etc, and first I would develop my halo car and paint a bullseye on the Corvette much like Delorean did with the 1964 Banshee. No burecratic BS to stop me, no having to detune the car to keep it slower than the Corvette. I would go for the throat.

On a slightly more british note, i'd like to do the same thing, but instead of the Horrid BMW mini that weighs about 400kg too much, and understeers like mad. Go back to the classics. Fast, economical and classless design.

Bring back the classic mini. And do anything from the small 1 litre to the insane. A Corvette powered, mid-engined mini sound good?

[Ayce]

http://blogs.carpoint.ca/2009/04/g8-to-live-on-as-chevy-cop-car-.html

Maybe.:trytofly:

[421HO]

Hey Ayce, I have been doing a lot of reading and it looks like the platform that the G8 is on will no longer be used by GM. I have read other articles where they are talking about the G8 becoming the new Buick GN, but it all looks like hopefull speculation. GM has told Holden no more G8's or importing any cars to the US. Besides the exchange rate was killing GM and according to GM, they were losing money on every G8. This currency problem was also cited as a reason GM ended Pontiac. Who really knows. Personally I would love to see Holden take over Pontiac and continue the line as Pontiac in this country. I am sure they could use one of GM shuttered factories and ramp it up to make whatever rear wheel drive car they want. Similar to Buick in China where the cars are built by Dawoo, you know the guys that brought us the Pontiac Lemans in the 90's. A real classic. But GM would never spin Pontiac off knowing that if somone got it right, it would be in direct competion with them.

[Allegedman]

Hey Ayce, I have been doing a lot of reading and it looks like the platform that the G8 is on will no longer be used by GM. I have read other articles where they are talking about the G8 becoming the new Buick GN, but it all looks like hopefull speculation. GM has told Holden no more G8's or importing any cars to the US. Besides the exchange rate was killing GM and according to GM, they were losing money on every G8. This currency problem was also cited as a reason GM ended Pontiac. Who really knows. Personally I would love to see Holden take over Pontiac and continue the line as Pontiac in this country. I am sure they could use one of GM shuttered factories and ramp it up to make whatever rear wheel drive car they want. Similar to Buick in China where the cars are built by Dawoo, you know the guys that brought us the Pontiac Lemans in the 90's. A real classic. But GM would never spin Pontiac off knowing that if somone got it right, it would be in direct competion with them.

if GM was getting killed from imports then why did they import from the first place LOL.

that doesn't make much sense.

[gcountach]

if GM was getting killed from imports then why did they import from the first place LOL.

that doesn't make much sense.
It doesn't.. but they did it... and now they need a bailout. I don't think the lack of logic and reasoning and their bleeding of money are just coincidence.

[dominator24]

Why did they ditch pontiac!? Why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

[ROKKET]

can you say DUMBAZZES ???? thats the only reason GM needs a bailout or any of them its called stupidity

[DreadZer0]

I think they went wrong because they didn't sell the right cars, here's how they should have done it:

Big, Fast car (GTO)
Small, Fairly Economical Car (Erm, not sure)
Half-Decent Saloon (Erm, not sure)

and that's it. No mucking around with SUVs, or crossover SUVs.

And if the US government tries to turn GM green, then sales will just get worse. US muscle cars have always been cool, especially in europe. You show up in a '66 GTO, and you look cool. You show up in some eco tin-box, and about the only person you're going to attract are enviromentalists.

P.S They've already done it to chevrolet in Europe. What do we get? Corvettes? Camaros? Nope. We get a korean built 800cc car that struggles to do 60 in 15 seconds. I've seen bigger engines powering chainsaws! Just look at it: Hideous isn't it? (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Daewoo_Matiz.jpg)

[gcountach]

P.S They've already done it to chevrolet in Europe. What do we get? Corvettes? Camaros? Nope. We get a korean built 800cc car that struggles to do 60 in 15 seconds. I've seen bigger engines powering chainsaws! Just look at it: Hideous isn't it? (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Daewoo_Matiz.jpg)

That's no chevy! That's a daewoo! Thought they went under?

[DreadZer0]

That's no chevy! That's a daewoo! Thought they went under?

I know it's a Daewoo. Unfortunatley, quite a lot of british pepole don't know that. They hear chevy, and buy one on impulse, thinking they're getting V8 power. And that's probably how all the korean (read: rubbish) car companies must have stayed afloat.

[Ayce]

Ford is playing the game very well. :playingball:

I saw a "Public apology" from the local Ford dealer, apologizing for not having enough stock last w/e. They claim to be ordering another couple of truck loads of cars.
People don't want to buy a car right now from a company that is restructuring
so they are flocking to the company that didn't ask for a bailout, and isn't near Chapter 11. The more they can swipe from the competition, the more $$ they make, so, more profits for the investors, and bigger bonuses for the upper management.
Meanwhile, GM and Chrysler go TU. :fight:

[roadweasel]

The INVESTORS... Used to be a product was manufactured to please the customer. Nowadays it's screw the customer, cut back every way we can to cheat the customer and make him feel like he's getting a deal, so they can please the investors.
What's wrong with this picture?

[DreadZer0]

The INVESTORS... Used to be a product was manufactured to please the customer. Nowadays it's screw the customer, cut back every way we can to cheat the customer and make him feel like he's getting a deal, so they can please the investors.
What's wrong with this picture?

Sounds like British Leyland in the 70's and 80's. They were too obsessed with the bottom line, they forgot to notice their cars were rubbish and weren't selling, and they wouldn't cough up the money to develop something new. Triumph, Austin and Morris all were fairly good in the 50's and 60's but in the 70's... the Morris Marina, the Austin Allegro, the Triumph TR7. The only reason Jaguar and Rover survived is because Jaguar was brought by Ford, who threw 99% of the BL stuff away, and Rover was brought by BMW, which did virtually the same, until they sold Rover to the chinese...

[Shay Feral]

Cars now days are just too damn expensive to buy these days, they put too much **** into them that we absolutely do not need. I believe we should just revert to the old Muscle Car designs and plant modern drive trains in them, thats all we ******* need...

We don't need a ******* crinkle zone, I don't like driving a pop can!

Air conditioning should be OPTIONAL, no one needs air conditioning. I survive just fine without it in my Chevelle.

What the big three needs to do is buy back all the old and rusting cars of yesterday and restore them with new equipment and resell them for cheap. We need to just take a break from manufacturing new vehicles for a few years, sell out all the dealerships before producing again.

There shouldn't be any reason for an average car for an average individual to cost more than $5,000.

[ROKKET]

see look at it this way ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,all the auto manufacturers in the world can kiss my royal american redskin ARSE i will not buy anything post 1985 i am not turning in my crew cab for anyreason, even if they are offering me $4500 cash cause its a gas guzzler,or would i tell the government where the heaven of junkyards is 100 + acres of classic and muscle cars in the midwest oh yeah i have seen this place seen the R/T challengers sitting near the trees the 327/ 4 speed SS 65 chevelle with the crinkled right front fender and hood the 70 428 cobra jet pony that had a slight interior fire ,,,,,,,,,,,all these cars i have set to some memorial pattern in my head waiting to relocate my butt to my home state and start my auto makers revenge !!!!!!!! lets see their POS computer controlled crap piles keep up with the 67 camaro i stuff my 502 in AC sure i'll have it 4 windows down an 80 mph so :P

[DreadZer0]

Cars now days are just too damn expensive to buy these days, they put too much **** into them that we absolutely do not need. I believe we should just revert to the old Muscle Car designs and plant modern drive trains in them, thats all we ******* need...

We don't need a ******* crinkle zone, I don't like driving a pop can!

Air conditioning should be OPTIONAL, no one needs air conditioning. I survive just fine without it in my Chevelle.

What the big three needs to do is buy back all the old and rusting cars of yesterday and restore them with new equipment and resell them for cheap. We need to just take a break from manufacturing new vehicles for a few years, sell out all the dealerships before producing again.

There shouldn't be any reason for an average car for an average individual to cost more than $5,000.

Simpler way of putting it: Don't make new rubbish, the classic cars are remembered for a reason: THEY WORK!

Seriously, GM should still have rights to make the '69 Camaro, '57 Bel-Air, '70 Chevelle, at least. Ford should not f**k around and just make the '66 Mustang and the '57 T-Bird, and not the Fiestas and Focuses.

And as for dodge...they've got it partially right with the new challenger, but it's not perfect, as they still smegged up the new charger. What was wrong with the old style of the Charger?

[gcountach]

I imagine the old cars don't meet safety regulations, would be legally called a "gas guzzler" (with extra tax for having one), etc.

And no, no one NEEDS A/C... but when you're in 95-100 degree days and you gotta drive somewhere, you know you'll use it. So why not buy a vehicle with it? I'm pretty sure that's what everyone's idea is... you only opt out of the A/C when you can't afford it... rarely because you "can live without it". Thus, it would be a very bad idea for them to stop putting them in their cars, especially when imports won't.

Crumble Zones though I really hate. Yes, it can save your life, so could just driving the speed limit and practicing defensive driving. Thing is I hit a deer with my truck (83 GMC S-15) and crushed the entire front end. Totaled? No. About $350 later I had a whole new front end bolted on it and was ready for the road again. If the same thing happened to any new car it would of been totaled. That crap is just too expensive. Cab over frame FTW.