GM Announces the End of Pontiac

[Prairie Dog]

If rumors around GM's RenCen headquarters are true, the troubled corporation will announce the discontinuation of the Pontiac brand next Monday as part of the deeper-cutting reorganization demanded by the Obama administration's auto task force.

GM said, as early as late last year that the division would become a "niche brand," outside of the four core brands GM wanted to protect (Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac and Buick). The company, however, never defined exactly what sort of niche it was talking about. Was that a niche that included the G3, a Chevy Aveo re-badge? Or was that a niche that included the G8 rear-drive sports sedan?


It seems Pontiac's fate might have been sealed by a combination of increasingly tough demands for cuts from the Feds and Pontiac's utter lack of focus over the past few decades.

General Motors, in the person of News Relations PR man Tom Wilkinson neither confirmed nor denied nor, well, here's what he said: "There's nothing I can share with you at this point. Keep your eye on our media site. Officially nothing has changed with Pontiac's niche-brand status, until you hear differently."

 

[Viola]

I have a shameful, deep-seated, since-childhood love for the '70s-'80s Pontiac Trans Am with the screaming chicken on the hood.

 

[H.Johnson]

The Muscle Car that started it all...?

Little GTO, you know you're lookin' fine,
Three deuces and a four-speed, an' a three eighty-nine,
Listen to her tachin' up, now, listen to her wind
Come on and turn it on, wind it up, let it out, Li'l GTO.

From memory, E&OE

 

[Fletch]

Pontiac 1926-2010

This morning General Motors announced that the Pontiac Division will be discontinued after 84 years as part of restructuring the financially strapped company.

 

[scotrace]

The first "Muscle Car" was the 1950 Oldsmobile "Rocket 88" 2-door sedan. That thing smoked everything on the road, and became a NASCAR legend.

It is hard to imagine where GM's head has been for the past 40 years (besides the obvious cranio-rectal inversion). One inexplicable boorish blunder after another. It's as though they have begun every plan with the assumption "customers are stupid, so..."

so we can take an entry level Chevy and re-badge it as a Cadillac for $20K more.
so we can make the entire product line, across our brands, look identical except for the grill.
so we can introduce really interesting new models occasionally - and charge more for a Chevy than a well-loaded Mercedes.
so we can abolish brand identity in favor of completely shared body stamping.
so we can install a $4 switch in all our cars that leaves the headlights on day and night and hail it as a breakthrough of innovation.

I'm sorry to see Pontiac go. But you know, if GM can't make Olds or Pontiac work anymore, they really deserve to be swallowed up by Toyota or something.

Harley Earl's shoes were obviously too big to ever fill!

 

[Brian Sheridan]

Its official: GM is cutting Pontiac.

 

[Foofoogal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpOewZhxMMU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0J38Ts875p4&feature=related

Spent the weekend at a fabulous car show this weekend. They did have some nice Pontiacs.
http://www.classictruckersandcruisers.com/My_Homepage_Files/Page4.html
Glad I took time to check out these fab cars before they become extinct. All for a good cause and lots of cars and fun.

 

[dhermann1]

Well, after all, for many decades all GM products were different combinations of the same parts. Different divisions developed various components, especially engines, but this year's Buick and Olds body was last year's Caddy, with different trim, etc. The devotion to different labels was to a great degree little more than the magic of marketing.
The question is, will GM be another New York Central Railroad, or IBM?
NY Central and its peers (The Pennsy, etc.) died a hideouas death in the 60's. IBM, on the other hand defied the odds in the 80's and responded to the PC assault by successfully reinventing itself as a company. So there is a precedent for possible success at GM.

 

[Foofoogal]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Pont...id=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=65:3|39:1|240:1318

I know we are not supposed to put live ebay auctions but since this is one of a kind period I guess it is ok.

 

[carouselvic]

I have owned no fewer than five Pontiac's, so when it comes to laying down a wide track, I have done my share.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

In the days when the auto industry was an oligopoly this simply would not have occurred. This company and perhaps the industry was run very poorly; it(the industry) failed to keep up with market trends. I.E. more and more manufacturers, which equal more and different types of competition.

The result "GM will also cease production of Hummer, Saturn and Saab vehicles and shed 21,000 jobs by year's end". Further, "If [GM is] successful, it would give the U.S. government at least a 50% stake in the automaker, with the union holding up to 39% and bondholders with an additional 10% share. Current shareholders would effectively be wiped out.

The ripple effect could a burgeoning boutique industry where the Directors and Officers of this and other similar companies could be sued for malpractice. Then we run into AIG..... another mess.shakeshead *yucky*

 

[gtdean48]

I've had 3 almost ordered a 4th but Bill Elliot won too many races in the new T-bird back in early 1980's so I got that instead of a Firebird. I still want a 1964 GTO convertible....

 

[Brad Bowers]

Sad news, indeed.

I've owned three Pontiacs in my younger days, 2 Trans Ams and a '69 LeMans (closest I could get to a Goat ). Wouldn't mind having another Trans Am one of these days.

I hated what GM did to the brand over the past few decades, and it was awful when they dropped the Firebird. That Holden-based GTO a few years ago was completely uninspired.

I would have liked to have seen a retro-styled Trans Am based on the new Camaro, like a 40th Anniversary edition.

Oh well, guess I'll have to pop Smokey and the Bandit in the DVD player today. "East Bound and Down, loaded up and truckin..."

Brad

 

[dr greg]

holden out

I never knew that Aussies made Pontiacs, but there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth here at the moment as the euthanasia of the Pontiac brand looks like putting 20,000 or so workers in South Australia onto the street by the end of the year.
I dunno how that was working...supposedly our workers were higher paid than the US or so we hear, so how it was economical to export cars to the US from here is puzzling, unless the margins involved in the auto biz are larger than we know.....?

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Little GTO, you know you're lookin' fine,
Three deuces and a four-speed, an' a three eighty-nine,
Listen to her tachin' up, now, listen to her wind
Come on and turn it on, wind it up, let it out, Li'l GTO.

From memory, E&OE

Also from Memory, I beleive this was Ronny and the Daytona's from 1964? Great tune!

The most pontiac I have owned is the rear driver side door of my Caprice is off a 1987 Pontiac Parisienne station wagon.

It's such a loss to see Pontiac go. If I were a GM executive, even though I am a fan of GMC, that's who I would have given the axe, their vehicles are just Chevrolets with a different emblem. My friend has a blazer and I have a jimmy, same year, the badging is the only difference.

 

[Viola]

Does anyone have a vintage Pontiac in their garage, or a pic they're especially fond of from period?

I can only picture the GTO-era Pontiacs, honestly. When I think '40s I think a big ol' grinning Buick.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Pontiac vehicles are just Chevrolets with a different emblem.

If that's the case, which Chevrolet is the Pontiac G6 GT Coupe.
It's not the Malibu, is it? I don't even think Chevy makes a mid-size coupe.

I can't phathom why the old man Buick will continue. There are only three Buick models in production, the Lacrosse, the Lucerne and the Enclave. Last year Pontiacs outsold Buicks 3 to 1.

http://www.pontiac.com/view-vehicles/?useFlash=N

 

[AtomicEraTom]

If that's the case, which Chevrolet is the Pontiac G6 GT Coupe.
It's not the Malibu, is it? I don't even think Chevy makes a mid-size coupe.

I can't phathom why the old man Buick will continue. There are only three Buick models in production, the Lacrosse, the Lucerne and the Enclave. Last year Pontiacs outsold Buicks 3 to 1.

http://www.pontiac.com/view-vehicles/?useFlash=N

No, no, I didn't say Pontiacs were, I said GMC's were. Pontiacs and Chevrolets only have one common factor really, the 3.8 engine.

 

[Prairie Dog]

Been browsing the Tube for Pontiac commercials and found this little gem,
a Bonnie & Clyde inspired ad for the 1968 GTO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKDhJL1BNdc&feature=related

 

[H.Johnson]

Yes, although it was covered (especially on albums) by a number of other 'acts'.

There was a programme (m) on radio in the UK last night that pointed out that due to excessive paternalism among US auto makers in 'the boom years' (healthcare plans, non-contribury pensions) and the subsequent decline in GM's workforce (of which the 'credit crunch' is just the steep tip) there are more dependents (pensioners and funded illnesses) than there are workers. And each one costs a very high percentage of what an employed worker earns for the company. So, labour costs are killing the company, even before material and other costs are taken into account!

I haven't checked these assertions...

Also from Memory, I beleive this was Ronny and the Daytona's from 1964? Great tune!