When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
History / OriginalityGot a question about 1982-1992 Camaro or Firebird history? Have a question about original parts, options, RPO codes, when something was available, or how to document your car? Those questions, answers, and much more!
Well, I'm sure that debate has been had many times in the last 6 years, and even before. But with Firebirds, G8s, and Soltices all in the lineup, I think the brand still had a very strong performance image. Northstar powered Bonneville GXPs and 5.3L LS powered Grand Prix GXPs didn't hurt the image either, though FWD, Placed properly, and with a nearly full line of Cadillacs to share RWD platforms with, I think it could have had a home in the new GM, without stepping on the toes of the precious Corvette.
Olds had to go. You weren't keeping Buick and Olds both, and Buick is HUGE in China. Done deal.
Saturn was built to develop a new way to run a car company, with no preconceived notions, and no baggage from GM. Having succeeded at that, it was broken apart and it's ideas disseminated/implemented throughout the company. Mission accomplished, shut it down.
Hummer. By the end, wrong product at the wrong time. Shut it down.
So we've closed three brands, and can redeploy those marketing and development dollars to support the other brands.
Chevy and GMC keep the big trucks. Chevy is your mass market FWD car brand, a full line maker of EREVs, BEVs, cars, and CUVs. And it gets to keep Camaro and Corvette to polish it performance image.
Cadillac is Cadillac. We know it's mission.
Buick is between Chevy and Cadillac, and again, a sales juggernaut in China, the worlds largest market.
That leaves plenty of room, in my mind, for a purely performance oriented brand like Pontiac. In the new GM, 100% aligned at the retail level with Buick and GMC stores, it does not need to be a full line maker. It can sell maybe 3 cars, as the excitement brand for the Pontiac/Buick/GMC dealers. Say a Firebird (shared with Camaro and ATS), a midsized G8/GTO (shared with the new CTS), and a large car (Bonneville?) based on the upcoming Cadillac CT6.
I just thought killing Pontiac was killing one brand too many.
Well, I'm sure that debate has been had many times in the last 6 years, and even before. But with Firebirds, G8s, and Soltices all in the lineup, I think the brand still had a very strong performance image. Northstar powered Bonneville GXPs and 5.3L LS powered Grand Prix GXPs didn't hurt the image either, though FWD, Placed properly, and with a nearly full line of Cadillacs to share RWD platforms with, I think it could have had a home in the new GM, without stepping on the toes of the precious Corvette.
Olds had to go. You weren't keeping Buick and Olds both, and Buick is HUGE in China. Done deal.
Saturn was built to develop a new way to run a car company, with no preconceived notions, and no baggage from GM. Having succeeded at that, it was broken apart and it's ideas disseminated/implemented throughout the company. Mission accomplished, shut it down.
Hummer. By the end, wrong product at the wrong time. Shut it down.
So we've closed three brands, and can redeploy those marketing and development dollars to support the other brands.
Chevy and GMC keep the big trucks. Chevy is your mass market FWD car brand, a full line maker of EREVs, BEVs, cars, and CUVs. And it gets to keep Camaro and Corvette to polish it performance image.
Cadillac is Cadillac. We know it's mission.
Buick is between Chevy and Cadillac, and again, a sales juggernaut in China, the worlds largest market.
That leaves plenty of room, in my mind, for a purely performance oriented brand like Pontiac. In the new GM, 100% aligned at the retail level with Buick and GMC stores, it does not need to be a full line maker. It can sell maybe 3 cars, as the excitement brand for the Pontiac/Buick/GMC dealers. Say a Firebird (shared with Camaro and ATS), a midsized G8/GTO (shared with the new CTS), and a large car (Bonneville?) based on the upcoming Cadillac CT6.
I just thought killing Pontiac was killing one brand too many.
I agree with everything you have just said. GM really didnt think it through in my opinion. I don't think they even thought through the "new camaro".
I like the old style pontiac body lines right up until the turn of the century. Afterwards they only made a couple nice cars. If the brand had cut down to making just a couple cars and brought back the firebird, the brand would have seen resurgency.
Who knows they might bring back the brand .... we can hope right?!
Pontiac & GM in general was simply another example of short term decisions being made at the expense of long term planning. It's not a new problem and it's not one that's gone un-noticed in the past 4 decades but is getting some recent press due to BlackRock Larry Fink's letter of two weeks ago. http://fortune.com/2015/04/14/blackrock-letter-ceo/
Corporate decision makers were (& have been) so focused on short term stock gains and bonus plans that they all but scuttled any hope of long term success. "Corporate" motors rather than maintaining multiple casting plants may have had an immediate effect on balance sheets but removed all hope of creativity & innovation that could be shared between divisions. Pontiac was delivering performance long after the other divisions had succumbed to the gas wars and de-leading of paint - the 455SD and even later the L72 400 were leaps & bounds above what the other divisions were delivering to customers & the sales reflected that. Even the much lambasted 301 & the 301 Turbo were well beyond other offerings and held significant promise in the release of the 1982 3rd gen models.....but that was not to be.
Simply re-skinning other corporate offerings and adding the Pontiac crest to the front bumper does not necessarily make it a Pontiac in my mind. Yes there were some exciting performance oriented cars over the years but it was only a matter of time. The steps that lead to Pontiac's demise were set in motion decades earlier by some greedy, short sighted, over compensated executives and there was no turning back.
The problem with the Pontiac brand was that it was too close to Chevy in the marketing hierarchy, and the design & advertising costs were double what they should be.
If you are looking for "excitement", a new C7 will offer plenty.
I think GM has had it in for Pontiac for some time... Here are some examples. Pontiac won the then Winston Cup in 2000 and 2002... Then magically in 2004 GM removed them from NASCAR and they only had Chevrolet? Interestingly in 2000, Pontiac actually sold more cars (not including trucks) than Chevrolet... I do not have annual production figures for 2001 - 2009... BUt I would bet Pontiac was not too far behind or beat Chevrolet in 2002 as well... And I would be interested to see if after 2004 when Pontiac left NASCAR to see if their production continued to fall...
04-27-2015, 12:38 PM
