Rumor: GM to announce Pontiac’s death next-Monday

Posted: Apr 23, 2009
Filed under: GM, Industry News, Pontiac

Rumor has it that GM will announced the “discontinuation” of the Pontiac brand next Monday as a part of a stricter restructuring being demanded by the Obama administration’s auto task force.

For some time now, we’ve been hearing that Pontiac will become a “niche brand” while the main focus for GM will be Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick. However, GM never said what type of niche Pontiac will become. Speculation has it that it would either become a compact, fuel-efficient brand (with a Pontiac G3 as its pride and joy) or a rear-wheel-drive sports car brand with the G8 being its knight in shining armor.

Either way, it seems Pontiac’s future is facing a huge obstacle from the Obama auto task force which is demanding deeper cuts from the General.

The folks at InsideLine decided to ask PR man Tom Wilkinson who 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.”

- By: Kap Shah

Source: Straightline

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  • pontiacsbailbondsman
    The auto task force is a radical force trying to take over the large companies that made america america if i do what i need to ill keep the auto pontiac up out of the muck
  • david k
    Good .. I propose just keeping Chevy, Cadillac and GMC. Caddy for luxury vehicles while GMC is for the SUVs, truck and commercial division and Chevy is for everything else (I also propose keeping the Suburban within the Chevy division since it has history). This way, there is no cross-division vehicle that competes with one another.
  • zermatt
    So Chevrolet would give up its truck line - including commercial vehicles? Doesn't Chevrolet sell more trucks than GMC?

    I guess my vision of GM is to eliminate duplication and redundancy. One of GM's bigger issues has to do with the number of dealers they have. For GM going forward less will be more. If there is a GMC dealer in a given area you can bet that there is a Chevy dealer within a few miles of it. GMC franchises are usually paired with Pontiac franchises and it is looking more like Pontiac will be gone. Why keep an anemic product line, GMC, in a badly weakened dealer network? Also why keep a smaller GMC dealer when there is a larger Chevrolet dealer nearby?

    There is no difference between a GMC and Chevy truck and if the reason to keep GMC is due to "customer loyalty" then GM can offer a dealer installed "GMC Badge Kit".

    If it were my decision to make GM would be Chevrolet and Cadillac products only. Much leaner and better able to survive.

    This is about survival and not what would make a small fraction of the GM customer base happy. Otherwise, why not keep Hummer, Saturn and Saab?
  • ty
    I wonder if they are gonna make a buick & chevy version of the G8 & solstice?
  • Pat
    WOW FRITZ if you're reading this...and god i hope you are... all of you are a bunch of idiots... why the hell would you get rid of pontiac over Buick. fine i understand Buick is doing well in terms of quality and all that bs....but GMC???? that's like another HUMMER! drop GMC...bring the Terrain and Acadia over to Pontiac...and call it a day.
  • Ivan Gutierrez
    Damn this sucks, Pontiac and Hummer are my favorite GM brands and it doesn't look like either of them will be around for much longer.
  • GMfan87
    so long G8....
  • zermatt
    Maybe GM brings it back as a Buick?
  • neil
    So pensioners can drive it at 11mph down to the early bird special
  • GMfan87
    atleast I got my GT...i'd rather see it rebadged as a chevy nova hehe.
  • neil
    Five blind monkeys could run GM better the the auto task-force, Wagoner and the other cronies
  • zermatt
    I would rather GM keep Pontiac over Buick. The brand image for Pontiac is younger than that of Buick's and I think that the G8 is a good full size car with a high performance pedigree.

    What of GMC? Talk about redundancy...
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