Pontiac RIP

All a Pontiac has been since the late '70s has been a slightly dressed-up Chevrolet. What's to miss about Pontiac? It's about time GM started get serious about product. They made a big mistake, IMO, in getting rid of Olds, and embracing that Saturn POS in the '90s.

GM should be Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac these days. Period.

Chevy, for the low-end cars, ALL trucks, SUVs and "crossovers", and Corvettes.
Buick, for the middle-line cars (and bring back friggin' REAL wagons, huh?)
Cadillac, for the high-end and high-perfomance cars.

Too easy.

 

Pontiac Died when John Z. Delorean went to Chevy.
I went to school through GM's Pilot ASEP program here on the West Coast @ Cerritos College. Pontiac still mfg'd an V8 engine till 1981 and a banger even still. Worked at GM dealer till I knew better,Then worked at GMPP till they closed the West Coast office in Burbank (It was my favorite job along w/Cyclone)

I saw the writing on the wall even then and felt as I drove my 68 GTO Conv to school at $1.27 a gal that if this car could get like 15mpg in the city why couldn't a new A or G Body? They tried the coporate V6 and improved upon it's design but continued on their FWD platform conversion. Bad move since 1980.

I read the Memo GM sent out and like the new Camaro, I think the idea is there to save the company, but they got rid of all of their TRUE CAR GUYS and put in #'s chasers!

If I was a NASCAR owner, I'd say make a TRUE STOCK CAR! Those are the only rear drives that Joe Public can't buy. I'm not going to spell it ll out here, but all of the MFG's are in the same boat and need to get prices where people could afford them and make a car that people would pay for.

 

Wow, I'm kinda bummed, my Dad was a Pontiac, Buick, & GMC salesmen for all of his adult life. He p***ed away 2 yrs. ago, but I'm thinking he is rolling over in his grave with this latest news! I have to admit Pontiac lost it's "mystique" along time ago though, nothing they have built since the early Trans Ams have sparked anything with me.

 

I think the new GMC trucks a hell of a lot better than the Chevys do.

 

GM should just stop making everything except a pick-up and the Corvette and they need to start making some serious improvements to the Corvette if they do that. Maybe a real and decent respectable Cadillac, but again, needs major improvements. Dump all the rest of the **** they make especially that ******** retro Camaro. Not to mention the Pontiac which is complete good riddance at this point.

And forget the Volt to, the production version is a pathetic ugly watered down piece of **** and is nothing but golf cart/Prius tech with much better batteries, big ****ing deal. If they can't at least make it cool looking like the concept version, they should just forget about it as the plug-in elec. tech. is nothing to crow about. You can already do that now with a Prius if you replace the batteries with kits that people offer. Again, yesterdays news repackaged American-ugly and watered down - lame.

The pick-ups are fine and one of American auto manf. strengths, but the Corvette is just a second rate wannabe super car at a discount price. It performs well enough, but the styling has been weak and yesterdays news since the mid 70's. They need to serious up their game when it comes to style and creativity and start setting the trends again and not just trying to stay up and copy others.

But, I doubt they are really actually capable of any of that any time soon. They are just too entrenched and scared to take any chances and the top level is what really needs to be replaced, not the laborers or facilities. But, of course since the top is what makes the decisions, doubtful they will be willing to axe themselves to save the company until they are the only thing left and I am sure they will raid the any remaining ***ets before they even say good bye themselves.

Yeah, and stop it with the anti union ******** talk. That is just complete ****ing BS. anyone who runs a company and then blames their employees for all the problems is just doing nothing but blaming themselves. Except they are even more pathetic to even just do that and admit their own shortcomings. I have my own small business, I don't even like unions either and have never been in one and probably never will be. But, that kind of bashing is just utter ****ing ********. 90% of the blame of these companies failures rests in top level managerial decisions, not labor costs. What union rep. do you think came up with and approved that Aztez ****? What union rep. do you think pushed making SUV's and made no investment in products for the future that people might actually want when they got tired of paying up the *** for gas?

I predict neither of the "big" 3 will actually survive the next 5-10 years in any real semblance of what they are now. If they survive at all, they will be niche market manufacturers.

If none of them start designing and coming up with better products for their workers to make and buyer's to buy, then they get what they deserve and good riddance to all of them.

 

change it to g.m rip and they took 15 billion down with them that your grandkids kids will be paying for ..help us first if you dont have a job you cant buy a toaster let alone a new car ..is the goverment blind?

 

Ohhhhh ****ttttt.......man those Indians are gonna be pissed !!

This ****s donkey balls. Comeon GM....wake the **** up.

 

What's different about them? They've been the same truck, save for grilles and trim, since 1967!

 

i've been searching on the web,and all I can find is they haven't decided yet. says GM isn't commenting. the problem with their cars is the designers come up with great ideas, but by the time it gets to the corporate office, what started out great has been turned into a joke of itself. they need to get rid of a bunch or corporate BS and build cars that people want, the designers need to have a lot more say and power, they learn what people want, you build a car people want,they will buy it. your compe***ion builds a car people want they will buy that. it's that simple,but they can't get that.

 

"This ****s donkey balls........"

you can take THAT to the bank. The bank won't like it, but you could!

 

Stude Trucks, How can you say the corvette needs to be improved? What the hell have you been reading? do you own one? the new ZR1 is in the Ferarri realm for 1/3rd the price! Its the best priced sportscar in the world for its performance.

Its well known that Holden has been supporting the pontiac tag for a few years, this is no suprise. Although i got to drive a new G8 GT with the 364hp ls3 in it, and that thing is fricking awesome. id take one of those over a BMW M5 anyday...

its sad to see pontiac go away.

 

No more pontiac,s hope i can sleep tonight.... ****en goldchainers....

 

Its the way they look the GMC's dont have a huge bar going across the center of the grill. They have the rounded look in the front.

 

Nope, it's the lynchpin in the grand scheme to make the US into a Third-World country, dependent on the government for all the citizens needs. A wonderful So******t Utopia - just like Cuba.

Pontiac really DID have some nice cars, like the Solstice, G8, and the GTO, but made very little effort to promote sales on them, nor make their styling particularly Pontiac-unique. They blew it, plain and simple. Too little, waaaay too late.

 

THATS IT!!!!
Its not he ****py General Motors bigwigs or the ****ty Pontiac line of ****-mobiles....ITS the GOVERNMENT CONSPIRACY !!!!!


AAAAAAAAAeeeeeeeeeoooooAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!!!!!!!

 

I heard that Chevy truck division was going to be sold to Izuzu, or at least ran by Izuzu. I dont know if it's true or not.

 

the deisel motor is allready izuzu

 

This will get ugly but the unions demanded pay for employees even when there was no work. Thousands would get paid daily for sitting around reading and doing crosswords. That's ****ing B.S. No company can survive with stuff like that wrapped around their necks.

And for the money, there isn't a sportscar out there that can touch the Corvette. It may not be a style setter, but is style how you judge a sports car?

 

Nope, don't own one and never would they way they look. I even have enough cash I could go pay for one in full today if I wanted. I said the performance was fine and definitely respectable since it is much cheaper than sim. perf. cars. But, if you think a Corvette is even in close to the same league as any Ferrari, maybe that is the problem. Let's be honest, it just isn't by a hell of a long shot. The design is just too lame and middle of the road. Ferrari knows style on top of how to be the leader, not the one trying to follow. When you can say Ferrari is trying to keep up with a Corvette, then I might reconsider. But, they have a big gap to fill before that is even remotely possible, sorry. Maybe you need to take a closer look at a real Ferrari so you can tell the difference. I admit, I have never owned a Ferrari as I don't have that kind of cash, but I have paid pretty good attention to them. Performance alone doesn't make a great car.

I agree with you it is sad that Pontiac and others will almost ***uredly be going away if not tomorrow, soon. In fact, I am not only sad, I am pretty ****ing pissed off that the ***hats at the top have driven these once great companies into the gutter. american auto manufacturing is one crown jewel we still have left to speak of and be proud of, but probably not for much longer. As part of the bailout, they should have forced them to agree that at least 1 top level exec. should have been fired or replaced for every 10-20 works that are fired or laid off. What they really need is wholesale house cleaning and heads rolling starting at the top all the way to the bottom.

 

Yeah, then what, go back to making $5 dollars a day and an 80 hour work week. If I remember the statistic right 10% of the cost of a new car was employee wages. I'm still fairly young, but I remember my Dad was the only bread winner in the house, Mom stayed home and we lived pretty good. Since Unions are getting weaker and people don't understand what unions do for them, both parents working just to make ends meet. Don't blame the worker for earning a good living, blame the ones who make the decision. Start at the top and work down from there..... I'll step off the soap box now. Thanks for reading, I'm open for a re****al.

 

Come on for Christ sakes, stay on topic, and quit with the "black helicopters @ night" ********!.............The Government didn't **** up G.M. they did it to themselves over a number of years.

 

********!!! I heard it myself !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Definitely true enough, but let's also be fair and honest. It wasn't just GM, Ford and Chrysler didn't do any better. The all followed the same formula and have ended up in the same boat. Ford isn't taking any cash at the moment, but I suspect they are only kidding themselves. They are bleeding just like the others, but they just don't have the corp. stockholders on their ***es like GM and Chrysler, at least not for now until they decide enough is enough and to fire sale the company to carnage investors.

 

You aren't hearing me, apparently. Pontiac was sacrificed to the Congressional overlords we have now, so GM could get their $$$. Plus, do you really think that nearly fifty years of onorous government rules and regs that are forced on the car companies, have NOT had an effect on the bottom line anywhere??? Plus, when you have workers that get 90% of their wages to do nothing, in some cases? This all adds up! Sure, their product has something to do with things, obviously! But, is it ALL the fault of GM- management over the years? Hardly.

 

maybe they just need a car line that cant be influenced to be only electric or hybrid by the government, and will emerge later as a REAL AMERICAN car company again.

 

All kidding aside...some companies just don't adapt in new eras.
Pontiac was always a GM step-child.
I wish it weren't true, but the changes taking place are permanent.
I've just finished the River Rouge book, a history of the huge Ford plant in Detroit. Geez, they didn't just make cars, they made the steel for the cars. Ships full of ore would dock at the plant, steel was made and cars were manufactured...
I do wish we could turn back the clock to about 1965, but I can only be glad that I was 15 at the time surrounded by drag strips and with my two cameras.
Cripes, we hardly make steel anymore.........ugh, makes me sick.

 

GizmoJoe The word is that the Pontiac name will be retained for "niche" market vehicles.


I have a niche for my Poncho ....under the hood of my Studebaker truck , all 467 cubic inches of it .

p.s. So THAT'S where those black helicopters have been coming from !!!

 

I agree with wvenfield..workers sitting around doing nothing and getting paid is complete B.S. Tell me what other industry does that and is not unionized. UAW needs to go.

 

they killed the GTO again so why not?