Bankruptcy

Pontiac Joins Oldsmobile ?

By mcbride

First, fair disclosure:  this author owns an Oldsmobile ? and a Pontiac! 

Second, in the ?what were they thinking category? GM decides to close Pontiac when ?[t]he division was still GM?s third-largest seller, with 278,000 sales last year, and it enjoyed the youngest average age of any GM brand.?  Both those points are really important, especially the point about the average age of the typical Pontiac buyer.  That means that GM will have to work to retain those younger buyers as they age and look for other cars over their lives. 

 Third, one can only hope that someone at GM realizes what a gem they have in the G8 sedan and keeps it on in another division.  That is a car that I do not own, but by every report I have read, it is just an excellent vehicle.  The other Pontiac worth retaining is the Solstice, which is also sold as a Saturn Sky.  At this time, the future for Saturn is likewise unclear, but one hopes this vehicle (Solstice/Sky) also somehow survives.  It is less of a pure sports car than it appears to be from its looks, but still is a good vehicle and worth keeping, especially as it could be easily re-tooled into more of a true sports car (i.e. larger turbocharger in the sporty model). 

 Fourth, although no one asked my opinion, I noted that at the time Olds was shuttered and Saturn retained, that Olds had the far better products and Saturn had far better PR.  I thought that GM should re badge at least some of the Olds products, which at the time were 3 sedans, as Saturns.  That was clearly not done and as time passed and the lack of quality products at Saturn became more clear, GM brought over Opal products (which are also  excellent products) and revised them into ?Saturns.?  Such is the status of Saturn now, in addition to a GM sourced SUV and the Sky, mentioned before. 

Here is a link to one article on the demise of Pontiac: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30438201//

 Michael

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on April 30, 2009 (boomark / email).