Even before General Motors officially announced it was bringing the Chevrolet Aveo-based Pontiac G3 to the U.S. market, there were grumblings about GM going back to its old ways of badge engineering. True GM still produces several vehicles on the same basic architectures (see the Lambda family of SUVs) but designers have ensured that each vehicle gets its own unique brand identity, both inside and out. With the G3, you get a revised front fascia and different color gauges. But GM is firm in its stance that it’s the right time for a Pontiac G3 and sent Jim Hopson, Pontiac’s Communications Manager, out to defend the hatchback’s honor.
Although Hopson set out to defend the G3 against recent criticisms, most of his arguments come up short of a valid rebuttal. The first topic Hopson tackled was that the G3 was simply a rebadged Chevy Aveo and that there really is no point to it other than to give the Buick -Pontiac- GMC dealers a small car to hock. Hopson openly admits that the Aveo and G3 share “a lot of components†but tries to defend this fact by saying “ Toyota and Lexus also share components.†Now admittedly Lexus engineers do very little to disguise the Toyota Land Cruiser as the LX 570, but all other shared platforms have unique interior and exterior styling – so much so that we bet very few EX 350 buyers actually know they are purchasing a very upscale Camry. True some Lexus models are sold as Toyota’s in other parts of the world, but that’s in other part of the world. All in all, we don’t think Hopson’s argument for badge engineering holds any water in this case.
Hopson’s next point is to defend the G3 in a Pontiac lineup that already features the Vibe. But for anyone that has ever seen an Aveo and Vibe, this part actually makes sense. The Vibe will dwarf the G3 by about 16 inches, so as far as the sake of just filling segments, the G3 does its job.
Lastly, Hopson address the concern that the G3 will dilute Pontiac’s performance brand image. Pontiac’s Communication Manager didn’t really do much to alleviate concerns in this arena as he contends the G3 is “sporty and fun-to-drive when compared to many of the cars in its segment.†Anyone that has spent some time behind the wheel of the Aveo can attest that sporty and fun-to-drive aren’t exactly the two choice adjectives that come to mind when describing the diminutive hatchback. Add in the Honda Fit ’s fun factor and the G3 has a mountain to climb before it’s the most fun car in the segment.
But, in all fairness, we’ll reserve our final judgment on the G3 until it hits the market, but it sounds as if GM’s dealer network might have beat out the company’s good sense.
