General Motors is expected to announce details of its “faster, deeper” reorganization plans early next week. According to an unnamed company source, those plans might include a death sentence for the historic Pontiac brand, which has been hanging on for dear life since GM’s initial assertion that the brand would move to a small niche element of the automaker’s portfolio.
Edmunds spoke with an anonymous source, who confirmed that GM’s reorganization plans will be announced after the weekend on Monday. Rumors of Pontiac’s demise have been prevalent for weeks, but a vague, solemn comment from a GM PR chief led the publication to conclude that
“Pontiac is dead.”
“There’s nothing I can share with you at this time,” GM’s Tom Wilkinson said. “Keep your eyes on our media site. Officially, nothing has changed with Pontiac’s niche-brand status, until you hear differently.”
Pontiac had been demoted to niche status back in December when GM presented the then-in-charge Bush administration with its proposed reorganization plan.
Since that time, the brand’s future has been tossed back and forth, most recently with complete silence from CEO Fritz Henderson at a press conference last week. For months, it had been assumed that GM would gradually phase out Pontiac, but now it seems more likely that the brand will receive a much earlier death sentence, despite a recent uptick in G8 sales.
