Does anyone else get this? It means Pontiac isn’t neccessarily dead forever, it could come back to GM.

This sounds like GM has the delusion that Pontiac might return in the future and is doing some nameplate protection to me. I wonder if in the purchase of the Pontiac name if the model names would come with it… I certainly wouldnt want to see some eco-car running around with Trans-AM on the back.

You look at the trends over the years for car sales. After any slump, sales usually come back as good as before. Once all of GM’s restructuring is done and the loans are repaid, who knows, maybe Pontiac will come back. It is a good move for GM because I believe Pontiac will have some good name recognition for a long time. I hope Aztec, G5, G3, and Montana nameplates will be forgotten soon.

Of course they wouldn’t sell the one brand that actually has some nice cars now. The Solstice and G8 are great vehicles. Of course the rest of the lineup blows balls… an Aveo rebadge, a Cobalt rebadge, a Matrix rebadge, a Malibu wannabe, and an Equinox rebadge. Why not keep the brand around for just those two cars? Sell them at the Buick dealers… gotta have something to get people besides old geezers in the doors.

Yup, I can see the grand Pontiac Revival Event happening on 4th of July 2014… or at least thats what GM sees. This is exactly why they are “killing” pontiac as opposed to selling it for much needed cash.

Introducing the 2014 Pontiac GTO. Only available only at your Local Chevrolet dealer.

Kind of like the “old” days when the manufacturer was the name of the car. And that would be the only Pontiac model made.

The ONLY reason, well at least the biggest reason, for GM dropping Pontiac is because Obama said they had to go deeper with their restructuring. With Pontiac gone more dealers will go out of business w/o GM having to pay them.

Pontiac will be back with just a few models which is what they had planned on doing anyway.

If they did say no because they think of reviving it in the future, I hope they only bring it back with performance models only!
I, for one, wish gm had a performance only division, a part that would only sell cars like the corvette, camaro, and other power oriented vehicles….but we know that won’t happen….sooooo……..

I can think of a few additional reasons GM would reject an offer: low bid and competition for federal funds. Lets assume the bid was sufficient, then GM has a competitor for tax dollars. At the moment, they are the only recipient, minus about 20 billions will be shelled to ChryCo (or whatever entity UAW will own). What would prevent Pontiac to ask for Fed buck?

Pontiac as a performance vehicle company only? Thats just crazy talk!

Maybe if they had stuck to that in the first place they wouldnt be on the way out…

Too bad. Then they could have bought the Viper from Chrysler. Now that would be the way to start a performance division.

I’m not surprised by this as Pontiac has a long, rich history with GM. Even if they don’t kill it, I doubt they would want it messed with. This is different than selling Saturn or Hummer. They don’t have a rich history. Ford selling Jaguar or Aston Martin doesn’t count either. While the Jaguar nameplate has a good history, it’s not really Ford’s. So selling them off wasn’t a big deal.

It is still beyond me why they’d get rid of this division. Buick/GMC dealers just don’t have the volume to stand alone without a volume marquee like Pontiac. They were still the third most selling division of GM last year, and this year. It has to be Obama on this – I don’t think GM would do this otherwise. Like I said before – I don’t know how it’s possible GM isn’t making money on the inferior G6 and G5 selling them at prices very near to the superior cars in their class in large quantities.

people, people, people. as long a chevy is in charge, pontiac is dead for good!!!!!! pontiac has been chevys royal pain in the butt for decades, and now they finally have what they want. gm(chevy) knows how badly they handled pontiac and for someone to come along and do it right is something they dont want to have come back in their face. my beloved pontiac is gone for good. gm deserves what is coming.

Pontiac was the 3rd highest volume but GMC was 2nd. Why Pontiac and not Buick? Pontiac did not bring in the profits like Buick, and the Pontiac G6, the high volume model, was all fleeted out and OLD. Buick has both the winner Enclave and the brand new LaCrosse coming out soon, both profitable. Also of course the China connection.

As far as Chevy being in charge I have no idea what you are talking about. Who is Chevy? Only about 45 people actually have Chevy behind their name at GM. they do not run anything but their own brand.

Yes Obama killed Pontiac but it will be back! I hope.

If Oprah were to give another 276 G6s away on her show, I wonder if people wouldn’t be that excited and/or not even accept them since the taxes would be worth more than the cars themselves?

They’re keeping the name. They’re hoping to revive it when times are better. Best of luck to them with it. I’d hate to see the Pontiac name sold off to the wrong buyer and turned into, well, what Pontiac was like in the 80s and 90s…

shane, i would bet anybody who would buy the name would steer away from the almost 25 years of bad decisions by gm regarding pontiac. how could they do worse?

murphy1- Well, GM may have thought of it like that. But here’s how I think they want to do it. Keep Pontiac nonexistent for a little while, if economic conditions improve, bring it back the way it should have been done in the first place. They kind of give themselves a blank slate, and if it does return, a chance to give the New Pontiac some of it’s former dignity.

Shane Train, Murphy1,

I would have to wonder if GM fosters similar attitudes about OLDSMOBILE.

If GM is serious about bringing back PONTIAC they would have been wise to have been more clear as to say something like “Pontiac is going on hiatus until economic conditions improve. At which point it will debut with a whole new line up of worthy performance vehicles.” The question is what would they roll out at such a point, assuming anyone cares by then.

To be honest, GM may be holding out for more offers, if nothing else. If they can package one or more of its divisions with PONTIAC that may make it worth while. PONTIAC and SATURN would go good together especially since SATURN has some interested buyers as well.

But I would, myself love to see a new GTO or FIREBIRD by someone with a different POV.

Jake that is Fruitful thinking: however, it would be very unlikely given the competition. The Only way Pontiac could be viable or make any sort of real return in the future is if it were to totally do its own thing outside of what GM does meaning Pontiac would have No shared parts and or Motors with Chevy, Buick or any other GM name plate. And I and so many people Know that would not happen. and that lack of real technological difference has been every Other Brands down fall outside of Chevrolet. their problem all along. Their is no “REAL” Differentiation outside of body cladding and a cheap different front grille.
Its that simple. My father owned Pontiacs, Buicks, Chevy, and Olds and if it were for every other year I’d could tell you it was the same car he had the year before even though it was a different brand!!!!!!!

So If GM is earnst they would Invest to make Pontiac independent and do their own thing. But they have’nt and probably won’t

Some of you people come on what do you think. The Dealer could not have offered GM anywhere near what its gonna cost them to shut down the brand name so why should they give it up so cheaply.

I admire the dealers offer but I don’t think ANY Dealer unless his name was Warren Buffet would have enough operating capital to bring Pontiac Back.

I think it is very unlikely GM wants to bring Pontiac back in the future. It will die a miserable death the way Oldsmobile did. (and Plymouth & Eagle did for Chrysler). The need to shed Pontiac to make GM viable again is questionable, and very regrettable. They claim maintaining it dilutes sales from what they have now dubbed their core brands. So why not sell it? Because it is still a high volume marquee, with a loyal following. To sell it would be to give away the customers. By killing it, GM can hope to capture the Pontiac customers with Chevy and Buick.

I also don’t feel you can blame Obama for killing Pontiac. Without Obama, Chrysler and GM (including Pontiac) would likely have died. At least with his help the US auto industry will survive in some form.