Oh my. Oh my, my, my, my.

Anytime a car reminds you of Burt Reynolds, you really need to think twice about it.

Thank God. If you want to compete with BMW in the minds of consumers you don’t revive the Trans Am.

I was thinking David Hasselhoff.

Imagine a Smokey and the Bandit remake with that car? C’mon GM. Transformers sure didn’t hurt the Camaro now, did it?

Mulletts rejoice.

yeah this might be a good idea not to do it, how about a new gto instead?

I disagree with nearly everything said. The last thing I want to see is a Pontiac Vibe GXP or a Matrix spawned from it. They need a car like a TransAm or GTO, I’ll pass on the goofy decals surely, but the idea of a Camaro rip-off is a good idea in this case. Pontiac is, IMO, the sporty-imaged GM badge. Not Chevy. If anything GM needs to install some Aussie designers in their American studios for Pontiac, and Some Euro designers in Saturns chairs. Let us design the GTO/TransAm replacement. Not the Aussies.

“If anything GM needs to install some Aussie designers in their American studios for Pontiac, and Some Euro designers in Saturns chairs. Let us design the GTO/TransAm replacement. Not the Aussies.

Comment by EclipsedStar53, posted on February12 at 1:36 pm”

WHAT?! You want Aussie designers in Pontiac studios but then you don’t want them designing a car for a gto/ta replacement.

Enough flip flopping and trying to react to the winds of trends and politics. Pick a niche, a segment or a market to focus on and produce the most desirable cars in that arena. Do what the Asians have been doing for ever, pick a company you want to be and copy their philosophy and basic elements of design and engineering that are signatures of their companies products. With out copying their style of course, that would make Pontiac an Asian company.

my beloved pontiac is dying…..so senseless. the trans-am made perfect sense as a halo car for pontiac again. but thats chevy greed for you. the 35mpg speak is just rediculous. fuel saving technology is (and will continue) exploding, so the 35mpg should be a cakewalk by the time it is implemented. as much as i love a v8, i would have no problem with a trans am with a v6 direct injection putting out 400 horses and great mileage!!

I’m starting to believe that GM is using the upcoming CAFE regulations as a smokescreen to hide the fact that they might not have a clear, cohesive product strategy for Pontiac. I know the CAFE regulations are going to drastically change the entire auto industry, but there are avaiable technologies GM could utilize to provide ample power without sacrificing fuel efficiency. I can’t believe that an experienced, multi-billion dollar car corporation like GM is having so much trouble defining a brand image for one of its divisions and supplying that division with products that support that brand image.

Pontiac doesn’t need a large, mainstream lineup to define its brand image. I can see them existing with the following lineup:
1) Solstice roadster.
2) Compact sedan and maybe 5 door hatchback (G6).
3) Compact coupe and convertible (G5).
4) Midsize sedan and maybe wagon (G8).
5) Midsize coupe and convertible (G7 or GTO).
(I personally hate the G-numeric model designations, but it seems as though Pontiac is adamant about utiilizing them).
That’s it. No trucklets, crossovers, SUVs, or minivans. Just cars. Design them on the proper rear wheel drive platforms. Give them turbocharged, supercharged, or hybrid engines if you need to in order to give them some extra boost. Just quit giving us excuses why this can’t be done.

I think Pontiac could be cast as Cadillac’s affordable, rear wheel drive little brother. I think Pontiac’s products should receive sleek, modern, sporty designs that carry some traditional Pontiac styling cues without being retro. This would give Pontiac a relevant position in GM’s brand hierarchy and the auto market in general.

Why don’t they just ditch the whole “history” thing and create new exciting vehicles that feature new technologies. A new Trans Am with a turbo V6 just doesn’t sound right, BUT an all new car, maybe called the G7 or whatever, with that engine might sound sweet. Make it a competitor to the 3 series coupe and style it accordingly. We don’t need cars with “history,” we need cars that we desire to drive.

” A new Trans Am with a turbo V6 just doesn’t sound right
Comment by snoboardguy21, posted on February12 at 2:57 pm ”

Why not? It’s been done before. Remember the 25th Anniversary Trans Am? It had the 3.8L turbo V-6 from the Buick Grand National. And it was fast.

A little birdy told me that the GTO is coming back…. in about 2 years from now.

This lack of a plan for a TA isn’t exactly news. The confirmation makes it obligatory for leftlane to post though.

The story, according to GM, is it would cost 200 Million to make a Firebird/TransAm. Which is not much for a new car design, as the costs are already absorbs with the shared platform.

GM has invested more in other badge-engineering jobs that aren’t as potentially productive.

Does GM need 4 Lambda SUVs?

Pontia should be able to make another 50% of sales vs the Camaro, and that should make a profit, plus proliferating a Sure Bet like the Camaro isn’t a bad idea.

Doing it 4 times (Lambda SUVs)…..not so much.

DrFill

at least they won’t make another Sunbird . i always wondered what happened to the Pontiac Rageous concept. they should have called the solstice the Banshee

that Trans Am pic looks intense.

If Chevy is everything to everyone and Cadillac is Luxury and Buick is near Lux for older folks and Saturn is re-badged Euro-GM where does this leave Pontiac if they’re not the ‘performance division”? Otherwise they’re just siphoning sales away from Chevy. Get rid of ‘em, make the dealers Buick/ GMC/ Saturn, and stop competing against yourself. They need to lessen the numbers of dealers anyway. They did it with Olds and there were more stand-alone Olds dealers than Pontiac by far.

@ corvette

I KNOW! I thought I was the only one who saw how badass the transam pic looked Frankly, I didn’t think that bringing down the tip of the nose would have such a drastic effect on the design.

As gay as the Trans Am is, I love this modern concept. The screaming eagle (chicken?), the blackout, the gold rims. It’s gorgeous….

Damn it. That’s all that’s needed to be said.

While the new CAFE standards are making carmakers rethink their lineup, why kill attempts to revive a great nameplate just because that nameplate is going to imply that it will be a “gas guzzler”?

Can’t the “Great Minds” at GM, Ford and Chrysler use alternative power plants in these revered namesakes. If the future points to fuel efficient cars, why can’t you capitalize on the marketing promise these nameplates offer and let the public not only have the style these cars offer, but the fuel effieciency too.

Imagine a Challenger with a Bluetec diesel, or a Camaro with flex fuel capability. As the technology moves forward, I am most sure that, so too will performance increase and still give you the benefits of a car with style, fuel efficiency and “muscle” performance.

We as customers must also adjust to the changing climate occuring in the industry and give these new ideas a fair shake. To me, it seems like these big board room meetings overreact to the changes and yet again, miss the potential opportunities that lie in front of them…and that is a shame!

And as a side note, $200 million was the projected cost it would take to accomplish a successful “Trans Am Model Launch” Not doing it because of this absurd estimate sounds like a quick excuse to shoot down a program someone did not want anyway.Given that the research and development of the camaro have been nearly completed, honestly how much more would it have cost, to “badge engineer” (something Detroit knows how to do very well!) a trans am counterpart? Closed minded thinking will lead to the extinction of the brand(s)! Someone needs to take some chances. Give the public what they want; Style, Quality and Value and they will come! Words to live by!

Just my .02 Cents.

CAFE standards will go in effect in 2020. 12 years from now. Just think how much world has changed in 12 years:
1. My children learned of oral sex from President of the US
2. VP discovered Internet and we can partake in his invention by chatting on this blog
3. I paid $40 for 30 minutes of cell phone time and could not talk 30 minutes, because service wasn’t available
4. Volvo with 4 cylinder turbo was fast, square and not Ford (and I loved it)
5. V6 was 200-220 HP and V8 was 260 to 300 hp
6. Overall mileage was better then today, because Explorer ruled the world (after taking crown from Grand Cherokee)
7. Regular gas was between $.9 and $1.05 on East Coast ($1.25 in CA)
8. Java was an island in Pacific
9. Hillary Clinton was not running for White House - she owed it (except the bathroom in the Oval Office)
10. GWB - was George Washington Bridge between NYC and NJ and not President of US

Folks, It will be OK in 2020. this country survived Arab embargo in ‘73 and Jimmy Carter oil lunacy between ‘77 and ‘80. We will prevail and cars will be better and more fuel efficient.

Oops, I forgot my hero Burt Reynolds was married to Super Boobs!

Sucks. I liked the modern day Firebird/Trans Am more than the Camaro and I always thought it was coming back. I don’t like what I’ve seen of the new Camaro, and that concept image of the Trans Am looks 20x better in my opinion.

11. Chrysler was profitable and only car geeks had ever heard of Daimler. To the rest of world it was still Mercedes.
12. Japanese cars still rusted faster than domestics.
13. D’oh was not yet in Websters.
14. Double double meant twins having sex with other twins.
15. Hybrids referred to plant species.

…next?

****

Its funny all the big car magazines have these 6 page ads about how enviromentally friendly GM is, and yet their leadership is constantly whining about CAFE and hinting that it pretty much be the end of the world for rear wheel drive(?), pontiac, camaro, etc etc etc

You would think that a company with such a huge ad spend to prove to the world how green they are would be trying to actually design a product line that goes even further than the CAFE regs, rather than constantly blaming every future GM problem on it.

16. People used to use and pay 25 cents to use a Payphone.
17. Pagers were “cool” to own.
18. Cell Phones were expensive and HUGE.
19. Saturday morning cartoons were actually good to watch.
20. Kids looked up to a guy named Pee Wee Herman.
21. Jean Claude Van-Damme and Steven Segal were high payed Actors.

next……….

22. Al Gore STILL hasn’t claimed to invent / discover the internet…

just boggling lutz…. chevy has “too many models”…what a great line since you made it that way! chevy has the vette, why in the world would they get the front line pony when the “performance divison” is screaming for a true top line performer? (the solstice would be relevant if there wasnt a chevy, oops saturn, sky). it should be the camaro on the bubble instead. gm is undeniably run by chevy execs who dont see the big picture. they are ruining a very viable division….

I agree with onramp. GM is always at the vanguard of opposing all safety and environmental regulations with its formidable lobbying power, yet it’s marketing spinmeisters portray GM as this socially responsible company.
GM: “CAFE will impose great hardships on us.”
TOYOTA: “We will have no problem meeting CAFE ahead of its deadline.”
Which company do you think has better ethics???
GM is so stupid anyway, killing the Camaro just as Ford was about to debut the current generation Mustang.

Well since they are not planning on creating the TransAm; I for one will keep the one I have. The GTO will not help them either since the one they have now doesn’t look and feel like a muscle car. The Vett is the only muscle car GM has left. Sorry but if GM thinks that people that own a TransAm will buy the new Camaro they are very mistaken. GM wake up and read the Blogs. Bring the TransAm back!!

I disagree w/ TAF. First of all, the new GTO is faster than my ‘67 GTO, so it definately DOES feel like a muscle car. Second, I don’t think GM gives a crap about T/A owners buying the new Camaro. I think they are looking for old Camaro owners, and there were many more of them.

Personally, I hate the whole retro trend right now. What are we saying when the most popular design is from 1969? What do we do in a few years, buid a ‘73?

Hmm. Mixed feelings about the Trans Am. I thought it was cheesy when I was a kid, but now I love it. Makes me nostalgic. I’d consider driving one if they brought it back.

LLN needs writers who know how to construct a sentence.It wouldn’t surprise me if one of you nerds was on the LLN staff.

“I hope they don’t give up on performance because they don’t have to. You can use four-cylinder engines to achieve incredible power.”
Ol’ Lynn’s idea of “incredible power” sure is different from mine.

This news might explain the great fraud about to befall us.

Knight Rider sunday nite! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah,Boooooooyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!

There’s only one Burt reynolds …. for good or ill.

lga life: someone FINALLY figured out when the “mullet” reference is appropriate!

B-P-G dealers DO have a halo car of sorts. The Buick Enclave

mazdaman: Once again talkin’ sense.
“I’m starting to believe that GM is using the upcoming CAFE regulations as a smokescreen to hide the fact that they might not have a clear, cohesive product strategy for Pontiac.”

That could well be the case.
I agree with your Pontiac lineup, but would dump the G5

(I also hate the G-numeric model designations).

DrFill: “Does GM need 4 Lambda SUVs?” No. Two would have been enough.

441Zuke: “At least they won’t make another Sunbird.’” Hear, hear!

rsg if GM made the dealers Buick/ GMC/ Saturn, three lambdas would be under one roof!

johnnycanuck: I thought Double-double was pulling a DP, and changing places.