If Pontiac goes to small FWD models, the division is officially dead. The G8 is the only unique vehicle they currently have.. badge-engineering the Aveo and Cruze is a bold step into the automotive grave.

they should do as follows…
chevy-affordable everyday transportation focusing more on family-oriented consumers
saturn-the sporty-european crowd to appeal more towards younger buyers
pontiac-the sportiest of the gm division, plain & simple.
gmc-trucks, duh
buick-the entry-level luxury division; think mercury
saab-the more exotic luxury-sport euro division
caddilac-the luxury division; think lincoln

the Cruze should be made a 4 door for chevy & a 2 door for pontiac. the Avea stays an aveo and not a G3 unless pontiac gets a SPORTY 2 door variant. the G6 should go to RWD with sportier characteristics to further pontiacs sporty antics. i can’t believe GM still things cloning vehicles & slapping new names on them all works. I guess it does, in a sense, but its not very smart.

Pontiac: We build……….???????????…..Mercury’s?

Awesome to hear; less dukes of hazzard wannabes now.

flip floppin’ like there’s no tomorrow, GM!

small FWD models = retarded cousin brothers of chevy cars. Waste of time and money. You’re basically just sharing sales with your other division.

You might as well kill off pontiac and just sell hopped up trims of chevrolet cars alongside the regular line then. Doesn’t that make sense?

Oh, just when they get something good in the G8. The G6 is good overall vehicle, note exciting, but good. Use a the small rear wheel drive platform that going to underpin the BRX replacement and use it for the G6 replacement, albeit a sporty version of the suspension. The model under the G6 can be a front drive Mazda3 , Civic fighter. It’s not that hard, Ford shows that you can start with an excellent platform and differentiate (Mazada3, Euro Focus, S40). Hell stretch the Kappa platform a use that, just don’t **** up and do mostly front drive. Not now, Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!

You pretty much have to go back to the Fiero to find the last time Pontiac had something no other division offered. You can’t count the last GTO or the G8 because they’re just rebadged Holdens. So in other words this is nothing new for Pontiac. The G3 is just going to be the modern equivalent of the Firefly as the Aveo is to the Sprint. I like the idea of a RWD G6 but that shows far too much forward thinking so I’m positive the idea will be put to rest in short order.

as for the solstice.. yeah right. Losing an entire liter of displacement is NOT cool, especially in an RWD, fairly heavy roadster. That *might* be ok if they lighten the chassis and stick the engine in the rear of the car, but that would require quite a redesign.

oy vey

what is the point?

so thse will just B gaudier Cheverolets?

they day da G3 rolls off da line is the deth of Pontiac.

¢ Pontiac and Buick dealers are typically housed under one roof, Y R there bouth the Acadia & Enclave?

Y do they have 2 clobe the Cruze? Just let pontiac have an honorable deth. it haz Bcum a joke.

I think they should kill the G6 name & name a RWD seda something else. Nit Grand Am, but maybe Catalina. Ehatwver happened 2 the Banshee?

yes, badge-engineering sa Aveo & Cruze wood B a bold step into the automotive grave.

the setupo w/ “chevy-affordable everyday transportation focusing more on family-oriented consumers … makes sio much ¢ U no GM winn bever do iyt.

the Cruze should not B a pontiac. it is FWD

G3 is na stupid name. Drop it al2gether. remember the pontiac trans spirt? Da G3 us rite up there (or should I say “down there?) in terms of how bad an idea it is.

cloning vehicles duz not work. Unless U R toyota or Honda. But those lusxury companies suck, si maybe it duz work, just not 4 me.

“small FWD models = retarded cousin brothers of chevy cars,” is a good deiscropition fo the direction they R taking pontiac. & selling hopped-up trims of chevrolet cars alongside the regular makes moire ¢ than doing this would.

da Fiero was beyond terrible
but I say in the US, U can count the last GTO or G8, bcuz we never heard of the Commodor. BTW where is da US-spec Commodore Wagon?

just give up now on BUICK/PONTIAC/GMC.

Wow, nothing says “Driving Excitement” like fwd re-badged Chevy’s.

Death to FWD.

i try to stick up for gm………..but this is just dumb. I really hope pontiac sinks. theres nothing thats going to show these guys what people want and need, but to fail at something this dumb. does anyone in gm have a hold of reality. ugh its frustrating.

“hey day da G3 rolls off da line is the deth of Pontiac.”

What about the Daewoo-Pontiac LeMans of 20 years ago. This is NOTHING new.

Just kill off Pontiac!

This is really tired.

Glad I don’t own any GM products.

Flip flop, flip flop

GM acts like a female…. annoying

And just like that, what little hope I may have had of there once again being a respectable American performance brand is now officially crushed.

holly crap ktulu, speak english!

John DeLorean is crying….in heaven…or hell.

Deja Vu

http://www.mckenzieauction.com/1992PontiacLemans0404.jpg

Those were a mistake and the new G3 is too.

Pontiac should just make sporty cars. They can make muscle cars and if they make small cars, the should be hot handlers and peformers that compete with cars like the Civic Si.
Maybe they can make a turbo diesel that performs and gets great mileage too.
No embarassing rebadged Daewoo/Chevys.

If someone at GM actually had a sense of humor they would just call it LeMans

I think the dealer network configurations should be changed.

Chevrolet, Pontiac, and GMC should be combined into a mainstream dealer super-network. Chevrolet’s lineup would consist of affordable FWD cars, affordable FWD/AWD crossovers, and the Camaro/Corvette sports cars. GMC would be the corporation’s sole truck/SUV division. Pontiac would have a small lineup of affordable RWD cars.

Saturn would be changed to Opel and combined with Saab to form an import focused division.

Buick would be combined with Cadillac to form a luxury dealer network. Buick would carry FWD luxury cars and FWD/AWD luxury crossovers while Cadillac would focus solely on creating well executed, world class RWD luxury cars.

Hummer would be sold to the first company foolish enough to express interest in it.

Under the new arrangement, Pontiac’s lineup could be something like this:
* LeMans: Alpha based compact 3-door/5-door aligned with resurrected Holden Torana with styling based on the Torana TT 36 Concept. The car would be 182 inches long on a 109 inch wheelbase.
* Grand Prix: SWB Sigma-Zeta based midsize sedan/coupe/wagon aligned with downsized next gen Holden Commodore. The car would be 190 inches long on a 114 inch wheelbase.
* Bonneville: LWB Sigma-Zeta based large sedan aligned with downsized next gen Holden Statesman. The car would be 198 inches long on a 118 inch wheelbase.
* I heard a rumor that the Kappa platform will be discontinued after the current Solstice & Sky reach the end of their model cycles. According to the rumor, the next gen Solstice & Sky will probably be cancelled instead of switching to anothe platform. As much as I like the Solstice & Sky, I would gladly see them go if it meant that Pontiac would get a lineup like the one listed above. The problem is that they will probably be cancelled and Pontiac will receive nothing but rebadged and twin-nostilized Chevy clone products.

They just don’t get it. Save us the complaints and yourself the low sales numbers. Start buying out the Pontiac dealer network now.

Four cylinder Cadillacs. 4 cylinder Pontiacs, 1.4L mini engines, rebadged Daewoos, Scion wannabes… If GM keeps this up, I’ll be shopping Ford for my next car.

Just don’t mess with the Corvette, GM. Don’t even think about it.

They could mess with the design and let someone OUTSIDE of GM put some mojo back into the Corvette shape.

The Pontiac Lame-ons.

Good grief GM, just kill off Pontiac already. If you are not dedicated to making Pontiac something unique and special, forget it! If I want an Aveo, I will buy a Chevy Aveo (which I won’t because it is horrid) and a G3 is just a slap in Pontiac’s Arrow. Once again GM is losing its way. All because of gas mileage… if GM were truly innovative, they would figure out ways to create cool cars that are unique and RWD and still be fuel efficient. How about some Diesels??? How about a hybrid??? Nope, they just think FWD and 1.4 L 4 cylinders are the way…. well its not because if I want all that you already have Chevrolet to sell that. Pontiac is dead….

Ah… more rebadges. Should we have expected anything less from GM? So much for Pontiac’s performance image.

Old307 I was going to say the same thing. Pontiac already sells the Toy/GM triplets Matrix/Vibe/xB.
No real biggy here.

I would be interested if Pontiac could get a G3-GTP. Slap that 140hp 1.4L turbo ecotec under the hood of the Aveo and you’ll have a fun little econobox reminiscent of the CRX from the 80’s.

Pontiac: We build…boredom…

Joshy comment #2 is on the right track. GM competes too much with itself. Their different line-ups need indentity instead of just rebasging everything.

Makes you wonder if they are TRYING to fail.

the reason pontiac is falling back into a full lineup is not because of the gas situation as much as saturn not being able to be the high volume division gm had envisioned. i said over a year ago that saturn won’t be able to sell the way pontiac does, and it hasnt. that is why saturn dealers are being warned of possibly merging with pontaic/buick/gmc. as much as it sucks to lose the momentum of being all rear wheel drive car division, pontiac IS a big selling name (the g6 sales are not far off the malibu) if it is advertised enough. gm was counting on saturn to take pontiacs high volume sales in the gm lineup and make pontiac a focus brand….i guess that experiment hasnt gone as planned…

What!?! I thought that they were going all to rear wheel drive, performance oriented models! WTF!!! Hey, Mr. Lutz. Generic rebadging does not work. Either give Pontiac the product it deserves or kill the brand!