@Moanalua It seems that your goal is to revive Pontiac… just for the sake of reviving Pontiac… even if that results in inferior vehicles.
What gives me that impression? From your list above:
3. “Yes, I’m a musclecar guy, but that doesn’t mean GM HAS to revive Pontiac as a musclecar brand. GM can give a revived Pontiac any kind of line-up of vehicles that GM wants.”
Now here I was thinking that we agreed that — in order to success in the marketplace — the new Pontiac would have to be something different and sporty. Would you welcome the old Chevy Aveo as a Pontiac? Or perhaps you’re saving up for an Aztek? Do you really not care about the way in which Pontiac makes a return?
I just have to go over your list and point out the many inaccuracies and misconceptions:
1. Who cares? The site has been inactive for months… looks like there isn’t as much enthusiasm as some assume.
2. Having the resources doesn’t call for the necessity to use them. The same goes for a legacy brand. Should GM also revive Olds and Hummer? Those were “legacy”… and Hummer was legendary. Heck, so was Olds. Back in 1951!
3. Already addressed above.
4. Your thinking is way off here: Buick has a higher profit because it makes a luxury car. It’s a more lucrative space to be. The reason “Chevy is still around” is because it sold 7 vehicles for every 1 Pontiac, even during Pontiac’s heyday.
GM is a business; and the new GM, especially, is not in the game of making excuses for “this selling more than that” or “that selling more than this”. It seems to me that all of the reasons you mentioned in this bullet point are just that — excuses. In reality, not that many people bought Pontiacs.
5. Selling in Canada and the U.S. does not make a brand global. At the least, sales need to take place on more than two continents, if not all over the world. What’s more, auto sales in Canada are about one tenth their volume in the U.S. So being “more successful” there is like being successful in Australia: the market is too small to matter or make a dent.
And Buick isn’t halfway done with its reincarnation.
6. That’s a matter of opinion… but I’ll side with you on it.
7. This harkens back to point #3. Would you take an inferior product with a Pontiac badge?
8. “EVERY brand does that. GMC is a badge-engineered Chevy. Examples from other automakers? Lexus is a badge-engineered Toyota. Infiniti is a badge-engineered Nissan. Acura is a badge-engineered Honda, and so on.”
– Some of GMC vehicles are badge engineered with Chevys. This won’t be this way for long. Just wait until the next-gen Silverado and Sierra.
– “Lexus is a badge-engineered Toyota.” No, it’s not.
– “Infiniti is a badge-engineered Nissan.” No, it’s not.
– “Acura is a badge-engineered Honda, and so on.” Yes, it is.
9. “Let’s assume that GM killed Pontiac to stay alive during bankruptcy and the Great Recession. If we assume that, then Pontiac’s murder has ALREADY served its purpose. GM is no longer teetering on the edge of oblivion, and the Great Recession is over (it ended in May ’09). TIME TO BRING PONTIAC BACK.”
Why do we need to assume that Pontiac was discontinued to keep GM alive? The decision to drop it was made in bankruptcy court… not before it. GM didn’t gain anything and didn’t save anything by dropping Pontiac. It’s not like they immediately laid off x amount of workers at the corporate or plant levels for having discontinued Pontiac.
It was dropped because GM could do it and felt it was time — strategically — to do so.
10. “Buick had only THREE models when Pontiac was murdered. At least Pontiac had more than that (five). There was also talk of a G8 sport truck at the time.”
What does this have to do with anything? Buick was being neglected in the same way as Pontiac. Buick was going to have an infusion of new product regardless of Pontiac.
And are you counting the marvelous G3, G5, and Torrent with the five Pontiac models? Those weren’t even halfway decent vehicles, but rather unnecessary abominations.
11. “Why should Pontiac have to have a unique powertrain if Chevy and Buick don’t?”
What’s the point of Pontiac without something unique? Are we going to go back to the days of badge-engineered Pontiacs, then? G3, G5, G6, and Torrent?
12. “Bottom line: If there is adequate demand for Pontiac (and I believe there is), then it makes business sense to revive it.”
But it doesn’t! Demand is one thing… effort (profit/loss/quality, etc.) is another.
Demand should never be the sole determining factor of the outcome of a business decision. It should come down to profit and loss.
In my opinion, re-introducing Pontiac will result in the detraction from the remaining brands’ efforts such as design, engineering, marketing, sourcing, etc. So we’ll get a question mark of a vehicle lineup that will most likely be the same as that offered by Chevy… while making everything else GM makes worse off. Does that sound like a good idea?
