@gcmeninsr: “The business case for Pontiac was well established prior to BO’s intervention – it was to have been a niche brand and would have survived with quality, desirable, economical & performance vehicles. G8, G6, Vibe and Solstice were proof of that.”
BAH! Contradiction in terms! You’re forgetting the Torrent, the SV6, the G5 and the G3, cars that I’m sure you’re deliberatley leaving out because those cars were closer to the core of Pontiac sales than you’re willing to admit.
Who, apart from Rulz, would think that the G3, SV6, G6, G5, Grand Prix, Torrent, or Vibe were “desireable”? They never were; they were cars that were the complete ANTITHESIS to desireable. The same goes for thinking that they were performance cars.
As for the business case, it wasn’t workable to hang everything on identical cars Chevy sold with a weak and lackluster “performance theme”. You can’t realistically think that young people (who were targeted by Pontiac) would place performance above fuel economy IN THE FACE of rising fuel costs.
The days of affordable performance are from one source are gone forever. The only way to get it is to do like the Cobalt/Civic/Golf way and sell loads of garden varriety cars before offering hi-po versions.
That’s what Pontiac was as it decayed for the last 25 years, a “performance themed brand”. Even when it tried to deliver on that, the G8 was far outside the reach of young buyers, and could even save the brand when it was pitched at wealthier 30-somethings.
And to top it all off, it’s all Obama’s fault. Sure, that’s beliveable. Yeah, blame him when good fuel economy and reliablity STILL rate above performance in a mainstream brand.
