I know this discussion is long, and I’m just bumping it…
Pontiac was a good brand to me. I love the brands that have the advertising strategy of laughing at econocars and reminding people of the fun of driving. Dodge, Mazda, and the late Pontiac all did that.
Pontiac was profitable. I don’t see why it was killed. Hummer, Saturn, Saab, Opel, and Vauxhall are NOT profitable. That is why they were killed. Pontiac, however, did make a profit. It doesn’t matter how much profit, a profit is a profit, any businessman knows that. I would choose each of the existing GM brands over Pontiac, but why not keep Pontiac?
The Buick-Pontiac-GMC alliance worked well. Having them act as a 1-in-3 brand slotted between Chevrolet and Cadillac was a great idea because each brand focused on something unique to the other two: Comfort-Luxury-Capability respectively. Now that Pontiac is gone, Buick-Pontiac-GMC dealers are missing out on performance, which Buick cannot replace.
It’s been said before on this thread, but Pontiac was not treated right. It was just rebadged cars. They also sold cars out of their league, like the Aztek and Montana. If I were to fix Pontiac, I would have a compact Lancer Evolution fighter, a performance Malibu and Impala (but not rebadges, cars with more aggressive looks and better engines), of course the G8 to compete with the Charger, a Camaro (Firebird), a Corvette, the Solstice, and a compact crossover or two.
