I have not gone through all the thread here as much of this is the same as I have seen other places. There is a lot of emotion here and while that is great it does not pay the bills. It is much like better with you heart and not your head.
Pontiacs death was not a short term affair as it was the work of many years and in the end the fact GM has too many models for the market share they control. Like a house hold budget in tough times you have to cut back.
The two final nails were the fact that one Buick was making tons of money in China when Pontiac was sold only in North America.
The second nail is the fact Pontiac was the so called performance division and only really had two real performance cars one of which we will see coming back soon as higher level Chevy performance car. The Solstice was a car I loved but it’s sales were not going to save Pontiac.
One only has to learn the real history of the Fiero to see how and where GM and Pontiac were not on one page and GM just mis managed them for years. Pontiac was reduced to a fancy Chevy and really offered nothing more or different than could be offered in a Chevy if the need should arise.
Sad as I see it Pontiac is gone and there really is little to no need for it in the near future. GM has it’s plate full right no just getting Chevy, Buick and Cadillas to where they need to be. They still have billions of dollars needed to make these division what they need to be.
I am as Pontiac as can be as I am still an owner and have been a Pontiac guy since they brought me home from the Hospital in a 60 Ventura. My heart says bring em back but my brain knows that this is the real world and buisness is buisness and it is just not in the cards as things stand today.
Till GM has things like a Malibu that outsells a Camry and Accord, till Cadillac outselling a BMW and Benz at a profit and GM has a market share that is nearer to 40% vs 20% Pontiac will just not appear.
The truth is the odds are better Opel may join Pontiac vs Pontiac coming back.
I know you can never say never but as time goes on the possibility decreases more and more. Just look at Olds and how few people today know or care about the brand and all the great cars they had. Even some of their national events are not drawing people and cars like they used too.
I don’t mean to be harsh here but just realistic.
Even at the largest Pontiac show in the world at Norwalk Ohio few people shed a tear as many there feel as if Pontiac has not really been around for a good while. Some even stopped the clock at 1979.
The only hope we had was Bob Lutz and he was 10 years too late.
