@HHRSS:
What you are forgetting is that for car buyers, purchasing a new car is often just as much a matter of where your heart leads you, as it is a matter of where your head does. It’s precisely because purchasing a new car is often your second biggest purchase (in terms of dollars) next to purchasing a home, you KNOW you have to really WANT the particular vehicle you’re purchasing. I.e., this is not something as mundane as purchasing, say, a new washing machine. Obviously, GM as a business does have to heed the “bean counters.” Trouble is, CUSTOMERS simply aren’t concerned about GM’s point of view. When YOU are the customer, you want a certain kind of vehicle, and any excuses that a particular automaker may have as to why it can’t sell you that vehicle, simply doesn’t cut it. I think I speak for many–if not most–Pontiac loyalists when I say, I WANT PONTIAC BACK. If GM will NOT revive Pontiac, I will purchase a new vehicle from some OTHER automaker.
Pontiac had been GM’s performance division since 1964, when Pontiac introduced the first musclecar, the GTO. Just a year later, Chevy introduced its answer to the GTO: The Chevelle SS. The Chevelle SS may have also been around in ’64, but it could be ordered with a six-banger(!), if I’m not mistaken. It didn’t become a true musclecar until ’65. You seem to suggest that unless each and every Pontiac model is a performance car, Chevy alone can suffice. That isn’t true. For some forty years, Pontiac offered all KINDS of vehicles, and for that reason it was #3(!)–behind only Ford and Chevy–throughout much of the mid- to late-’60s, and through the late ’80s and early ’90s as well. In fact, when Pontiac was murdered, it was #3 at GM, outselling #5 Buick two-to-one.
You dismissively describe Pontiac in its later years as nothing but a “fancy Chevy”, yet wasn’t that what Pontiac always had been, since the mid-’60s? That didn’t make Pontiac any less relevant to its many followers here and in Canada, nor did it prevent Pontiac from being #3 NATIONWIDE, not just at GM.
Now, you claim that there is “little to no need” for Pontiac. Unfortunately, that’s not how we Pontiac loyalists see it. And, as Pontiac loyalists, we DON’T CARE about whether Chevy, Buick, and Cadillac are where they need to be; we’re PONTIAC loyalists.
I appreciate that you are “as Pontiac as can be”; however, I would imagine that a person who is “as Pontiac as can be” would INSIST that Pontiac return. I find the murder and continued absence of Pontiac INTOLERABLE. I will NOT accept excuses as to why the brand “can’t” be revived; I’m sorry. And if we’re going to talk “harsh business realities,” the harsh business reality is that unless GM revives Pontiac, GM will never smell my business again, I’m sorry.
I understand that you’re not trying to be harsh, but realistic. You use Olds as an example. Consider that Pontiac has a much larger following than Olds does. Also, Pontiac lasted some five years longer than Olds. There must have been a reason for all that, and I think the reason is that Pontiac would simply be a better candidate for being revived than would Olds. Pontiac would be more viable, would have a better chance of success. When you Google “Bring Back Pontiac”, you can see what I’m talking about. A VERY LARGE NUMBER of folks want Pontiac back. This is all about consumer demand, market demand. It’s praiseworthy and somewhat unusual that an American brand commands that kind of large and loyal following; I say GM can’t afford NOT to heed it. GM HAS to revive Pontiac and bring this large number of Pontiac loyalists back into the fold. Retaining customers is extremely important to an automaker. Every percentage point of customer retention is equal to 25,000 customers, or about $700 million in revenue.
I would insist that GM MUST revive Pontiac.
