Re: Who thinks it’s time to start talking about Pontiac again?

@Grawdaddy:

1. You have again evinced a childish defensiveness by insisting that I forbade you from mentioning SAAB on this thread. Even after stating my quote again, you STILL didn’t get it. Yes, you CAN mention SAAB all you want. Bully for you.
2. Amazingly, you put SAAB in the same group as Pontiac, Olds, Chevy, Buick, etc. Yeah, never mind that SAAB was originally a Swedish brand, and remained so for a very long time.
3. Then you go ahead and mention the engineering leeway that SAAB enjoyed, as compared to Pontiac. Even THAT doesn’t clue you in to the fact that SAAB really shouldn’t be lumped together with Pontiac or any of the other traditional GM brands.
4. “Nobody but Americans and Canadians knew what a Pontiac was.” That’s so stupid, I’m not sure that I should waste time mentioning it. By your thinking (or lack thereof), the Mexicans didn’t know what a Pontiac was, either, even though it was sold there.
5. You persist in your position that SAAB was “more important” to GM than Pontiac was, even though GM hasn’t divested itself of Pontiac yet. MORE stupidity. Then you tell me that I “gotta give that attitude up” about SAAB. I can’t tell YOU not to post about SAAB, but you can tell ME which attitude to give-up.
6. You say GM hasn’t yet sold the rights to Pontiac because GM can profit from the merchandising of Pontiac memorabilia. And why isn’t SAAB memorabilia just as valuable?
7. You display ignorance of Pontiac engine history when you say Pontiac V8s were hot “only in the ’60s.” Funny, I could swear that there were some pretty hot, multi-carbureted V8s in late-’50s Bonnevilles. And then there were the ’71-’72 455 H.O. engines that were pretty hot for their times (the ’71, in particular, was pretty hot for a smogger). Then there was the SD-455 in the mid-’70s, which NO other American brand could touch during that era. It would be helpful to learn about the history of Pontiac V8s before you shoot-off your mouth.
8. Pontiac had to be more sensible than to offer ONLY V8-powered vehicles; NO American brand could survive that way.
9. Which American brand DIDN’T “fizzle” in the ’90s? Look at the top brands of the Big Three: Chevy, Ford, Dodge. I think Pontiac did pretty well, considering it wasn’t the volume brand of GM. You simply couldn’t expect Pontiac to sell as well as Chevy, just as you couldn’t expect Plymouth to sell as well as Dodge, or Mercury to sell as well as Ford. (Remember, we’re talking about the ’90s).
10. I’m perfectly content to see a revived Pontiac sell “whatever vehicles the public wants.” I never insisted that any and all Pontiacs HAVE to be V8s forever more.
11. I never suggested that “people walking into Pontiac showrooms during the past 30 years” cared about ’60s powertrains. I’m glad simply that they purchased Pontiacs.
12. It is the height of stupidity to suggest that simply because Pontiac as a performance brand was known for V8 performance, implies that V8s were ALL that Pontiac sold. That was EXTREMELY stupid on your part. No one even SUGGESTED that.
13. I don’t smoke; never have.
14. I notice that you prefer to lay emphasis on Pontiac in the ’90s. Why arbitrarily pick THAT decade? So you can ignore Pontiac’s sales success from ’62 to ’70, and ’87 to ’90?
15. “HAN SHOT FIRST.” Care to elaborate?
16. The image of “unreliable American cars.” That may have been the case up to, say, the early ’90s. No longer. Ask the administrator of this site.
17. I DO agree that Buick can’t continue to count on China to save its hide, for two reasons: 1.) The Chinese economy seems to be slowing-down, and, 2.) Buick is facing increasingly stronger competition there.
18. Yes, GM isn’t perfectly robust yet; I think its biggest problem is in Europe, as opposed to China. But if and when those problems are sorted-out, I look for RenCen to take a look at Pontiac again.