The end of Pontiac...

[leopaul]

Hi guys, I heard the news that Pontiac will be out of the picture starting this week. Ang grabe talaga ng decision ng General Motors, eh. Didn't heard that? Here's the clue I found in most automotive news:

According to a report from InsideLine, General Motors could axe Pontiac as early as this Monday. Although IL isn't citing its source within GM, it did contact the General's PR man, Tom Wilkinson, who said, "There's nothing I can share with you at this time... Officially, nothing has changed with Pontiac's niche-brand status, until you hear differently." Not very clear, but not particularly positive either.

The line about Pontiac's "niche-brand status" has been floating around since last December, when GM began to focus on its four core brands – Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet and GMC – while readying the rest (Saab, Saturn and Hummer) for execution or extradition.

Pontiac's focus has been ill-defined (at best) over the decade, with solid products like the G8 coming to market alongside other less-than-stellar offerings (cough, G3). There was talk of reigniting Pontiac's performance heritage or even refocusing the brand as a Scion competitor. Regardless of past plans or intentions, there was no doubt that Pontiac was in the cross-hairs, and come Monday, we might know it's final fate.

Source: Edmunds.com

Is it really the end of Pontiac? Well, is it?

[oj88]

IMO, their fate got sealed 2 years ago when the new Knight Rider became a Shelby Mustang.

[beereo]

i hope it will not push through. it will be a big loss for the automotive industry.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Too bad. I liked driving the Holden-based GTO.

[ss454]

Akala ko magiging niche brand po Pontiac ngaun aalisin na po nila.. Sayang ang ganda pa naman ng G8...

[redorange]

It's pointless to keep a brand that sell rebadge models of other brands and makes it more expensive to maintain. If GM wants to survive they have to get rid of some of the brands and just use the basic brands like Chevy, Cadillac, and GMC. The only reason Buick isn't being dumped is because it sells well in China. GM can have Chevy as the car division, GMC as the truck division, and Cadillac as the luxury division everything else can be sold or closed because it won't bring in any more revenue to the company. All of Pontiacs cars are just rebadge Chevy, Holden, or Daewoo with nothing exclusive to them. The next thing that GM needs to do is dump the front drive platforms and move to rear wheel drive on all cars.

[tidus1203]

i hope it will not push through. it will be a big loss for the automotive industry.

Well it will be even bigger loss for GM if they still hold on to it nyahahaha

[redorange]

The FWD platform was used by the US makers because cars in winter conditions became unsafe if they were rwd as they had a tendency to oversteer in turns. So the car makers moved to fwd because it understeers, but with the advent of traction control rwd cars are easier to control in these same conditions. The fwd cars will never handle as well as a rwd car because you are asking the front wheels to do two things: steer and move the car, which is another reason why you have torque steer. It's cheaper to build fwd cars but they are not the best platforms which is the reason that BMW, Mercedes, Rolls Royce, etc. don't use the fwd platform. As I mentioned torque steer earlier fwd cars can't have too much power because of this and too much power can also cause the vehicle to twist and crack your windshield if the chassis is not stiff enough to handle the torque, old Alfa 156 IIRC and some of the older generation Nissan Altimas suffered from this problem. FWD cars also has a tendecy to need new engine mounts the older they get because of the constant twisting from driving the wheels and the rotation of the engine. By going RWD you can make a car that last longer, handles better, and make more power without torque steer.

[uls]

that's just the beginning

GM will be restructured (in or out of bankruptcy, it doesnt matter)

the profitable parts of GM will continue, the unprofitable parts will be eliminated

[leopaul]

Still more "Pontiac ending" evidences! (as found in the internet):

Pontiac — the brand famous for the GTO, the Firebird, the Star Chief and most recently, the Solstice — is dead. It will be phased out by the end of 2010 as part of sweeping cuts announced Monday by General Motors as it tries to remake itself into a smaller company with fewer plants, workers and dealers.
GM said it will concentrate on four U.S. brands — Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC — and that it expects to resolve the fates of Hummer, Saab and Saturn by the end of 2009. It also announced that it will offer stock to its debt holders in an effort to reduce its large debt load. GM warned that it expects to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy if it does not get enough tenders for the exchange by June 1, but the automaker maintained that it prefers to not have to go into bankruptcy.
"The objective here is not to survive—the objective is to develop a restructuring plan that allows us to win," GM CEO Fritz Henderson said.
The number of nameplates that GM offers will be cut from 48 in 2008 to 34 in 2010.
In addition to the demise of Pontiac, GM plans to cut its U.S. dealer count from 6,246 in 2008 to 3,605—a reduction of 42 percent—by the end of 2010.
The automaker is cutting its manufacturing base from 47 facilities in the United States in 2008 to 34 by 2010, and then to 31 by 2012, which is an acceleration of its earlier cost-cutting plan. More details will be announced in May.
GM's hourly head count will be slashed from 61,000 in the United States in 2008 to 40,000 in 2010 and then level off at 38,000 starting in 2011.
The moves are expected to cut GM's North American structural costs from $30.8 billion in 2008 to $23.2 billion in 2010, which is $1.8 billion more than the plan announced in February. The reductions will allow GM to break even at a much lower sales rate — 10 million industry-wide in the United States — and forecasts market share of 19.5 percent this year and then stabilizing in the 18.4-percent-to-18.9-percent level in the following years.
"Big is only good if you use it to your advantage," Henderson said. "I think we're going to be a global company, but I think the nature of that company will change."
More Pontiac

Pontiac once was the third-largest brand in the United States during GM's heyday, trailing only Chevrolet and Ford. Since the 1950s, it's been known as the division of affordable performance cars and has given enthusiasts a number of adrenaline-inducing rides. The GTO was a boulevard terror in the 1960s and helped spawn the true muscle-car era — fast cars with big motors dropped into everyday rides — and the Firebird, a Camaro sibling, has become a staple of pop culture, appearing in movies and TV shows.

Henderson called killing the brand a "tough decision" given its long history. It joins Oldsmobile in the stable of historic divisions GM has mothballed.
"We just didn't think we had a strategy that we were satisfied with that allowed us to win with the Pontiac brand," he said.
Pontiac sales have diminished in recent years, and its lineup has mainly been rebadged cars from other divisions. Still, Pontiac won praise in recent years for the rear-wheel-drive G8, a large, powerful sedan that hearkened back to great Pontiacs of old. Also, the Solstice coupe was launched in 2005, and it has been lauded for its eye-catching design.
The G8 and the Solstice will be phased out with the rest of the Pontiac line, Henderson said.
Bankruptcy?

Henderson said the possibility of bankruptcy has increased — even in the last few months — and said that the offering to its bondholders gives it perhaps its best chance to avoid a court restructuring. The bond exchange is valued at $27 billion.
"It's [bankruptcy] greater today," he said. "The task we have is formidable.
"I would say it's more probably that we would go through the bankruptcy process."
It's also possible that GM's international operations would not be included in a bankruptcy filing.

Under the plan, the U.S. Treasury Department and the UAW VEBA plan would own significant stakes in GM.

Sounds truthful?

[uls]

the Pontiac brand is dead ok?

get over it

[tidus1203]

the Pontiac brand is dead ok?

get over it

Hehehe ganun talaga uls. Since Tsikot ito daming car fanatics and they will miss the Pontiac heritage. Eh tayo more of finance fanatics so we want to see Pontaic dead cause it doesn't make sense anymore

[uls]

hehe

sorry Pontiac fans

--

BTW, the end of Pontiac is not the end of the story

looks like GM bondholders will reject the debt-for-equity offer

that would mean GM has to go bankrupt

[tidus1203]

Yeah who in the right mind would swap DEBT (which is a superior lien security) over EQUITY and common equity at that (the lowest lien security)?? Ok sana kung sa Apple yan or some Chinese company pero sa GM na super fragile na ng state who wants common stock? The debt will give them higher chance of reclaiming from the properties should GM proceed with a liquidation in the future...

[Autobeat]

Oks lang. They have to do what needs to be done to survive. When and if they survive and recover na, they could always choose to relaunch naman any brand or car model they've stopped, if they expect to earn already again from it.