Well, financially strapped GM just announced today that Pontiac will cease production by Monday. No surprise there.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124060030328753755.html

Hate to see it go, I had a LOT of fun Ponchos.

But in 2009, GM has too many brands. The Japanese companies have two brands, a catchall brand and a luxury brand. GM really wastes money with the Pontiac, GMC, Saturn. Just competition for Chevrolet...

GM needs to kill every division except Chevy and Cadillac.

ksaulie - 24 April 2009 08:43 PM

GM needs to kill every division except Chevy and Cadillac.

The government just might see to that,
many are calling it "Government Motors" now.

Add it to the list of great brands GM has ruined:

Opel: Best sellers in Europe; sold here by clueless Buick brand managers and dealers, doomed to failure from the start.
Oldsmobile: Was the oldest surviving American marque when GM killed it.
Isuzu: Sold good, if somewhat basic, trucks until GM took ownership and forced them to sell rebadged Chevys. Now DOA in the US.
Saab: Still breathing but on life support. GM is killing it with the usual badge-engineered Death by a Thousand Cuts: Chevy trucks and Subaru wagons disguised as Saabs.

Now Pontiac, for the last 45 years a brand synonomous with American performance cars. I'm not saying GM should keep all these brands alive no matter what. I'm saying a better run company could have made them work. GM's obsession with having every brand make a car for every person has diluted and made redundant everything they sell.

They should just reduce to one brand - GMC - and sell their generic rental cars with one model in each category.

GM should have gone chapter 11 six months ago. That way my $
would not be buying into this poorly run enterprise without my aproval.
BTW...I'm not interested in oversight. I want receipts! Where is Lee Iacocca when you need him?

Sad to see it go----my brother in law's father was a long time Pontiac Cadillac dealer.

They had some great cars over the years. Also had some way overdone ones when it came to fiberglass bits and kits...

All the domestic manufacturer's need to get their line-ups under control. My buddy is a Chrysler dealer, and the duplication in the model line-up is absurd!

Thank you Pontiac for the great memories...makes me want a 78 Firechicken even more now!

I think my favorite part is that now when someone says that a Chevy will outlive a Ford, I can say, "Yeah, those government bailouts really help."

GM has been building way to much of the same product and competing with itself instead of Toyota and Honda for years. This is going to be painful, very painful, but they should have bit the bullet and done it years ago. The question is can they revamp the remaining line to be competitive?

ksaulie - 24 April 2009 08:43 PM

GM needs to kill every division except Chevy and Cadillac.

The only problem there would be how hard it is for dealers to move people up into Cadillacs since they got their "new image".

Makes me want a 63 Catalina even more now, oh and I'll take mine swiss cheese please.