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Post by Mike on Apr 16, 2010 16:20:54 GMT -5
I received an email today from Senator Lugar. I wrote him a few weeks ago on the discontinuation of the Pontiac brand. I believe the pontiac brand was a good market for GM and hated to hear about them discontinuing it. Think about it, along with Cavaliers, how many Grand Ams Grand Prixs G6 and G8s are on the road. The Grand Ams were an affordable performanced based sport like car for families. I owned 5 of them at one time and ran most of them at well over 200k miles. Here is a copy of the email from Senator Lugar.
Dear Mr. Frey:
Thank you for contacting me to share your concerns regarding General Motors' decision to terminate its Pontiac brand of vehicles. I understand that such a decision has significant repercussions on workers and their families, and I continue to follow developments on the company's restructuring plan closely, especially given the considerable U.S. taxpayer investment in GM given the Administration's extension of financial assistance in 2008 and 2009.
I have taken this opportunity to share your thoughts with the Department of the Treasury. I will promptly share with you any response that I receive.
Thank you, again, for writing to me.
Sincerely,
Richard G. Lugar United States Senator
Voice your opinion to him or other members of the Senate and Congress through savingpontiac.org
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Post by IFCprez on Apr 20, 2010 9:13:09 GMT -5
Thanks for posting this, Mike. There are many conflicting versions of why Pontiac was eliminated. I've heard that the Obama administration mandated it in order to push GM towards greener vehicles. GM said it felt it could not support the manufacturing and marketing of 7 brands and thus Pontiac, Saab and Hummer were going away. There was also a story about some Detroit area Pontiac dealerships trying to buy rights to the Pontiac name which GM blocked.
So GM retains full control of Pontiac nameplates, designs, logos, etc. Is there a glimmer of hope that GM will have the good sense to bring it back? Possibly, but highly unlikely. I spoke with a salesman buddy at a Buick/Pontiac/GMC dealership and he made an interesting point: Buicks are $40,000 cars - Pontiacs were $30,000 cars. Their return customers are having trouble justifying $600 car payments for something that isn't as fast or good looking as the Pontiac they're looking to trade in. Aside from the performance cred and better styling, Pontiac served to fill the price gap between Chevrolet & Buick making it one of GM's better bargains. I think GM is losing at least 50% of their return customers to Ford.
I guess as long as GM can keep selling Buicks to the Chinese, they don't mind taking the hit in the U.S.
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4speed
Junior Member
NFTAC Member
Posts: 75
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Post by 4speed on Apr 20, 2010 22:17:51 GMT -5
In my line of work, I have worked in a lot of GM and delphi plants. I'm here to tell ya. they don't care about what any one has to say about anything. they will have a machine destroyed before they would let another Co. have it to make the part. seen it. I worked in the Guide plant in Anderson In. 3 years ago. a 3erd of those machines were cut up. and the building demoed . I was working in it taking over head cranes down wile they cut the building down 200yds behind me.
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Too Fast
Junior Member
6 spd, Hooker LT
Posts: 68
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Post by Too Fast on Jul 29, 2010 17:56:09 GMT -5
Thanks for posting this, Mike. There are many conflicting versions of why Pontiac was eliminated. I've heard that the Obama administration mandated it in order to push GM towards greener vehicles. GM said it felt it could not support the manufacturing and marketing of 7 brands and thus Pontiac, Saab and Hummer were going away. There was also a story about some Detroit area Pontiac dealerships trying to buy rights to the Pontiac name which GM blocked. So GM retains full control of Pontiac nameplates, designs, logos, etc. Is there a glimmer of hope that GM will have the good sense to bring it back? Possibly, but highly unlikely. I spoke with a salesman buddy at a Buick/Pontiac/GMC dealership and he made an interesting point: Buicks are $40,000 cars - Pontiacs were $30,000 cars. Their return customers are having trouble justifying $600 car payments for something that isn't as fast or good looking as the Pontiac they're looking to trade in. Aside from the performance cred and better styling, Pontiac served to fill the price gap between Chevrolet & Buick making it one of GM's better bargains. I think GM is losing at least 50% of their return customers to Ford. I guess as long as GM can keep selling Buicks to the Chinese, they don't mind taking the hit in the U.S.[/quote] That last sentence hits the nail squarely on the head, and drove it all the way into the wood.
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