Pontiac to become a "niche brand"?

I would have agreed with the article two, four, six years ago.

But now it seems like business as usual elegantly worded to sound like change.

If it were up to me, Pontiac would have two models (G8, solstace) and be sold at Chevrolet dealers. GMC and Buick would fold.

Kill 'em all.

Chevy and Cadillac. GM needs nothing else. There are at least twice as many automakers out there that have only two or three brands than automakers out there that have four or more.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Cut as much as is necessary to keep the company going.

The good thing about this: they won't need taxpayer money to help them do it!

I agree with bepperb, Buick only resonates with a generation of people who are now dying.

Unfortunately, the G8 and the Solstice are just badge-engineered cars, G8 coming from Holden in Australia and the Solstice from Opel in Europe. I also like the new GTO, but that was also a Holden. Pontiac lost its design and engineering prowess, and at this point no bailout would be able to sustain them long enough to build a new development team to begin producing their own successful cars.

GMC should focus on trucks, Chevy make sedans, corvettes and coupes and Cadillac makes the CTS, CTS-V and STS.

I'm not sure what this means really. As a "boutique" brand, will they essentially be "Redline" versions of existing products? Kinda like SVT?

I agree with "flicmod", the only brands needed are Chevrolet and Cadillac. The other brands are just dead weight. The same can also be said of Ford and Chrysler.

I'd be fine with making Pontiac a strictly badge-engineered brand with a performance branch. Bring over the nice Holdens and Opels. Take the Astra from Saturn as well and give it a GXP option. It would be a shame to see Pontiac go away completely.

Pontiac - Astra, Solstice, G8 (incl. ST).

That's it, that's all it should be. They can actually claim the sporty mantle they aspire to and GM can cut costs significantly.

It sounds great, but GM has said time and time again that they wanted to make Pontiac a performance niche brand. Then $4 gas hit and now we have the G3. When it comes to Pontiac GM is all talk and no action. Unless saying so in a reported plan to Congress will put pressure to fulfill that pledge, this is probably just another step towards seeing a slow, painful, and embarrassing death for Pontiac. At least GM is starting to nail the essence of Buick and make it appealing.

As for Buick...the population is aging, and older, middle-aged buyers are loyal and make payments on time. You could do worse than catering to those consumers. The Enclave and new Lacrosse justify Buick's existence.

Pontiac can be to Chevy what Scion is to Toyota - almost like a sub-brand.

Keep the Solistice and G8 only.

Saturn has been a sales model all along. Rename it Saturn Academy and make them a training division for sales.

Heck, kill GMC while you're at it.

What GM is trying to do is a shuffle. The roots of the problem still there. Merge Pontiac w/Saturn. Merge GMC with Chevy and the same Buick w/Cadillac. GM needs only three brands: Chevy, Cadillac & Pontiac the rest is just bull.

Buick will not be killed for two reasons: It's sales numbers in the largest emerging auto market (China) and the fact that it is directly designed for and marketed towards the quickest-growing demographic group in America (the elderly).

G6 Sedan and Coupe sell 100,000's of thousands of cars, majority of these buyers would not buy a Malibu, would not buy a Buick, and would not buy a Saturn.
GM needs these sales.
An idealistic notion of what Pontiac should be does not matter, sales numbers do.
G6, which is the target of so much criticism, is not cannibalizing sales of other GM models, Solstice and G8 are cannibalizing other GM models.
G8 could easily be sold at Chevrolet dealers.

Eliminating the top volume car (G6 outsells all other Buick and Pontiac cars at many dealers) at Pontiac Buick GMC dealers is not the foundation for success.

+1 Flic. GM should retain the rights to all of their brands, however.

gossard - there's no reason that GM couldn't operate multiple brands worldwide. Buick could easily become a China-only nameplate, much as Lexus/Infiniti/Acura are largely (if not exclusively) North American products.

Article makes perfect sense, especially if GM continues to consolidates dealers so that Pontiacs can exist alongside another brand such as GMC or whatever is left.

Pontiac sells more vehicles than Saturn, more than Buick, more than Cadillac.

This is why I disagree with Mark.

Pontiac sold only 2 K vehicles less than Mazda.

When GM killed Oldsmobile they said they would retain the Olds volume at their other brands and it did not happen.

This article states exactly what GM should have said 2 years ago. I am happy that Pontiac will stay around, as I've been saying all along that they would have so much potential as a niche brand. I just hate that GM is keeping Buick and of all companies GMC. The first article I read on GMs plans said that Chevy Buick Caddy and GMC were the brands they would focus on, and I didn't understand why Pontiac couldn't continue to live as Pontiac makes so much more sense than GMC. Why would GM keep around a sole truck brand, let alone all badge engineered (save the Acadia) trucks? And Buicks, even though they are miles ahead of Mercury, and possibly Lincoln, should simply be upper trim levels on Chevys. That would stop critics complaining about Chevy interior quality. Why is GM keeping these two brands around? to balance out offerings at Buick Pontiac GMC dealerships? Knock those down and put Chevy dealers in their places.

I wonder if this move will mean the G8 and Solstice will get to stay alive.

I don't get Pontiac - if Olds was worth burning down, certainly Pontiac is. I agree the brand could work with just two or three cars but the Solstice isn't a very good car. They'd need to do better - maybe sell the stellar G8 then rebadge a Miata and call it the next gen Solstice. Saturn, Hummer and Saab are equally pointless.

I don't get Pontiac - if Olds was worth burning down, certainly Pontiac is. I agree the brand could work with just two or three cars but the Solstice isn't a very good car. They'd need to do better - maybe sell the stellar G8 then rebadge a Miata and call it the next gen Solstice. Saturn, Hummer and Saab are equally pointless.

Buick means a little something to US buyers but it's really huge in Asia - especially China. Keeping it makes sense.

"Buick will not be killed for two reasons: It's sales numbers in the largest emerging auto market (China) and the fact that it is directly designed for and marketed towards the quickest-growing demographic group in America (the elderly)."

HMMM... the ederly sure seem to be buying a lot of Camrys and Avalons (yeah, even though Avalon sales are down, look how much Lacrosse/Lucerne Sales are down). Chevy competes with Toyota. To keep up, shouldn't Chevy be sent to battle with the best guns?

Yeah I think we are seeing a shift here. The "new ederly" are loyal to Japanese boats rather than the domestic boats of times past.

I personally happy to hear GM claiming [once again] that they will keep and focus Pontiac on what it should be. I just hope they actually do it this time...

Jumping back nearly a decade(?) why did GM kill Olds over Buick? Olds was way cooler in my book!