Pontiac's Uncertain Future
A glimpse at Pontiac's future...and the lack thereof.
www.gminsidenews.com
Commentary By: Nsap
September 4, 2008
A couple months ago GMI broke news that General Motors was exploring the option of cutting one of its brands from the North American fleet. Initially several brands were being looked at, however the list of potential cuts was narrowed down rather quickly to Pontiac and/or GMC. Since the release of our story GM has been quick to deny that any brand, other than Hummer, is under consideration of being sold or killed. One thing to note is that GM did the same prior to the Oldsmobile funeral. It is in their every best interest to deny it until the official press release is in the public’s hand. If you will note, Pontiac and GMC have one commonality between them that might be an indicator as to why they were on the “short” hit list. Pontiac may get the short straw in this.
That commonality being that neither brand is sold globally. Well, you may be thinking “Saturn is not a global brand…duh!” You are correct, it is not sold globally, BUT Saturn does have a global partner; that being Opel. A big aspiration of GM today is to unify their product portfolio globally and use more common models between continents. Looking at the most successful automakers indicates that one of the pillars of their business plan is to have a common lineup globally. GM has not had that in the past, but they are quickly driving for it. Proof? A chunk of the $6 Billion investment that was made into Cadillac was to help establish the brand in other countries; Europe, China, Middle East, etc. Another example of GM globalizing would be Saturn. As mentioned earlier, the brand is closely knitted with Opel/Vauxhall in Europe. Their product lines are to completely unify (with minor differences) within the next few years. The all-American Chevrolet brand is getting a taste of globalization as well. Not only is the brand being sold in about every market that has a car market worth tapping into, but many of their small cars are Daewoos or at the very least were developed by Daewoo.
That brings me back to my point that Pontiac and GMC are somewhat out of luck when you apply GM’s new found fetish of globalizing their brands. Many people assume that Pontiac can align with Holden as a global partner. Well, not really. Outside of Holden’s rear-wheel drive program (which is getting cuts left and right), Holden does not offer any unique product to provide for Pontiac. The rest of the Holden lineup consists of Chevrolet and Opel models. So Holden is not exactly a good fit. That is exactly why GMC has the upper hand at the moment. Currently GMC is a brand of rebadged products. Most of their lineup consists (okay, maybe ALL of their lineup?) of Chevrolet products that were tweaked with “professionalism” for GMC use. It can even be argued that the GMC philosophy has WORKED; a look at the sales charts would indicate as much. GM has not decided what will happen to the GMC brand yet. One has to assume that they are waiting to see what happens to oil prices and the dozen other variables that come into play when making decisions like this.
So where is that going to leave Pontiac? That is the million-dollar question. The product road map does not look good for Pontiac at the moment. Prior to the new CAFE legislation, gas price roller coaster and hellish financial situation at GM the plan was to turn the Pontiac brand into a brand that most fans dream of. A Pontiac that consists mostly of rear-wheel drive performance cars; a niche brand that goes by the philosophy of being the “poor man’s BMW.” We have received a taste of that with the new Pontiac G8 (provided by Holden). The car can take on a 550i, but costs half as much. That is the Pontiac most reading this want. Sadly it looks as if that will never happen.
Currently product plans indicate that Pontiac will get a new G6 sometime soon. The new G6 is reportedly going to be a rebadged Epsilon II Chevrolet Malibu. Our Cobalt-based G5 is to be replaced eventually, about the same time the Cobalt does. We’re told its replacement will be a rebadged Chevrolet Cruze. To add insult to injury, we’re told the U.S. will eventually get the G3; a rebadged Chevrolet Aveo. Aside from those three products and what has already been announced (G8 ST, G8 GXP); the product plans at Pontiac are not looking good.