Pontiac G8: The World's Best Car Nobody Was Buying

[TuffG929]

Originally Posted by Edmunds

Long before GM confirmed Pontiac would be discontinued and before GM started slathering on incentives, G8 sales were running at a tepid average of about 1,500 per month and for the full year sold a total of 15,002. Its best month last year was April, its first full month on sale, when G8s went to 2,126 buyers. Not the numbers of a car sparking a sensation in the market — at least not a profitable sensation.

Yes, the G8's 2008 sales total assuredly was impacted by the industry sales crash that began in the second half of the year. But assuming the G8's numbers were affected in proportion to the total industry decline, its actual 2008 sales might project to a year of perhaps 22,000 sales.

As for the widely-distributed theory that the G8 is just now "catching on" with consumers and gaining momentum, move on its 2009 year-to-date performance. A quick look at Edmunds.com's Total Cost of Incentive demonstrates what's likely responsible for the G8's ballooning sales: as soon as GM radically hiked G8 incentives (by 50 percent or more), sales increased in direct proportion

Link

[TuffG929]

In other news, Genesis a raging success....

[klane079]

Pontiac G8: The World's Best Car Nobody Was Buying

On the FastLane blog at General Motors Co.'s Web site, vice chairman Bob Lutz now concedes the company can't make a business case for rebadging the suddenly lamented Pontiac G8 sport sedan, the car that caused a first-week-on-the-job train wreck between Lutz's vision of GM's product-strategy future and that of CEO Fritz Henderson.

Days before and barely hours into his return to GM's salaried-exec payroll, Lutz said GM was going to rebadge the underappreciated, Australia-sourced Pontiac G8 as a Chevrolet, calling it a car "too good to waste."

The pronouncement flew directly against an earlier thumbs-down verdict about the G8 from Henderson, who said he does not favor rebadging and insists every model in GM's line "pays its own rent."

Lutz previously had praised the G8's cult status among enthusiasts and said the car's sales were gaining momentum. True enough. But a little perspective from data analysts at Edmunds.com shows what appears to have really generated that momentum: outsized incentives.

It wasn't until the big-time money was on the G8's faux ram-induction hood that it sales numbers began to ratchet up - and even those numbers, fueled by thousands of dollars in high-test incentives - hardly were the stuff that saves distressed divisions.

More at the link....
http://www.autoobserver.com/2009/07/...as-buying.html

[dindak]

Each model does have to pay it's own rent now and the G8 will never be profitable coming from Australia. GM needs to be profitable.

The incentives I saw on G8 were crazy, $6000 on the hood. I was kicking myself for not waiting for them because I do think it's the best car no one bought.

It's all too late now, it's time to move on.

[Perian]

Originally Posted by dindak

Each model does have to pay it's own rent now and the G8 will never be profitable coming from Australia. GM needs to be profitable.

The incentives I saw on G8 were crazy, $6000 on the hood. I was kicking myself for not waiting for them because I do think it's the best car no one bought.

It's all too late now, it's time to move on.

It's never too late...find a G8 here:
http://www.gmbuypower.com/byo/build....rType=GMSUPPLR

[Chaz_23]

And the fact that Pontiac was an ultra damaged brand already. You can't play games with brands like that. Now we're performance. Now we're out of the performance business. Now we've got 1 performance car again. Not to mention silly name changes.

Little marketing and the marketing there was was poor (rappers, TV hosts).

Lack of long term mentality by the people writing these dumb articles and by GM. You'd have to be infantile to expect a car to explode in popularity the minute it comes out and just keep growing into infinity. Did that happen with Toyohonduhssandai? Perseverance people, perseverance. Word of mouth is key in sales, or in your undoing, and that doesn't happen instantly. Life isn't point-and-click-desired-result.

[Bravada]

You'd have to be infantile to expect a car to explode in popularity the minute it comes out

The fact that GM didn't even think that way, and act surprised when suddenly this happens to them, is a good indicator of what was (and continues to be) wrong with GM.

The value of incentives indicates that the G8 is simply some $3K too dear. The Charger is about that much cheaper, and it is in every way worse, including an interior rendering any of the editor's dissenting comments irrelevant. OTOH, ChryCo wasn't going around telling everybody and their grandma they'll kill Pontiac for years now.

Re: $3K -> Australian production. Was GM actually BOLD, they could've had this, and a Firebird (in lieu of Camaro) in Oshawa back in 2008, signalling a true rebirth of Pontiac.

[scotth3886]

I'm usually on something the moment it comes out, but I didn't know much about Holden so even I waited for a bit until I saw the first few reviews and reports from the forums regarding drag strips across the USA. That's what a bunch of us G8 owners were doing --- waiting for someone else to go first.

[DieToyota1978]

I made the mistake of running out and getting the V6 one and I am glad I was able fix the mistake and get a GT...I LOVE MY GT

[rsbaker]

Originally Posted by dindak

Each model does have to pay it's own rent now and the G8 will never be profitable coming from Australia. GM needs to be profitable.

Agreed! I still have not heard a reason why GM could not have built the G8 in the US when it was being developed. I never thought importing it from Australia would give them much if any proffit. If Camaro, which is a sustantially similar car on the same Zeta platform could be built here why not G8 and why not now an Impala? This is the question I'd like the answer to. It would even be more economical to build Zeta in the US if a Buick and/or Cadillac based on the same model were to build in the same factory and roll off the same line. This is how GM saved mony in the past. If I'm not mistaken the Last full size GM cars were all built in the same factory in Texas; The Caprice, Impala SS, Roadmaster, Fleetwood, and Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser wagon from 1991 through 1996.

I "MY" perfect world they be able to use Zeta on a G8 like Impala SS, an Impala Police car plus a range of regular V6 Impalas LS LT, also and LTZ Caprice sedan, A Buick Lucerne replacement, and a Cadillac STS/DTS replacement, and run all of them off the same line in the same factory.

I see no reason why all of the current Impala sales, about 150,000/year now, down form over 300,000 in 2007 would not move to a new Zeta Impala. Buick and Cadillac would be certain to gain with their new models.


Motor Trends rendering of the direction the Impala may have been taking before Zeta was canned:

This former future Impala looks good to me!

[ZvetteGuy]

I really really wish that Fritz and the GM Crew would definitely reconsider bringing this baby back from the chopping block...

It is TOO GOOD TO WASTE!

[ZR2BlaZeR2]

I think as long as the Commodore is the best selling vehicle in Australia, there will always be a possibility of it coming to NA shores or of it being built here for US consumption (developed in Oz).

GM will figure out its RWD sports sedan eventually. I will be patiently waiting, or looking for a used G8.

[Rocket 88]

Originally Posted by Chaz_23

And the fact that Pontiac was an ultra damaged brand already. You can't play games with brands like that. Now we're performance. Now we're out of the performance business. Now we've got 1 performance car again. Not to mention silly name changes.

Pontiac became a joke of a brand to anyone who wasn't a Pontiac fan. To Pontiac fans, it just became a long, slow, sad decline...

Build enough stink box LeMans, Sunfires, G5s etc. and the first thing to go is your credibilty. Can you imagine BMW selling the G3 in their dealerships? Alfred Sloan may have said a car for every purse and purpose, but he didn't mean it at the same brand and that is what GM forgot.

Pontiac "we build excitement" and this lovely Torrent SUV with a Chinese built ancient engine.... The Aztec. The Grand Am with a 4 banger less reliable then a weedwacker engine. Even Lutz said they were damaged because they are. An love of body cladding that rivaled Romeo and Juliet. Snotty dealers and poor service. How surprised should we be that the G8 didn't sell? The GTO didn't either.

[Stevasaurus]

Hopped on the Pontiac website last Friday to see how many G8 GXP's were left within a 150 mile radius from where I live. Low and behold, there was a Sport Red Metallic one at the dinky B-P-G dealership in my city?!? Went and looked at it Friday night after hours. What a beautiful car! Stack the Summer Savings with Supplier discount and the price was right too. Surely makes me wish I was in the market for a car . . .

[Rocket 88]

Originally Posted by Bravada

That was 45 years ago and was the exception and not the rule. Heck, Ford was surprised how well it sold....