Will GM Keep Pontiac Owners In Fold? 80% Of Oldsmobile Drivers Went Non-GM

[Perian]

Link: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...73367471823556

Richard Truett - Automotive News - September 21, 2009

When General Motors Co. sells the last new Pontiac sometime in the next few months, the 84-year-old brand will pass into the history books. But it will linger in GM's corporate rearview mirror for years. That's because more than 1 million Pontiacs on the road are still under warranty.

GM is bound by federal law to provide replacement parts for Pontiacs for at least 10 years or the useful life of a vehicle. But GM has another motive for making sure those drivers stay happy: It wants to shift Pontiac owners to one of its four surviving brands -- Chevrolet, GMC, Buick or Cadillac -- for new purchases.

That will be difficult. At a recent dealer meeting in suburban Detroit, GM officials told Buick-GMC-Pontiac dealers that the company must do a better job of retaining Pontiac owners than it did keeping Oldsmobile buyers when that brand died in 2004.

In the past five years, 80 percent of Oldsmobile drivers have defected to non-GM brands.

GM hopes to retain service business from Pontiac owners by
• Giving Pontiac owners contact information for nearby GM dealers
• Enabling all GM dealers to provide parts for Pontiacs
• Making it easy to find dealers online and by phone
• Encouraging Pontiac owners to use OnStar to get dealer location information
• Making special tools available to non-Pontiac dealers

GM has appointed a team of marketing, warranty, customer relations and sales executives to devise plans to retain customers from all of the brands GM is shedding, including Saab, Saturn and Hummer. GM calls these customers free agents.

Dilts says a 50 percent customer retention rate is realistic.

GM plans to communicate better and more often with Pontiac owners than it did with Oldsmobile drivers, says spokesman McDonald: "We will reach out and tell them that we'd love to keep their business, and here's where a dealer is who is close by."

Full article at link.

[Perian]

GM has appointed a team of marketing, warranty, customer relations and sales executives to devise plans to retain customers from all of the brands GM is shedding, including Saab, Saturn and Hummer. GM calls these customers free agents.

Dilts says a 50 percent customer retention rate is realistic.

This "free agent" is leaning towards a new 2011 9-5 Sportcombi.



Own a Pontiac, Hummer, Saab or Saturn? - Will you stay with GM, and if so, why or why not?
.

[stevecmh]

Truthfully GM is going to have a really tough fight.. However some new cars.. Nox more so than the Malibu I think can secure some of them back..

Its a big gamble.. It really comes down to Lutz getting the Marketing right so people know about the new cars

[2002 Caddy]

I'm surprised it ONLY 80%...

GM hopes to retain service business from Pontiac owners by
• Giving Pontiac owners contact information for nearby GM dealers
• Enabling all GM dealers to provide parts for Pontiacs
• Making it easy to find dealers online and by phone
• Encouraging Pontiac owners to use OnStar to get dealer location information
• Making special tools available to non-Pontiac dealers

Other then the OnStar thing this was exactly the plan with saving Olds buyers...
I'm sorry, but what is the definition of insanity again?

[RST 2006]

After our 2006 Grand Prix GT I'd go with a Impala SS or Caddy, might be a while only 24,000 on it right now. It's been an awesome car, no problems!

[pic18]

I find it hard to believe only 20% of Olds buyers stayed with GM. I would think more than that stayed.

[geozinger_again]

I bought Oldsmobiles, but they went away.

I then bought Pontiacs. Now they've gone away.

I like Chevys, but not as much as Pontiacs or Oldsmobiles. I think I'm too broke/unsophisticated/young for Buicks and Cadillacs.

Where do I go from here? I still prefer GM over anything else. I sure hope Chevy steps up it's game and becomes a worthy replacement for Pontiac.

[Gagarin]

What they need to do is offer cash incentives/rebates for Pontiac owners to get them in a new core GM brand just as their Pontiac gets out of warranty. GM cannot dump cash on the hood to survive, but it needs to offer the opposite of "conquest cash" for Pontiac owners. Get them into another car as soon as possible.

[Smaart Aas Saabr]

This "free agent" is leaning towards a new 2011 9-5 Sportcombi.



Own a Pontiac, Hummer, Saab or Saturn? - Will you stay with GM, and if so, why or why not?
.

I'd consider another Saab but that isn't what GM wants I think. As a Pontiac owner I would not buy another GM just because. But I would not mind a Corvette

[eaton53]

Chances would be better if we had THESE:

[Gagarin]

Chances would be better if we had THESE:

That's true. A Chevelle/Caprice (Holden), and a healthy performance version of a Malibu/Cobalt would do wonders for whoever Pontiac was supposed to attract.

[Ttple]

I bought Oldsmobiles, but they went away.

I then bought Pontiacs. Now they've gone away.
Where do I go from here?

You can do GM a favor and buy a Toyota or Honda.

[87silver]

I find it hard to believe only 20% of Olds buyers stayed with GM. I would think more than that stayed.

I feel priveliged being part of the elite 20%. I still have my Bravada (high class Blazer) today and currently 2 brand new GM vehicles (Chevrolets) as well. I bought a Cadillac in 2005 after the phaseout of Oldsmobile.
The pic below is of the current condition of the Bravada. 9 years old and 92k mi. Why would I want to but an Asian appliance when I own this much automotive class?

[bowtie8_3]

What they need to do is offer cash incentives/rebates for Pontiac owners to get them in a new core GM brand just as their Pontiac gets out of warranty. GM cannot dump cash on the hood to survive, but it needs to offer the opposite of "conquest cash" for Pontiac owners. Get them into another car as soon as possible.

I agree we currently have a 2003 Olds Bravada that we will be trading when our new Equinox gets here. It sure would be nice to give some cash to someone like me who is staying loyal to GM after they killed my brand. I have had over 35 new GM vehicles and all but 12 were Oldsmobiles. Kinda sucks that if I had another make I could get the conquest money but they wont do anything for me for staying with GM.

[FanOfDurant]

That's true. A Chevelle/Caprice (Holden), and a healthy performance version of a Malibu/Cobalt would do wonders for whoever Pontiac was supposed to attract.

True. And it's hard for GM to expect customers to stay when they don't yet have a complete line of New High Quality Chevrolet products to choose from. I think once they do, buyers will return. They're off to a good start though! I'm very impressed with the 'new' Chevrolet product so far (except for their trucks).