They build excitement?

[ksr]

Originally Posted by Maki

I personally would be happy if Pontiac was able to just be affordable RWD performance like it was in the good old days. There is potential,but I'm starting to doubt if GM executives have the skill or knowledge to give Pontiac a renaissance it deserves.

What years were the "good old days?"

some of Pontiacs best sales years were in the '80s, and it sold mainly FWD cars then, outside of Firebird. The Grand Prix was RWD, but it wasn't a particularly great performer.

I think people fixate too much on RWD, which most of the buying public doesn't really care about. I'd bet that more people stay away from RWD cars because of (largely incorrect) fears about traction in bad weather than people who stay away from FWD cars because they don't think they'll perform well enough.

Just make good-looking cars that perform well. You can do that and build both RWD and FWD cars.

[ksr]

Solstice
Solstice Coupe
G8
G6 Coupe
G6 Convertible

Right there, that isn't such a bad basis for the Pontiac lineup. Heck, if they make the same powertrain available on the G5 that the Cobalt SS has (is it available?), then, rebadge or not, there's nothing wrong with having a G5 SS in your lineup. And at least the Vibe is unique, well, unique in the GM family anyway.

I've read such negative things about Pontiac, but walking around a dealership last weekend, I came away with a good impression. There's some good vehicles here.

It lacks one thing, the killer performance car to give the whole brand it's performance credibility back. I can't believe that they aren't getting their version of the upcoming Camaro. It would complete the lineup nicely.

[377Z]

Originally Posted by ksr

The Bonneville and Grand Prix were nice cars, but outside of the Firebird, was the brand really all that exciting even back then?

But it was a nice enough lineup of cars, outside of that Lemans.

Seriously, the "exciting" Bonneville SSE had the same whopping 165HP as the regular Bonneville; the 6000 STE and GP had the same 2.8 as the regular 6000 and GP (the McLaren GP 3.1 turbo was 1990, this is a 1989 ad). The Sunbird still had the turbo 4 option, and I think you could get the HO quad 4 in the Grand Am which was fun before it spun a bearing.

So I'd say they had a few exciting configurations available at the time (certainly more than now), though most of the uplevel versions just had the cladding go to 11.

[jaywestfall]

To answer the question, yes they can, but will they? The investment dollars in existing and future (namely Alpha) platforms has already been made. Pontiac just needs an advocate wielding a baseball bat like John Z De Lorean to step on the toes of the bean counters, so the job can be finished. The Pirate division needs to start acting up again.

[Neanderthal]

It's kinda exciting speculating on when Poncho will go back to real names, as opposed to models that sound like some Brilyint Rulers of the World/CO2 Addicts Anonymous meeting.

[MCGARRETT]

You could do an ad like this again...


GXP Solstice or GXP G8 in the foreground

G6, G5 and Vibe GT in the background (and either Solstice/G8).


Actually and ad like that would be pretty good, it does put a spotlight on the entire Pontiac family rather than just one car and it does maximize Pontiacs ad dollar.

[Maki]

Originally Posted by ksr

What years were the "good old days?"

Well for me the good old days would be when John DeLorean was in charge. Pontiac had a really cool lineup,with flashy cars and power under the hood. The cars from that era were legendary and Pontiac was no.3 in sales. I personally think that was Pontiac's zenith,but maybe some of you would disagree.

Regarding RWD I advocate it because it would help separate Pontiac from Chevy. I have no problem with sharing platforms between divisions but I think Pontiac should share as little as possible with Chevy. The Chevroletization of Pontiac is what put it this situation it is now. I have no problem with FWD,but knowing GM, FWD Pontiacs would be badge jobs of Chevys. Thats why I would prefer RWD/AWD platforms for Pontiacs. The other reasons is of course the performance advantages of using RWD or AWD.

[Firebird00]

Even though most of the cars were pigs in the 80s, at least Pontiac was making decent looking cars then. Now they're both ugly and they're slow (except G8 and Solstice and the former star of the lineup, the Firebird).