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emodspitfire
emodspitfire New Reader
12/17/09 6:45 p.m.

Folks,

I am not much for conspiracy theories.........BUT...

In the past month I have toured MI, FL, TN and I live in Colorado.

All of the local CO dealerships are still displaying Pontiac on their buildings. Dealer advertising in FL and TN still states "Pontiac" in their TV ads.... None of the dealerships in Southwest Fl had removed Pontiac from their buildings...

Are those wizards at the RenCen bringing Pontiac back? I sure would like to see Pontiac replace Buick...

Discuss..

Rog

Marty! Less filling, Tastes great!
Marty! Less filling, Tastes great! Reader
12/17/09 7:28 p.m.

I believe that the brand won't entirely disappear until Oct. 2010 as there is still some '10 models being built.

Edit: The know it all known as Wiki sez that the last car will be built this month.

aussiesmg
aussiesmg SuperDork
12/17/09 8:18 p.m.

I need a G8 GT GXP so bad it hurts

stuart in mn
stuart in mn SuperDork
12/17/09 8:22 p.m.

No, they're all done building them. The last G6 rolled off the line around Thanksgiving, and they'll stop building the G3 in Mexico this month some time.

neon4891
neon4891 SuperDork
12/17/09 10:25 p.m.

The web site for one local dealer just revamped the page and got rid of the pontiac logo/link. But they hadn't had any new ones in stock in a few months. But they do have a used '06 GTO and '07-'08? solstice GXP...

JeepinMatt
JeepinMatt Reader
12/17/09 10:32 p.m.

The Pontiac brand will never really be gone as long as there are enthusiasts restoring and driving them

Sorry, that's my optimist talking. Long live Pontiac.

plance1
plance1 HalfDork
12/17/09 10:52 p.m.

I remodeled a GMC/Buick/Pontiac dealership a few months prior to the announcement that Pontiac was going bye-bye. It was the Bill Delord dealership in Lebanon Ohio. We followed the guidelines established by GM which included all of the pontiac logos. What a shame.

mndsm
mndsm Reader
12/17/09 10:56 p.m.

I smell a conspiracy here. Think of it. GM- BILLIONS of dollars in debt, sells off several assets. Hummer, Saab, and Saturn all on the auction block. Saturn is dead, penske walks. Koenigsegg walked from Saab, but Fisker, the designer of of the Karma, is appearing to be next in line. Hummer went to the Chinese. Yet, there were several potential suitors for Pontiac, and GM said noooooooo. I suspect that when GM gets out of the financial straits that they are currently embattled with, Pontiac comes back, as a leaner meaner, performance division.

JeepinMatt
JeepinMatt Reader
12/17/09 11:05 p.m.
mndsm wrote: I smell a conspiracy here. Think of it. GM- BILLIONS of dollars in debt, sells off several assets. Hummer, Saab, and Saturn all on the auction block. Saturn is dead, penske walks. Koenigsegg walked from Saab, but Fisker, the designer of of the Karma, is appearing to be next in line. Hummer went to the Chinese. Yet, there were several potential suitors for Pontiac, and GM said noooooooo. I suspect that when GM gets out of the financial straits that they are currently embattled with, Pontiac comes back, as a leaner meaner, performance division.

I dunno. How often do we see divisions come back? I can name some that spontaneously appear, mostly Japanese, plus Saturn. You can sort of count Mini, but that was BMW owned.

Ironically, Pontiac came full circle. It was originally nothing more than some slightly massaged Chevys and was viewed as the quintessential old-people vehicle. Boring and reliable. Good old sensible Pontiac. It wasn't until later that Pontiac began making themselves known as the performance division. Perfect example of how to turn a brand's reputation around, if Buick and Lincoln are listening. If it just ends up being rebranded Malibus and such, I'd rather it stay dead and become a legend.

Wally
Wally SuperDork
12/18/09 12:11 a.m.

Our local dealer dropped Pontiac from it's radio ads. Unfortunately the edit is kinda rough so you can tell the jingle is missing something.

plance1
plance1 HalfDork
12/19/09 12:03 a.m.

oh its not coming back my friend.

stan
stan SuperDork
12/19/09 7:31 a.m.

I saw a commercial with GM's CEO or some other head hauncho talking with the brand names in the backround. No Saturn, Hummer OR Pontiac visible.

Does anyone think the Pontiac dealers will have a closing auction? Lots of good parts and equipment to be had there. We had a Ford dealership close nearby and there were a LOT of nice deals in parts ($2 oem Mustang hoods for example).

Of course these days there's not too many single dealers out there anymore.

integraguy
integraguy HalfDork
12/21/09 1:39 p.m.

I live in Tn. (Memphis)....one of the local Pontiac dealers here acquired Bill Heard's Chevy dealership JUST before GM pulled the plug on Pontiac. Needless to say, he has found it hard to "switch gears" when he appears on his own tv commercials and talks about all the great deals at his store. In the background of the commercials you can also see the "store" with the Pontiac logo still fairly prominently displayed.

We have a local dealer for Buick and GMC that is advertising it has new (not previously titled/owned) G3s and G5s for sale....at about $3K of MSRP. I imagine the cars that are left in inventory around the counntry are ALL equipped like the typical rentamobile.....that is, probably no manual transmissioned cars, and very conservative colors, with a few WAAAY loaded examples. If you want a deal on one of the better leftovers, the clock is ticking.

BTW, at one time, Chrysler had 4 domestically produced nameplates on sale, then they went down to 3, then back up to 4, then down to 2. So, who knows, maybe something LIKE Pontiac COULD re-emerge someday....just don't hold your breathe.

integraguy
integraguy HalfDork
12/21/09 1:42 p.m.

I also suspect, from the activity I've seen at my local Saturn store, that the few cars that are left, will be gone BEFORE Christmas.....New Year's Day at the latest.

jrw1621
jrw1621 Dork
12/21/09 1:50 p.m.

www.pontiac.com is headlining with "Final Closeout"

5 yr/100k warranty and 0% for 72 months or up to $6,500 off

Seems that you can still "build and price" on G5, G6, Solstice and G8. It seems to have more to do with locate a dealer than it does actaully building a new car.

Interestingly, the Vibe and Torrent are only featuring CPO offers.

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
12/21/09 2:07 p.m.

The Pontiac Vibe was one of the best cars GM ever made. The Chevy Prism being the other one.

neon4891
neon4891 SuperDork
12/21/09 2:29 p.m.
Dr. Hess wrote: The Pontiac Vibe was one of the best cars GM ever made. The Chevy Prism being the other one.

But will they cure insomnia?

Also +1 on GMs from down under

White_and_Nerdy
White_and_Nerdy Reader
12/21/09 4:10 p.m.
Dr. Hess wrote: The Pontiac Vibe was one of the best cars GM ever made. The Chevy Prism being the other one.

Because they're Toyotas, right? But I wouldn't include the "Chevyota Novarolla" of the 1980s in that statement - and, I note, neither did you.

forzav12
forzav12 New Reader
12/21/09 4:27 p.m.
Dr. Hess wrote: The Pontiac Vibe was one of the best cars GM ever made. The Chevy Prism being the other one.

They were as awful as the Toyota's they were based on. They wouldn't even be in the top 100 of "best cars GM ever made". Nice try though.

ignorant
ignorant SuperDork
12/21/09 5:27 p.m.
forzav12 wrote:
Dr. Hess wrote: The Pontiac Vibe was one of the best cars GM ever made. The Chevy Prism being the other one.
They were as awful as the Toyota's they were based on. They wouldn't even be in the top 100 of "best cars GM ever made". Nice try though.

OK, name 100 hundred better GM cars.

mndsm
mndsm Reader
12/21/09 6:22 p.m.
ignorant wrote:
forzav12 wrote:
Dr. Hess wrote: The Pontiac Vibe was one of the best cars GM ever made. The Chevy Prism being the other one.
They were as awful as the Toyota's they were based on. They wouldn't even be in the top 100 of "best cars GM ever made". Nice try though.
OK, name 100 hundred better GM cars.

Cutlass Ciera....boring as berkeley... BUT- you cannot kill those things. Corvette. Still the standard value in the performance category.

Ok, that's two. Someone come up with 98 more.

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
12/21/09 6:39 p.m.

The late 80's to 1990 or so Chevy Nova was an excellent car. There was a high performance version available with a 4AGE small port motor that did real close to 150 HP out of the box and was indestructable. Best motor GM ever put in a car.

My inlaws had a mid 80's Olds. 4 cylinder Mitsu motor. It rolled over to 90K miles and did a Bluesmobile. Literally.

keethrax
keethrax Reader
12/21/09 7:11 p.m.
Dr. Hess wrote: Best motor GM ever put in a car.

I dunno about that. But if you want to go, best 4-banger they've ever put in a car, I'll go with it.

stuart in mn
stuart in mn SuperDork
12/21/09 7:54 p.m.

It would be easy to name 99 great GM cars (starting with the one in my avatar. ) However, the list would be of best cars in their time. When General Motors was at the top of their game they really did produce some amazing vehicles, whether it was a '61 Pontiac or a '49 Cadillac or a 1970s Cutlass, but comparing them to cars built in 2010 would be silly. And, that's not to say they don't build some very good cars today either - they're just outside my area of expertise.

wspohn
wspohn New Reader
12/21/09 8:59 p.m.

Dead. Get over it.

Want a Pontiac, better be quick as they are flogging available stock now and once that's gone, that's all she wrote.

Most Pontiac dealers were also selling something else and they will just take the signs down and go on selling the something else. Sadly for Saturn dealers, many/most were stand alone dealerships. Wave bye bye.

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