Pontiac, Great Indian and GM Chief, Soon to be Buried
Pontiac, it's sad to see you go. You were a renowned American marque with a history that includes many distinguished models since your 20s inception as a replacement for the Oakland. Unfortunately, General Motors, as part of its restructuring plan, sees fit to drop you and focus on its core brands, meaning Chevrolet, Buick, and Cadillac. Oh… and GM Trucks, though I'm referring here to cars.
Through the early years Pontiac enjoyed a nice fit between the working man's Chevrolet and the junior executive's Oldsmobile. Later, it became the performance division. So what went wrong? In the late 1980s GM's marketing people decided Pontiac should become America's answer to BMW. Note the Solstice grille, whose twin nostrils deliberately mimic the German marque. Trouble was, BMW stayed with the performance-oriented rear-drive layout while Pontiac was forced to use Chevrolet front-wheel-drive platforms. Worse still, it added Americanised versions of GMs Korean and Japanese economy autos. Not bad cars but hardly enough to stay the Pontiac image.
In recent years GMs product guru Bob Lutz tried reviving the Pontiac look by building on Australian platforms. Hence the contemporary Pontiac GTO coupe which, in spite of its V-8 engine and rear-drive, went nowhere. Nor did the G5 sedan with its optional venetian blind sunroof. For a brief period the Solstice sports car captured attention, in spite of being shared with Saturn and European Vauxhall variations. Pontiac's last gasp was the G6, a rear-drive performance sedan whose launch sadly coincided with an economic meltdown.
If ever there was an example of mismanagement by product heads who had no understanding of brand loyalty and little appreciation of product advantages, this was it. Bye, bye, Pontiac, we'll miss you.
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