Act for the return of Pontiac

[The_Lyonnist]

What do you do at the Pontiac conventions? Do you just talk? I suggest that you think about the means that can be used to help return Pontiac. I have one argument to make: GM does not have a 100% sports brand. This would be the case thanks to Pontiac. You can find many other arguments. We can always act. Come on guys !

[indymanjoe]

Never gonna happen. Corvette is the sport brand and Pontiac was its best competitor

[Frosty]

The convention (POCI and GTOAA) is a multi-day car show with or without judging (depends on what you sign up for), a series of lectures by guest Pontiac experts, swap meet, and speciality chapter meetings. There are often side trips to local sightseeing or shopping opportunities as well.

The means to returning Pontiac lies solely with GM, as much as would love to see it's return. I agree with your reasoning but unless GM sees the need for a new car brand, it isn't likely going to happen. Since GM's bankruptcy and the shedding of Hummer, SAAB, Saturn, and Pontiac, GM has since sold Opel/Vauxhall to Peugeot, shut down Holden in Australia, and has threatened to close GM Daewoo in Korea. So GM is shrinking brands, not creating new ones globally. 

To Indyman Joe's point, he is correct. Chevrolet's Corvette is the corporation's halo performance car. It always will be. Camaro will probably remain the #2 performance car. So even if a performance brand were ever established, GM's unwritten rule "THOU SHALL NOT BEAT CORVETTE!" still exists. Ask the Buick GNX's guys about that rule sometime. The GNX in 1987 was faster than the Corvette and the Chevrolet guys didn't like it one bit and complained to GM and Buick management. Buick's response was "what are you crying about? We are building only 500 of these and then we're done. The G-body is going out of production. You will still have the Corvette. Get over it." In the end Buick built 547 GNXs because of the number of existing orders for the car. This hand slapping lead Buick hourly employees to create a bumper sticker that had the Buick turbo V6 logo on it that read "We brake for Corvettes". This ticked off the Chevrolet guys again but the Buick management guys said "Tough. We had nothing to do with!"

I want to see the return of Pontiac. I just don't see GM's currently leadership willing to do it - especially when they are so focused on autonomous, electric vehicles. Remember they just laid off thousands of traditional automotive related employees this year.

Edited May 15, 2019 by Frosty

[Ringo64]

28 minutes ago, Frosty said:

The means to returning Pontiac lies solely with GM, as much as would love to see it's return. I agree with your reasoning but unless GM sees the need for a new car brand, it isn't likely going to happen. Since GM's bankruptcy and the shedding of Hummer, SAAB, Saturn, and Pontiac, GM has since sold Opel/Vauxhall to Peugeot, shut down Holden in Australia, and has threatened to close GM Daewoo in Korea. So GM is shrinking brands, not creating new ones globally. 

As much as I would like to see Pontiac come back, this right here is the reason why it won't happen and also why I don't want it to happen.

GM is scaling everything back at this time, don't think any addition at this point really is going to happen. If by some miracle it did happen and Pontiac was brought to life, feel like it would be a shell of what it could be. The best possibility we could hope for is a Firebird badged Camaro.

 

33 minutes ago, Frosty said:

This hand slapping lead Buick hourly employees to create a bumper sticker that had the Buick turbo V6 logo on it that read "We brake for Corvettes". This ticked off the Chevrolet guys again but the Buick management guys said "Tough. We had nothing to do with!"

[JUSTA6]

17 hours ago, Frosty said:

The convention (POCI and GTOAA) is a multi-day car show with or without judging (depends on what you sign up for), a series of lectures by guest Pontiac experts, swap meet, and speciality chapter meetings. There are often side trips to local sightseeing or shopping opportunities as well.

The means to returning Pontiac lies solely with GM, as much as would love to see it's return. I agree with your reasoning but unless GM sees the need for a new car brand, it isn't likely going to happen. Since GM's bankruptcy and the shedding of Hummer, SAAB, Saturn, and Pontiac, GM has since sold Opel/Vauxhall to Peugeot, shut down Holden in Australia, and has threatened to close GM Daewoo in Korea. So GM is shrinking brands, not creating new ones globally. 

To Indyman Joe's point, he is correct. Chevrolet's Corvette is the corporation's halo performance car. It always will be. Camaro will probably remain the #2 performance car. So even if a performance brand were ever established, GM's unwritten rule "THOU SHALL NOT BEAT CORVETTE!" still exists. Ask the Buick GNX's guys about that rule sometime. The GNX in 1987 was faster than the Corvette and the Chevrolet guys didn't like it one bit and complained to GM and Buick management. Buick's response was "what are you crying about? We are building only 500 of these and then we're done. The G-body is going out of production. You will still have the Corvette. Get over it." In the end Buick built 547 GNXs because of the number of existing orders for the car. This hand slapping lead Buick hourly employees to create a bumper sticker that had the Buick turbo V6 logo on it that read "We brake for Corvettes". This ticked off the Chevrolet guys again but the Buick management guys said "Tough. We had nothing to do with!"

I want to see the return of Pontiac. I just don't see GM's currently leadership willing to do it - especially when they are so focused on autonomous, electric vehicles. Remember they just laid off thousands of traditional automotive related employees this year.

Was part of my ISCA display, back in the day. Now I keep it in the trunk of my Sunbird trailer. 

[Last Indian]

Lyon, as much as all of us would love to see Pontiacs return, I have to agree with the others! It’s never going to happen for all, not just one, but all the reasons mentioned and then some!

GM has no vested interest in a brand other than profit! In the past, great executives made decisions based on vision, profit, growth and instinct! Very few of today’s executives have vision or instincts, sad but true! More often then not they rise to the top for reasons that have little to do running that particular company. For a long time now companies take people who are great at their positions and put them in other areas unrelated to any of their gifted talents. All because they need to grow their people! That’s just plain stupid! That among many other things has caused the demise of American manufacturing, and Pontiac was part of that! 

Then there is the whole never admitting of making the wrong decision!!

Edited May 18, 2019 by Last Indian