Feds Told GM To Drop Pontiac Or No Bailout, Ex-GM Exec Says

Is it no surprise, the Government had their EXPERT hands in telling GM what car lines they needed to get rid of before funding them $60 billion.

Since when is the Government, i.e. Obama and Crew, experts in the Car industry, telling GM what they needed to do to market their brand lines.

I would think that type of decision would be based upon how well a car line was selling? The G8, and the newly renewed GTO were HOT, but TOO HOT for the feds, who wanted their line of Electric cars and their buddies in the solar industry, to not have any competition from these muscle car lines from GM.

The Feds basically wanted to get GM down to Cadillac and Chevrolet. They said, "you don't need all these brands. You need one prestige brand, and one mass-market brand." And we said "well we can't get rid of Buick because Buick is important in China, and if Buick becomes an orphan in the United States then the Chinese are no longer gonna be interested in it." And the Feds said "Fair enough, but everything else goes." We said well we'd also like to keep GMC. They said "well, GMC is basically just like Chevrolet," and we said "that may be true, there may be a lot of shared components, but GMC has an entirely different image, a different customer base, and people are willing to pay different prices for a GMC, and here's the profitability," and the Feds said "whoops, okay, keep GMC."

So China played a role in what GM would do.

So now we had Buick, GMC, Cadillac, and Chevrolet, and then, I wanted, badly wanted, to keep Pontiac, because Pontiac was on its way back, and it had been mismanaged for a number of years, you know, with 'rebuild excitement,' and the excitement was only in the plastic body cladding, mechanically there was nothing about Pontiac in the 90s that would make your heart beat faster. And with the solstice and solstice coupe, and with the Pontiac G8, which was a great car. We were embarked on a strategy of making pontiac different from the rest of GM in that Pontiac wouldn't get any front wheel drive cars, they would all be rear-wheel drive, and the next G6, was going to use the architecture of the cadillac ATS, it was going to be a 3-series sized rear-wheel Pontiac, with basically the Cadillac ATS 'de-premiumized,' obviously, a lot of the cost taken out, but still fundamentally that architecture.

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Pontiac was never on its way back up, it was eating funding in GM and needed to be dropped. Look at Saturn and Suzuki in the US, not there. Yes they had a few good cars but they did not see a big enough impact economically and were dropped because they weren't worth it.

Good seeing the crap they had been putting out good riddance. The last GTO they put out was an insult to the name GTO.

Pontiac of old was awesome. Newer Pontiac's not so much. Don't know enough about the inner financials of that portion of the company to say either way but I wish they would have made a comeback like Mustang and Challenger's did at Ford and Dodge.

I really do miss my 1970 Pontiac LeMans though. *sigh*

Pontaic was just starting to find itself. Bob Lutz said they planned to convert to an entire line up of RWD vehicles. I own the 09 Pontiac G8 GXP (based on the Holden Commodore), 6 speed and 425rwhp. Beat the BMW M5 in ever road test. Most guys are blown away to see a 4door RWD sedan that looks so good. It's a shame the car was only produced for 1 year.

The GTO was a mistake in naming but a good start. It was a Holden Manaro, and while under styled, they're great cars. They should of never however tried to revive the brand nameplate with that vehicle.

The G8 was a good selling car and the start of something. A shame it didn't happen.

It was my thought as well when this was announced that they wanted to get rid of the muscle cars. In a way, it's good though, Americans need to grow up and stop thinking like 14 year olds, and saving fuel is good for the country.

Besides, since the administration saved them from bankruptcy they had the right to have a say in this.

I find it all ironic.

Federal government consolidating to save money.

Huhh !

reply to post by ManOfHart


Can't have that private sector too big.

Like I needed another reason to dislike the Obama administration. My 91 GTA will never die. I loved my Fiero and I will get another one someday. The Solstice looked really good, too.

reply to post by alphaTango



In what test did the gxp beat the M5???

reply to post by phantomjack


In 97 I bought the 98 GTP with a supercharger. God! I loved that car. I never like the process of getting from one place to another, but I loved driving this car. And it was so solid. I was sold on Pontiac.

In 2007, I sold my 98 to my grandson, who also loved it. Bought a used 2006 GTO. Unlike the GTP, it was a V6 but had the supercharge engine. Not as great but still sold on the brand.

What a disappointment that is was being discontinued. I don't know what Pontiac was like prior to my beloved 98 Gran Prix, but of the Fords, Chevy's, and Oldsmobile's I have driven, none could come close.

Something in the back of my mind tell me there was more to these
auto bailouts than is talked about.

Within months of the bailout funds being approved GM, Ford
and Chrysler were all starting to announce new products and tech.

The money given to Americand domestic brands in perfect timing
with a media blitz on Toyota recalls, appeared like a national
protectionism operation. I am not sure what you call it but the government
wasnt just helping a company stave off mass layoffs (closing production
in the US is common place) instead it was about protecting American
brands and corporations.

If it was profitable to only keep the headquarters in the US with all
production coming.from China it would be done.

I think it would be hard to find things making much sense in this case. The media
had to make it sound like the US government was going to be vigilant
in their demands from GM. But if the real operation was to us taxpayer
funds to make domestic brands dominate again it would be difficult
to make this look like everyone was dilligent.

I just want to add...

The Camaro SS is beating lap times of 6 figure exotics on the
nuremburge. As a proud Ford fan I am not embarrassed to say
that although GM cannot seem to run a biz, they can still build a car.add

m.youtube.com...

And all they diverted attention from the whole "made in China" craze. Now it's all made in Mexico and Honduras, ect.. With the exception of there performance cars

The GTO was a rebadged aussie car with a corvette engine. They couldn't even be bothers to give it a proper dual exhaust system. Pontiac started going down when the F-body(Camaro and Firebird) was dropped. The W-body platform was still around with the Grand Prix but the new G series was coming out most of those were designed with Holden of Australia. Besides they are responsible for that ghastly thing known as the Aztek how long did you expect them to be around? Maybe in the future they will come back with Oldsmobile.

GM W-body car club member.

Say what!!!!!!!!!!!

What is wrong with pontiac!!!!!!!!

I love pontiac's......

Actually thinking about buying another one.