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R.I.P. Pontiac

H

hillbillyOH

Member
GM is phasing out the Pontiac brand name.

<a href="http://money.cnn.com/2009/04/24/autos/pontiac_obit/index.htm">Link</a>

Will you miss Pontiac when it's gone?

I won't. My brother had a early 80s Firebird that was just junk.
 
Pontiac was nice,but we can survive without it I suppose.Alot of history there though.GTO's.Firebirds and Trans AM's.Bonniville's were nice,the new G8's are beautifull cars.I suppose Chevrolet can fill the gap and if you want to spend abit more but not alot more,than there's still Buick by the sounds of it.The bigger question remains,can GM ever stand alone on it's feet again ,or can we expect them to always have thier hand's out?
 
My grandfather's last car with a 1992 Pontiac Grand Prix, not a bad car, but not a great one either.The Pontiac brand is pretty bland and boring in my opinion, except for perhaps the Solstace.
 
The name of the car has NOTHING to do with it quality. Quality come from the mindset of the company who builds them. For TO LONG has American Companies been of the mindset to build THROW AWAY junk because the American Consumer can not see any farther than the shiny paint. Years ago I heard that if GM spent a nickle on a car they charged a dollar. This was back when you could buy a Chevette for about 5K. A Chevette look when they were new to be worth IMHO about 1K when new.

Kent
 
That would be a bad choice. Pontiac is assosiated with younger popular cars while both Buick and Cadillac are old folks rides. Even with the New cadillac there will always be that association to fight while Pontiac already has that rep. Another bad decision by GM execs....
 
Shucks now we won't have any method of weeding out bad renters. In the past if the prospective renter drove up in a red pontiac we would just say the place was already rented. Experience proves that anyone who drives a red Pontiac will be a horrible renter who will rip up the place and leave without paying the last months rent.
 
Mr Handleless, the wheels from a Hummer won't fit the Prius sized vehicles. However, the sound systems may so it could work. I suppose that a reduced size Hummer with a hole in the roof could be sold to parade Shrinners though.
 
I heard on TV that 1/3 of the cost of a car is for computers on board. Could this be part of the problem?
 
Hummer wheels are ugly things anyway!

What I am proposing is taking a brand that is known for being huge gas guzzling impracticle vehicles and reinventing the brand into the complete opposite.
 
Talk about throw away, I was at a motorcycle junk yard, it was all japanese in piles. The American and British made stuff was inside and there was not a lot of it. Same thing with cars the junk yards are full of japanese cars. You see them along the road dead now. The japanese build junk and tell the US consumer how good they are and the US consumer believes what they are told. I would not take a japanese car as a gift.
 
My second car was a 1946 Pontiac 2 door fastback all black with red interior and enough chrome to sink a battleship. a straight eight that got 8 miles to the gallons. Bummer. Really nice car but not for a poor country boy.
Walt
 
I won't miss what Pontiac has become. I also don't miss what Oldsmobile was at the end.

I recently bought a 2004 Impala and hit a deer with it. Had to replace the hood and passenger side headlight module. Brand new headlight $265.00 and it wasn't sealed properly. Couldn't wash the car or leave it in the rain without water pooling inside. GM service rep refused to replace the part and told the body shop owner that it was natural to have water vapor in it. This was not vapor, there were streams running down inside from the top. Body shop finally got an aftermarket part that was just fine with no leaks.

I will not buy another GM car after this and after being a supplier to them for 8 years. I feel sorry for the guys who are losing their jobs but the engineers and management at GM are incompetent.
 
can't argue with your last statement. Those people must take a bus to work & back, for they surely never drive those trucks & cars or they would know better than to design & make them.
 
In my mind, Pontiac died anyway about 1978-79 when their last 400 V-8 was built. I used to have a picture of an employee leaning on the last one with a sad look on his face.
 
I really won't be sorry to see Pontiac go. For years, Pontiacs have been one of the most overrated cars on the road. I'm an admitted Olds freak, but I've always thought GM should have axed Pontiac at the time it killed Olds.

One thing I could never figure out when I was a Claims Adjuster handling vehicle service contracts, was that a Pontiac built on the same mechanical platform as a Buick, Olds, or Chevy, and using identical parts, always had more mechanical problems. Why? Did the Pontiac name attract more aggressive drivers?

Why was it that Pontiacs were/are famous for squeaks and squawks in the front suspension while other GM badges using the same parts are quiet? Once when we had a Pontiac mini van, my wife complained about front suspension noise. I told her, "It's a Pontiac, it's supposed to have front suspension noise".

Guess I shouldn't be too rough on Pontiacs, though. Thanks to the air bag and belts, my wife did walk away from a head-on collision once when she was driving a Pontiac mini van.
 
I know, but it took like what 8 or 9 years. I remember when I bought my 98 Chevy truck, the service writer said Olds was going to be done away with.
 
I had three Pontiacs, mostly from the 60's. I thought they were pretty good cars back then. It would have made more sense to me for GM to take out Pontiac and Buick, and leave Old's in the middle. The last GM vehicle I bought was a new "85 Chevy Blazer... what a piece of crap that was. It needed a valve job at around 40,000 miles. You can't expect to stay in business by producing junk. The GM I bought before that was an '82 Chev pickup with the 6.2 Liter diesel. It was so noisy, I couldn't stand driving it, and so underpowered, I couldn't haul a camper with it on a windy day.
 
remember the "70s and "80 when we were supposed to "Buy American? My response was "Build Better" Everyone would love to buy from their fellow countrymen, but why spend a lot of money on something of inferior quality? This is the fault of the management and the UAW; they conspired to appeal to nationalism rather than get busy and do the right thing; build a better product. Figured it out too late. They may have caught up in quality now, (my 2000 F-150 has 190K with little difficulty, but they let the japanese in the game with their arragance. Reputation are hard to lose. By the way, why should the government baul out these UAW guys who retire in their 50s? Get rid of the newer ones and put these guys to work to earn their pension. These "retiree costs" that the companies are paying for are not a bunch of 70 year olds, there a whole lot of them in their 50s and 60s perfectly able to work who are sucking the life out the companies.
 
I am no expert, but let's see, there was Kaiser, Hudson, EMF, Dodge brothers, Studebaker, Packard, Nash, Rambler, Olds, and if it wasn't so late, and I hadn't spent all day out on the lake fishing, and was whooped, I could think of more.


gene
 

I won't miss it, an entire line "built for drivers" consisting of plasticy crap with very limited manual trans availability.

GM was stupid to carry so many names for so long. I was glad to see olds go.

Buick needs to go, only old people drive them anyways, Buick cars are boring. Cadillac at least has captured some youth niche and status after years of selling mediocre cushy sponge handling cars,


Keep Chevrolet for all basic/intermediate cars
Keep Cadillac for luxury cars
Keep GMC for trucks and SUVs. (toss Chev truck name)
 
"Only old people drive Buicks"- Maybe so, but us geezers also have enough money to buy a new car once in awhile, without the highly creative "no payments, no interest until after you've destroyed the car" financing- They might wanna keep that in mind. Would get a Cadillac, but they've gotten so complex that independent repairman can only look at them and Mapquest you to the local Caddy dealer. Been there, done that- would rather have just been held up with a gun- much more straightforward.

Guess I better be ordering the next Buford pretty quick, huh?
 
My 1984 had 200,000 miles on it when sold. Looked like a caprice. The drive train was never touched and factor Freon lasted 20 years/ Sooo had a H of lot of driving for 2 grand got it with 94000 mile. Now the 2000 trams am is whole different money pit. The GM 3.4 has this 700 dollar intake gasket kit with labor. Will need it on all 3.4 around 100,000 miles. Leaks anti freeze inside the engine if it is not repaired soon enought. Keep an eye on the gargae floor or if adding coolent "theirs your sign".
 
Besides Chevy, Caddy, and Buick, GMC is to surve awhile longer.

Loved my 93 Grand Prix but it fell apart at 80,000 miles. Things like window switches, brake light switch quit - and those little items add up in cost and hassle so I had to get rid of it.

No one should buy GM again anyway - unless you like supporting the UAW.
 
I work ( for now ) at a Buick ,Cadillac dealer.

The Buicks are better as far as less problems then the Cadillacs. And we did have a better following of repeat Buick customers.
 
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