It's Official, Pontiac Dead at end of 2010!

[JRinKY]

rob the elder : ...... I saw two MGs from the 1960s out this weekend top down in Parker Colorado. Beautiful cars but they stopped making parts for them, what 40 years ago? Yet somehow people find a way to keep them running. ......

Parts are still being made for MGs, and Triumphs, et al. In some cases the original tooling was purchased, in other cases new tooling was made. You can buy the pieces to build, from the ground up, a 1972 TR6 (among others). If the demand exists, so will the parts.

[MomsSol]

Originally Posted by rob the elder And on the upside, one of the things that is great about our cars, besides they are really fun to drive and get stares all the time, is that they will remain relatively rare. The end of production will mean that they will not go the way of the Miatta and be all over the place and so common place as to be boreing and every day

Silver lining to the dark clouds of today!

[Pterosaur]

Originally Posted by rob the elder ...I have a 20002 Jeep Wrangler.

Does it fly?

Sorry, could not help myself. Wonder what we'll be driving in 18,000 years? Does kinda put it in perspective eh?

[kkoschnitzke]

BUY AMERICAN...that's all I've got to say!

[PAO]

and remember a lot of our parts are parts bins from other GM vehicles as well......so parts should be available for some time to come......not concerned here....

[POTFH]

Originally Posted by Chemist I can no more imagine buying 15 new cars in 19 years than I can imagine flying without the aid of an airplane. I do not condemn, but simply cannot understand this level of turnover. Clearly, _I"M_ the reason GM is having difficulties! I buy a car, then drive it until it becomes too expensive to repair, and only then do I purchase a new one. Sorry, folks, Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa!

Good Morning Chemist, I do not know his case for buying so many new cars, but for 25 years I was buying a new car every three years then the last 12 years it dropped to every two years. I am a salesman putting over 60,000 miles a year. In the beginning the wife would get my car and hers would go to a relative. The my two son each were turning 16 and would get the wife's car and her mine. Never sold a car, when I got rid of a car it never had less then 250,000 miles. All Cars were GM's. Now that I am not on the road as much the last purchase was Sol507. Gave a car to oldest son several years ago and it just died with 265,000. My current 2002 Regal has 237,000 and will probly be going to him. My other son drove our 1995 Bonnville in the air force to over 310,000. It just came home and it do not believe it is worth fixing. So I am about to buy my next car. I do want a GXP as my everyday drive car. Like you I get my money's worth out of my cars.

[POTFH]

Originally Posted by MomsSol Silver lining to the dark clouds of today!

Hope wife lets me buy a new GXP and give us two great little cars.

[POTFH]

Originally Posted by kkoschnitzke BUY AMERICAN...that's all I've got to say!

:

and that should not be just for cars. Buy wine from Calif., Washington and Oregon. Not French wine!!!!!

[slusamson]

Originally Posted by POTFH : and that should not be just for cars. Buy wine from Calif., Washington and Oregon. Not French wine!!!!!

Better yet, don't shop at wal-mart... Just about everything they sell is made overseas...

[GS Stage 1]

Originally Posted by achieftain 2009-04-27 The revised plan moves up the resolution of Saab, Saturn, and Hummer to the end of 2009, at the latest. Updates on these brands will be provided as these initiatives progress.

Oh man, I can see this one coming.

At least you Solstice owners have a couple years left. I bet the Sky goes By in the middle of the summer.

But I have one thing going for me. Since I have 25 years of experience rummaging through junk yards for parts on a 36 year old car, this will be a breeze.

However I was not looking forward to the old Déjà Vu all over again thing.

[RichSol]

Originally Posted by MomsSol Maybe I just don't understand business analyst - but could someone PLEASE explain why anyone would kill a brand that out sold another by nearly 2:1??

Outselling and making a profit are 2 different things. If they lose $10k on every Solstice, for instance, then outselling 2 to 1 means they lose twice as fast. I think the "niche" plan would have failed for the same reason. Unless they asked for Ferrari level prices for the "niches". But then, who would buy them?

[brentil]

GM Media Online

It's the profit margins on each car sold too. My guess is they make more per Buick then they do Pontiacs. We know the Solstice has been a profit loser for the most part, the imported G8 I bet doesn't make a lot, the Vibe makes Toyota money not just GM, G3/G5 have small margins, and I think the G6 is the only decent one. Buick also sells very well in China so they're keeping and merging it as a global brand.

Also reading the GM announcement you see they're also giving up market share on purpose. They plan to drop from 13 million to 10 million cars per year. Doesn't make much sense looking at it at first but reading through the GM article farther you see where the savings come in. Shutting down plants and firing union workers. The weight of the unions and plants for these vehicles costs GM more than they can sell the cars for. By shutting down the plants needed to make Pontiac/Saturn/Saab/Hummer GM plans to cut yearly operating costs from $31 bil to $23bil. They were only making profit before because of the idiotic SUV/truck craze the USA was in, the car lines have not been operating in enough profit margins to actually keep GM floating only the SUV/trucks were counterbalancing the cars. With those profits gone GM can't keep making the same number of a cars and cover their expenses, so they kill off a brand that's primarily cars to bring there car/suv balance back into a ratio they can operate in.

Originally Posted by MomsSol Maybe I just don't understand business analyst - but could someone PLEASE explain why anyone would kill a brand that out sold another by nearly 2:1?? 2008 GM Vehicle Sales Chevrolet 1,801,131 GMC 376,996 Pontiac 267,348 Saturn 188,004 Cadillac 161,159 Buick 137,197 Hummer 27,485 Saab 21,368 Total 2,980,688 Pontiac outsold Buick by over 50%

[RichSol]

Originally Posted by tekmoe Man... Not sure what to say. I'm a bit worried as I don't know how this is going to directly affect all of us who own Solstices and Skys.

I was worried about that too, especially when my local Pontiac dealer shut down. But I just had the GM power upgrade done at a nearby Chevy dealer. They underbid two other Pontiac dealers (further away) and did an outstanding job. They were glad to have my business. (Also the service writer is the same guy I used to go thru at the old Pontiac place.)

[R&T]

Greed on all sides caused this. My grandfather saw this coming as many others years ago. Everyone wanted a piece of the pie and now, the pie is gone. Instead of putting the profits back into the company when they had it, they paid everyone TOO well. (Big wigs, unions, hourly workers) When the general public gets to viewing GM like it did 30years ago(if that is possible) then GM will be fine but until then GM will keep sliding year after year.

[PAO]

Originally Posted by slusamson Better yet, don't shop at wal-mart... Just about everything they sell is made overseas...

start looking at the manufacturere origin on the products you buy......note how many are from China and Asia in general......particularily clothing.....

when you go home turn over your dinner plates and see where they were made......most probably are made in the US and betting your silverware is from Korea..........but the problem was cheap labor overseas......and we werent willing to pay the prices for made in the USA....unfortunately.....

but on the good side...UNEED2 told me this morning that if we can swing it.....she would like to get a 2010 GXP in addition to keeping our 06 N/A.......WOOOOHOOOOOOOO!