GM to discontinue PONTIAC

[PmL69]

I always thought after Olds that Buick would be next but to my suprise....its gonna be Pontiac.. Its so hard not to get political about this but im sure everyone has there own opinions!! Heres the artical

DETROIT – General Motors Corp. will announce details of its massive restructuring plan on Monday, including the demise of its storied Pontiac brand, more factory closures and bigger job cuts as it fights to avoid bankruptcy protection.
The struggling automaker must make the announcement in advance of a planned offer to its bondholders to swap debt for company stock. GM owes $28 billion to large and small bondholders, and under Securities and Exchange Commission rules, it must disclose its operational plans before making an exchange offer.
Two people briefed on GM's plan said the company has decided to close more factories than the five it announced in February. But the locations of the doomed factories will not be identified Monday, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plan has not yet been made public.
One of the people said GM will list specific numbers of blue-collar job cuts, and announce another round of U.S. salaried job cuts beyond the 3,400 completed last week.
Chief Executive Fritz Henderson has said the company will go further and faster in making its cost cuts to reduce the number of cars and trucks it needs to sell to break even. One of the people briefed on the plan said GM will accelerate many cuts previously planned for 2014 to instead take place between now and 2010, although specifics were not available.
Both people confirmed that the plan includes the death of Pontiac, famous for the Trans Am sports car and the GTO. Efforts in the last few years to market Pontiac as performance-oriented brand failed to work. The company had said it wanted to keep Pontiac as a niche brand with one or two models, but is buckling under tremendous government pressure to consolidate its eight brands, several of which lose money.
The people said GM won't have much new information on Hummer, Saturn or other brands, including Europe's Opel. GM has indicated it wants to focus on four core brands, Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.
Also to be announced Monday will be a target number for dealer reduction, as well as details of GM's bond exchange offer. But exact numbers were not available Sunday night.
The 9 a.m. EDT news conference will include Chief Executive Fritz Henderson, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young, North American President Troy Clarke and Mark LaNeve, vice president of North American sales and marketing.
GM is living on $15.4 billion in government loans and faces a government-imposed June 1 deadline to restructure or go into bankruptcy protection.
The government's restructuring demands include swapping at least two thirds of GM's unsecured bond debt for equity in the company. Such a move would help GM straighten out its debt-laden balance sheet.
Chrysler LLC, which is living on $4 billion in government loans and is expected to get $500 million more, faces a Thursday deadline to restructure and ink an alliance deal with Italian automaker Fiat SpA. The government also wants Chrysler to exchange much of its $6.9 billion in debt for equity in the company, but with the deadline fast approaching, Chrysler and its secured debtholders remain far apart.
Both GM and Chrysler also must win concessions from the United Auto Workers union. The UAW said late Sunday that it had reached agreement on concessions with Chrysler, Fiat and the U.S. government. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne was in the U.S. as talks continued for the automaker to take a 20 percent stake in Chrysler in exchange for its small-car technology.

[ent72olds]

Well, at least we won't be alone now....

[csstrux]

After they start offering cars that I would buy I used to get tanked when fordies would diss GM.

[Bluevista]

Originally Posted by ent72olds

Well, at least we won't be alone now....

Farewell poor Poncho, we knew thee well.

Alone? What about Rambler, Hupmobile, Chandler, Playboy, Packard, Hudson, Jordan, Essex, and on and on.
Buick is around because of China, better red than dead I guess.
For some reason they like Buhogs? Have to check out the ThePeoplesClassicBuhog.Chi-Com(munist) site to investigate further.

Did you know that David Hasselhoff is the most popular pop star in Germany?

We still have the big three...Toyota, Nissan and Honda.

[68Tom]

I have a feeling that, at the end of the day, all that's going to be left of GM in the US is Chevrolet and Cadillac. Chevys will be the "everyman" car and truck, and Cadillac will be the luxury line. I could also see GMC existing only as heavy duty work trucks--people who actually use them for just that, work.

Guess we'll see. I have a feeling that the last infusion of capital from the gov't will be the last. Pretty crazy that shareholders of GM will own only 1% of the company.

Sad day indeed.

[PmL69]

you would think as hard up as GM is right now that they would offer both Pontiac & Olds divisions up for sale. I bet a good business person could get something going. I know im just dreaming but wouldnt it be cool to have Olds being made again

[gearheads78]

Some things going on with GM no one is talking about. People out there stand to make many millions if notbillions through default swaps if GM goes belly up. All the claims will be paid by AIG and the like through bailout money you and I are paying for.

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyl...rss_topStories

[easytobedead]

what! no gto!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! }"

[csstrux]

Originally Posted by gearheads78

Some things going on with GM no one is talking about. People out there stand to make many millions if notbillions through default swaps if GM goes belly up. All the claims will be paid by AIG and the like through bailout money you and I are paying for.

http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyl...rss_topStories

Scary shiz and frustrating as he((

[citcapp]

Pretty soon all of the great cars will be orphans I am lucky I already own two. This sucks

[Eric Anderson]

next to olds ponchos were always my second favorite

[ent72olds]

Originally Posted by Bluevista

Farewell poor Poncho, we knew thee well.

Alone? What about Rambler, Hupmobile, Chandler, Playboy, Packard, Hudson, Jordan, Essex, and on and on. ...
D

You forgot Plymouth and one of my personal favorites...Studebaker

[oldsonharmont]

Pontiac sure built some iconic cars in their day like the GTO and Firebird. Better start stocking up on Trans-Ams and related parts now!

I think they were great cars for their day but times changed and GM didn't. Just take a drive down any L.A. freeway and look at how the imports outnumber the domestics. Can anyone say they didn't see this day coming?

[texasred]

Nice to know Olds was sacrificed so that plastic POS Saturn could survive this long, eh?

Thoughts to ponder:
What are Pontiac gross sales figures including profit margin?
What are Buick gross sales figures including profit margin?
What is the Chevrolet's main competitor at GM for high-end sales and compare with 2 first questions.
Review public bond holder investment/stock ratio versus UAW bond holder investment/stock return as proposed by the gummint.

Anyone remember British-Leyland in the 70-80's?

Just thinking....

...and my head hurts.

C.J.

[Aron Nance]

The stories I've always heard is that Saturn has never made a profit for GM. Ever! What a shame.

[OLD SKL 69]

It's amazing to me that they even need to discontinue the division. Since they combined the Buick/GMC/Pontiac dealerships into 1, they were going to make niche vehicles. So why cancel the whole division? Couldn't they just combine the sales/marketing departments together and eliminate some positions? It's just a shame to see where things are going.

[Rdrokit]

I really liked Pontiacs, like Oldsmobiles they are different in an appealing way, not like Edsels which are different in an ugly way. One of my favorite cars I ever owned was a 1961 Pontiac Catalina flat top. It was one of 49 made for the Georgia Sate Police to run down moonshiners. Had a HD 389 and 3 on the tree with highway gears, HD sway bars, HD cooling and 15 inch finned front brakes. Love to run that car on the freeways at night coming back from a car show. Here's a photo of her. It was the cover photo on Pontiac Enthusiast magazine. They did a 4 page spread on her in the March/April 2007 edition.

[63 F85 Cutlass]

I've always had a place in my heart for the pontiacs, hate to see them go.

What they should do is keep Chevy and Cadilac as different brands, then combine the best of pontiac, buick, and gmc into simply GM vehicles, as one company. You'd have a solstice and a revamped firebird and the G8 for sports cars, the gmcs trucks, and the buick for passenger cars. I think that would make for a healthy lineup. I hate to say it, but in regards to the new cars in production, brand loyalty has lost any meaning, especially when you have 3 or 4 companies building the same car, just simplify it and build a car thats good, then worry about a name.

Now i was was wondering how you guys felt about the new gen gto's that came out a few years back. I know they wern't very similar in visual to the goats of old, but they had the right concept, a basic midsized car with a tough v8 engine, the true concept behind the musclecar.

The other thing I cannot understand is why the auto companies don't think that if they just went back to making the cars here in the us, they'd gain much more loyaly by giving jobs back, plus they don't get we need money if they want us to buy there cars. They're all just so caught up in the short term to get a grip on the fact that they need us, and they're throwing money overseas where they'll never get it back.

I personaly wouldn't mind the government carrying the big three for 6 months to a year if they were to start setting up back in the U.S., because that would be worth our tax dollars in the long run, getting our economy back on track, and our cars back on the roads

[joe_padavano]

Originally Posted by OLD SKL 69

It's amazing to me that they even need to discontinue the division. Since they combined the Buick/GMC/Pontiac dealerships into 1, they were going to make niche vehicles. So why cancel the whole division? Couldn't they just combine the sales/marketing departments together and eliminate some positions? It's just a shame to see where things are going.

Face it, this is entirely optical. They need to give the government the appearance of doing something in order to get more bailout money.

[Jamesbo]

Yeah, Pontiac had some cool stuff.

I working from memory here,

But didn't they have the first transaxle in the eary Tempest? Which I believe had Independent rear suspension.

And somewhere along in the sixties they made the overhead cam in line 6.

I've never been a big Firebird fan. But the 60's Catalinas and Bonnevillles were pretty.

Alas, "The only thing constant is change."

[joe_padavano]

Originally Posted by Jamesbo

But didn't they have the first transaxle in the eary Tempest? Which I believe had Independent rear suspension.

Well, I guess it depends on your definition of "transaxle". The Tempest transaxle was a modified version of the Corvair transaxle. The Corvair unit was modified to accept the input from the front instead of the back, but otherwise it (and the independent rear suspension) were very similar to the 'Vair parts. So does that make the Corvair the first? And if so, then wouldn't the VW and Porsche have come before even that?

By the way, the Tempest (and 61-63 F-85 and Special) were actually built on the Corvair platform.