So long, Pontiac.

[gravitymachine]

GMC may make no sense [[to you), but you kow what it does makey? MONEY! GMC is a cash cow for GM. Do you know how little R&D it takes to figure out how to slap some leather and wood trim on a chevy truck?

There may not be a need for two truck brands, but there is a need to make money. why fix something that isn't broken?

exaclty.

a lot of fleet managers, which is what GMC sells a lot of their full-size trucks to, logically or not like GMC trucks more than chevy trucks. if you take away gmc or chevy trucks, you force them to choose your other product, or the competition's, and i'll bet you the net result would be less truck buyers than both brands combined have now

[spiritofdetroit]

GM has already stated that GMC is going to be one of their 4 core brands, along with Chevy, Cadillac, and Buick.

It's not going anywhere.

[luckycar]

This has been a big problem for GM since the 1970s.X,J and A cars and now the Cobalt/G5.As their market share fell,they continued to sell "like " vehicles from each division.All they did was rob sales from each other dealership.Thru the 50s and 60s,each line of cars had their own styling,powertrain,and place in the market.A350 Chevy motor has nothing in common with a 350 Olds.A 455 Buick and a 455 Pontiac had a common altenator,thats about it.This all changed when the Olds buyers got stuck with 350 Chevy motors instead of their 350 Rockets.A light when on in Roger Smiths brain,and it went downhill from there.
So now the G6 will become a Skylark,the G8 will stay in Aussieville,the Vibe will be picked up by Toyota as the Matrix,the Solstice/Sky will go the way of the Reatta and the Fiero and we will watch our state slip beneath the waves......

[Irvine Laird]

I was in fifth grade when Tammy, another fifth grader on my block, developed breasts and aroused me out of the "girls=cooties" phase of my boyhood. I was into girls from then on.

Long before that--when I was only two or three years old--the Pontiac Firebird aroused me to cars and I've been into them ever since.

When I was a kid, I wanted to grow up to drive a Pontiac. First, it was early 1970s Pontiac Firebirds. Then, the early 1980s Firebirds [[remember Knight Industries Two Thousand?). When Pontiac introduced the new Grand Prix body style around 1988--I wanted to be 16 in the worst possible way so I could drive that car. Later, I discovered the GTOs of the late 1960s. Pontiac was my dream car.

I woke from that dream when my grandparents gave me my first GM in 1996--a Cadillac DeVille. I hated that car so much, I sold it only three months after I got it. When I went to work for a big company in Chicago after college, I spent a lot of time in rental cars--all of them GM products. All of them were punishment to drive. I didn't consider a GM product again for many years until the new Chevy Malibu came out last year. I bought a Ford instead last November.

My heart grieves the end of Pontiac, but my mind tells me it is the right thing to do. The brand will live on as long as we have that rolling salute to sentiment--the Woodward Dream Cruise.

[archytech]

I agree about the G8. that is a nice car. I think they should re-brand it and the solstice as a modern buick. I think the buick brand could be further built as a stepping stone to Cadillac instead of the grampa golfer cars they have been selling for awhile. The solstice would be perfect for Buick, it looks more like the current style...the were planning a buick version anyway when the car fist came out. I love my Sky though, I still think its is better than the solstice. The Vibe seams like a car that they need to keep, because it hits that small car, young buyer market. The G6 is basically a dumbed down Malibu...would be nice to have a coupe version of that in the Chevy lineup though!

[exmotowner]

Arent most of the Pontiacs made in Pontiac at the pontiac motors factory? Is this going to totally kill the city of Pontiac? I know it along with flint,detroit, ect is in very bad shape and has been for a long time. Will this kill the city of Pontiac?

[luckycar]

No Pontiacs have been made in Pontiac since the FieroThe last cars built in the city were the Buick Grand Nationals.SUVs were made at the old truck and bus plant for awhile.Pickups are still made on Opdyke,for a little while longer.GM Powertrain is in their new building.Sevice parts warehouse is also still here.Centerpoint campus is to become a movie studio,or maybe the site of auto show.The foundry is now the regional postal center.If Lake Orion shuts down,there will be a large Canadian Nation railyard system that won't see alot of use.That won't be good.And there is a used car lot thats been here since 1952 that will stay regardless.

[9936Sussex]

When my grandfather immigrated from England in the early 1920's he went to work for the Wilson carriage works company [[which was soon to be purchased by the company that later became GM, and the Wilson carriage works became part of Pontiac Motor Company). My grandfather was able to bring over his wife, mother-in-law, daughter, and a host of other relatives on the money that he made at Pontiac. I'm a pretty successful person, with a pretty successful life and I owe it to my two grandfathers who came over from Britain and got jobs with motor companies. [[my other grandfather worked for Ford Motor Co., starting around 1915). My family owes a great deal to Pontiac, and I will be sad to see the nameplate retired

[Retroit]

9936Sussex, similar stories to yours could be told by millions of Detroiters. When I think of all my relatives that have worked for the Big3 or an auto related business [[let's see: grandfather, father, mother, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins, myself, ...), I wonder how we would have made it without the auto industry? What kind of quality of life would we have? I hope we are not about to find out.

Thank you for reinforcing just how important the Big3 are to the people of Detroit.

I wonder how many Detroiters are going to have to move to China and work for Cheri Motors just to feed their families. God help us! [[or should I say: Buddha help us!)

[shovelhead]

Not to mention that with the demise of Pontiac,the eventual sale or shuttering of Saturn and Hummer and GM closing underperforming dealerships, this could add another 138,000 dealership employees to the unemployment lines. This is a estimate from the National Automotive Dealers Association. Approximate average of 52 employees.
And with dealership employees, there is no buyouts, no pension [[usually) except for 401K's, and no medical except for COBRA. And unemployment. Just goodbye.

Experienced that once before, not pleasant with a family to support.