P[Pontiac]MD Going RWD?

Article with NoOp comments.

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DETROIT -- After debating Pontiac's viability this year, General
Motors' leadership plans to revive the brand's heritage of performance
with a product lineup of exclusively rear-wheel-drive cars.

There would be no trucks and - after the next generation of vehicles -
no front-wheel-drive cars either.

-- NoOp Comment: Now if we could just get a few more divisions tp
follow suit -- i.e. Lincoln, Mercury, Buick, etc.

GM will unveil a rwd sedan concept at January's Detroit auto show,
company sources say. This echoes the strategy that GM adopted with the
1999 Evoq concept, which revealed Cadillac's new brand "look."

-- NoOp comment: I understand GM has more important things to be
working on -- like saving the company -- but at some point I'd still
like to see them produce a car like the prototype Cadillac 16.

The Pontiac plan is not final. GM executives continue to build a
business case for it. This ambitious proposal is a plan to save the
brand, which has suffered declining sales. GM sold 437,806 Pontiacs in
the United States last year, compared with 599,123 in 1995.

-- NoOp comment: IIRC back in the 60's the Pontiac was the 2nd leading
division in US sales only behind Chevrolet.

One insider says it would take five years to convert the brand to rwd.
That's why Pontiac will get one more generation of fwd and
all-wheel-drive small cars.

-- NoOP comment: As far as I'm concerned, as long as they "correct" the
brand, we can wait. I'd love to see Pontiac once again become the
'rebel division' at GM.

A Pontiac spokesman declined to comment on the brand's plans. Fwd cars
will not go away soon, but rwd vehicles will become more prominent "in
the near term," the spokesman said.

NoOp comment: I love it!

Sources inside GM and close to Pontiac say GM leaders are debating:

>> The future of the Grand Prix sedan.

-- NoOp comment: A nice sporting, stylish, personal luxo coupe that
seats four comfortably.

>> A possible GTO replacement based on the Chevrolet Camaro.

-- NoOp commnet: The GTO is the heart Pontiac. It was the car that
made the brand famous -- it must be the cornerstone.

>> A Firebird muscle car.

-- NoOp comment: I say resist the temptation... save the development
dollars you'd spend making a Firebird and dump them into making the
Camaro the very best ponycar available.

In recent years, Pontiac has been wracked by debate over its future.
During a controversial speech at the New York auto show last year, GM
Vice Chairman Bob Lutz called Pontiac "a damaged brand."

-- NoOp commnet: He simply called a spade a spade. GM had let Pontiac
go just like Ford has let Lincoln and Mercury drift into near oblivian.


In a recent interview with Automotive News, Lutz said he had never
asserted that the brand was "irreparably" damaged. While Pontiac is
still struggling, GM is repairing the damage, and the bleeding has
stopped, Lutz says.

-- NoOp coment: I say a scab hasn't even formed yet.

Nevertheless, sources say top-level GM executives did debate a phaseout
of the brand. In January, senior executives met to discuss Pontiac's
future. GM decided to revive Pontiac as a pure performance brand.

-- NoOp comment: Bingo! Each brand/division needs to offer something
that sets it apart; are you listening Ford?

GM will trim product lineups as it consolidates Buick, Pontiac and GMC
into three-brand dealerships under its retail channel strategy. In a
recent interview, Lutz told Automotive News that Pontiac and Buick will
not carry trucks.

Lutz declined to speculate whether the Pontiac Torrent crossover, a
rebadged Chevrolet Equinox, would one day go to GMC, but industry
sources say it's likely.

The strategy will force Pontiac to sort out its product plans for the
Grand Prix. While GM hasn't set a time frame, it's likely the automaker
will discontinue the current incarnation of the fwd Grand Prix after
the 2008 model year, industry sources say.

GM is considering a new mid-sized rwd sedan to replace it, says an
industry insider. The source says the vehicle will be "one notch up"
from the present Grand Prix, which has a base price of $21,990,
including shipping. Whether that vehicle keeps the Grand Prix name is
uncertain.

-- NoOp comment: KEEP IT!! Please no more alpha/numeric "names"!!!
They say nothing about the car personality and don't project an image.
(G6 is something you should only hear called out in a bingo hall.)

A rwd lineup could give Pontiac performance credibility, says John
Pitre, general manager of Motor City Auto Center in Bakersfield, Calif.
"They're right on track with the performance division of GM," he says.
"BMW has been born and raised on rear-wheel drive. For us on the West
Coast, rear-wheel drive feels better to drive and seems to last
longer."

-- NoOp comment: Mr. Pitre is a smart guy.

But Pontiac's drive to become a pure performance division would
sacrifice sales volume, predicts Doug Scott, industry analyst at GfK
Automotive in Southfield, Mich. For example, many G6 buyers in northern
climates want a front-wheel-drive car for winter conditions.

-- NoOp Comment: Let those buyer go else where like Chevrolet. But
don't compromise the brand sell cars to soccer moms.

Scott also said GM is pressuring dealers to combine Buick, Pontiac and
GMC franchises into single stores by cutting the brands' product
lineups.

-- NoOp comment: It's about time!

"They really want to narrow the range of products and narrow the sales
objective," Scott says. It means sacrificing sales volume at
dealerships for profit at corporate level. "It's forcing the channeling
strategy," he says.

Pontiac brand executives hope that if GM builds the Camaro for
Chevrolet, the architecture could provide a similar product for
Pontiac. The previous generation of GM muscle cars included the rwd
Pontiac Firebird, a sibling of the Camaro.

But Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson is quick to add, "We want a truly
differentiated product. We don't want a rebadged vehicle."

-- NoOp comment: Give Jim a promotion, he gets it!

Company insiders say that if GM decides to build the Camaro, GM will
not revive a Firebird version. "There will be no Firebird," says one
source. "Rear-wheel drive? Yes. Pony car? No."

Dealers also want a replacement for the GTO, one of only two current
rwd Pontiac cars, the other being the Solstice two-seater. Pontiac will
kill the Australia-produced coupe this fall after just three model
years.

-- NoOp comment: I can't wait for these cars to hit the used car
market!

Insiders say there will be a replacement for the GTO, but the product
gap will remain for a couple of years.

Says Pontiac's Hopson: "We haven't made any bones about the fact that
Pontiac needs a rear-wheel-drive performance vehicle."

-- NoOp comment: Yes they do, three in fact: Soltice GXP, GTO, and a
high performance Grand Prix.

Patrick

In article .com>, wrote:

> -- NoOp comment: I understand GM has more important things to be
> working on -- like saving the company -- but at some point I'd still
> like to see them produce a car like the prototype Cadillac 16.

GM can save itself by making product people want instead the bland
toastermobile FWD cars it has been making. If it were to start making a
few RWD models, the kinds of cars that were it's bread and butter for
decades it might just turn them around. Not calling for them to convert
everything, but offer some choice instead of what appears to be the same
FWD car with a different skin.

wrote:
> Article with NoOp comments.
>


Ya know, back in highschool a friend drove a 73 Ventura ll. It took
us at least six months to figure out WTF the "PMD" on the hub caps stood
for.


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