Pontiac, maker of muscle cars, ends after 84 yearsPontiac, maker of muscle cars, ends after 84 years

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Pontiac, maker of muscle cars, ends after 84 years

By TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writer Sun Oct 31, 2:39 pm ET

DETROIT – Pontiac, whose muscle cars drag-raced down boulevards, parked at drive-ins and roared across movie screens, is going out of business on Sunday.

Why is Buick still in business? I would think that Pontiac would attract a lot more business from the younger demographic.

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Why is Buick still in business? I would think that Pontiac would attract a lot more business from the younger demographic.

You would think this would be the case. I did too, when the announcement to kill Pontiac was made.

However, when you look at the sales numbers, Buick was selling far more cars. Over the past 10-20 years the Pontiac brand had been diluted by the additions of vehicles such as the Torrent (a rebadged Chevrolet Equinox), the G5 (a rebadged Chevy Cobalt), and the G4 (a rebadged Chevy Aveo). GM tried to make Pontiac a brand that would have a broad appeal (a la Chevy), thereby directing it away from being the "Excitement"-oriented brand (their words, not mine) they had been in years prior. While they had enjoyed some success with the G8, other high performance cars such as the Solstice and GTO never lived up to expectations. This dilution of the brand was in no doubt due in part to dealer pressures. Many Pontiac dealers were either independent or bunched with Buick and GMC dealers. None of these brands offered an economy or entry level option (read: high-MPG), which the dealers wanted. Rather than develop a product that would fit this mold and Pontiac's brand image (which probably wouldn't have been economically viable), GM slapped a Pontiac badge on the Cobalt and Aveo, neither of which were great cars to begin with.

This issue gets to the heart of the biggest problem with GM's dealer network. Too many dealers offered only one or two of GM's brands, and thus wanted a full product range in each brand. Rather than try to leverage each brand in a specific niche of the market, GM tried to make each brand everything to every one. Thus, GM had a dealer network selling parallel product lineups while driving up costs (since maintaining each network cost money). Whereas Pontiac had potential as the performance brand in a dealership that also sold luxury vehicles (Cadillac) and trucks (GMC), it didn't work as a full service brand.

Another factor in the decision was Chevy's SS division. They develop high performance versions of Chevy's cars and are sold through Chevy dealerships. They don't require any additional dealership infrastructure and appeal to a similar segment of the market that Pontiac did in it's hayday.

As for Buick, GM is trying to reposition them as an entry-level luxury brand a la Acura and, maybe eventually, Audi. The first two products to this end, the LaCrosse and Regal, look promising. I have high hopes for them.

What's happened to Buick is not too dissimilar from what's happening to Mercury (Ford is in the process of killing of the brand). Lincoln could potentially pull up to compete with Buick. It's going to be interesting to watch.

Executive summary for those who don't want to read that ramble:

*Pontiac brand was diluted due to mismanagement

*Low sales didn't justify added dealership network

*Chevy's SS division will pick up the slack

*Buick poised to reinvent itself

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I big mark for Buick is the sales numbers overseas. Owning a Buick in China is like owning a BMW in the states. They're a huge seller. Pontiac, until the G8, hadn't made a decent vehicle in 2 decades.