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As a truck builder, maybe.
Well, the problem is they don't measure up with SUVs either yet. Although the TraverseAcadiaOutlookEnclave is pretty up to date, they still haven't figured out to make a third seat you can sit in, or that folds into the floor like Ford did in 2002, and Nissan has, and Chrysler has and most everybody else but Toyota has. So I'm not sure they deserve to be making trucks either.......
I would love to see GM succeed, but I totally agree with you - the Malibu is still inferior, and sales back that up too, even with fleet sales included, they sell half of what Honda and Toyota sell in the same class. The Malibu is not yet there, and it's the best they can do.
I agree with you. Although GM seems to get credited with leadership in the 50's, the fact is they usually played catch up to Ford in the innovation, design and feature department, but also usually outsold Ford, except in 57. The 49 Ford started the design revolution from the pre-war era. Ford always had a superior station wagon to GM, the Mustang invented the pony car, followed by the Camaro 3 years later. The Corvette preceeded the Thunderbird, but the Thunderbird was the one with the hot engine, which Corvette then had to come up with later. The list goes on with the Falcon, the downsized 62 Fairlane, etc. The boardroom over at GM always wondered how Ford got new product out so quickly, which they did - often by using old components and re-skinning old stuff. GM had a new product development process that could not be violated, making it hard to compete, but when they put a new product out, it was more new than Ford's was.
Yes, GM did own the 50s generally, and the 60's, but they lost their leadership somewhere in the 70s, and totally abdicated in the 80's. Now is a crummy time to try to regain the glory days.......
why would I weep? I think it is great and if i had the money i'd just might buy one. Although, this is diamond in the rough among many american vehicles. It is a step in the right direction. I own a 2001 gmc sierra & it has actually been a very good truck. It's just the crappy ford ranger, mercury sable & ford explorer prior that were no good. My wife always buys foreign (hyundai elantra & honda odyssey) also good no problems. Although it may have been the time frame too. the fords were from the 80's & early 90's. I'm just pissed there is no american car company that makes a good(according to CR)mpg hatchback or small crossover that I can use as a commuter. although the sierra has been good she's got to go (startin to rust-michigan winters). I'm not a die hard foreign car advocate, but they do make more cars that people want to buy. I wouldn't buy a chrysler or gm right now because of their business situation. They say ford is making better cars now but the vehicle lineup has a lot of holes in it, until next year when they come out with the fiesta hatchback, they also need a minivan. So i guess they make it hard to buy american even though I want to:)
I proudly stand behind my name
so stick that in your pooter, cooter!!!
Obviously, the Corvette needs to stay, Impala, Malibu, Silverado, and Tahoe are good ones too,and........that's it I think. I only believe GM should consist of Chevy and Cadillac in the future, and my ideal Cadillac does NOT include an Escalade in the lineup. Apart from that, all the letter-designated Cadillac names suck, they should go back to real words for model names.
And none of the other current Chevy names are keepers either, including the upcoming "Cruze". The Spark or the Beat, however, they can keep. That seems to be just right for that sort of car.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
GM had it very right, once.
I don't like "Cruze". I generally don't like names with wrong or trendy looking spellings. Like the upcoming Kia "Koup". Give me a break.
Cutlass is good by itself, but it loses a lot with additions stuck on to it.
Many of the vehicle names would be ok, it's just that there is such damage associated with the vehicles they represented that they need to go. It's easier to talk about what to keep than what to get rid of - there isn't much that should be kept that has a good reputation.
Keep:
CTS
Malibu
Suburban
DTS
That's about it. Can't think of any other names that really have a very positive impression.
A new name for GM....that's a tough one.
Corvette and Silverado are worthy of keeping too, of course.
Of course, if Buick ultimately goes away, it's a moot point. But I like those old names better than LaCrosse and Lucerne.
Bob Lutz tried to revitalize the GM brand by putting the little badge on every car they make, which wasn't a bad idea, if the GM brand actually meant something, but the problem is, it doesn't.
Buick has an image problem which probably limits use of names like Century, LeSabre etc. for awhile because they currently connote "old". I always liked Invicta. They used it as the show car name for the new LaCrosse (and it may be in use in China?). Maybe the Lucurne replacement can use Electra again. A Wildcat performance car woudn't hurt their image either.
I think Cutlass still has a ring to it since its been awhile since its been around. However, not sure how GM can use it with Olds long gone since it is so closely tied with that nameplate?
Not sure what will happen to Pontiac yet? I think Catalina is still a great monicker. They could also use a real, American based GTO.
Chevy should keep Corvette and Malibu. I think Nova or Corsair are better names than Cruze. In fact, they might be able to use Bel Air, Biscayne or Chevelle for it as well. Cruze just sounds hokey to me, more like something used on a customized car or a go cart. Impala probably needs a rest since it now means rental or fleet car, but its a name they can ressurect down the road and I think there is a small market for SS version cars as well.
GMC might make sense if they put out more luxurious trucks rather than Chevy clones, although I don't really know how big that potential market is since Lincoln trucks haven't seemed to really work.
Whatever they name them, I'm hoping GM can turn it around and get back to being a style leader in American vehicles. As they catch up with Toyota and Honda in quality, the next step should be the exciting styling leadership they had until badge engineering homogonized everything starting sometime in the 70's. No more A cars, X cars, etc. - put more individuality in the cars while using common components underneath.
Back in college, I worked as a waiter for Denny's for awhile. One of our entrees was chicken fried steak...basically a hamburger patty with fried chicken breading on it, and deep-fried. We would abbreviate it CFS. And I hate to say it, but "CTS" makes me think of it!
I'd definitely like to see the Catalina nameplate return! As long as they don't put it on some crap car. I don't like the GX nomenclature Pontiac's using. Makes me think of an Apple product. Heck, I have a G5 sitting under my desk at work!
No, a Core 2 Duo.
The way car electronics are going, it's not that much of a stretch.
Nissan gets a lot of mileage out of their "name" VQ engines. But it's still not as snazzy a name as the Rocket 88 (you could rename that the Rocket 8088....).
If GM is going to stage a comeback, marketing will play a huge role, to be sure, but the main thing, is the product. The product must be spectacular, not a warmed over DTS called Lucerne, or an SUV in 4 flavors.....
A new name for GM....that's a tough one.
I can go with Silverado.
I think GMC can mean something for construction or *really* heavy-duty trucks. Things that are 8K pounds or more. Not anything of the F150/F250 size. Purely industrial. There should be no "GMC" dealers that you or I would go to to buy something we would put in our own driveways. No rebadges of Chevies. Toyota manages without a different nameplate, so do Chrysler and Ford. GM needs to lose the love of many brands and get the love of quality vehicles instead.
A) GMC sells all trucks, from light duty pickups to Tractors, or
One or the other, no more crossover. It needs to be cleaned up. The reason this hasn't happened earlier is that GMC is the second best selling brand GM has in passenger cars! Hard to shut that down. This is why I would consider option A. Eliminate the Chevrolet truck, and make a GMC Silverado, plus the Canyon, and all heavy duty trucks, and GMC is your truck brand. They should drop their SUVs though, and give those back to Chevy and Cadillac. There is plenty of overlap there.
I wonder if ANYBODY from GM ever monitors these boards at all......
You sunk my battleship!
Oldsmobile was like that with the 88s and 98s.....
Since Pontiacs have been on the automotive scene for decades, and were prominent for many years, many of us have memories, thoughts and feelings to share about Pontiacs. For example, my family, including parents, have owned five Pontiacs, including a '47, '49, '51, '52, and '86. All were good-excellent cars, but you'll notice there were no recent examples.
She was older and off at college most of the time, so I didn't get to ride in it much, much less drive it.
if this is true i would be ready to buy a solstice and maybe something else but is it really true that the prices will go down to like $5000-$10000 for any car?
since i have a g8 on a lease also anything about this would help
Some of the other Pontiacs that I liked were:
61, 63, & 65/66 Catalina and Bonneville
65 LeMans (including GTO)
69 Grand Prix
I also thought they had perhaps the best looking of the 77 downsized GM full size cars.
Unfortunatley, for a good decade now Pontiac was mostly a bunch of pinball machine gimmicks like funky dash lighting and seating. The cars weren't comfortable, didn't appeal to most buyers and ended up as rental car queens. The current Grand Prix is one of my most despised rentals. What an uncomfortable piece of junk - you'd almost think it was a Chrysler!
To me, the exciting ones were the '49 (the first post-WWII all-new Pontiac), the '55 (modern new styling + modern new V8), the Grand Prix (plural sp. ?), The '64-'68 GTOs, all Firebirds and Trans-Ams, the down-sized '77 large bodies and the downsized intermediate '78 LeMans.
Honorable mention could also be given for the Fiero (good try, neat styling, but mediocre result) and the STEs (a good value and a decent alternative to the European sport sedans of the '80s, which, for the most part, also had some serious deficiencies [can you say Audi 5000?]). Similarly, the '85-91 Grand Ams were nicely styled and good values, but needed better engines. I also think the new-for-'88 Grand Prix was a nice styling exercise, but, unfortunately, it was a troublesome car.
I didn't mention the wide-tracks because they didn't do much for me. They were too big and space inefficient for my tastes.
Anyway, my two nickels.
But I realize that the stupid oil/ghastly crisis of the early 70's made things tough and nasty all over. That is a beautiful GTO. The Detroit metal was just about as good as it gets in the mid-60's, man. What a design decade!
2021 Kia Soul LX 6-speed stick
Alas my only memory of Pontiac will be the junk they have produced since the mid-80s, the kind of stuff that was so bad that even when you were offered one at Hertz or Dollar you would ask "do you have anything else?".
As we see some of the General's brands fail in the next 6-12 months, it seems to me we will discover that most actually died years and years ago, maybe decades ago, even though it is only now that we are officially recognizing it.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
I am surprised the Storm didn't exist in Pontiac trim...the "Fiero II"
There's a special place in hell for Wall Street suits and bastardly automotive execs.
When my dad was in his $150 car period one of them was a 1958 Pontiac wagon that he picked up in 63 or 64. It was pretty much gone at that point but did provide a lovely moment when we all thought it was the end - the gas pedal stuck in his parking lot and the thing went flying with us inside. I believe that was the end of that car.
The second was when we were on the expressway and a 1969 Trans Am screamed past us at well over 100 mph! The word 'lust' was invented to describe the moment I saw that car.
The next significant memory comes in 1986 - I'd been out of the country for most of a decade... I flew into Dallas, where our company HQ is located, and went to the Hertz counter. The rental car clerk said to me, "And we have a brand new Pontiac LeMans for you tonight, sir". She looked at me like I was some sort of a pervert when I said, "A LeMans? Oh, good!". I thought that odd, until I went outside and couldn't find the car. All they had were these little pieces of daewoo..... She had to point it out to me. I got in the car and the headlight switch came off in my hand.
Pontiacs stayed off my radar after that until my wife put her car in the shop for a month for facial reconstruction... The insurance company gave her a G5 to drive as punishment for wrecking her BMW at their expense. It wasn't so bad, except for the fact that the engine shook like it was running on 5 cylinders and the steering wheel wasn't connected to anything except in passing. In short, sitting still, it was OK but you wouldn't want to actually drive it anywhere.
My last memory however, will be finally seeing a G8 on the highway last week. Finally a car that looked like it might be genetically related to that 1967 GTO
Good bye Chief Pontiac!
I'd have to say that the best part takes place near the end, when Moore finally confronts Roger Smith himself at the annual GM Christmas party.
Anyway, my Mom's first brand-new car was a 1966 Pontiac Catalina convertible. She was 17 when she bought it. Saved up half the money waiting tables, and one of her aunts lent her the rest, and she was able to pay cash for it. Roughly $3200 total, I think.
My uncle, her brother, would've been around 14 at the time. Granddad had taught him how to drive, even before he got his license (I dunno if they did learners permits back then). Well, one day, my uncle decides to lift the car and go joy riding. He picked up one of his friends, and they went out goofing around. I don't know the exact details of what happened next, but they were stopped along the road, with the headlights on, during the day. A cop pulled over to see if they needed any help, stopping in front of them. My uncle panicked and tried to get away, by throwing the car into reverse and backing away! Needless to say, he got caught.
I don't think my uncle got into any serious trouble, but when they went to court, my grandmother got pretty scared when the judge asked my uncle who taught him how to drive. She thought Granddad was going to the slammer!
My Mom still had that car when she met and then married my Dad. Dad had a reputation of buying crappy cars that broke down regularly, and could also mess up a nice car in record time. Well, he started driving Mom's convertible, and ragged it out. By 1972, the car was pretty shot. Mainly the brakes, I think Granddad said. Mom also didn't like driving around in a convertible with a baby, although she waited until I was two years old before getting rid of the thing! She gave it to my grandparents, who gave her their '68 Impala 4-door hardtop. They then used the Catalina as a trade-in on a new '72 Impala 4-door hardtop.
I'm too young to remember that Catalina, alas, and we only have a few vague pictures of it. Not really pictures OF the car, but say a picture of someone standing in the yard, and you could see the car in the background. I think it was some kind of period goldish/copperish color.
I wonder sometimes, if that car is still around. Perhaps it got saved and restored, or at least, maintained? More than likely though, it just got run into the ground and then junked. :sick: