After The Funeral, Fans Pick Pontiac. Too Bad Fritz Doesn't

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Why did 44 percent of “nearly 1,700” CarGurus respondents prefer Pontiac to other leading discontinued GM brands? Beats me. Save Hummer and merge it with Chrysler’s “ Peapod Mobility,” say I. Call it a monument to the industry. It’s the only way things could become any more, well, weird. The results of the survey were published on Ad Age yesterday. And then today, while Fritz Henderson was performing his weekly new-media ablutions, he had to go and crush the dreams of (nearly) 7480 people. Ad Age’s Jean Halliday asked, “Why can’t Pontiac be sold? Why are you just eliminating it?” and Henderson replied, “we have had success in discussions with buyers re hummer, saab and saturn, but in the end we did not see the same potential to be honest for pontiac.” Ouch. To compound the weirdness, Henderson dismissed the notion that Pontiac’s G8 would be moved to another brand by saying, “I am not a fan of rebadging.” Unless it’s called “ interbuildability.” Which would have, could have allowed the G8 to be a real American muscle car (no offense to the Aussies).


Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Nevets248 Nevets248 on Jun 17, 2009

    "freeway" Fritz..just a rebadged Red Ink Rick!

  • The_Mase The_Mase on Jun 17, 2009

    As popular as the G8 seems to be on this website, I don't think I've ever seen a single one actually being driven on a real road.

  • Brapoza Brapoza on Jun 17, 2009

    Zoneofdanger Pontiac has long outsold Buick, whose customers are a bunch of geezers and rental car companies. When they die off, there won’t be anybody left to buy them. Geezers don't die off. They are replaced by up and coming geezers like me and you, if we live that long. I remember many years ago, squeezing my 6'2" frame into my MG Midget and going for a spin. Pulling up to some older gentleman in a huge Olds 98 and saying to myself, "Why would anyone buy one of those?" Now if I see one I thing, "Gee that looks comfortable". So be careful because one day you will be happy to be a geezer. It beats the alternative.

  • Lokkii Lokkii on Jun 17, 2009

    Rebadging the G8? Ain't gonna happen. I think it's more about that elephant in the room, the UAW. Play through these cards: 1. GM needs to import cars to stay alive. 2. The UAW doesn't want them to import ANY cars - they want everything built here. Thus the fantasy of the new small car factory that's to be built. 3. The G8 didn't sell well, and the Camaro factory is running full tilt right now - no room for the G8 since it wouldn't make sense slow down building a car that is going great for a car that doesn't sell. So: You promise the UAW to reduce imports, and YOU want to get rid of cars that aren't selling. Even if they don't sell you still have cost for parts inventory to carried etc. Dumping the G8 is an easy choice.

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