Pontiac’s Excitement…only temporary?

Pontiac giveth….Pontiac taketh away. Today Autoblog reported that the much-loved G8 will live out its five year life expectancy, but there will be no follow-up. The V-8, rear wheel drive sedan has received accolades from the automotive press, but the G8 looks to be a casualty to a weakening global economy, and more stringent fuel economy standards. 

This news is more than a little disappointing. The G8 is arguably the finest sedan that GM’s performance division has ever offered, so let’s appreciate and enjoy the tire-shredding burnouts while we can. But in the car biz, timing is everything. While this may have been the Pontiac we’ve been waiting to drive for years, the G8 stormed onto the scene…and then the cost of gas skyrocketed. All of a sudden, a crazy V-8 powered sedan priced for the masses doesn’t sound like a recipe for a sales blockbuster.

Sadly, the news gets worse. Autoblog also reports the Pontiac Solstice/Saturn Sky are also scheduled to live out their product cycles, and fade into automotive history. Granted, these cars never had high sales expectations, but they did create positive buzz for their respective brands. More than anything else, this is simply a sign of a struggling General Motors who cannot afford luxuries like halo cars for the two affected brands.

This all is a pattern of behavior we have seen from Pontiac over the past two decades. The Fiero was a short-lived two-seater, mid-engined sports car meant to compete with the Toyota MR-2. Introduced in 1984 with criticism to the braking and handling of the car, Pontiac cured these ills in 1988, finally making the Fiero a contender-and then immediately canceled production. But at least Pontiac still had the powerful but primitive Firebird, and turbo/supercharged versions of the Grand Prix.

The non-renewal of the G8 and Solstice stand to leave Pontiac with a pretty barren, unexciting mix of cars-the competent, but unremarkable G6, the rebadged Chevy Cobalt in the form of the G5, and the Chevy Aveo based G3. In other words, not a heck of a lot for Pontiac to hang its hat as GM’s performance division.

Ask any economist about GM, and he/she will tell you the corporation has too many brands, and too many models spread over a shrinking pool of buyers.  Pontiac and Buick are often kicked around as brands GM may consider cutting, and without any unique models of its own, Pontiac would be ripe to get cut.

Wow, so no performance division for GM you say? I beg to differ. Take a look at Chevy. Obviously, the Corvette and Camaro are performance icons in their own right. But you also have the Cobalt SS and HHR SS-plenty of cheap, high-horsepower, tire smoking fun for not a lot of money. At the other end of the spectrum, you have the Cadillac XLR and the BMW M5 challenging CTS-V. Still plenty of performance at GM to fit most budgets. Before we start writing up Pontiac’s obituary though, I challenge the excitement division to give us fun, performance oriented cars that are better suited to our times. Watch this space.