Oracle of Delphi

Want to bet?

Son

Don't think this has been posted, if it has, my apologies ... Jamie LaReau Automotive News April 24, 2009 - 1:45 pm ET UPDATED: 4/24/09 4:10 p.m. ET General Motors is preparing to announce early next week that the Pontiac brand will be eliminated, said a source familiar with the company's plans. The announcement will be made as part of an updated viability report to the U.S. auto task force, the source said. A second source indicated earlier this week that GM, surviving with $15.4 billion in U.S. bailout funds, was considering phasing out Pontiac instead of sticking with a plan to have it continue as a niche brand. In its proposal to the U.S. Treasury on Feb. 17, GM said Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC would be its four core U.S. brands. On March 31, the task force told GM that its restructuring plan wasn't aggressive enough and denied a request for $16.6 billion in additional aid. Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson declined to comment on Pontiac's future. "I can't speculate what next week is going to hold," he said. "When we were asked to go back and look at the viability plan, everything went back on the table. We're reviewing everything. Nothing is sacred. We're still under the original viability plan until told otherwise." The U.S. today granted $2 billion to keep GM operating while it prepares for a new, June 1 restructuring deadline. GM has been staying afloat with $13.4 billion in U.S. loans granted in December by President George W. Bush. Bloomberg News said GM is expected to tell the government that it will stick with plans to keep GMC, Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac. Saab, Hummer and Saturn are for sale. Muscle-car icon Pontiac, which launched the 1960s U.S. muscle-car era with the GTO, sold 267,348 vehicles in the United States last year, less than a third of its 1978 peak of 896,980. This year's volume dropped 43.5 percent through March as industrywide demand fell 38.4 percent. "Pontiac is one of my favorites -- I especially like the G8," said John Pitre, general manager of Motor City Auto Center in Bakersfield, Calif., which sells Buick-Pontiac-GMC and Saturn. "I would be sad to see it phased out. However, if some of those products became part of the Buick brand, I could understand GM's logic." Chris Haydocy, who owns a Buick-Pontiac-GMC store in Columbus, Ohio, said Pontiac isn't essential as long as the revamped sales channel provides most of what customers are looking for. Said Haydocy: "I think you need 10 or 12 models to do that." Killing Pontiac would make sense, said George Peterson, president of marketing and product consulting firm AutoPacific Inc. "It's sort of a shadow of itself," he said. "All of the Pontiacs, except for the G8, are copies of Chevrolets or GMCs, so there really isn't any reason to keep Pontiac around.'' GM introduced Pontiac in 1926. GM decided to kill Oldsmobile in 2000, three years after its 100th anniversary. Link: http://www.autonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti...paign_id=alerts

Not a bean counter ...

That's your theory? You've must not have done very well in college ...

Trust me you're no evok, you would like to be, but you just aren't ... :rotflmao: Good luck on your sinking ship ...

Yes on Daewoo products they are growing, but what's GM going to do when Daewoo and Holden also leave GM? All GM's children will fly the nest soon enough, and GM will consist of just GMNA, good luck on that ...

Doesn't matter to the general public, either way, no new buyers ...

Taking the money had the opposite affect on the public, GM might as well have said it has Aids, the general public will avoid it in droves ...

The moment GM took the money, it confirmed the general public's own opinion of GM, which is "Epic Failure". I doubt GM will be able to recover, the die is cast ...

You won't like what's left of GM, when all is said and done ...

You mean you're not?

Who

+1

I enjoy the pics you post, and the video for that matter ...

You live in a dream world, who do you think said last September and October that GM would be out of cash by December 31, 2008? Yep, that was me. GME doesn't have mediocre products, if they did, why would your GMNA want Delta IIs and EP IIs for China and North America, and Australia too for that matter, after all those platforms were GME's homerooms. Hmmmmm, looking at my electronic GME pay stub, don't see your name anywhere on it, so don't think I have to answer you, but I do it out of kindness ... Again read my lips, this opportunity was offered to me last year, I asked to delay it a year until I had 20 years of service with GM ... Perhaps there may even be a more important purpose for me to be at BMW at this particular time, when Opel is on the verge being free of GM, which it has desired, for a long long time ... The GM Empire is about to be broken up, don't be to surprised when Holden and Daewoo also make a break for freedom, now is the time, when GMNA is weak ...

It was always a matter of time, or timing anyway ...

I was told it was like Liberation day of Europe 1945 at Opel headquarters today. This is something all Opel workers have wanted for a long time. It's more to the point of saying Opel wanted to be free of GM, more than GM wants to be free of Opel. GM will have to give all Opel patents back to Opel, how sweet is that? Now for the next phase, when Opel becomes free of GM 3 possibilities exist: 1. A merger with Fiat. 2. A merger with BMW. 3. Opel waits until Holden and Daewoo are also free, since all of GM's children will have to be set free, and then they all merge into a new car company. I'm told the German government favors number 2 the most, then number 1, and finally number 3. Time will tell, but the GM Empire is coming apart at the seams ...

Then he woke up ...

You boys make me laugh and laugh ...

Stop having sex in the car ...

Give it time ...

I hope and pray Opel leaves GM ...

It's a running joke now between my wife and I. I'll say something like "I haven't seen Sam", then we both go Asian Sluts ...

I think not, I have an aversion to mayonnaise ... Besides I would have to scrub my mouth out with alcohol, and a wire brush after. I'll let you keep this one ... :AH-HA_wink: