RIP Pontiac

[Dino Scuderia]

A couple of G8 variants....the Lumina would make a great Impala.

GM updates 2009 Chevrolet Caprice for Middle Eastern Markets - World Auto News & Reviews

Chevy Lumina SS named Middle East's "Sports Saloon of the Year"

[NSXType-R]

The Lumina is a G8, right?

[Dino Scuderia]

The Lumina is a G8, right?

Pretty much, yeah.

[NSXType-R]

Pretty much, yeah.

So yeah, it was in my idea originally.

I just called it a Malibu.

I love how Lumina here refers to an old piece of shit and in the Middle East it's a G8. How unfair.

[Dino Scuderia]

So yeah, it was in my idea originally.

I just called it a Malibu.

I love how Lumina here refers to an old piece of shit and in the Middle East it's a G8. How unfair.

One of my company cars was a '95 Lumina...it was the Camry(which is my company car now) of American cars...simply bleh....but surprisingly I put 120,000 trouble free miles on it.

[Kitdy]

Chevy badged Commodore copcars would be exceptionally sick.

[NSXType-R]

One of my company cars was a '95 Lumina...it was the Camry(which is my company car now) of American cars...simply bleh....but surprisingly I put 120,000 trouble free miles on it.

Hey, at least it's a good workhorse.

Chevy badged Commodore copcars would be exceptionally sick.

Probably too expensive...? Base model, maybe.

[nota]

Chevy badged Commodore copcars would be exceptionally sick.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery


Holden badged Commodore SS copcars

[Dino Scuderia]

Nice...and sad article about Pontiac.

Autoextremist.com
No. 494,
April 29, 2009


The Soul Survivor is now just Dust in the Wind.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

(Posted 4/27, 6:00PM) Detroit. Three years ago (3/1/06) I wrote a column entitled, “Soul Survivor or just Dust in the Wind?” It was about what Pontiac needed in order to survive and thrive again. Now, of course, it doesn’t matter. In the headlong rush to shrink General Motors – which is either looking more and more like chasing a moving target with no end in sight, or a motion-controlled train wreck, depending on your point of view – Pontiac, the once-storied enthusiast division that was breathing down Ford’s neck for second place in an auto business that once existed in a galaxy far, far away, has been relegated to the dust heap of an imploding American automobile industry, and will cease to exist sometime in 2010.

Since I’ve been writing about GM’s perpetual conundrum of too many models, too many divisions and too many dealers from Day One of this publication, it’s no big surprise that with the latest GM moves for “right-sizing” the company Pontiac was going to be put on the shelf. It didn’t have to come to this, of course, but it’s reality, as Fritz Henderson is fond of saying. The new GM will feature Cadillac and Chevrolet - and rightly so - with assists from Buick and GMC, but to see Pontiac come to an end like this, an afterthought discarded by the side of the road, is pathetic.

So today I am going to pause to honor one of the most glorious chapters in American automotive history, and an automotive brand that for one brief shining moment lit up the streets and byways of America with some of the finest automobiles this country has ever produced.

The legendary Pontiac names alone could power a rollcall from Detroit's golden era - Bonneville, Catalina, Tempest, Le Mans, GTO, "The Judge," Grand Prix, Firebird and Trans-Am. The rich additions to the automotive lexicon were legendary too - "389," "421," "455SD," "Tri-Power," "eight-lug" aluminum wheels, Royal Bobcats, "Endura" front bumpers, hood-mounted tachs, and on and on. And the marketing and advertising hooks were equally memorable - with the famous "Wide Track" campaign still resonating to this day. This was no ordinary car company, and its heyday marked an extraordinary time in American automotive history.

As most longtime AE readers know, Pontiac will always hold a special place in my heart for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that for a kid growing up in the epicenter of the automotive universe at the time, and being part of a GM family to the core – my father was GM’s VP of Public Relations (only the second person to direct that function in the corporation’s history) – Pontiac was one of the GM brands that captured my imagination. I liked Chevrolet and Buick, too (my dad came up through Buick), but Pontiac, well, there was just nothing like it.

Rest of the article here:

Rants - Autoextremist.com ~ the bare-knuckled, unvarnished, high octane truth...

[fpv_gtho]

according to the jalopnik, LAPD has already put an order in for Commodores badged as chevys and set up for police work. i say badass, and bring the aussies on.

Maybe thats a contract someone in the US can keep. GM's almost killed Holden by pushing for the VE Commodore to be bigger than we needed it, then cancelling all plans (other than the G8 attempt) to either take a badge engineered variant or something spun off its platform like Camaro.

[digitalcraft]

I think this is a good example of the absolute corruption of the lineage of Dodge and GM. can you imagine Ford taking the Fusion and saying 'hey, that car could pass for a new Mustang!'? No. Because the Mustang lineage has something. Even 'it could be the next Thunderbird.'. The lates thunderbird effing SUCKED but it was at least true to the lineage. That's something Ford has done, keep some names valuable, which absolutely does not happen when you'll put any old POS car as the next in the series of the line for profit. it dilutes the name and makes it worthless, absolutely.

[SlickHolden]

So when does Pontiac got off-line ?.

[Dino Scuderia]

So when does Pontiac got off-line ?.

Sometime in 2010.

[cargirl1990]

I think this is a good example of the absolute corruption of the lineage of Dodge and GM. can you imagine Ford taking the Fusion and saying 'hey, that car could pass for a new Mustang!'? No. Because the Mustang lineage has something. Even 'it could be the next Thunderbird.'. The lates thunderbird effing SUCKED but it was at least true to the lineage. That's something Ford has done, keep some names valuable, which absolutely does not happen when you'll put any old POS car as the next in the series of the line for profit. it dilutes the name and makes it worthless, absolutely.

thats like when Ford was going to replace the 'Stang with that flippin Probe. what was going through their minds? Probes are just an uglified version of a Nissan 240SX.

[cmcpokey]

thats like when Ford was going to replace the 'Stang with that flippin Probe. what was going through their minds? Probes are just an uglified version of a Nissan 240SX.

actually, its a mazda MX-6..