Bleak future for Pontiac G8 in the U.S.

While previous reports predicting the demise of the Commodore-based G8 sedan were denied by Pontiac, almost, new reports have emerged which paint a rather bleak future for the Australian export.

Since the Pontiac G8 sedan was launch in the U.S., just 13,000 have found a home, while 11,000 more unsold G8’s remain in Pontiac’s inventory - representing a 283 day supply.

Poor demand for the Commodore-derived G8 sedan in the U.S., combined with a 16 percent drop in sales closer to home mean the Adelaide assembly line is expected to lay idle for 25 days in the first quarter of 2009.

This closure is on top of the four week pause already planned over the holiday season at Holden’s manufacturing facility.

In addition to this, GM’s current financial woes could see the auto giant sever its ties altogether with Pontiac in order to secure a $25 billion low interest loan from the U.S. government.

Under a restructuring plan presented to congress, GM has outlined that it will focus on its “core brands” of Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac.

Pontiac will be shrunk to a “specialty, niche” brand as part of the current proposal - which is unlikely to include the Pontiac G8 sedan, GM President Fritz Henderson told reporters at a briefing today.

Source: LeftLaneNews and Automotive News

For Bailout Blueprint, GM, Ford Might Finally Burn Rubber on Underperforming Brands

The plans the Detroit Three automakers are developing to submit on December 2 to Congress in justification for their entreated $25-billion federal loan probably are being more closely guarded than the manuscript for Sarah Palin's first book, but we can guess one aspect that seems certain to feature in the bailout blueprint of both Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp.: ditching some brands that have long dogged their ever-more-fragile bottom lines.

Wooly Mammoth.jpgFor at least a decade, critics have shouted down both GM and Ford for refusing to do what it now appears must be done - stop supporting underperforming divisions.

Rumors howling in Detroit's November winds point to brand-burning as one of the primary ways the companies plan to demonstrate to Congress they will be able to sustain their operations in a U.S. auto market that is expected to be decidedly unkind for all of 2009 and possibly well into 2010.

For GM, that means a serious look is in order for Pontiac, GMC, Buick, Saab and Saturn. The ill-gotten Hummer division is for sale, but with no openly anxious takers and with some sources suggesting a quick fold is the likely outcome.

At Ford, the Mercury unit has been a black hole for decades and simply must go by any rational assessment.

The company has stressed it has faith in the Lincoln luxury division - and it would be hard to suggest Ford forge ahead with no premium-market presence - but in coldly clinical terms (the kind that might be necessary to mollify a Congress running on high-horsepower skepticism of Big Three management acumen), Lincoln doesn't work and hasn't since the 1960s.

Tough Choices That Really Aren't That Tough

Generations of GM management have whined the company's multi-divisional structure is vibrant and productive. But the current financial and operational position of the company suggests current and past rationalizations for maintaining eight U.S. divisions are simply wrong. GM has squandered too much of its resources on maintaining a divisional configuration that cannot be supported by its diminished market share.

First to go should be Pontiac, the division that no longer has a singular brand image. The division once represented "rogue performance," but that's a fading memory even for the 60-something's who understand Pontiac's history. Now, front-wheel-drive economy cars side-by-side with rorting, Australian-made quasi-sport sedans is a formula that summarizes Pontiac's long drop to the end of the hangman's rope, GM's most obvious victim of badge engineering masquerading as marketing.

Equally ambiguous is Saturn's mission. Recent GM management frittered away the viable brand Saturn had developed, one based largely on the "no-hassle" sales experience and a certain cheap-but-unique cache with those who probably really wanted a Honda but couldn't bring themselves to desert the home team.

Saturn's current lineup is tragically composed of several singularly decent vehicles - the Outlook and the Aura being the most notable - all of which are badge-engineered versions of something Chevrolet already sells. Saturn was conceived solely for the reason the division was not to be like the rest of GM - now that's a memory, so there's nothing going on at Saturn that Chevy can't be doing.

GMC: "Upscale" trucks. In this day and age, why?

Buick probably is the stickiest problem (apart from how to legally and affordably disassociate from the dealers invested in these brands). Proponents argue somebody has to have something to sell to the mobile-and-aging-gracefully demographic, which is a growing market. Buick probably should stay to handle it. Global architectures (read: badge-engineering for the iPod age) make Buick at least a passably defensible proposition.

GM has never done much right by Saab, never mind lamentations recently installed brand shepherds now really, really - honestly! - understand Saab. They don't.

If they did, they wouldn't have killed the hatchback body style and they wouldn't have started stuffing in chesty V6s to spin the front wheels when the power-dense turbocharged 4-cylinders - for which Saab has contributed one of any GM brands' few legitimate marketable distinctions - were doing a fine job of it already.

Saab 9-3 convertible 2009.jpgThe Swedish government might be more than passingly interested in bringing Saab home. With Saab sales in freefall and the brand tracking to sell less than 25,000 units in the U.S. this year, GM might tell Congress it's figuring out a plan to do just that.

Ford Minus Mercury = Who Cares?

Like Pontiac, Mercury once meant something. We guess.

But just as John McCain's Vietnam experience had nil resonance with a generation of voters who know Vietnam only as the place where Nike builds sweatship shoes, Mercury sits as a laughable anachronism in 2009 America. Ford might as well be throwing in a 76-rpm Benny Goodman album - okay, cassette tape - with each new Milan.

And as with Saturn, there's nothing in the Mercury store Ford isn't already selling, just at lower price points. The ongoing existence of Mercury in defiance of rational explanation is testimony to the hidebound Detroit-think that has earned the Big Three their reputation as the wooly mammoths of the business world. That anyone is spending time - much less money - marketing Mercury in the Internet age is tantamount to criminal negligence, so it's hard to imagine Ford will step up next month in Washington, DC, with a business plan that includes this relic.

Lincoln is Ford's Buick. It might be argued that insisting Ford drop-kick Lincoln leaves the Dearborners defenseless in the lux market. It also could be argued that with Lincoln, Ford is defenseless in the luxury market. There, we said it.

2009 Lincoln MKS - facing left - 225.JPGTo maintain an upscale presence, Ford could ditch Lincoln and keep Volvo, with which many Ford models are deeply and perhaps now rather inconveniently cross-pollinated. Several Ford cars currently sit on Volvo platforms or modified versions of those platforms. All Volvos at least use Volvo-specific engines, making the potential for disentanglement from Ford somewhat less messy.

The situation comes to this: Lincoln or Volvo. There shouldn't be both; maybe not either. Ford paid almost $6.5 billion for Volvo and is unlikely to get anything approaching that figure now - in the event anybody's buying.

Sweden may be buying if the alternative is watching Volvo sink with Ford. If a deal for Volvo can be made, Ford would be wise to make it. Unless a deal already is in the works, it's unlikely a Volvo sell-off would be part of Ford's "sustainability" proposal to Congress.

But that doesn't change the realities: Volvo sales have been declining since 2004 and will hit a 15-year low this year. Despite Volvo's rich heritage, if Ford is to survive it may have little choice but to say, "Vi ses" to Volvo for whatever price it can get.

Talking about shedding brands is easy. Actually doing so is all but impossible under current legal and financial constraints. If brand-paring is a central cost-saving strategy presented by the Big Three, it is a gambit that will happen only with more extraordinary intervention from the lawmakers who are consistently rewriting the nation's free-market rules.


PHOTOS:

1. Wooly mammoth drawing (Penn State Univ.)

Pontiac enhances G6 lineup with mid-year updates

The L.A. Auto Show is just days away, and as it draws near more models, updates and reveals are coming to light. Pontiac will be bringing a revised family of G6 coupes, convertibles and sedans to the L.A. Auto Show despite General Motors' widely publicized pull-out of its featured show vehicles.

Updates to the G6 range focus on efficiency, alternative fuels and improved value through added features. The mid-sized G6 will get updated exterior styling and reworked powertrains to achieve those goals, though the high-performance GXP models will only get the interior upgrade common to the entire range.

The G6 Coupe, for instance, will finally be offered with the 164hp (122kW) four-cylinder 2.4L Ecotec engine that's rated at 33mpg highway (7.1L/100km). The same engine is already on offer in the G6 Sedan, where it achieves the same fuel efficiency rating. The coupe also gets the company's new TAPshift manual-shift automatic transmission with steering-wheel mounted paddle shifters.

Markets that have high availability of E85 will also get a FlexFuel version of the 3.5L V6 engine, rated at 219hp (163kW), and the coupe will still have the option of the 222hp (165kW) 3.9L V6. The 252hp (188kW) 3.5L V6 found in the GXP models is the same as last year's model as well.

Exterior appearance features updated with the facelift include the front fascia, which gets a chrome surround for the grille. The rear fascias are also updated, accommodating both single and dual exhausts and larger exhaust tips depending on trim level. Seventeen inch chrome wheel covers are standard on four-cylinder sedans and coupes equipped with six-speed automatic transmissions. The Sun-and-Sound package will also get an updated 17" alloy wheel package.

Inside, the new interiors across the range feature new heating and air conditioning controls, an updated stereo with AM/FM/CD/MP3 capability and an auxiliary input jack. GM's MY LINK communications system gives the car Bluetooth capability, plus USB input for music player access. Dark satin nickel trim accents on the steering wheel, door panels and shifter plate plus two-tone seats in ebony/light taupe are available in both cloth and leather, which is a new option above the standard ebony seats. GT and GXP models als oget a new ebony-titanium leather seating package.

Pricing starts at $22,890 for the G6 coupe with the new four-cylinder option, while the E85 models start out at $24,125 for the sedan and the GT Coupe at $25,280. The 2009.5 G6 retractable hardtop convertible starts at $32,970.

Eureka! Pontiac Drag Car Sells for $226K on eBay, Owner Unaware of History

Over the weekend, we caught wind of a very unique auction for a rusty and drivetrain-less 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest. From a modest starting bid of $500, a book-worthy story has sprouted in Harrison, Michigan.

The seller, 123ecklin, was aware that his car appeared to have some sort of racing history, thanks to its plexiglass windows, a racetrack dashboard plaque, and a non-standard suspension. But as the auction unfolded, it was revealed that his car is almost certainly one of just six 1963 Pontiac LeMans Tempest Super Duty Coupes built (there were an equal number of wagons), making it one of the rarest and most desirable muscle cars extant.

As the story goes, this car is believed to have been driven by racer Stan Antlocer, and it was one of the fastest drag racers of its era.

The most fascinating part of the whole story is arguably perusing of the addendums to the auction listing, which chronicle the “Eureka!” moment where the seller realized he owned not just another rusty muscle car, but a valuable piece of history.

At auction close, the Tempest had cleared a whopping $226,522, and Jay Leno was rumored to be taking part in the bidding. Somebody phone Tom Cotter already.

+ eBay Motors: 1963 Pontiac Le Mans TEMPEST (via Motive)