Kill it along with GMC.
I would say puick too, but I guess the Chinese like them, so might as well keep it.

""It was an economic situation and It would cost $200 million to bring out the vehicle." (Trans Am)"

It costs $200 million to replace the badges and a bumper or two? Bullshit.

"Thanks to the new stricter fuel-economy regulations (CAFE) Pontiac is also not going to become a rear-wheel-drive performance division which was planned."

*sigh* Only American companies are dumb enough to think that rear-wheel drive = low mpg.

On another note, it'll be a shame if Pontiac gets killed off since the interiors on Pontiacs are leaps and bounds better than Chevy's.

GM is also going to boost GMC Enclave production up to 55,000 units annually.

Buick Enclave you mean?

I'm sick of hearing GM blame CAFE regulations for their "No More RWD Cars" slogan!! I own a 21 year old RWD sports car that gets 32MPG on the highway. I recently had to let go of a 240sx that got an easy 32-34 highway and at least 25mpg in city. Imagine the possibilities with new engines and transmissions!!

As far as the "additional weight" goes, I'd like an actual comparison between two identical cars with a FWD and RWD setup. I call B.S. on their excuse.

Let's compare a Toyota Rav4 with AWD vs. FWD - The I4 has a 150lb difference, while the V6 has a 120lb difference. Mind you, this also adds the weight of a transfer case. Ignoring the transfer case weight and assuming that the AWD is comparable to a RWD in weight difference, we are talking about a passenger (a lightweight, at that) in weight difference!

I've yet to drive a car that has any noticeable gas mileage differences with a single passenger onboard, and that includes my 1.5L Scion mini-car - if THAT engine can handle the extra weight without any mileage change, these huge V6/V8 engines should be able to as well..

funny that the zippy wants to kill off more of GM and I vote the same, it's stupid to compete against yourself selling the same car (as remy pointed out) they are nothing more than badge and bumper changes and plushie interiors can just be a trim level like most other brands. Call them all Chevy's and I'll give Cadillac as the upper echelon. Trim the fat GM!

its because peiople think rwd=performance a little hatchback with rear wheel drive would sell

Trim the fat GM, just stick with two divisions like your competitors out there (Honda, Toyota, Nissan...) Pontiac, Chevy, and Saturn are too much alike nowadays to continue to be profitable.

GM just posted their worst annual loss ever by an auto maker. They could really save money by getting rid of divisions like Saturn and GMC, there is no need for these divisions anymore. All they really need is Chevy, Pontiac, Buick and Cadillac.

Chevy - Domesticated car/truck/suv/crossover division.

Pontiac - Performance car division.

Buick - Moderate luxury car/crossover division.

Cadillac - High-end luxury car/suv/crossover division.

I think that we can eliminate buick of the American market and only make concentrate the brand in the Chinese market. We can also kill of saab, an unpopular brand and hummer also because of the anti-suv crisis. On the other hand, we cannot kill of pontiac. In the worst, we have only to keep preserve this brand by marketing Australian holden rebadging in US.

Chevy - Domesticated car/truck/suv/crossover division.
Pontiac - Performance car division.
Cadillac - High-end luxury car/suv/crossover division.
Saturn - Anti-japanese cars
GMC - suv/crossover division

It would be necessary to make like that.

Chevy - Broad range entry/mid price. Platform sharing with Opel and some Koreans. Max 4 platforms (astra, Vectra, Omega+, and Sport) , incl Corvette (yeah, thats tuff) No trucks, only cross-overs. 'Reliable Mass brand'

Pontiac: 3 Platforms (Vectra, Omega+, Sport), Shared with Opel, Holden. Benchmark Audi
No trucks, no cross-overs. 'Quality Performance brand'

Buick: Really needed? 2 Platforms (Omega+ and Cadillac), benchmarked with Volvo, the new korean high-end brands (they'll meet them anyway in China)
No trucks, nothing else. 'Conservative Americana Brand'

Cadillac: 2 platforms (Omega and Cadillac). No trucks, Benchmark MB
The 'new American Standard'

Saturn: gone, now assimilated by Chevy
GMC: makes all/and only trucks, platform sharing with Chrysler
Hummer: makes bicycles
Saab: sell to Fiat or Tata

Only the trucks and Cadillac platforms are developped in the USA, the rest from Europe and Korea. (hey in Europe we have fat people too)

Chevoldsmobuicurn.

Kill it.

GM: Because someone has to build rental cars.

It's nice that everyone on here knows to run someone else's car company. In reality, does it matter if 2 cars from the same company compete with one another? The consumer is still going to buy one of them...

Badge engineering does cost a lot. All sorts of silly tests, crash tests, economy tests etc. are required by the gov. But all in all, it shouldn't cost GM 200 million to put some new bumpers/body panels on it and test it. I say 50 million tops, and even that is a ridiculous number. I think car manufacturers spend way too much money on concept cars, marketing tests, and advertising. Is it really that hard to get a feel of the market?

@ Tony,

RWD does have a little more loss between the crank and the pavement, it's slight, but it's measurable. The 240sx was an amazing car, but it wouldn't pass emissions tests or crash tests nowadays. It's impossible to rebuild it. With 3-400 pounds of airbags and impact beams and the parasitic losses from bookoos of emissions controls, the light, fun to drive, mass produced rwd car with awesome gas mileage has been killed.

That said, I think I'm going to buy the Genesis 4 cyl coupe when it comes out. But, it'll still get much less than 35mpg avg.

$200 mill doesn't surpise me. Really people. You all keep saying that badging and bumpers don't cost that much. Think about the manf equipment, design process, warehousing for spare parts, warranty replacements, etc.

Now, I do think that GM does need to streamline. They need to bring manufacturing and production back to the USA. They do need to get down to 3 maybe 4 lines. Chevy: Everyday cars. Pontiac: Performance. Caddy: Luxury. GMC: Truck/SUV. Yes I mean rebadge the Vette to Pontiac. It's not an everyday car. Get rid of the same cars renamed (cobalt-G4, Impala-G8, etc.)

This is a sore point for me. The USA has "gone" global to the point that we aren't able to support ourselves anymore. Fuel: Nope, Steel: Nope, Plastics: Nope, Manufactured products: Nope, Autos: Nope, Food: Well, we give half that to other countries..., Medical Care: Nope, more non-citizens get free medical care than citizens, Land: More and More is foreign owned.

Thank your politicians people, they're giving America away so they can fill their already stuffed pockets.

Like i said this is all that GM needs, like someone said above cut the fat GMC should be a truck brand such as pickups suvs that are TRUCK BASED and Industrial trucks.yes I realize that the celica and supra are dead for toyota right now but u just watch they'll be back and for some of these models u can make them into sport models instead of creating a whole new car like to compete in world rally and compete against ricer rockets make that for the cobalt and call it the SS which they have and for rally lets call the badge i dunno (R)rally(S)super(S)sport
Toyota Yaris- Chevy Aveo
Toyota Corolla- Chevy Cobalt
Toyota Camry- Chevy Malibu (Cadillac)
Toyota Celica- Chevy Camaro
Toyota Avalon- Chevy Impala (Cadillac)
Toyota Supra- Chevy Corvette (Cadillac)
Toyota Sienna- Chevy Venture
Toyota Rav4- Chevy Equinox (Cadillac)
Toyota Highlander- Chevy Traverse (Cadillac)
Toyota Forerunner- Chevy Tahoe (Cadillac) (GMC)
Toyota Sequia- Chevy Suburban (GMC)
Toyota Tacoma- Chevy Colorado (Cadillac) (GMC)
Toyota Tundra- Chevy Silverado (Cadillac) (GMC)

think of the tremendous success GM would have if they applied the success of the new malibu, and cadillac and applied to all their vehicles and killed the un-necessary brands like seriously do they really need saab or buick or pontiac there is no need for a performance brand if u have a KNOWN performance badge such as the SS!!,hummer tho im not to sure of cuz that would be a great truck brand and they are already known for trucks where as GMC has become somewhat diluted lately. the basic fact is they need to focus on cutting the fat and looking at vehicles that are succesful such as the mini cooper and go alright so what are they doing that we arnt? or hondas civic which has been the best selling compact in canada for like the past 10yrs same with the camry and accord they need to look at the the best and well basically steal but also improve. and for all u idiots goin oh well so and so came up with that first u guys are stupid. instead of playing brand favorites you guys should be looking at what is that best for YOU! not cuz its a so and so!

Pontiac really hasn't had a decent brand image since the 1960's. Since then, Pontiac has struggled to call itself a performance brand using Chevrolets with slightly different grilles. The G8 is a good start, but Australian imports have also been a struggle for GM, as proved by the limited acceptance of the GTO. GM seems to be gradually writing off the US market as too challenging, anyway, so I would say kill Pontiac, make Corvette it's own brand and focus on Corvette as the true performance division.

"Badge engineering does cost a lot. All sorts of silly tests, crash tests, economy tests etc. are required by the gov."

I know politicians are too dumb to understand...but it's the SAME *%*#*%*$% CAR! Swapping a Pontiac shield on the hood for a Chevy bow tie has zero impact on the cars safety.

How about just Chevy and Cadillac? Cut the rest.

GM should address the over use of badge engineering, but then some people do not like the way a Chevy or a Pontiac or Sabb looks.

Its the same reason why people buy Dell or Compaq or Gateway. Heck they are all computers made by a handfull of manufactures, Quanta, Winston, etc, but consumers aren't made aware of that. Heck even the name brand foods that everyone buys comes from a major food processing plant. A day it is Hostest Cakes, the next day it is store brand.

The way GM is now is much better than the past. As least the vehicles (though same on the platform) are all different inside and out.

Chevy and Pontiac are their answer to Honda and Nissan and Toyota.

Saturn and Saab are their answer to European competitors.

Buick and Caddy are their answer to Acura, Lexus, Infinite, BMW, MB.

Asian market have a lot to choose from; Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Isuzu,etc.
The domestic makers need to be able to address all of them and unfortunately not one product is the answer to many.

Apple makes an iPod. They are all called iPods. Why not make one iPod that does all of it??

Pontiac has been held back by GM for a long time, always having to give way to Chev, the fav child of GM. The 60's saw pontiac want to make a competitor to the vette, and gm basically killed that and gave the design to chev. The 70's seen the biggest sucess for pontiac, with the bandit TA. Pontiac then had its motors taken away from it in the early 80's, forced to use chev motors.

However rebadged or not, the 2002 TA was a much much better and agressive looking car then the 2002 Camaro. I was hoping for a new trans am, but that hope is pretty dead now. And with changes made to, and the more I see the new camaro, I have decided that I will not buy it. Chev cars these days just have too tame of a look and the front always looks like they are smiling, and I do not want a happy looking car.

It would make no sense to make a Trans Am as it already has too much market appeal and would not need much in the way of advertising to get it re established. Why would anyone want an American Icon.

Instead it is better to make another bland ugly car with a new stupid name, spend millions on it and find out that no one wants it.

Go figure.

Who DIDN'T see this coming?

GM is bleeding money like it has multiple gunshot wounds, and they have 3 or 4 versions of what is essentially the same car that nobody wants to buy the in first place. I can see having a performance or luxury brand like Cadillac, but redundant brands like Pontiac or Chevy need to die. In the big picture, a Pontiac Pursuit / G5 is essentially no different than a Cobalt if you're comparing it to a Civic or Corolla.

1/2 of GM's brands could die tomorrow and I don't think anyone would care, and it would be good for GM. Saturn is one of the few profitable brands for GM, but Buick, Pontiac (or Chevy), and Saab can all die. A single 9-5 would seat everyone who would be attending the funeral.

Cheap Car Lover

I believe that is beaucoup. I believe it's latin via france

@ Cheap Car Lover

While new standards do add weight, it's worth noting that the 240SX weighs in at over 2700 Lbs, and the sports car I was referring to is almost right at 3200 lbs. These are both 2+2 hatchbacks.

For comparison, a 2009 Corolla is longer, wider, taller, has much more interior space, and is available with the same displacement engine weighs about 200 lbs more than a 240sx. A new chassis with a 2+2 configuration could close the weight gap a bit, even if you include the weight of a RWD setup. A new corolla, slightly larger in every way, manages much better EPA MPG in city and highway, and puts out more horsepower.

--A better comparison might be the Scion tC, come to think of it. It weighs in @ ~2900 for an auto with the 2.4, manages faster times than the auto 240sx, and still gets better gas mileage (not to mention the cabin actually has space). Worse case scenario, the RWD version weighs in closer to the 3200lb sports car i mentioned - it would stilll manage better gas mileage than the 240sx.

My point is, no matter how you slice it, a RWD platform could be had without sacrificing MPG. Even with the new standards in place, the weight gain isn't enough to make a RWD a gas guzzler.

My last thought on this is, GM kicks themselves in the arse everytime they use this excuse, because you go to any official word or blog on the Corvette, and GM brags and brags about the excellent gas mileage the 'Vette gets compared to other sports cars with smaller displacement. 2 minutes later, RWD setups are bad enough for gas mileage to warrant NO new RWD cars?!

Pick a side, GM!!