Pontiac not for sale!

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As most of you know by now, General Motors will be closing Pontiac’s doors no later than 2010. This leaves a rather large problem for Pontiac specific dealers.

But, one dealer tried to buy Pontiac earlier this week with GM telling him that it wasn’t for sale.

One of ABC’s Michigan affiliates, WJRT, reported yesterday that a local Pontiac, Buick, GMC dealer owner, Jim Waldron, went on the channel and in a talk show format, explained that he and a group of investors had offered GM money to buy the Pontiac brand and numerous plants from them. They would hire their own workforce and try to restart the rather strong brand. But, GM didn’t official turn him down for the offer, they are just saying it’s not for sale at the moment due to their deal with the government to phase out Pontiac in their restructuring plan.

It’s not surprising to me and most auto enthusiasts that GM would not want to sell Pontiac off right away, or at all. While most people see Pontiac as nothing more than another car sharing brand in the massive amounts of General Motors owned car companies. It was so much more than that.

It was Pontiac who started the muscle car wars of the 60s with the GTO. That car then spawned Ford, Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth, Chevrolet, Buick and others to jump into the horsepower wars and start making muscle cars.

While Pontiac has been a dying brand for decades now, especially after they dropped the Firebird in 2002, nice glimmers of hope started popping up when, with a big way to go from me, they channeled their down under brethren at Holden, GM’s Aussie sports car company. The Holdon Monaro was borrowed to underpin the new for 2004 recreation of the old GTO. It looked nothing like the GTO of old, which not many people liked, but it drove phenomenally. It could keep up with a BMW E46 M3 of the day to 60 in 4.7 seconds (0-100 kmh in 4.9s.) Unfortunately, the GTO sold poorly, and even though Pontiac refreshed it with the new 6.0 liter C6 Corvette engine producing 400hp in 2005, up from the 5.7 liter 350hp power-plant from the C5 Corvette, it was soon phased out in 2006, after only three model years.

Then, in 2005 for the 2006 model year, Pontiac brought out a real winner with the Solstice 2-seat convertible. It was a pleasure to drive, even better with the supercharged GXP version. And for 2009 they brought the former concept coupe to life. And, in 2008 they once again tapped Holdon’s resources to bring the Holden Commodore stateside as the Pontiac G8 and G8 GT sedan. Then to add extra life to the G8 series, they brought out the G8 GXP with 6.3 liter Corvette engine producing 415hp and 415lb-ft of torque. The GXP was the only G8 equipped with a manual transmission, with no automatic available.

All I’m trying to say with this is not just that Pontiac is not for sale, but that it shouldn’t be for sale. Or, it should only be sold to a company/person who will make it into what it’s supposed to be. A fallen glorious company who’s new day will come soon, hopefully. Good products attached to the same lot as nothing special products is what made Pontiac the least successful re-badged Chevrolet car company. There was nothing to go for after the Firebird was dropped in 2002.

Source: Autoblog via WJRT