Okay, so since my last post about Pontiac's demise, I did a little research and now understand why GM decided to keep Buick over Pontiac despite the fact that Pontiac sells twice as many cars in the U.S. as Buick.
Fact is, Buick sells a significant amount of cars overseas, especially in China and Japan. I'm not sure I really understand why, especially since the LaCross and the Lucerne are tepid contenders at best, but the fact is that GM overseas sales represent about 60% of its total sales. Thus, the overseas markets are of considerable importance to GM, and Pontiac doesn't sell overseas.
Autoblog.com reported today that a dealer actually tried to purchase Pontiac from GM so that it could survive. GM refused, which sparked some hope that the brand may be revived down the line. I think that's a pipe dream. Pontiac's storied history has come to an end, folks. The Solstice and its Kappa platform underpinnings is almost certainly dead, as is the G8 and a GM rear wheel drive sedan.
At this point, given the amount of government involvement in product development at GM now, I wouldn't be surprised if the Camaro is next on the chopping block. Already the Z28 has been scrubbed due to the political atmosphere. The emphasis in the years to come will be on hybrids, such as the Chevy Volt, even though they represent (according to a Ford VP) about 2% of the total market place.
Pontiac's demise isn't just the end of a great marque with a proud heritage and tradition, it symbolizes the coming death of the muscle car at a time when the best ones ever built have just started rolling off the production lines at GM and Chrysler.
I will not go gently into that goodnight.
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