News: Pontiac dealers join to bid on the doomed brand. GM not interested.

Blind_Io

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http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=news/local&id=6791548

DAVISON (WJRT) -- (05/01/09)--A Mid-Michigan car dealer is trying to give the Pontiac a new lease on life by purchasing the brand.
But General Motors Corp. is going on the record by saying the car line is not for sale.

Jim Waldron of Waldron Pontiac, Buick and GMC in Davison surprised many by making this announcement during a taping of ABC12's Newsmaker program: "I've made an offer to buy the Pontiac brand from General Motors." Friday night, the automaker was saying, "Not so fast."

Waldron said he and a group of six investors presented a plan this week to purchase the GM brand and only the brand from GM. But spokespersons from several GM divisions have said that the Pontiac line is not up for sale.

One of those we talked to was GM Vice President of North American Communications Tom Pyden.

He says per the viability plan submitted to the government, the Pontiac brand is to be phased out come 2010 and there has been no talk of putting it up for sale.

Waldron says he and the investors plan on purchasing vacant plants and hiring a workforce to start manufacturing Pontiacs on their own if the offer is accepted. He did not disclose how much is being offered to the automaker for Pontiac.

GM announced earlier this week that it was phasing out the brand.
Waldron says shortly after is when the offer was submitted, and that it's in the hands of the legal staff.

Waldron late Friday said it's possible the communications people may not know about the offer. He says he expects to hear back from GM on whether they'll accept a deal next week.

I have no idea what GM is thinking with this. They are trying to give Opel away but won't take money for the doomed Pontiac?
 
I actually think this has something to do with the fact that GM wants as little competition as possible here in the States. Opel doesn't sell over here, so they don't care... but they ARE going to care if they end up directly creating competition for themselves*.



* likely because they'll probably lose out to said competition.
 
This was on my local station and I missed it, oops! I don't know what to think about this. I am not sure Waldron can save the Pontiac name, ecspecially if they continue to put out what is already there. Some models could stick around, but there needs to be upgrades made to them *cough*interiors!*cough*(300 hp Solstice+ a face lift). But at this point I see GM wanting to keep the brand so it can be resurected later.
 
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Well acording to the Flint Journal, the offer was soundly ignored, but GM says it is still considering it. Yet I understand that they(GM) have put the Kappa plant(Sky,Solstice,Opel GT) up for sale. Isn't this the one line of cars that is selling??

Gm is so freaking confusing, what are they doing and do they even know?
 
It's completely understandable.
They are protecting the name and their entire reputation. Even after 50 years, Pontiac will still bring associations with GM.
What if these car dealers decide to import some Chinese crap, or worse design their own crap, and then sell it as a Pontiac? It will hurt GM's reputation, because there will still be people out there who think that GM makes Pontiac.
 
Isn't that already GM's plan?
 
After some of the stuff they've sold under the Pontiac brand, I can't see how more crap under that brand would make GM look any worse than they already do.
 
and THIS are the descicions that are taking GM down
 
That's right, because GM clearly doesn't need the money.






:blink:
 
The dealers can probably make money from Pontiac (I mean, if they're offering to buy it), and that's gonna make GM look bad. We can't afford looking bad in this crisis, can we?
 
After some of the stuff they've sold under the Pontiac brand, I can't see how more crap under that brand would make GM look any worse than they already do.

I always wondered if they did that purposely as a way to get back a DeLorean. "See this brand you built up, well we're going to make it a laughing stock."
 
The dealers can probably make money from Pontiac (I mean, if they're offering to buy it), and that's gonna make GM look bad. We can't afford looking bad in this crisis, can we?

Or they just don't want the competition.

Or they want to try and spit in the UAW and this administrations face by surviving and taking every last job out of the country. Which would suck and be fucking hilarious at the same time.
 
Right they should do a license deal 100 USD (is that enough?) for every car they sell, plus 100,000 USD (is that enough?) up front but only to start after GM closes the last plant and finishes discussions with Buick Dealers - then all is fair game. Maybe a premium for each dealer recruited?

Hell these guys have to make some damn money for the US Tax payer now, not in ten years time!
 
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