Car Throttle

The Pontiac wind-down process is ongoing, after it became a  casualty of General Motors' financial difficulties and brand reorganization. For car enthusiasts the closure of Pontiac came as particularly disappointing, especially given the recent launch of the G8, the best Pontiac product in years. The G8 a rebadged Holden Commodore imported from Australia. Sales of the G8 in went up significantly after the announcement of Pontiac's closure. That is very unusual thing to happen for a brand about to be shuttered. Anyhow, the wind down process for Pontiac is almost complete and stocks of new Pontiac cars are running low. Pontiac recently announced on Twitter the total stock left, broken down by each model. There are 550 G8 GTs remaining and only 16 (!) examples left of the top-shelf

One of the casualties of the loss of the Pontiac brand was the Holden-sourced Pontiac G8. It was a critically acclaimed vehicle and sales began to pick up significantly once the brand's cut was announced. When asked about the possibility of a the G8 being sold as a Chevrolet, GM's CEO Fritz Henderson said that the reason was because he "doesn't like rebadges." Besides that comment not making sense for a variety of reasons, it was discouraging to hear that such a great product would not be sold here. Bob Lutz followed Fritz Henderson's comments by saying what everyone else thought - that it was "too good to waste." After getting everyone's hopes up with those comments, he responded soon after with “upon further review and careful

Well, that's that. It was nice while it lasted, eh? The Pontiac G8 is an excellent product, receiving critical acclaim for being a true performance vehicle for Pontiac. It could have opened a whole new chapter for the brand, but alas it was not to be. Blame the economy. If the business case ever worked for Pontiac (which I never thought it did), it certainly should work for Chevrolet as a new Caprice. Bob Lutz, seemed to agree when he said the G8 was just "too good to waste."  Today though, he walked back on those comments. Direct from GM's product guy - no. Not maybe, not we're considering it. He says it will not show up as a Caprice and now with his new "marketing hat" on that

Bob Lutz, bearer of good news! He is fresh off his "unretirement" and back, better than ever. The reshuffling retains his position as Vice-Chairman of GM and actually adds responsibilities: he's in charge of “creative elements of products and customer relationships.” Bob Lutz is known famously in the auto industry for his propensity to speak his mind, and that hasn't changed. Pontiac's G8 has seen new life in it's sales numbers since the announcement about the Pontiac brand cancellation. Clearly the product has potential; it was critically acclaimed in the press. Not only that, there is multiple other reasons for keeping the car, like Australian production revenue that is vital to GM's Holden subsidiary. The logical reasons are there, which is why the response of GM's CEO Fritz

Hurst and Pontiac have a long history over the years together, producing high-performance Pontiacs for the consumption of performance enthusiasts. The company was particularly big in the 1960's, heyday of the muscle car, modifying vehicles for AMC, Chrysler (Plymouth), Ford, Oldsmobile and Pontiac. It's fitting then that they would be producing two new models for Pontiac now. The models getting the Hurst treatment are the G8 and G6. The G6 seems like an odd one but the G8 is perfect for it, with it's excellent RWD performance. Limited edition? You bet.  Called the 2010 Hurst/Pontiac H.O and referred to as the "Executive Hot Rod", there is to be only 52 of the cars produced. A lot of the details are set to be released on August 1st, but we do know a

Pontiac is a dying brand and everyone knows it. It has a year left and GM has made clear (especially before the last few weeks) that it was on the chopping block and there was nothing that would keep the brand from being cut. In the midst of all that negative press (not to mention a lack of advertising), sales of at least one Pontiac vehicle are up by huge percentages. That vehicle is the G8. Compared with May 2008, sales of the RWD sports-sedan are up 68.3 percent to 3,071 units. That's a big number, the biggest ever for the G8. What could explain it? People finally checking out Pontiac and seeing a great product, or people who were planning to buy one and now are in a