By Brendan Moore
07.17.2009
The beginning of the week saw Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of GM, saying that the Pontiac G8 was just too good a car to kill (and we agree) and that GM was thinking about rebadging the car as a Chevrolet Caprice so that GM could keep selling the performance sedan.
The very next day, Fritz Henderson, the CEO of GM, allowed as to how that was not very likely.
Yesterday afternoon, Bob Lutz wrote on GM’s in-house blog, Fast Lane, that “upon further review and careful study, we simply cannot make a business case for such a program. Not in today’s market, in this economy, and with fuel regulations what they are and will be.”
So, never mind.
That’s it – it looks like people in China, Australia, the Middle East and Europe will be able to buy the car next year, but not North Americans.
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I’m not surprised at all. It was the smart thing to do, so that’s why GM isn’t going to do it. Another sign that our taxpayer money is going to wasted. Maybe we’ll get a windmill powered car from Government Motors.
I’m a big Bob Lutz fan, but he needs to watch what he’s saying. The head of marketing can’t be shooting from the hip constantly. His earlier comment and now the retraction make him and the company look like neither have any clue what’s going on. Sadly, that may be the case.
It’s a great car. It’s a shame because it deserved better treatment.
Man this sucks. Lutz shoulld have said nothin until he knew for sur.
There’s just nothing to say about this. I am so disillusioned with GM in every way. They have some good things going on but they just keep shooting themselves in the foot.
GET IT TOGETHER GUYS!
I agree Chris. Lutz is great a product development, but not the best person in the world for public relations. Keep him where he does his best work and keep him on a leash. Public perception is everything. And the public needs to know that GM has its excrement together.
Nonetheless, it sucks that the G8 will be dying along with Pontiac. It would have been a fantastic addition to either the Chevy or the Buick line-up.
It was too good to be true all along.
North Americans will just have to put up with the Camaro (which is essentially a G8 with a different body) instead.
And be smug in the knowledge that none of those smug Australians with their ready access to a G8 equivalent (in sedan, wagon and utility form) won’t be enjoying a Camaro in their garage…for exactly the same reason as why a G8 and North America don’t mix anymore.
The G8 is a great car? Not by measure of its success/ relevance in the marketplace/ or relevance. By that standard the G8 is a bigger flop than the Monaro/ GTO.
The G8 is premium sporty sedan priced competitively in it’s segment. Yet sales are crawling at quantities of 1500 copies per month. Porsche sells that about that many Cayennes per month in the US, in a much narrower market segment.
The G8′s FWD competitor, the Nissan Maxima, launched at about the same time as the G8, is selling at a clip of 4000 copies per month.
Given these considerations cancellation of the G8 is the ONLY reasonable business decision to be made.
The best films are not always the biggest sellers. The best music isn’t the stuff sells the most. See where I’m going with this?