Rumor: Pontiac To Be Cut on Monday

This piece of news won't take long to figure out if it's true or not; Monday is only a few days away. The report by Edmunds' Inside Line doesn't come as a total surprise either. Pontiac was left out of GM's viability plan has a "core brand" and GM repeatedly has said all options were available for the other brands not included in those 4. Looks like Pontiac will be heading for the same fate as the others.

The shocking thing is that Pontiac is GM's third largest division by volume. The brand sold 267,348 cars in 2008, behind only GMC's 376,996 and Chevrolet's 1,801,131. What was Pontiac's place though that couldn't be taken up by other brands? A dedicated performance brand; Chevrolet's SS models can take care of that. Niche brand; GM can't really afford that right now. They don't have the cash to spread money all around; the focus needs their mainstream brands and producing a profit with those.

Buick seems to have nearly guaranteed survival for a number of factors. New, critically acclaimed product in the form of the LaCrosse is on the way, the Enclave crossover has done well, J.D Power scores are highly impressive (even earning an mention by President Obama). In addition, there is perhaps the biggest reason of all; the continued success of the brand in China. The Chinese market is Buick's largest and the country promises to be huge for GM in the future. Why cut the brand when an risk damaging it's cachet when so much of it has to do with it being an American brand?

GM needs a Lexus competitor and Buick can be just that. Let Cadillac go after BMW and Chevrolet after Toyota. GMC doesn't cost anything to run and has been a high-selling, high-profit combination that is hard to ignore.

That leaves Pontiac. With these moves, GM will be just down to 4 brands (3 in practice). Buick will share with Buick China, Pontiac's mission can be folded into Chevrolet and Cadillac will grow to better compete with BMW and others in the luxury segment.

A sad development for such a storied name indeed. I would rather it get cut though then see it's history wrecked with a foreign buyer. GM is expected to announce the brand cuts as part of a "faster, deeper" reorganization to be announced Monday. I tell you one thing though; these on again/off again cuts and announcements are doing nothing to sustain a confident mood in purchasing GM vehicles. Please GM, pick a plan and stick with it! You'd be doing yourselves a huge favor.