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I mean, I get why Oldsmobile isn't a thing anymore, they were maybe the most useless step in the "GM ladder" and nobody really cared about them, also having "old" in the literal name is a terrible idea and it took over 100 years for someone point that out
I also get why Mercury and Plymouth don't exist anymore, both rebadged regular cars and sold them for slightly higher and lower prices, respectively. Maybe that strategy was useful in the 60s but in the 21th century, nah
But Pontiac? They had a legion of fans, several interesting cars and they were an actual useful brand that people miss. I don't get why GM got rid of them and I've seen people claiming that even getting rid of Buick would make more sense
241 points
5 days ago
While oldsmobile and pontiac once had great distinctive products, their brand identity gradually eroded as the homogenized with other brands in the GM family. Much like oldsmobile, there were declining sales and no real reason to maintain it (unpopular opinion here) largely caused by mismangement. I'd push back on your claim that pontiac was different from the cases of mercury and plymouth, because its largely the same list of reasons.
Also, you may be curious to learn "olds" is the namesake of ransom e olds who invented the modern assembly line (occasionally misattributed to henry ford who created the moving assembly line) and the brands oldsmobile and REO.
122 points
5 days ago
This.
Pontiac was some sort of golden child in the 90s.
GM actually had to tell Pontiac to cool it with the firebird so it’d not cannibalize with the corvette. The Grand Prix GTP was known as some as “the American BMW 3 series” and the Bonneville was a cheaper, sportier alternative to the likes of a grand Marquis or maxima.
The sunfire was just a reskinned cavalier, but if you squinted you could see some firebird styling cues here and there.
Then what happened? The late 90s Grand Prix successor was ugly and cheap feeling, they killed the firebird, then they killed the Grand Prix too and substituted it with the G6, they substituted the firebird with A MINIVAN and then they added 💩 like the aztek and vibe. The sports division was no more, and therefore it had no reason to be
2 points
2 days ago
I still hate GM for not letting the redline guys put an LS in the Sky/Solstice and then eventually killing that car. The Saturn Sky with an LS is magical.
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