General Motors will kill the Pontiac Sunfire in June, which could leave Pontiac without an entry-level car for two years or longer.
Pontiac-GMC Marketing General Manager Jim Bunnell says there is no plan to replace the Sunfire. The automaker is looking at several options, including an import priced below the Vibe.
"There is nothing planned in the foreseeable future, in the next 18 to 24 months" to replace the Sunfire, Bunnell says. "It will be some time after that if we were to figure out something that would make sense for us."
He says GM is "just laying out options," including the possibility of an import. "We are going to look at the entire portfolio within GM," he says, "including our opportunities overseas."
Pontiac has declined to sell a U.S. sister car to the Chevrolet Cobalt, which is built on the Delta front-drive, small-car architecture. It does sell a Cobalt sibling, the Pursuit, in Canada. The Sunfire uses the same platform as the old Chevrolet Cavalier.
If GM adds a vehicle, Bunnell says, it would have to reflect the Pontiac brand in performance and content: "We are not interested in badge engineering."
Bunnell says there is debate within GM as to whether Pontiac needs a vehicle priced below the Vibe. GM likely will weigh Vibe sales for 2005 and part of 2006 before deciding.
Pontiac sold 58,894 Vibes in 2004, up 3.5 percent from 2003. That vehicle and a sister vehicle, the Toyota Matrix, are assembled by NUMMI, a GM-Toyota partnership in Fremont, Calif.
The base Vibe costs $17,690, including destination.
Pontiac sold 36,095 Sunfires in 2004, a 17.2 percent drop from 2003. The base 2005 Sunfire coupe costs $11,460 including transportation. A Sunfire sedan is not offered.
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Pontiac sold 36,095 Sunfires in 2004, a 17.2 percent drop from 2003. The base 2005 Sunfire coupe costs $11,460 including transportation. A Sunfire sedan is not offered.
Now, in 2003 they were still selling the rest of the 2002 sedans, right? Or do those numbers only refer to the cars sold from that model year?
It just seems pretty obvious to me why the sales dropped, considering they dropped the sedan. I thought most J's sold were sedans.
It's a shame they didn't decide to go with a delta car. If they had, the Pursuit would have ended up being much more than just a re-badged Cobalt. <br>
I'm glad that Pontiac is saying that they are not interested in Badge Engineering however, if they take an import and rebadge it isn't that badge engineering. Anyways, I can't think of anything that Pontiac could use to fill the sunfire's spot.
A Small RWD Pontiac like the Caddy CTS would be nice... <br>
<img src="http://www.j-body.org/registry/americanred/deplysig.gif">
Good. I hope this drops the price of the Vibe a bit, i'd like an AWD vehicle for next winter. The last redesign never grew on me either.
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A.15 wrote:I'm glad that Pontiac is saying that they are not interested in Badge Engineering however, if they take an import and rebadge it isn't that badge engineering. Anyways, I can't think of anything that Pontiac could use to fill the sunfire's spot.
A Small RWD Pontiac like the Caddy CTS would be nice...
Would you consider the new GTO to be "badge engineering"??
I think they're referring to something like the Pursuit, 9-2X or even the Sunfire sedan where very little is changed beyond the basic branding cues.
A shared platform like the Sunfire coupe, Grand Am, GTO, etc. isn't really badge engineering. It's just good business.
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True. ^^^
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Sooooooo Sad I'm gonna miss them
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Quote:
If GM adds a vehicle, Bunnell says, it would have to reflect the Pontiac brand in performance and content: "We are not interested in badge engineering."
Damn straight!!! I've always thought Pontiac should have a different line up from the rest of the GM line. I'm glad there not selling the crapsute in the US. Leave the Cobalt to chevy. Let's get back to some real Pontiac peformance. <br>
i thought the g6 was taking its place or is it not pontiac's entry level model anymore or was it........im confused now
ClassGlass / RkSport / Eibach / Motegi / Ractive / Borla / K&N
I will miss seeing the new fires at the dealer
At least the .org will be here. <br>
"Maybe it's the beer talking marge,
but you got a butt that won't quit, they got these
little pretzels and ahhhhhh, five dollars?
get outta here"! -Homer Simpson
My poor 'fires
I need a tissue now. <br>
hmmm...they want an import...well since they share with toyota how about using the scion tc?? or perhaps a celica gts? be nice if whatever they chose had some guts when equipped with an automatic...even the Ecos suck with auto...
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The G6 has replaced the Grand Am.
As for Pontiac having it's own lineup... I'm not sure what you're expecting from them. They will always be sharing platforms. I think the last time Pontiac had an exclusive platform was the Fiero and I doubt they're getting another any time soon.
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why did they decide to cut the life of them short??? not selling enough i guess? <br>
Makes me want to keep my fire as a prized possesion even more (not that it already is'nt) but why would they want to replace the sunfire with an import
but ohh well <br>
Just Wait and See..........
The solstice is coming soon!
/me tips his 40 in memory of the Sunfire.
Quote:
They will always be sharing platforms. I think the last time Pontiac had an exclusive platform was the Fiero and I doubt they're getting another any time soon.
Here's an example of what I was talking about. Chevy has always been the top brand with GM. Cars like the Firebird, and even now the GTO have never been allowed to have more power or better performance than the almighty corvette. Why couldn't the Firebird have the same if not better performance?? Probably because people would have bought the Firebird over the vette because it's cheaper.
Basically what I would like to see is hotter engines in the Pontiac counterparts. A little more aggressives styling (which they pretty much do now) and just in general make cars based on the same platform stand out more. Take the Malibu and Grand Am for example. Why couldn't they have put a 5 speed in the Grand Am?? Or tuned the engine a bit more?
Make Pontiac more the performance division. <br>
Jonathan French (minitransam) wrote:Quote:
They will always be sharing platforms. I think the last time Pontiac had an exclusive platform was the Fiero and I doubt they're getting another any time soon.
Here's an example of what I was talking about. Chevy has always been the top brand with GM. Cars like the Firebird, and even now the GTO have never been allowed to have more power or better performance than the almighty corvette. Why couldn't the Firebird have the same if not better performance?? Probably because people would have bought the Firebird over the vette because it's cheaper.
Basically what I would like to see is hotter engines in the Pontiac counterparts. A little more aggressives styling (which they pretty much do now) and just in general make cars based on the same platform stand out more. Take the Malibu and Grand Am for example. Why couldn't they have put a 5 speed in the Grand Am?? Or tuned the engine a bit more?
Make Pontiac more the performance division.
The Firebird was in no way comparable to the Corvette. You're talking about a sports car vs. a muscle car. The Firebird was the sister of the Camaro and always has been.
As for Pontiac having more performance... that's what the brand was always intended for and that's what they're pushing for again. Notice that Chevy never had the blown 3.8 until just recently, and even now it's still got less power than the one in the Pontiacs.
And you CAN get a 5-speed in a GA... unfortunately they didn't have one that mated to their V6 FWD engines. heh.
I get your point though... and so do they. Pontiac realizes that over the past decade or so they've fallen out of the performance category and into the "same car with more plastic cladding" category and they're now looking into shaking that. Hence, the GTO and the Solstice coming out. It's definitely a step in the right direction, regardless of the flaws with the GTO.
What's funny is that while Pontiac in the US is going in the right direction, GM Canada has thus far not announced a GTP version of the Pursuit. Hell, there's no coupe so far as I know as of yet. I'm really hoping they announce both at next month's Toronto Auto Show. It would seem like blasphemy when the platform is already built and just needs some Pontiac bumpers. hehe.
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Wild Weasel wrote:A.15 wrote:I'm glad that Pontiac is saying that they are not interested in Badge Engineering however, if they take an import and rebadge it isn't that badge engineering. Anyways, I can't think of anything that Pontiac could use to fill the sunfire's spot.
A Small RWD Pontiac like the Caddy CTS would be nice...
Would you consider the new GTO to be "badge engineering"??
I think they're referring to something like the Pursuit, 9-2X or even the Sunfire sedan where very little is changed beyond the basic branding cues.
A shared platform like the Sunfire coupe, Grand Am, GTO, etc. isn't really badge engineering. It's just good business.
True, didn't think about that. I know that Pontiac will never have there own platforms but they should be the performance brand of GM
Chevy = Everyday
Pontiac = Performace
Buick = Up Scale
GMC = Work/Industrial
Caddy = Luxury
Saturn = Economy <br>
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I think I'm going to cry now. I love my sunfire and until recently my boyfriend and I had matching sunfires (he wrecked his). However, my best friend and I still have matching ones. I'm going to miss the sunfires. They're awesome little cars and I see them EVERYWHERE. I was suprised by the sales numbers... <br>
I still think that the Sunfire is one of the best looking cars out since the '03 redesign, period.
And the last Pontiac-specific latform wasn't the Fiero. The Buick Reatta and Cadillac Allante were on the same platform, if I remember correctly. The only platform used exclusively for Pontiac is the J-car platform. <br>
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