Filed under: Marketing/Advertising, Chevrolet, Pontiac
Pontiac says goodbye Grand Prix, hello G8
It's not like we didn't see it coming, but now that GM is officially tossing the Grand Prix nameplate, we're a little sad. My first car was a 1979 Grand Prix coupe inherited from my parents. It was rear wheel drive, just like the upcoming G8 replacing it. Tony Clarke, president of GM North America, said that, at a minimum, the company will have to double its ad budget to familiarize the public with the car's new name.
In the same Automotive News article, Clarke says while the Grand Prix name is no more, Chevrolet, after much discussion, will keep Malibu on its roster. "It has tremendous equity," Clarke told Automotive News. "and it is not easy to turn away from the equity that it represents."
So the Grand Prix name, which is 45 years old, is worth less than the Malibu name which was first used two years after the birth of the GP? Not only does the GP have a few years on the 'Bu, it was Pontiac's best-selling car last year. How's that for name recognition? It's difficult to see the wisdom of spending millions of dollars to introduce a new nameplate when the old one seemed to be in pretty good shape, but, hey, maybe that's why we aren't GM executives. Perhaps there were other reasons to get a name change. Perhaps the naming fashions will change again, and like rear wheel drive, Grand Prix will be cool again.
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
jg 6:07PM (2/13/2007)
Didn't FORD just learn this lesson. As an owner of a Grand Prix I feel like I've just been 'Five Hundred'-ed or 'Fusion'-ed.
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Scott 6:09PM (2/13/2007)
What are the chances that GM pulls a Ford and renames the G8 to Grand Prix after a couple model years? I'd say pretty likely. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me as a car is more than the sum of its name and if the new iteration is a great automobile it can overcome the bad rep of previous generations. A turd is a turd, and a diamond a diamond, regardless of the nameplate corporate executives settle on.
Considering the dire financial situation GM is in, it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to introduce a brand new name which requires this massive increase in advertising budget.
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Juan 6:18PM (2/13/2007)
I would have preferred Grand Prix. I like my cars with real names, not alphanumeric abominations.
That, and the badging on the back of Pontiacs looks goofy with the car name and the trim level being the same number of letters on different sides of the trunk. Like "G6 GT"
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Tim UF 6:25PM (2/13/2007)
what are the chances the general gives buick a shot at a blast from the past from australia with a new GNX? and give it a saab heart (turbo 6 cyl yea!)
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nj 6:25PM (2/13/2007)
I'm fine with g8. Maybe they'd have to bring back the grand am name if they kept grand prix.
btw am I the only one who thinks the grand am was a better looking car from the outside than the g6. It's a shame it had such a horrific interoir. If only they had given it what it needed. A v6 with stick shift and a decent interior.
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Jay Guzowski 6:37PM (2/13/2007)
You would think GM would learn. While I applaude the idea of trying to create a family line up of "G" cars, this alphanumeric crap is just out of hand... Companies believe that if they can make the name of the car mean nothing... that the consumer will place more emphasis on the brand name... hence Mazda Mazda3.
GM should know better than to just discard these things and start fresh (especially if someone is quoted as saying it'll cost more money to educate).
One of the reasons Oldsmobile disappeared was through the awful use of naming. First they stuck Cutlass on everything... hoping that brand would wear off in a good way on vehicles like the Calias.. and what they ultimately landed up doing was diluting Cutlass to mean nothing (which is what I think alphanumerics do)... and then they ditched everything to come up with amorphous names like Achieva, Alero, Intrigue... which no one knew anything about and hence didn't shop.
GM should at least investigate something along the ways Nissan has launched vehicles... When the Altima first came out it replaced the Stanza.. and the car actually had a Stanza sticker on it... or the Pathfinder Armada... or the grand daddy of them all the fact that there was a year or so there where the cars were actually Datsun Nissans.
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mod in need 6:40PM (2/13/2007)
why not just call it the G8 Grand Prix?
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sydbot 6:46PM (2/13/2007)
why not call it the G8 Grand Prix? then they could segue out of either name in the future.
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Tony 6:51PM (2/13/2007)
Why don't they call it a Grand Prix G8 for a couple of years, until people get to know it. Than they can remove the Grand Prix and save all that ad money. Problem solved, but what do I know.
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Bear 6:51PM (2/13/2007)
Maybe the new logo will help.
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benz 7:19PM (2/13/2007)
Every automaker wants to copy the europeans. GM is doing it with alpha-numberic names, they want pontiac to be like bmw. The japanese automakers have been doing it for years with those stupid notchy automatic floor shifters that EVERY JAPANESE CAR HAS NOW!!! I'm sorry when I shift from P to D I don't want to have to move the shifter to the left and to the right several times!!!!! ANNOYING!!!!!!!!!!
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huis 7:29PM (2/13/2007)
QUOTE:
"That, and the badging on the back of Pontiacs looks goofy with the car name and the trim level being the same number of letters on different sides of the trunk. Like "G6 GT" "
Even funnier is the ones that say "G6 V6" on the opposite sides of the trunk. I miss names on cars.
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Reno 7:32PM (2/13/2007)
I feel the same way, I always preached about not changing the names of the automobiles that people have grown to love over the years. I lik the name G8, bgut for marketing purposes the Grand Prix was an awsome name. So was Monte Carlo, El dorado, Regal, Parke Avenue, hell, i can go on and on. I think if they want to change the name, they should keep the original name as a top of the line package. Think about it, Chevrolet Impala starled off as a Bel Air Impala package. Check this: Pontiac G8-Grand Prix, Buick Velite Coupe (Buick Velite-Grand National), Cadillac top of the line RWD sadan (Cadillac DTS-Fleetwood edition). In this way, even if these car changed their names the company can play on names that the consumers might feel bring back great nostalgic memories of what the company offered in the past. My marketing experience tells me great name packages, in honor of great history,can play on heritage, while offering top of the line packages while not sacrificing design themes.
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huis 7:38PM (2/13/2007)
QUOTE:
"That, and the badging on the back of Pontiacs looks goofy with the car name and the trim level being the same number of letters on different sides of the trunk. Like "G6 GT" "
Even funnier is the ones that say "G6 V6" on the opposite sides of the trunk. I miss names on cars.
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Reno 7:43PM (2/13/2007)
I feel the same way, I always preached about not changing the names of the automobiles that people have grown to love over the years. I lik the name G8, bgut for marketing purposes the Grand Prix was an awsome name. So was Monte Carlo, El dorado, Regal, Parke Avenue, hell, i can go on and on. I think if they want to change the name, they should keep the original name as a top of the line package. Think about it, Chevrolet Impala starled off as a Bel Air Impala package. Check this: Pontiac G8-Grand Prix, Buick Velite Coupe (Buick Velite-Grand National), Cadillac top of the line RWD sadan (Cadillac DTS-Fleetwood edition). In this way, even if these car changed their names the company can play on names that the consumers might feel bring back great nostalgic memories of what the company offered in the past. My marketing experience tells me great name packages, in honor of great history,can play on heritage, while offering top of the line packages while not sacrificing design themes.
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Howard Kerr 8:07PM (2/13/2007)
I think Reno is on to something. GM/Pontiac should keep the Grand Prix name as a top line model to the G8...if they HAVE to dump the Grand Prix.
If anyone should know better than to use alpha-numeric names, it's Pontiac. Apparently they forget about those great cars of the '70s and '80s...the T-1000 (Chevette clone), the J-2000 (Cavalier clone), the G-6000...also known as the GHOOLIE (the Celebrity clone) and the top line/full-size Pontiac...the Pariseanne (sorry about the spelling). But my point being, even when they used lame alpha-numerics, they included a "regular" name.
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Kevin 8:40PM (2/13/2007)
Actually the Malibu nameplate goes back to 1964 (see e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Malibu). From 1964-1981 they were the entry-level Chevrolet A-bodies (midsize RWD platform shared by the Chevelle, GTO, etc).
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John 8:47PM (2/13/2007)
MY first car was 1979 Grand Prix inherited from the parents as well. It was quite the style statement back then and still looks rather graceful today. Not as garish as the previous generation and much better than those that came after.
I always felt the grill and taillight designs on the 79 were the best of the three years (78,79,80) of that bodystyle.
Though it at times morphed into a grotesque, plastic-covered nightmare, I will still be sad to see the name go. G8 sounds like a global economic summit.
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St?ane Dumas 8:48PM (2/13/2007)
Reno got a good point, however some nameplates got a unlucky turn in their destiny. New Yorker for example, was in the early 1970s a full-size Chrysler then after the gas crisis, was briefly a M-body for the 1982 model year and for 1984, a stretched K-car! They tried to restore the name with an extended version of the LH cars but it faded away in favor of LHS (who was born as a New Yorker sub-series), but some mentions of rumors of a comeback.
Grand Prix may return one day, if a coupe version arrived, the V6 version should be called Grand Prix while the V8 is GTO (there was a Pontiac dealer who created its own GTO by using the Grand Prix in the 1980s http://ultimategto.com/cgi-bin/showcar.cgi?type=show&pic=/pasture/80napoli1 )
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TriShield 9:05PM (2/13/2007)
'Grand Prix' conjures up images of horribly styled, horribly plastic, horrible driving rental cars in the minds of all but the most die-hard GM fans. The name is completely tainted and beyond saving.
Dropping the name and the entire car was the right idea. Pontiac needs a fresh start, and that means fresh cars with fresh names if GM wants the brand to be viable.
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