Autoblog

Less than 2 months ago the headline here was GM ramps up Cobalt production to meet demand. It's amazing how quickly things change in this crazy environment. Just months after adding a third shift at the Lordstown, OH assembly plant where the Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5 are built, on Friday GM gave 1,100 employees at the facility layoff notices. The company isn't getting rid of the third shift but, it is slowing the build rate in line with current sales demand. Earlier this summer, GM was selling Cobalts as fast as they could build them and now all of a sudden, those sales have dried up. The spike was triggered by $4 gasoline, and even though gas prices have dropped to half that level, you might not expect sales to fall so fast. The real problem is the lack of available credit for financing. Most of the inherent customer base for cars like the Cobalt simply can't afford to pay cash for a new car. With credit increasingly hard to get, car sales have crashed almost across the board in October. Even the Honda Civic that sold 53,000 copies in May got just under 19,800 in October. Expect to hear more about slowdowns at other carmakers, including mighty Toyota and Honda, very soon.

[Source: Vindy.com]

Automotive News has been pumping out a ton of information about the General's future products, and between buffing fingerprints off the crystal ball and making phone calls to unnamed sources, they've shed some light on the future of Pontiac.

According to AN, we can expect to get a hard-top version of the Solstice sometime in 2008 as a 2009 model, complete with a revised powerplant that will boost output, although there was no mention of changes to the GXP. Pontiac will stick with the in-line four for the time being, as a V6 variant is officially off the table, and by 2011 it's assumed that new sheetmetal will adorn the Pontiac and possibly its Saturn-badged brother.

The remake of GM's performance brand will also include the demise of the Torrent, while the G5 will be replaced with the RWD Alpha platform by 2010 – unless CAFE standards put those plans on hold.

Naturally, the big non-news is the upcoming G8, with V8 power and rear-wheel drive, which is expected to be the flagship of the brand. Base models will come equipped with a 261 HP 3.6-liter V6, while the GT model will boast a six-liter V8 producing 362 HP. The bad news: don't expect to see a GTO or Firebird in the near future, as GM contends that the market isn't ripe for offering too many high-po gas-guzzlers. Disappointing, to say the least, but if the Camaro explodes, we'd expect both vehicles to see the light of day.

[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

Rumors abound within the hallowed halls of General Motors as it prepares to go through a major transformation that will include products designed to make the world take notice. For a brand that was once deemed "damaged" by car guy Bob Lutz, Pontiac is destined to make a huge splash at the upcoming North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

An interesting rumor is that the next G6 replacement will be a rear-wheel drive vehicle on a yet-to-be determined platform. Could this be a viable contender to the 3-series?

Yet another possibility is a rear-drive compact car replacing the current badge-engineered G5 under the G4 name. Speculation has this vehicle riding on the Kappa platform that underpins the Solstice and being available in both coupe and sedan models. GM has been mulling a second Kappa car for a while, and it sounds like it still is.

Last but not least, there has been talk of a Grand Prix replacement called the G8 that will be built on the Zeta platform. From what we hear this car will definitely appear at the Chicago Auto Show in February, if not sooner at the Detroit show in January Aren't rumors great?

[Source: GM Inside News]

Pontiac is trying a new tactic to get the word out about its new G5 Coupe. Every single ad dollar earmarked for promoting the car will be spent on online. Pontiac's marketing director Mark-Hans Richer calls it "a radical experiment". While online-only advertising may not raise Pontiac's brand awareness among consumers like a traditional TV spot, it does allow the brand to target the youth male audience at which the G5 Coupe is aimed more effectively. Plus, it's a lot cheaper than buying a primetime TV spot and producing a commercial. The online ad campaigh will run through at least the end of the year, and while it's too early to judge its success, Automotive News reports that the G5 Coupe has already exceeded its sales goal for August by 185 percent. That number could also be attributed to how much Pontiac dealers were starved for a small car after the Sunfire was discontinued.

[Source: Automotive News]

Pontiac dealers have been complaining to General Motors about the void created when the Sunfire small car was cancelled. With no small car to offer, these dealers have had a hard time attracting fuel- and price-conscious buyers into their showrooms. Apparently GM has been happy to oblige by bringing down the Canadian-market Pontiac Pursuit coupe, which itself is a Chevy Cobalt coupe and perhaps the most blatant case of rebadging we've seen in... at least a couple of months. It was no big deal when the twins were separated by the world's longest unprotected border, but now they'll be forced to share the same lane on the streets of America.

Renamed the G5 to fit with Pontiac's current nomenclature, the base model will be offered with a 148-hp 2.2-liter four-cylinder and the GT with a 173-hp 2.4-liter four-cylinder. The GT comes nicely loaded with 4-wheel disc brakes and ABS, 17-inch aluminum wheels, foglamps and more, though we'll have to wait until this fall to find out if there's anything about the G5's pricing structure that will set it apart from its Cobalt twin. What we'd like to know is if anyone thinks the G5 has a better beak than the Cobalt. We actually think Pontiac's flared nostrils don't look that bad on the Cobalt's beak.

[Source: Inside Line]

We at Autoblog love our eagle-eyed readers. From pointing out any spelling/grammar gaffes in our posts, to sending in cameraphone spyshots unsolicited, our site wouldn't be as good a product as it is without your help. But sometimes, your attention to detail and command of minutia can even scare surprise a jaded bunch like us.

So it is with tipster Neal M, who clearly has way too much free time lives and breathes cars as much as we do. How else to explain the fact that he's pointed out a possible snafu and/or future product teaser in General Motors' new Pontiac G5 microsite on the basis of an extra couple of switches?

Scan the photo above. See anything unusual? Neither did we, at least upon first glance. But as Neal M correctly points out, there's a set of rear window toggles– odd, considering the G5 is only slated to be available as a coupe when it arrives this August.

So what gives? Did GM's people just Photoshop a Pontiac badge on a Chevrolet Cobalt sedan's interior photograph? Or (more likely), did they just use a stock shot of the Canadian-market G5 Pursuit, where the re-schnozzed Cobalt can be had in two or four door configuration? Either way, should anything be divined from this apparent slip-up?

Okay... so it's probably nothing. But we're suckers for a good conspiracy theory.

Click on the photo above for a higher-resolution image, or check out the company's site to see for yourself by following the link below.

[Source: Pontiac]

(Tip-top, Neal M!)

 

The Tribune Chronicle reports that the upcoming Pontiac G5 coupe made its first public debut last week. The coupe, based on the Chevrolet Cobalt, was displayed during the Beatitude House of the Ursuline Sisters fundraiser for disadvantaged women and children. The reaction was reportedly quite positive.

The displayed G5 is a pilot vehicle that General Motors will use to work out any kinks in the new model before it goes on to production next month at the automaker's Lordstown, Ohio plant. The coupe is slotted as an entry-level car for the brand below the G6.

Related post:
Pontiac to get Cobalt-based econobox

[Source: Tribune Chronicle]

Though General Motors has promised to end the exercise of badge engineering in the U.S., our kin over at Autoblog Spanish have found proof the practice is alive and well in Mexico. Meet the Pontiac G3, what is essentially the 2007 Chevy Aveo that will be sold in the U.S. later this year. The Aveo is itself a clone of the Daewoo Gentra.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re not knocking the General for selling a version of the Aveo/Gentra in Mexico under the guise of Pontiac. Just as long as Pontiac dealers in the U.S. don’t start demanding another small car in addition to the Cobalt-based G5 sold in Canada they’re already clamoring for.

[Source: Autoblog Spanish]