Michigan wllz

Looks like GM is about to return to some of its old ways. It’s about to kill one of its best cars.
With the closing of the Pontiac shop, several models – such as the Solstice and G6 – will find themselves on the scrapheap. Right now, it looks like the G8 might meet the same fate.
But the Pontiac G8 is and should be different, mainly because it’s one of GM’s best cars, a budget-friendly executive express that would not be out of place in a competition with a BMW 5-Series. Seriously. It’s that good.
With the G8, GM finally showed it’s ability to leverage its global resources. The G8 is essentially an Americanized version of the Holden Commodore, made by the company’s Australian affiliate. The G8 was engineered Down Under and is produced there. Interestingly, there are reports that Holden will lose $1 billion if GM kills the car.
Despite that, the company’s U.S. executives have been rather hostile regarding the G8’s future.
New Chairman Fritz Henderson says he is “not a fan of rebadging” – never mind that GM has based much of its business model over the last three decades on the practice. Susan Docherty, head of Buick-Pontiac-GMC, said during an Internet press conference concerning the new LaCrosse that Buick would not take castoffs from Pontiac.
“We will develop a robust portfolio for Buick utilizing the best premium global platforms and architecture available … however that doesn’t mean that a rebadge of a Pontiac is appropriate for Buick.”
Look guys, you’ve got a car that is near the beginning of its life cycle, one that has been compared favorably to cars costing 10s of thousands of dollars more. It could work as a Buick – sort of the way Lexus offers the sport sedan IS next to its more elegant ES sedan. Or I could see it with a Chevy Bowtie badge. All depends how the marketers think they can best pitch the car.
It strikes me that what might going on is GM’s new guard is trying to stick it to the old. GM product czar Bob Lutz will retire later this year after a successful run where he helped improve virtually every product in GM’s fleet. The G8 was one of his projects.
In fact, one of the first things he did when he arrived at GM was to bring over another Holden to be sold as the resurrected GTO. He figured that Pontiac – GM’s performance division – needed a car with some firepower, so he found one lurking in Down Under. That car was not successful here because it wasn’t engineered for the U.S. But with the G8, Lutz was able to be involved in the project from the beginning. So this car has his fingerprints all over it.
I’d love to hear what Lutz thinks about what the company is doing to one of his prized projects.
Here’s what you can do. Let GM know that you want it to continue to sell this car as a Buick.
E-mail Dayna Hart at dayna.hart@gm.com

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f76/please-save-g8-gt-u-s-market-via-chevrolet-rebadge-78502/