GM took Pontiac off life-support Monday. Odds are this is just a waystation to an even smaller General Motors. The General Motors we’ll likely see, whether in 2010 or in 2015, may be GM’s two extremes: Chevrolet in the mass market, Cadillac at the high end. Everything else is a goner. The impact on the future of cars, particularly life-saving technologies such as OnStar, will be minimal. GM gets credit – lots of it – for pioneering OnStar and putting it in every vehicle, and for driving down the cost of driver safety aids to half the cost of what you may for the same thing in a European luxury sedan. GM’s action Monday seems to substantiate the whispers of the 1950s that grew to a crescendo by the 1990s: Chevrolet, Pontiac (gone by 2010), Oldsmobile (R.I.P. 2004), Buick, and Cadillac were more alike than different under the skin. Here’s my projection for the newer, leaner GM:
Buick is next to go. When imports were only a nuisance factor and many buyers remained GM people or Ford people all their lives, there was a progression: Start with a Chevrolet, then move up through Pontiac to Oldsmobile and Buick and finally at the pinnacle of your career, to Cadillac (so long as your boss hadn’t stopped at Buick). Buick is no longer an almost-Cadillac but another soft-riding brand with aging demographics and not much mindshare in the critical markets such as California. Industry analyst Maryann Keller says dropping Buick focuses GM’s attention where it should be: One mass market brand, one luxury brand. Just like Toyota and Lexus.
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