I agree. I can see Pontiac doing very well if they keep the GTO, turn the Grand Prix into a real performance sedan (i.e. RWD and 5 gears), and improve the G6 a little (again, 5 gears would be nice). Combine those cars with the Solstice, and voila! A true, dedicated performance division.

 

the new g6 has been a big letdown as they are advertising it as a canyon carving sport sedan when it is simply a corporate fwd family sedan twin with the corporate family sedan 30 year old ohv engine...notice the g6's price went up very high and their sales are significanly less than the grand am it replaced

 

I think the G6 is a great car in concept. GM has done some great things with their pushrod motors that convinced even myself. But I will agree the specific motor in it is not what it deserves. All they have to do is tighten the suspension, put a 5 speed sportshift transmission, and increase standard HP by about 20, and it's all set to go.

 

The G6 GTP will do all those things. Well I dunno about the sportshift function, but it'll have more power and a firmer suspension.

I personally am no big fan of the G6. It's better than the Grand Am but it's still not up to the standard of the typical Japanese or even Korean family sedans. Just because it's less crappy than the Grand Am, which was an immensely crappy car, doesn't mean it's actually a good car.

 

Having looked at Buick's lineup I think they perhaps are more doomed than Pontiac. Saturn is getting a couple of cool new products in the Aura and Sky. What's Buick got? They have the LaCrosse which is still derived from the old GM10 platform that dates from the late 80s, the Lucerne, and the LeSabre (which I'm pretty sure is about to be replaced with the Lucerne). That's about it. Then there's a rebadged version of GM's neverendingly rebadged minivan, a rebadged version of GM's neverendingly rebadged midsize SUV, and the Rendezvous which is a less-ugly version of the Pontiac Aztek.

So far the only people I can tell that are keeping the Buick brand alive are old people in the midwest. I see tons of Buicks around here in Madison, more than I ever see back home in the DC area. To quote Car & Driver:

Like many GM products, the LaCrosse is far better than the cars it replaces. But the environment keeps changing as the competition advances. Buick took a safe and conservative approach with the LaCrosse, and the result is not a class-leading must-have. Priced from the low 20s to the mid-30s, aside from the front drive that might appeal to a few Snowbelt sufferers, the LaCrosse doesn't have the value or appeal of the 300. GM product czar Bob Lutz probably won't be fielding any calls from Snoop Dogg trying to "get that brand-new LaCrosse up outta you," and that's probably the way Buick loyalists want it. But who is going to buy a LaCrosse when those Buick owners are gone? That trendsetter Tiger Woods?

Even the relatively conservative Ford Five Hundred is managing to get some import intenders to take a look at it. Buick is staying very much in making Buicks, and I think Buick is a brand that has limited appeal. Maybe the Buick ideal is something that can be exported to more people than right now, but not with something that is both a really good car and a really good Buick. But I don't see anything in the future pipeline to indicate otherwise.

 

Well, it appears GM may not be abandoning something like Zeta. Just that Zeta itself was perhaps too expensive:

General Motors is scouring its shelves to find an architecture for its next generation of rear-wheel-drive vehicles.

One option under consideration is something GM executives are calling "Zeta light," a lower-cost version of the Zeta architecture that was supposed to be the basis for a new generation of premium rwd vehicles in North America.

In March, GM put several 2008 vehicle programs in limbo, including a production version of the Buick Velite concept and replacements for the Pontiac GTO and Buick Park Avenue.

GM insiders say Zeta light is one of many rwd proposals floating around the company that use existing platforms and components. Other possibilities include Sigma, the rwd architecture used by Cadillac's sedans and sport wagons; and Kappa, GM's small, sporty rwd car architecture debuting this year with the Pontiac Solstice.

No direction is clear.

The bottom line: GM insiders say they want rwd vehicles, including one in the mold of the Camaro muscle car, which was discontinued in 2002.

"It's something everybody wants to do," one GM insiders says. "We just have to do it right."

Last week GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz told the SAE World Congress in Detroit: "We're going to take another look at high-performance rear-wheel drive. But it's going to be something I call Zeta light."

Jim Hall, an auto analyst for Auto-Pacific Inc. in Southfield, Mich., and a former GM employee, says there is an appetite for high-image, moderately priced vehicles inside GM. But there's a problem.

"The margin is very low on those vehicles," Hall says. "That's not what GM needs right now. What they need is a high-margin home run."

In a recent interview with Automotive News, GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said Sigma could be another option for rwd.

Wagoner said GM could decide to use either a Sigma derivative or a cheaper version of Zeta.

Wagoner said the economics of the derailed Zeta program didn't add up. It was "too expensive for what we wanted to do with it," he said. "This needs to cover a range of price-sensitive segments. The initial designs we saw of Zeta were not what we wanted, so that's where the costs began to come apart."

Wagoner also said rwd cars are "not a massive profit-driver decision in the near term." He added: "We need to do it right. In the scheme of things of what's going to drive the business over the next three or four years, this isn't the most critical item we're looking at."

GM spokesman Pat Morrissey says anything is possible: "We have different, flexible architectures on the shelf that we can look at other options. We're not starting from ground zero."

http://www.autoweek.com/news.cms?newsId=102208

 

i still think that the only way that buick could come back is to re-release an "updated" version of the grand national.

like was said pontiac has alot going for it, buick is really not up on its own game and is losing customers to other brands, (from what i've noticed here in the north east, mainly to Lexus and Acura..)

 

That thought had actually crossed my mind as well.

If Buick were to bring back the Grand National it would have to be a totally unique product. Granted that the Grand National from the 80s was rebadged from the Chevy Monte Carlo, Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Pontiac Grand Prix. But that was accepted back then because of the unique powertrain of the GN, and that created a bit of a reputation which Buick would now have to live up to with a more unique vehicle.

 

i just hope to god they don't just rebadge a G6 or suttin.... ick, possibly a GTO rebadge?

 

would you be surprised? i know i wouldn't. the G6 and GTO, good cars though they may be, aren't exactly turning pontiac's fortunes around either. so i question whether the same philosophy will work with buick. it could be the best car they ever built, but a single great model isn't going to miraculously turn buick into a hot brand again. their reputation has been rusting away for the last twenty years, and as such it needs to be built up again.