Pontiac's Vibe not as hot as hoped
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HC Racer H5
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From: KCK
Pontiac's Vibe not as hot as hoped
October 14, 2002
BY MATT NAUMAN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Closer to lukewarm than hot, the Fremont, Calif.-built Pontiac Vibe sport wagon resides in an uncertain spot in the automotive marketplace.
On sale since January and marketed as a new, hipper Pontiac, the Vibe hasn't captured the public's fancy as the VW New Beetle, Chrysler PT Cruiser and Mini Cooper have done in recent years. Those cars, at least at first arrival, generated gawkers on the street and waiting lists and window-sticker mark-ups in dealer showrooms.
Admittedly, precious few new cars get that kind of buzz.
The Vibe, built at New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., the General Motors-Toyota joint-venture plant in Fremont, has enjoyed solid, but unspectacular, sales success. So far this year, Pontiac's 2,800 dealers have sold slightly more than 20,000 Vibes priced from $16,900 to $23,000. That's less than some other new cars and trucks, such as the Mitsubishi Lancer, Saturn Vue and direct rival Toyota Matrix, but more than some others, such as the Mini Cooper and the Ford Thunderbird.
"I wouldn't say it's a huge success," said John Moore, owner of Moore Buick-Pontiac-GMC in Los Gatos, Calif., of the Vibe. "By the same token, it's not an Aztek either." (That vehicle, an ungainly sport-utility, has come to be seen as this generation's Edsel.)
Moore said his store is selling between two to five Vibes each month. "If the thing said Toyota on it, we'd be selling 25 to 50 a month," he said. "Unfortunately, people haven't discovered it yet." edit: even with 0% financing and huge rebates its way behind
Pontiac executives predicted first-year Vibe sales of 42,000. Projecting Vibe sales for the last four months (September-December) of 2002 based on the sales pace of the previous four months (May-August), 35,000 seems a more likely final tally.
"We are on track with what we expected to sell at this point in time," said Linda Pesonen, the Vibe's marketing director. "And we're on track for the year."
Next year, GM officials predict, Vibe sales will grow to 60,000 units. That would require Vibe sales to grow 25 percent from the current pace.
Other numbers tell the Vibe story as well:
GM began offering customer incentives on the Vibe for the first time in September. Buyers can get either $1,500 cash or cut-rate financing when they buy a Vibe through Oct. 31. The incentives are a reflection of what GM is offering across-the-board on its 2003 models vs. a disappointment with Vibe sales, said Pontiac spokeswoman Kelly Wysocki.
Rather than just focusing on numbers, Pesonen said the Vibe has changed the image of Pontiac, especially among younger, import-oriented buyers.
"What we found is that 25 percent of the buyers buying a Vibe had not considered a Pontiac in the past five years. And when they purchased the Vibe, their opinion has significantly improved of the division," she said. "So Vibe is really helping, not only bringing buyers into Pontiac that haven't been here before but they're really helping to shape the opinion of Pontiac."
Pontiac has tried to connect the Vibe with young car buyers by doing things like suspending a Vibe over the stage at the recent "Big Freakin' Deal" concert in Seattle that featured P. Diddy, O-Town and Avril Lavigne.
But the car has attracted a less hip following, too. It was a prize -- along with an autographed Mike Piazza catcher's mitt -- when Carmelite nuns in Holladay, Utah, held their annual carnival in September. And, according to a Chicago newspaper, actor Timothy Mooney drives his new Vibe cross-country as he performs his one-man show, "Moliere Than Thou," in various locales.
Those shopping the Vibe, which earned Consumer Reports magazine's coveted "recommended" rating in August, also are considering small SUVs such as the Ford Escape, Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V, Pesonen said. The Vibe, and the mechanically identical Toyota Matrix, are among the forerunners of the growing segment of small, tall wagons such as the Ford Focus ZX5, Suzuki Aerio and Mazda Protege5.
The Vibe was seen as a good value by its first wave of buyers, Pesonen said.
"They saw surprising value. Even more interesting was, the more money they made, the more value they saw in the Vibe. They expected to pay more for what they got," she said.
But price might be one of the reasons that the Matrix is outselling the Vibe by almost a two to one margin (37,998 vs. 20,029).
The Vibe is between $600 and $2,500 more expensive than the Matrix equivalent. Much of the difference can be traced to the global economy that makes building cars cheaper in Canada than in the United States right now.
An entry-level Vibe, with its 130-horsepower, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual transmission, has a base price of $16,900. Toyota is selling the base Matrix for $15,100. The price difference, coupled with Toyota's superior quality reputation, have made the Matrix more successful than the Vibe, although the cars have identical platforms, engines and transmissions.
One analyst, Wes Brown of NexTrend in Thousand Oaks, Calif., praises the Vibe as "very attractive" and "pretty cool-looking," but he wonders if that's enough to attract many more buyers into a Pontiac showroom.
"The biggest obstacle is the overall Pontiac brand image," he said. Pontiac's other vehicles, including the Grand Am, Grand Prix and Bonneville cars, the Montana minivan and the Aztek sport-utility are "very domestic in their execution, their styling.
"If you're 25 to 30 years old, and you've got some money, and you're trendy, you're not going to domestic brands at all," Brown said. "That's the Vibe's potentially biggest hurdle."
BY MATT NAUMAN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Closer to lukewarm than hot, the Fremont, Calif.-built Pontiac Vibe sport wagon resides in an uncertain spot in the automotive marketplace.
On sale since January and marketed as a new, hipper Pontiac, the Vibe hasn't captured the public's fancy as the VW New Beetle, Chrysler PT Cruiser and Mini Cooper have done in recent years. Those cars, at least at first arrival, generated gawkers on the street and waiting lists and window-sticker mark-ups in dealer showrooms.
Admittedly, precious few new cars get that kind of buzz.
The Vibe, built at New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., the General Motors-Toyota joint-venture plant in Fremont, has enjoyed solid, but unspectacular, sales success. So far this year, Pontiac's 2,800 dealers have sold slightly more than 20,000 Vibes priced from $16,900 to $23,000. That's less than some other new cars and trucks, such as the Mitsubishi Lancer, Saturn Vue and direct rival Toyota Matrix, but more than some others, such as the Mini Cooper and the Ford Thunderbird.
"I wouldn't say it's a huge success," said John Moore, owner of Moore Buick-Pontiac-GMC in Los Gatos, Calif., of the Vibe. "By the same token, it's not an Aztek either." (That vehicle, an ungainly sport-utility, has come to be seen as this generation's Edsel.)
Moore said his store is selling between two to five Vibes each month. "If the thing said Toyota on it, we'd be selling 25 to 50 a month," he said. "Unfortunately, people haven't discovered it yet." edit: even with 0% financing and huge rebates its way behind
Pontiac executives predicted first-year Vibe sales of 42,000. Projecting Vibe sales for the last four months (September-December) of 2002 based on the sales pace of the previous four months (May-August), 35,000 seems a more likely final tally.
"We are on track with what we expected to sell at this point in time," said Linda Pesonen, the Vibe's marketing director. "And we're on track for the year."
Next year, GM officials predict, Vibe sales will grow to 60,000 units. That would require Vibe sales to grow 25 percent from the current pace.
Other numbers tell the Vibe story as well:
GM began offering customer incentives on the Vibe for the first time in September. Buyers can get either $1,500 cash or cut-rate financing when they buy a Vibe through Oct. 31. The incentives are a reflection of what GM is offering across-the-board on its 2003 models vs. a disappointment with Vibe sales, said Pontiac spokeswoman Kelly Wysocki.
Rather than just focusing on numbers, Pesonen said the Vibe has changed the image of Pontiac, especially among younger, import-oriented buyers.
"What we found is that 25 percent of the buyers buying a Vibe had not considered a Pontiac in the past five years. And when they purchased the Vibe, their opinion has significantly improved of the division," she said. "So Vibe is really helping, not only bringing buyers into Pontiac that haven't been here before but they're really helping to shape the opinion of Pontiac."
Pontiac has tried to connect the Vibe with young car buyers by doing things like suspending a Vibe over the stage at the recent "Big Freakin' Deal" concert in Seattle that featured P. Diddy, O-Town and Avril Lavigne.
But the car has attracted a less hip following, too. It was a prize -- along with an autographed Mike Piazza catcher's mitt -- when Carmelite nuns in Holladay, Utah, held their annual carnival in September. And, according to a Chicago newspaper, actor Timothy Mooney drives his new Vibe cross-country as he performs his one-man show, "Moliere Than Thou," in various locales.
Those shopping the Vibe, which earned Consumer Reports magazine's coveted "recommended" rating in August, also are considering small SUVs such as the Ford Escape, Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V, Pesonen said. The Vibe, and the mechanically identical Toyota Matrix, are among the forerunners of the growing segment of small, tall wagons such as the Ford Focus ZX5, Suzuki Aerio and Mazda Protege5.
The Vibe was seen as a good value by its first wave of buyers, Pesonen said.
"They saw surprising value. Even more interesting was, the more money they made, the more value they saw in the Vibe. They expected to pay more for what they got," she said.
But price might be one of the reasons that the Matrix is outselling the Vibe by almost a two to one margin (37,998 vs. 20,029).
The Vibe is between $600 and $2,500 more expensive than the Matrix equivalent. Much of the difference can be traced to the global economy that makes building cars cheaper in Canada than in the United States right now.
An entry-level Vibe, with its 130-horsepower, 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine and a five-speed manual transmission, has a base price of $16,900. Toyota is selling the base Matrix for $15,100. The price difference, coupled with Toyota's superior quality reputation, have made the Matrix more successful than the Vibe, although the cars have identical platforms, engines and transmissions.
One analyst, Wes Brown of NexTrend in Thousand Oaks, Calif., praises the Vibe as "very attractive" and "pretty cool-looking," but he wonders if that's enough to attract many more buyers into a Pontiac showroom.
"The biggest obstacle is the overall Pontiac brand image," he said. Pontiac's other vehicles, including the Grand Am, Grand Prix and Bonneville cars, the Montana minivan and the Aztek sport-utility are "very domestic in their execution, their styling.
"If you're 25 to 30 years old, and you've got some money, and you're trendy, you're not going to domestic brands at all," Brown said. "That's the Vibe's potentially biggest hurdle."
Wannabe yuppie
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 25,918
Likes: 0
From: Madison, WI
They need to get rid of the damn two-tone paintjob. It ain't supposed to be no Subaru Outback.
OK, I just looked at Pontiac's site and it's available without the two-tone crap. For an extra $325! They should completely erradicate the two-tone like Toyota realized after the first model year of the new RAV4. And fer chrissakes show some color in the commercials other than that nasty metallic maroon with dark grey trim. That's not smooth-looking at all.
OK, I just looked at Pontiac's site and it's available without the two-tone crap. For an extra $325! They should completely erradicate the two-tone like Toyota realized after the first model year of the new RAV4. And fer chrissakes show some color in the commercials other than that nasty metallic maroon with dark grey trim. That's not smooth-looking at all.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 37,274
Likes: 0
From: Southern NH
I think part of the problem is Pontiac's brand image. The images of Toyota conjour up high resale value, reliability and quality. Pontiac, just like the rest of GM, has suffered in all three of those areas for nearly thirty years.
It's Pontiac's own fault, if you ask me. Personally, I think the Vibe looks better, but neither of them look particularly good. Their engine choices aren't that great either, even though they may look good on paper.
I have seen many Matrixes' (Matrixi?), but have yet to spot a Vibe on the street.
It's Pontiac's own fault, if you ask me. Personally, I think the Vibe looks better, but neither of them look particularly good. Their engine choices aren't that great either, even though they may look good on paper.
I have seen many Matrixes' (Matrixi?), but have yet to spot a Vibe on the street.
lots and lots of fail
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 23,004
Likes: 1
From: Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeetroit
I'd buy the Toyo over the Pontiac version, even though I hate Toyota. The Toyota will have better resale value in 5 years, you watch. Someone go to edmunds.com and find out the depreciation percentage for each.
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 2,523
Likes: 0
From: Frisco, Texas
Originally posted by Jeff TYPE R
When it looks like this:
it can't sell that much. That and no one wants say, "I drive a Pontiac".
When it looks like this:
it can't sell that much. That and no one wants say, "I drive a Pontiac".