Hail and farewell Pontiac

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - The recent announcement that General Motors Corp. will phase out its storied Pontiac brand came as a surprise to consumers and car dealers alike, but the managers of two local dealerships are saying that customers shouldn't expect to see any immediate changes.

General Motors CEO, Fritz Henderson, attributed the cancellation of the line, which was commonly referred to as General Motors "excitement brand," to a combination of plummeting sales and the corporation's desire to streamline operations as it prepares to become a much leaner, government-owned company.

According to published reports, in the end of 1991, General Motors had 304,000 hourly workers in the United States and by the end of 2010 it stands to have about 40,000. The reduction plan also includes cutting dealerships by 42 percent by 2010 and eliminating 21,000 hourly jobs in the United States over the next two years.

Although he admitted that Monday's announcement came as a shock, Mike Oleksak, sales manager for Northampton's Burke-Whitaker Pontiac-Cadillac-GMC on King Street, said the writing was already on the wall.

"There was some talk and rumors about cutting Pontiac way back," Oleksak said. "Eliminating the brand will definitely have a bit of an impact on us, but we will just have to adapt accordingly and make some necessary adjustments."

Oleksak said one of the reasons GM chose to cut Pontiac, as opposed to other GM brands, is because it sells fewer cars and has a larger number of divisions and models than the company's other options.

"(General Motors) wouldn't have cut Chevrolet because that is the largest of our brands, and people seem to still want Buicks and Cadillacs, so it came down to our Pontiac line," Oleksak said.

Also ready to change his business plan to compensate for the cancellation is Donald F. Pion, owner of Bob Pion Pontiac-Buick-GMC on Memorial Drive in Chicopee, who said he didn't think the corporation would have committed to phasing out the brand if it hadn't been completely necessary.

"They had a lot of fun and exciting cars, but it had been a while since the division had been profitable," Pion said. "Keeping it just wasn't in the cards."

The Pontiac brand featured sought-after models such as the GTO, Trans Am, Bonneville, Grand Am, Sunfire and Catalina.

Although he expects the discontinuation will have an immediate impact on sales, Pion said GM will likely add special inducements to coax car buyers into considering a Pontiac.

"General Motors is going to continue to offer incentives as a way of selling off the inventory that is still on the ground," Pion said.

"The company will just have to offer a deal that is so good that customers can't say no, which I think they will do."

Another concern Pion expects car shoppers to have when considering buying a Pontiac will be the availability of spare parts and warranties, something Pion said will not be a problem.

"Pontiacs are still going to be around for a while," Pion said. "Parts are not going to be an issue. We are committed to supplying parts, and the warranties will definitely be there. I suspect we will be selling used Pontiacs for years to come."

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.