Days before and barely hours into his return to GM's salaried-exec payroll, Lutz said GM was going to rebadge the underappreciated, Australia-sourced Pontiac G8 as a Chevrolet Caprice, calling it a car "too good to waste."
The pronouncement flew directly against an earlier thumbs-down verdict about the G8 from Henderson, who said he does not favor rebadging.
Lutz previously had praised the G8's cult status among enthusiasts and said the car's sales were gaining momentum. True enough. But a little perspective from data analysts at Edmunds.com shows what appears to have really generated that momentum: outsized incentives.
It wasn't until the big-time money was on the G8's faux ram-induction hood that its sales numbers began to ratchet up — and even those numbers, fueled by thousands of dollars in high-test incentives — hardly were the stuff that saves distressed divisions.
If Lutz finally saw the numbers, this simple snapshot of the G8's true "demand" — and more important, its ultimate profitability — that quickly led Lutz, on the FastLane blog, to admit, "upon further review and careful study, we simply cannot make a business case for (rebadging the G8 or using it as a law-enforcement fleet vehicle). Not in today's market, in this economy, and with fuel regulations what they are and will be.
"I know that we'll get a lot of complaints from G8 lovers, because I'm one of them," Lutz continued. "And the product guy in me is complaining as loudly as anyone. But the marketing guy says there's no case."
Long before GM confirmed Pontiac would be discontinued and before GM started slathering on incentives, G8 sales were running at a tepid average of about 1,500 per month and for the full year sold a total of 15,002. Its best month last year was April, its first full month on sale, when G8s went to 2,126 buyers. Not the numbers of a car sparking a sensation in the market — at least not a profitable sensation.
Yes, the G8's 2008 sales total assuredly was impacted by the industry sales crash that began in the second half of the year. But assuming the G8's numbers were affected in proportion to the total industry decline, its actual 2008 sales might project to a year of perhaps 22,000 sales.
As for the widely distributed theory that the G8 is just now "catching on" with consumers and gaining momentum, move on its 2009 year-to-date performance. A quick look at Edmunds.com's Total Cost of Incentive demonstrates what's likely responsible for the G8's ballooning sales: as soon as GM radically hiked G8 incentives (by 50 percent or more), sales increased in direct proportion.
In fact, just two months ago in May, Edmunds.com data indicates G8 incentives hit their highest-ever amount ($5,415) for this purportedly "hot" model — almost five times the G8 incentive GM was offering at the same time last year.
Inside Line says: Nobody wants to shut down emotion, but the G8's perceived popularity was profitless — and at least the "new" GM now appears grudgingly willing to admit it. — Bill Visnic, Senior Editor, AutoObserver.com
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richards117 says:
07:21 AM, 03/27/2010
Hay, why not drop Chevy too and make what models aren't already GMC into GMC models and add the Volt and G8ST to the list. Maybe the Vibe to. If the G8ST made it to production it might have taken the Volts place of most interest. The Volts practicality would probably win me over, that's the way things are starting to role. But the Volt is an evolutionary car so why not make it GMC's first car."GMC Energy, professional grade at its best". The Chevy cruze might be something you would stik with Buick. Anyways, I feel the same way about Pontiac as the rest of the world. Pontiacs look great and perform good but something kept them from steeling my attention. Perhapes they needed certain uniqueness like what the Sport Truck would have brought to the company. Pontiac will be mist.