My wife went to Dominican Republic with her girlfriends (MILF fest) so I was able to play in a Texas Holdem tournament in some rich dudes 6 car garage Friday night. In the garage along with the poker tables, mounted satellite tv and fridge is a 2008 BMW 650i coupe (about 85k with options) . I took a good look at it, especially the interior. I walked away knowing it can outperform our Bonny;*- but I truly felt that our Bonny'* were every bit as good and maybe even better in some categories and that I would select the Bonny for day to day driving over the BMW.

Why did GM (prior to BK) dump what truly was the best in its fleet (some may say the CTS/DTS were better- but my buddy had a CTS and it was in the shop more than he could stand and dumped it after 3 years).

Because GM has been known to make stupid decisions

What he said. Pontiac was a great name, and will always be known for it'* sportiness. Even the luxury cars screamed sporty.

They were also very "driver orientated". The interiors are setup to be immediately accessible to the driver with the radio and HVAC controls angled towards the driver, the HUD is also something for the driver first mindset.

Because they did not sell well. In an era where GM was putting 400+ ponies under the hood on multiple Caddy offerings there would at least be something for the Pontiac sedans. Sigh but there were no upgrades.

Not an easy answer.
Some idiot think tank at Pontiac thought they would get better recognition/fare better with import competition by killing the age old name badges and replacing them with Letter/Number designations. I bet these guys also coined Obama'* "Change" campaign buzzword. At the same time Pontiac was hemorrhaging worse than the other brands, not because of lack of sales as some would flippantly spit out. But because it couldn't produce the vehicles at a profit. (Look around you driving,.... Pontiac'* everywhere) So the Bonneville got a little time off while they firmed up plans to let Holden and it'* existing tooling make the G8 rather than go the expense of starting from scratch. The 2005 Bonneville had ran its course in modern "generation" lifespan.

In the end when GM was forced to close Brands. Pontiac was first on the chopping block. As mentioned, it was because the Pontiac Hierarchy could not produce cars at a profit. It had nothing to do with appeal,demand or sales. Bottom Line. The Pontiac team repeatedly dropped the ball by not being able to profitably produce.

Edit..... The term flippantly was Not directed at 95SLE. I was writing my post before he replied. It'* just I have heard that reason alot and figures show Pontiac did as well or better than other GM brands. Profit or Die. Way it is, way it goes.

Not a problem Venom. I was referring to the Bonneville only. The decline in sales was a major factor to its demise. The 3800 was on its last legs and the Northstar offering in 04 and 05 did not have the HP other GM brands were offering. The LS6 in a Bonneville would have been nice. Although I doubt the G Body would support the engine. Only 12,000 sold in 05 is a pretty low number.

Who told you that number. Let me guess. His Initials are W W ???

2005 SE'* Found 14,680 vehicles matching your year and model in our database.
2005 SLE'* Found 2,999 vehicles matching your year and model in our database.
2005 GXP'* Found 4,193 vehicles matching your year and model in our database.

Survey says......21,872 2005 Bonnevilles sold. Yes, I am that good. hehehe

Nope, HeHe


Got it off of Wikipedia,SP,

I also saw a number of 110,000 units sold for 1992.

IDK can a manufacture of cars for the masses stay in business with 25K sales a year?

But the numbers were much larger for the Gram Am And GP. Pontiac slowly killed the Bonnevile over its last ten years. It tried to keep up woth Buick and Caddy Divisions. And in the end how many people with $40,000 are going to go Pontiac. It hadn't been thought of as even a mid luxury car since the late ? "50'*.

I pulled then figures from Comp 9. http://www.compnine.com/ "Comp Nine, the number one resource for GM parts and exploded diagrams. We have thousands of exploded diagrams and millions of images to help you locate the right part for your vehicle." They have an individual VIN number for every car in their databse to back their stats. Great place to find info about any GM car. Put in your VIN number and your build sheet including RPO'* will come up. With how many of your models were made for the year. And how many just like yours. An an incredible diagram database. William J Collier did aot of the info'ing for Wikipedia/Bonneville. So ya,..... WW was pretty right on....... Mr. "GM Insider"