Because of Chrysler Bankruptcy, Pontiac Concerns Abound

Now that Chrysler is busy in court fighting bankruptcy and because General Motors is currently slashing its operations because it running dangerously low on cash, the owners and also the potential buyers of General Motors are very nervous about the thought of their warranties still being good after some time. If only to appease them for the time being, they are covered for the meantime.

Car Warranty Concerns

Questions have been raised regarding Pontiac warranties over the fact that General Motors is dumping this brand. Currently, the owners of these cars are still covered – but only for a short time. Last Friday, a judge that was overseeing the bankruptcy filing of Chrysler also approved the request of the company to continue with its funding of the warranty programs for all the existing cars and trucks out there. If there were no more warranties, according to Chrysler, it will then be harder for their cars to sell – both in the showroom of Chrysler itself and also for their many dealers all over the country. Meanwhile, the Pontiac (which has been in existence for over eight three years) is now seeing the end of their journey sometime in the latter part of the coming year. General Motors used to hope that they can maintain the Pontiac by packaging it as a niche brand – but the collapse in car sales last year (as well as the over-reliance of some people on SUVs and also light trucks) left them with no other choice but to force big cutbacks in order to keep them from going totally broke.

The End of the Line

This brand had been enjoying their heydays ever since the 1960s – a time when cheap prices in gas and innovative engine design had introduced a new year of muscle cars that were high in performance. Among these include the Firebird, Grand Prix and the GTO. During the seventies, Pontiac was able to maintain the success of the brand thanks to the Grand Am and also the Trans Am models. However, the brand had also witnessed a steady decline during the eighties and the nineties and General Motors had not been able to recover from it. The previous year also showed that the market share of Pontiac had slipped down to two point one percent. This was down from the three point one percent back in 2002 based on the industry tracking company Edmunds.com.

But the brand entered a steady decline in the '80s and '90s, and GM was never able to get it back on track. Last year, Pontiac's market share slid to 2.1 percent — down from 3.1 percent in 2002, according to industry tracking firm Edmunds.com. However, Pontiac is not the only one that will be abandoned on the curve – GM also said that the focus of the company will be on the Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet and the Buick.