GM doing fine at retaining Pontiac owners

[LDM]

From Autoblog: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/10/28/g...ontiac-owners/. I saw a G8 grill so the article caught my attention.

This isn't the first time we've reported positive news about General Motors retaining former Pontiac owners. Get a few more stories like this latest report from Edmund's Auto Observer, and it will mark an ongoing positive trend for GM. Edmunds.com crunched the numbers to see how well the General is hanging on to customers after shutting out the lights at Pontiac, and it found that nearly 40 percent of Pontiac owners stayed with a vehicle from a General Motors brand.

The numbers are a little lower than an earlier R.L. Polk & Company study, but Edmunds says General Motors is keeping more former Pontiac buyers than it has since 2007. Most are turning to vehicles from Chevrolet, especially during January and February of 2011, when GM incentivized Pontiac owners to stay under the umbrella. Those moves seem to have worked, and 28.1 percent of Pontiac owners trading up made the jump into a Bowtie.

Buyers that have gone elsewhere have largely stayed loyal to Domestic automakers, with Ford picking up the most conquests from Pontiac, with 9.4 percent switching. Toyota and Honda picked up 7.4 percent of the pool of former Pontiac drivers. The numbers are defying any predictions that Pontiac buyers would completely exit the General Motors fold, and have climbed up closer to parity with the retention figures of other GM brands from a 2009 low of only 16 percent retention.

Apparently most converts are now going with Ford. Must be all you guys switching to the 5.0 Mustangs.

[Eidolon]

Somehow a 40 percent retention rate seems low... Then again, given the average numbers they discuss, maybe consumers are just depressingly fickle and change car brands like underwear.

[SRG963]

Not me! You drop Pontiac, I drop you.


I just leased a Ford

[wreckwriter]

GM keeps sending me letters trying to get me to buy a Buick. Cold day in hell.

[hartigan85]

GM keeps sending me letters trying to get me to buy a Buick. Cold day in hell.

Yep I get the same letters and they have the nerve to say the new Regal GS FWD POS is comparable to the G8. Maybe if I was 80 years old...on second thought fuck that. lol

[bjhayes]

Yeah... I get those mailings too where they are marketing the Buick's. I just figured they had me confused with my Dad... Cause I know they don't mean me...

[bjhayes]

.....Apparently most converts are now going with Ford. Must be all you guys switching to the 5.0 Mustangs.

I have to say Ford has some nice rides. If I were shopping now I would be hard pressed not to get the 5.0 Mustang. I don't see much of anything at GM right now that makes me go.. Hmmm.. that would be cool.

[Eidolon]

GM keeps sending me letters trying to get me to buy a Buick. Cold day in hell.

Yep I get the same letters and they have the nerve to say the new Regal GS FWD POS is comparable to the G8. Maybe if I was 80 years old...on second thought fuck that. lol

+1 on both counts.

I think it's an artifact of two very dumb things inside GM.

1. Pontiac was part of the Pontiac-Buick-GMC division. So when Pontiac got axed, the division was left trying to sell Buick or GMC vehicles to former Pontiac customers to try to keep their business within the fold. Why those three are grouped together so very separately from Cadillac and Chevrolet, I have no clue. So long as I buy another GM next, it shouldn't matter which actual brand it's from. You've got my information, so spread it around and tailor your marketing to ME! It's almost like they think that only a specific kind of person buys G8's. Which brings us to my second point...
2. They think that only a specific kind of person buys G8's. You guys remember the goofy marketing literature that someone at GM dreamt up, about the ideal G8 buyer? It was some guy in his 40's, with family obligations, who didn't like being cast in the same mold as everyone else, wanted a fun car, and appreciated value! Now despite the fluffy rainbow terms in which it was couched, I'm sure there are quite a few owners on this board that meet that exact description. The trick is that the G8 also had a much broader appeal. I'm not even 30 yet. We also have owners that are over 60. Their target buyer wasn't the exception, but he definitely wasn't the norm. So they need to stop using that old marketing reference point as their starting point for how to get me and everyone else into another GM car. I'm not interested in a car for which the fluffy marketing language would contain the words "50's", "kids", and "college".

[LDM]

Fortunately I don't get the letters trying to get me to buy a Buick, only the ones trying to get me to bring my car in for service. The only new GM cars I would consider getting though would be a Camaro, Corvette, or CTS-V. It's not a coincidence either that my list has only the RWD, V-8 powered cars that GM offers. I agree with the points Kevin made as well. With a car as great as the G8, GM could have done a lot better job of marketing it. And thinking that any Buick could replace it is just crazy. I have no intentions of getting rid of this car anytime soon because there's nothing out there to replace it.

[PaFromFL]

... I have no intentions of getting rid of this car anytime soon because there's nothing out there to replace it.

My thoughts exactly. The trend toward smaller engine displacements is logical, but the sound and torque curve of a 6.0 L V8 is just more entertaining. And it is hard to find a large sedan that handles as well as a G8 without spending twice as much.