A Crazy Canuck

Gm should have dropped Buick instead of Pontiac. Everything Buick makes is a dressed up Chev or dressed down caddy.....what a joke.

Pontiac on the other hand made some cool models, and the v8 powered G8 could have been awesome in a year or two.

GM has lost its way......

A Crazy Canuck

I would add to your question that what options and such come on what models.

For example. I am a huge hater of the Tire Pressure Monitering System. Its just another buggy thing that makes swapping rims suck....
Its not on the 06 or 07, so the 07 would be my choice.
However, they moved the window switches back to the doors in 08, so which is more important to you...?
The Butyl patch, and some other tweaks happened along the way as well, so I guess its hard to pinpoint a winner.

Snoopy

While I agree with you to a certain point, you can't really blame GM for dropping Pontiac. They were losing "tons" of money on the Pontiac line, not to mention certain models. Pontiac sales just did not justify, financially, the continued development.

Side note:....Pontiac was the chosen vehicle line to discontinue before the decision was made to drop the Oldsmobile models. During the lengthly discussion, the GMC Truck Group convinced the Board of Directors, et. al, they could produce positive financial improvements for Pontiac and took the responsibility for the Pontiac group. It DID NOT work, obviously. They continued to lose money.

gerrbear

owned 2 mos....25000kms...barely broke in ..no probs..just getting used to no windows to shoulder check ih traffic

Snoopy

There has been many threads related to this topic and I have posted to those. I'll just say I have a 2006 2lt, have not had any problems that are worth noting......and it is 6 1/2 years old. In comparison to other vehicles that I owned (mostly GM) it's been a great vehicle. The other GM vehicles have also been great vehicles with 2 exceptions....both Pontiac.

ekotecki

I have a 07 LT and a 10 SS. Not one problem with either car. I love them both for different reasons. No door bubbling either on both cars. Basically a cute little retro that is versitle and gives great gas mileage. Who could ask for more!

hyperv6

All I owned before the HHR was mostly Pontiacs and GMC. I grew up and have driven and worked on all the great Pontiacs. I have driven evey year of GTO hammered a 455 SD and drove to school in a 63 GP with a Ram Air IV Tri Power. I still own my Fiero I bought new and have taken one of the top five Ames awards at the Tri power National the largest Pontiac show in the world. I bleed Pontic.

Now for the dirty truth. Pontiac was beyond saving. The so called Performance division only has two cars worth anything and the Solstice needed replaced and was selling as a very low volume. The G8 also was a great car but it sold in such a low volume it could not even come close to saving Pontiac.

The Vibe G6, G4 and G3 all were a mess. The G6 was a much worse version of the Malibu. The G4 was a better looking over priced Cobalt and the G3 was
a Aveo and do I need to say anything more.

The G6 was not a performance car, The G4 never offer a Turbo the G3 well. Even the Vibe was far from a perfomance car. So other than two vehicles all you had were some fancy over priced Chevys and one Toyota. The Torrent should have been a GMC anyways.

The only reason they did not kill Buick too is China plain and simple. If not for China Buick would have gone with Pontiac.

GM is turning around Chevy and moving Cadillac up. THe ATS is the first of the true new Cadillacs. The CTS will move up higher and the LTS will be the big buck RWD flagship. Once Cadillac moves up Buick will have room to expand to take on the likes of Acura and Lexus. GM just needs time as they do not have enough staff to do it all at once nor do they have the kind of money it takes to do it all at once.

The bottom line GM had too many models and was going to finally go Global. In the end the two Pontiacs that really mattered will still be with us in the Chevy Super Sport sedan and the GMC Terrain.

The first thing to consider with Pontiac is you can save it with your heart but you can's save it on paper.

As for years for best HHR. Generall the last 2-3 years tend to always be the best models of any make. At this point most issues have been adressed to the point that they have done all they will do. The first year is always the most troubled. The new cars like the Cruze and most of the new Buicks have been trouble free since they are being released a year early overseas. They sort them out there and then give them to us. The overseas markets are a little more forgiving. Where you you think Honda and Toyota sort out there cars first.

Overall the HHR faired well since it was on the proven Delta platform and only had a few issues due to the special nature of the HHR. Most have been addressed.

ThatChevy

Like Snoopy and hyperv6 said there is reasons why Buick made it and Pontiac didn't. The fact that Buick is a big seller in China was one and the fact that Pontiac sales were sluggish was another. While the G8 was a great car it wasn't exactly cheap to make, which is why it carried a higher price tag. The car was built in Australia and it's not cheap to export cars from there. It's also the reason why the Caprice PPV isn't doing so well either. A lot of departments are required to purchase vehicles manufactured in North America. So unless they move production from Australia they lose a lot of potential customers. Buick makes a dressed up Chevy or dressed down Caddy because that is where GM has put them. It's the entry level luxury brand. Also look at the Pontiac line up before they were discontinued. The G5 was a Cobalt, the G3 was a Aveo, the G6 was a Malibu, the Torrent was a Equinox. Other than the Solstice and the G8 all Pontiac's were at the end was re-badged Chevy's and even the Solstice had the Saturn Sky as an alternative option. In the end GM saw Buick as the more profitable brand and that's the reason why it's still around and Pontiac isn't.

Snoopy

We are way off the OP's intended topic, BUT.......

And do not forget, and depending on who is speaking, 60-70% of vehicles sales are NOT North America (might as well say the US. It's the way most people think).

But you may be better reviewing the related threads on this forum and completing a spreadsheet for your decision making.....if the OP every returns to review the answers he received over the last 4 days ( he hasn't been back to the forum since posting this thread....and it was his first one in over a year)

hyperv6

GM kept Buick as since they kept it in China it makes it cheaper and eaiser to keep it here. The work is done on these cars by Opel< Buick and Buick of China. Once you build them for the Chinese market its much less of a cost to put them here in NA as most of the money invested in them is recouped in China already. Even at a low volume these cars are making money here. Now if there were no China sales to help cover cost Buick would have been gone for sure.

Buick is not a fancy Chevy it is a rebaged and slightly reworked Opel Infact it is a better car than the Opel in Luxury and quiet. All their cars were Buicks or Opels before they were Chevys.

The closest is the Verano which is based on the Delta 2 and it is twice the car the Cruze is. It also was an Opel first and has been sold overseas already for a few years. The Malbu is the same thing. It is based on the Regal that is really an Opel.

We have to remeber GM is now using global platforms and most of what they sell here is going overseas too.

Take a look at the Holden web site and it is just a rebadged Chevy with the Cruze Malibu Colorado etc. They do also have the RWD VF sedan buyt Chevy is getting that here too. The next Camaro on the Alpha will also go global. Chevy is now sold world wide and what we have here will be sold most everywhere like Honda and Toyota.