At the time this was sent out, Dunne suggested a caption that said the Aztec was representative of GM's growing problems.
One year after Pontiac dealers permanently closed on 31 October 2010, General Motors has managed to maintain or increase the loyalty rate of Pontiac owners, according to by Edmunds.com.
Edmunds found that 39.9% of Pontiac owners who traded in for a new vehicle this year opted for a GM vehicle. This retention rate is eight-percentage-points greater than GM’s retention rate in 2010, and represents the highest retention rate since 2007, when the rate was also 39.9%.
This year, GM’s Chevrolet brand has been most successful in retaining former Pontiac owners, with 28.1% of them choosing Chevy as their new brand.
Edmunds said in a release that analysis shows that Chevy sales to former Pontiac owners was particularly strong in January and February of this year when GM used aggressive incentives to retain old customers and conquest new ones.
“Any time a manufacturer shuts down a brand, there’s a concern buy clonazepam that its consumers will shift loyalties to another company,” says Michelle Krebs, senior analyst at Edmunds.com. “General Motors took a calculated risk that it could retain Pontiac drivers under its umbrella, and the gamble appears to have paid off – with even more success than they enjoyed in previous years when Pontiac was still an option for returning customers.”
Ford has been the most successful outside brand to conquest Pontiac owners this year. An estimated 9.4% of former Pontiac switched to Ford in 2011, but the rate is down from last year’s reported 12.4%. Honda and Toyota have each managed to conquest an estimated 7.4% of Pontiac customers, which is for both brands a lower rate than last year.
When Edmunds’ AutoObserver.com first reported Pontiacs impending demise in 2009teh percentage of people who traded their Pontiac for another Pontiac was 16%, while 50% of GM car owners at the time traded in their vehicle for another GM model. Pontiac public relations people were unavailable for comment.
