RIP: Bonneville

Right, Pontiac is killing the Bonneville. Pontiac and GM cite the reason of, "shifts in consumer tastes." That's right. As in shifting away from liking suck.

You know, we had planned to do big ol' "predictions" for 2005. But then it snowed and we just haven't gotten over that. We also had a contest here involving many, many beers. Simon won.

We still think:

Sales up for: Imports, Same or less for domestic.
Gas will hit near $3 in summer (anything over $2.70 counts!)
Hybrid sales will level off or go slightly higher
Cost of hybrid will go higher

Saturn is going to be hurtin'
Lincoln is going to have their worst year, ever. Ever, ever.
Phaeton will be killed
Jaguar will expand line of cars but sales will be lower and it will diminish brand. Hey Jaguar, kill off the X-type and hire a slick marketing guy to boost XJ sales, it's a great car.

Honda will continue to rock, Toyota will continue to be perfect but make snoozy cars and Subarus will get more and more expensive (and better looking). We're not sure what Nissan is doing but they are doing it better than Detroit.

And, finally, Pontiac will kill off the GTO because of poor sal... uh, it's a crappy ca... uh, shifting consumer tastes.

Thanks to all our fellow car bloggers for mentioning the Bonneville's demise before we managed to mention it.

Comments

[Matt]

The question is can SKY save Saturn?
http://www.saturn.com/saturn/showroom/future_vehicles/sky.jsp?nav=710&flashOK=yes