I made a blog post a couple days back about GM and their stable of cool cars which may have been too optimstic, or too soon – as GM has just revealed the fate of two of their biggest superstars, the Pontiac G8 and Pontiac Solstice. While these two cars have been applauded by enthusiasts for being a huge part of the force that will turn GM’s reputation for making cheap American cars around, the people at the top have decided that the company will do better without them.

No one is really surprised that the Solstice will not be made again, but it doesnt seem like they have any reason to cut future production of the G8 so soon (the manual version has not even hit the streets yet). It was plain to see that GM did not want their new V8 powered monster to fall into the same trap as the GTO; an awesome car that looked too plain and had too little public exposure. From the start, they had a marketing campaign that filled magazines and televisions with advertising. The car still looks fairly pedestrian but it has a number of vents and flares that make it just aggressive enough. So what went wrong anyways?

Of course, at the heart of the problem lies sales. The rough economic time that we are going through right now combined with the high price of energy really means that all manufacturers are likely to begin scaling back production of “non essential” cars. People are obviously not buying up the G8’s fast enough for dealerships to present good numbers, despite the loving reactions that it got from enthusiasts.

Everyone loves to scream and moan about car companies not producing X car in the US, but no one would actually buy them if they came here. It’s pretty easy to sit at home and post on an internet forum about how you would buy a Ford Focus RS instantly if Ford decided to start selling it in here. The reality is… you wouldn’t… or you can’t. It’s pretty competitive to be a major auto manufacturer in the US, so your prices cannot be too high. Low margin & high volume is probably the most profitable mantra for American auto sales – just look at Toyota. Not a single car that would cause you to look twice, yet they have climbed to one be one of the top three marques.

It’s pretty unfortunate, but there is just not enough of a “real” demand around this part of the world for these fun cars to survive.