Why? Because the most affordable rear wheel drive sports sedan on the market in the United States is no longer being sold.

The Pontiac G8 was released in the US market in March 2008. Motoring critics praised its value, excellent performance and build quality, often characterising it as a half the price BMW 550i. After the elimination of the Pontiac brand in April 2009 as a part of GM restructuring, fans and supporters of the G8 have been calling for it to be retained somewhere in the GM product range.

A recent post by Bob Lutz on the GM Fastlane blog announced that GM would no longer be considering the Pontiac G8 for a place in its line-up. There had been some talk of rebadging the Pontiac as a Chevrolet Caprice, but due to marketing concerns, the car that was, according to Lutz, “too good to waste” will be going to waste.

This is a car that Lutz himself has supported, one that he claims to be in love with. One that he thinks is a great product, from “a tremendous RWD team in Australia”. A little over a week ago he seemed determined to find a place for this excellent car somewhere within the GM product range. Now it seems that it would be too hard.

Lutz makes reference to fuel regulations in the list of things that are preventing the potential rebadging of the G8, but goes on to assure fans that GM is still committed to the rear wheel drive layout, citing the Corvette, Camaro and Cadillac ranges as evidence. This appears to be somewhat of a contradiction, given that all of those examples offer comparable, and in some cases larger, engine packages.

Speaking of contradiction, in a recent online discussion with automotive media, GM CEO Fritz Henderson stated that he is against the move to retain the G8 in any capacity, saying “I’m not a fan of rebadging”, while going on to say that he believes GMC (a division whose range is essentially made up of rebadged Chevrolet trucks and vans) has a bright future because they are able to differentiate their models from the Chevrolet offerings.

According to GM sales figures for 2008 and the first half of 2009 over 30,000 G8’s were sold in the first 16 months it was on sale, not bad figures for a completely new model in the midst of a financial crisis. I can’t help but think that if GM put some effort into rebranding and marketing the G8, they’d have a real success on their hands. They’ve done all the hard work of preparing it for the U.S market, but in deciding not to use it, all that time and money is simply wasted.

Consumer market aside, the possible law enforcement applications that Bob Lutz seemed so enthusiastic about could be very profitable. The discontinuation of the staple police cruiser, the severely outdated Ford Crown Victoria (which was pulling in something like 60,000 sales for Ford annually), has left a huge void, one that the G8 could easily fill. Other markets already use them as police cars (Holden Commodores in Australia and Chevrolet Luminas in Saudi Arabia), so most of the investment and legwork has already been done. A Pontiac G8 based LAPD prototype was even built here in Melbourne to prove the point.

Call me crazy, but I think if you have a good value product that customers want and critics praise, whose sales are steadily increasing, then it makes good business sense to continue selling it. Especially if that model fills a niche that nothing else in the GM range does by providing a powerful, sporty, affordable, rear wheel drive sedan.

What else do you do if you want 4 doors and rear wheel drive with a bit of performance for under $30,000 in the US?

Related posts:

1. Police Lamborghini Written Off