The Last Pontiac

We delivered a Pontiac to a very nice couple on Saturday and something happened.

We have been preparing for the closing of our Pontiac franchise for a few months now, and it has progressed in an orderly fashion. We no longer greet customers with "Welcome to Haley Pontiac GMC", rather we greet with the shortened "Welcome to Haley GMC".

Our uniforms are now imprinted with our Dealer Group Logo and the Pontiac Arrowhead is gone. Our inventory shrunk from 150 to 120 to 84 to 47 to 4 and finally to 1. The final Pontiac was a 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP, fittingly not only the last Pontiac in our inventory, but also, apparently, the last new 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP left in the entire country. (See Jalopnik article: http://jalopnik.com/5437577/quick-buy-the-last-new-pontiac-g8-gxp )

I guess because it was so gradual, and that our goal was to sell all of these units, the full emotional impact of not being a Pontiac Dealership anymore just didn't really register.

One of my co-workers recounted this story about selling Pontiacs... "I remember the first New Pontiac I ever sold when I started in the business back in 1986. It was a Pontiac Goolie. The customer came in to the dealership and wanted to buy a Pontiac Goolie." (it was actually a 6000LE) We all laughed.

The coworker was pretty emotional when he realized that this would be the last new Pontiac he would ever sell. 24 years IS a long time. I’ve only been selling Pontiacs for 12 years, and I have formed quite an attachment to them.

Pontiac has been good to our dealership and our dealership has been good to Pontiac. We were the Number 1 Pontiac Dealer in Virginia for 2008, and had won numerous volume and customer satisfaction awards. Dave Trebour was even presented with The Dealer of the Year Award, one of only a handful in the country. It still amazes me how many Pontiac G6s and other Pontiac models I see with “Haley” printed on them.

I think that in the long run, this will be our Pontiac legacy. We as a dealership, over the years, have been able to provide for the transportation needs of a community. We provided and serviced cars that took people to their jobs so that they could provide for their families, cars that brought “soon to be moms and dads” to the hospital for the birth of their children, cars that saw “first drivers”, cars that saw the happiness and the sadness of their owners, and so much more.

We continue serving our community as a proud GMC dealer, and we will continue to sell and service pre-owned Pontiacs as well as all other pre-owned makes and models, but the satisfaction of greeting customers with "Welcome to Haley Pontiac GMC" will be missed.

GMC Sales Up More than 5 Percent in November

Visit our website at http://www.haleygmc.com

2009-12-02


Press Release from GM. The original article can be viewed here.

DETROIT -- GMC overall sales rose 5.4 percent in November, led by the Terrain and Acadia crossovers. Retail sales – those sold to individual customers – were up 6 percent vs. November 2008.


Terrain retail sales of 3,514 were 418 percent higher than last year when compared with the vehicle it replaced, the Pontiac Torrent.


Acadia retail sales were up 17 percent compared with November 2008.


“Consumer interest in our launch vehicles remains solid,” said Susan Docherty, GM vice president, U.S. Sales. “We have more to do, but we’re committed to earning consideration and future sales by delivering great products in every segment.”


GMC sold the second-most vehicles of any GM division in November

Breathe Easier: V-8 Powered GMC Sierra Does

Visit our website at http://www.haleygmc.com

(This is a reprint from an article by Tom Read at GM)
The original article can be found here:

Better breathing. Better health.

It works for trucks, too. All 2010 GMC V-8 powered Sierra pickups now feature variable valve timing, a technology that enables continuous control of valve opening and closing that results in better engine breathing, fewer emissions and improved fuel economy.

The addition of VVT to the 4.8L and 5.3L truck V-8s completes the rollout in the truck small block V-8 lineup which includes the 6.0L and 6.2L V-8s. The component that makes VVT possible is a simple and reliable device that attaches to the end of the camshaft called a cam phaser. The dual equal cam phaser electro-hydraulically controls cam position with the help of a sensor and the engine control module.

When working with Active Fuel Management (cylinder deactivation) on the 5.3L V-8, variable valve timing helps deliver segment-leading fuel economy in the 2010 GMC Sierra.

The Sierra is EPA estimated at 15 mpg city and 22 mpg highway, which is better fuel economy than the less powerful 2010 trucks from Ford and Toyota. (Toyota Tundra 4.6L V-8 EPA estimates 15 mpg city and 20 mpg highway. Ford F-150 292 hp 4.6L V-8 EPA estimates are 14 mpg city and 20 mpg highway.)

The majority of GMC trucks have engines available with variable valve timing.



Tom Read
Tel: 586-986-1099
Mobile: 248-496-0852
tom.read@gm.com

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I'm lucky to work with a great bunch of people here at Haley GMC.

Wow... Haley GMC. We were one of the GM dealers that were strong enough financially and in market effectiveness to thrive through the cuts this year.

Brandy who works in our back office (accounting/operations) substitutes as a receptionist and is one of the most positive people you'll meet. Always a smile on her face. When you google Brandy, she says you get the adult movie star, she protests and says it's not her. ...Sure

We have people in our service and sales departments that have been here for more than 20 years. I'll be posting more about some of them later.

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