It’s been more than a year since the last Pontiac dealer shut down, but many of the brand’s former customers have stayed in the General Motors family.
Edmunds.com found that 39.9 percent of Pontiac owners who traded in for a new car 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 percent.
This year GM’s Chevrolet brand has been most successful in retaining former Pontiac owners, with 28.1 percent of them choosing Chevy as their new brand. Edmunds.com’s analysis said Chevy sales to former Pontiac owners were particularly strong in January and February of this year, when GM made aggressive incentive plays to retain old customers and conquest new ones.
Chevrolet has also been getting extra exposure this year because it’s the brand’s 100-year anniversary.
“Any time a manufacturer shuts down a brand, there’s a concern that its consumers will shift loyalties to another company,” said 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 Motor Co., meanwhile, has been the most successful outside brand to woo Pontiac owners this year.
An estimated 9.4 percent of former Pontiac owners jumped to Ford in 2011, but the rate is down from last year’s reported 12.4 percent. Honda and Toyota have each managed to win over an estimated 7.4 percent of Pontiac customers, which is for both brands a lower rate than last year.
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