But because Vibe was until now produced under an agreement with Japanese manufacturer Toyota, the American car giant is now considering launching a new model, also produced as a joint venture with Toyota, to replace it. Wondering which brand will host it? A GM spokesman said it might join the models already sold by Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac.
Pontiac Vibe was until now produced under the NUMMI partnership and, as a direct result of scrapping Pontiac, all factories across the country producing it will enter a massive production cut campaign. But Pontiac, together with parent company General Motors, has different plans. According to Autonews, the two are already in negotiations with Toyota over a new model to replace Vibe and continue the NUMMI agreement.
"We're negotiating to see how best to utilize that facility going forward," Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson said. "We're clearly not backing away from our partnership at NUMMI. There's no issue of us backing away from NUMMI."
General Motors and Toyota joined forces back in 1984 and started producing cars together at the Fremont, California facility. Although the partnership was initially supposed to supply the vehicles on a 50-50 schedule to both partners, the economic downturn and the falling market massively reduced GM's stake, the aforementioned source noted.
For example, General Motors sold a total of 46,551 Pontiac Vibe models in 2008, which represents around 25 percent of the total sale figures recorded in 2007. The agreement was initially projected to supply between 100,000 and 120,000 cars to each Toyota and General Motors per year.
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