Pontiac To Kill RWD G8 After Current Generation [Pontiac G8]

Edmunds Inside Line is reporting sources inside GM have confirmed the rear-drive Pontiac G8 will fade into memory at the end of the current model's production run. If true, the previously announced elimination of the Solstice and the disappearance of a RWD G8 would leave GM's performance brand without a rear-drive vehicle in about five years' time. Of course, what could change in that five years? Just about everything. Let's take a look at the possibilities.

Another glut of cheap gasoline, a marked change in GM's fortunes (like winning the lotto — in all 50 states) or a management shakeup could rapidly result in a wave of new rear-wheel-drive Pontiacs, including a next-gen G8. Those are the least-likely options, however. In the short term, don't discount the effect a Chrysler purchase might have on the Pontiac brand; GM could decide Dodge has more performance credibility than Pontiac — and we wouldn't necessarily argue — resulting in the Excitement Division getting dumped for Dodge. Crazy talk, but these are crazy times. [Edmunds Inside Line]

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A Peek Inside The Soon-To-Be-Dead Tesla Motors Detroit Office [Tesla Motors]

Given the situation with Tesla Motors lately, you know, Ze'ev Drori getting the boot and Elon Musk taking the reins as CEO, word of firings of "25-30% of their total staff of 300 employees and contractors" and the closing of the Detroit location (more accurately, the Metro Detroit suburb of Rochester Hills, MI) via blog post, it's no wonder an anonymous reader decided to head out to their Rochester Hills office and take a look. The Rochester Hills facility was opened at the end of January 2007, and was to be the development facility for the Tesla Model S electric sedan, so the closing is a foreboding indicator of the future direction Tesla is heading on that project. Let's take a look inside this essentially doomed location...

To be fair, these pics were taken this past Sunday, so it's poor evidence the place is in fact a ghost town but let's just say a tumbleweed rolling through the parking lot wouldn't be out of place. Aside from the fancy sign out front and the etched glass doors, it looks like every other sparsely decorated suburban office we've ever seen.

We love the reading materials in the lobby — all the buff books, plus Vanity Fair, a book on classic cars, The Toyota Way and its wonderful explanation of "lean manufacturing" and the Toyota Production System (may we also recommend Machine That Changed The World and the End of Detroit). TPS, as you know, is the management process where a company welcomes questions and seeks to solve problems via all manner of available help. Openness and communication is key with TPS. Hmm, maybe they only got through the first couple of chapters.

Hilariously, our two favorite books laying around have to be the Tesla bio on the waiting room table sitting across from The Car That Could, a book about the life and death of GM's EV1. We'll let you draw your own conclusions from that one.

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