2008 Pontiac G8 GT: The No Kicking Express

Lovely car. If I needed a 4 door sedan, I'd be all over it.

You could buy a new Charger for around the same price. I still would much rather have the G8. But the layouts are similar. Or you can buy a two year old srt-8 Charger for about $22-24k. I would take that over a new G8. The G8 is a nice car for the price, but its transformation from Holden to Pontiac has left the G8 without a real navigation system as well as a subpar audio system, just to name a few things.

I feel guilty that I don't need a four-door sedan right now, otherwise this would be my car. I really want the G8 to succeed for Pontiac, and would've loved to have helped them. Especially with the GM rebates, it's a true bargain!

Beautiful shot of the G8. That car really does have some nice lines.

I agree.
I did spend my own money
[ and a few dollars of my Bank's money ]
to buy a G8 GT late last year.
No regrets...
- Ray
Senior Automotive Editor
in my family....
@ just over 3,000 miles

"Is there another sedan that does all that the G8 does (V8, rear-drive, roomy back seat, tons of power, decent handling, sharp looking) for around $32,000?"

Charger or 300C, maybe.

There was a comparison test some months ago of the G8 GXP and the Charger SRT8. Any chance we could re-do that with a G8 GT and Charger R/T (or even lesser V6 models)? And score more heavily for comfort, storage, family, etc. rather than pure performance.

"And score more heavily for comfort, storage, family, etc. rather than pure performance."

www.consumerreports.org

Yeah yeah, I know... but Edmunds has done an admirable job of acknowledging real world concerns and not only performance.

This is a nice shot of the G8, one of the best angles for this car. If only there were a fake hood scoop delete option.

ahightower,
Edmunds did a comparo between the G8 GT and the Charger R/T in which the G8 smoked the Charger in every performance category and also won some of the less performance oriented categories that were in the test.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/Comparos/articleId=124883

Now, from the perspective of a G8 GT owner with nearly 16k miles on the car. I bought this car for my wife about nine months ago. We were looking for a large sedan that would comfortably haul our family of three (our son was not quite 2 at the time) and perform the daily grind activities while having a fun factor to go along with it. My wife loves the car and finds it to be very competent for daily activities such as grocery shopping, playdate shuttling, etc. I find myself looking forward to getting home and running errands with them in the evenings.(She lets me drive it on the evenings and weekends.) I really like the available space in the back seat for the reason mentioned above about not getting the seatback kicked by the toddler in a car seat. The car is also very comfortable on long road trips and gets respectable gas mileage considering the available power and size of the car.(We have observed ~17-18mpg in town on most tanks and ~24-25 mpg on longer highway trips as long as speeds are kept within the nearly legal range.) As far as how that compares to the Charger, I don't know. I agree that it would make an interesting comparison though.

G8 GT vs Charger R/T
C+D's comparo -

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/hot_lists/high_performance/performance_files_tested_by_c_d/2008_pontiac_g8_gt_vs_2008_dodge_charger_r_t_comparison_test

And one from MT:

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/sedans/112_0804_2008_pontiac_g8_vs_2008_dodge_charger/index.html

I went to dinner with my folks last night, saw a maroon color G8 GT that absolutely stopped me in my tracks, as did my parents. My mom spent the rest of the night regretting the purchase of her Malibu. For some reason she is convinced that she needs a 350+ horsepower engine to power her commuter car....

Your mom is awesome

Yes, yes and yes. Hence the one parked outside.

What more can you ask for than a car that brings a smile to your face every time you step into it?

In the old days this wasn't an issue because children knew better than to kick their parents' seatbacks.

If the GT-notGXP-came with a stick I'd buy one today.

please put your money where your mouth is... GM needs your help!

If GM would just market this car with common sense it would move, even in this climate of looming gas price hikes. I know if I was looking for a new sport sedan in the $30K range, I would take this over an Accord or Camry without a second thought. Done deal. Game over.

I think the G8 is going to be the E39 540i of its generation -- a car not fully appreciated at the time, but making perfect sense for an enthusiast as a used vehicle. Too bad the GT doesn't come with a manual. I'm still looking at whether the 540i w/six speed will be a better deal than an E46 M3.

"I'm still looking at whether the 540i w/six speed will be a better deal than an E46 M3."

The E39 is just a fantastic car. I still regret selling our 528i(my wife wanted an AWD X3). I just found a 2003 540i 6-speed. The '03 gets the M Sport body kit, so it looks similar to an M5. Shoot a PM to my Carspace mailbox and I'll give you some links to helpful on-line E39 resources. Here's hoping my BMW dealer or Carmax will just give me a decent trade-in number on the Mazdaheap...

@ audisport:

I live in Kuwait and drive a Chevy Caprice LTZ, which, except for some bodywork and some small differences in the manu-matic transmission, is identical to the G8. I also own an '08 G8 GT to drive when I'm back in the States. As far as I can tell, the Blaupunkt radio in my Caprice is identical to the Blaupunkt radio in my G8 GT, minus the nav system.

Both cars are great. I bought the Caprice first, then decided to pick up the G8 GT when I was back in the States last summer. I'd love to have my G8 here in Kuwait, but the Caprice is still a blast to drive at 240 km/h on the roads over here.

Something tells me toddlers have been kicking things like car seats for about 100 years now - except that period of time when sedans were big enough for, you know, families.

G8 GT Edmunds underrated list:

Pontiac G8 GT
Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, feature for feature, this is America's best sedan.

http://blogs.edmunds.com/straightline/2009/01/the-underrated-list.html