2008 Pontiac G8 GT: Muscle

What a car, just what a car;-)

I've had an identically equipped (well, plus '09+ XM) for a month now, and it's just a stunner not just to look at but drive. It'll do smokey burnouts whenever you please, BUT moreso the same hulking 6.0L can just purr away underhood like nothing for regular daily commuting, getting mileage in the high teens and low 20's without effort--and the 6-spd is great. This is stock. Have it custom tuned, not only waking up the power but significantly improving mileage, and sharpen up the shifting, and it becomes even more of a daily driver beast without any physical add on's.

Love it. Another well received and great car, I traded in a loaded 3 month old '09 Malibu 2LT V6 and never looked back.

Nice to see blog posts on the G8 return--keep them coming!

That is beautiful. I love me some G8 GT.

big fan of dave hill's. great photographer!

Its too bad to see the G8 leave so quickly. I know its had 60 posts, but it seems like car less. I feel like I didn't really learn anything about this car other then the fact that it can do burnouts - something I would never do anyways. Maybe its just me that feels this way?

doug,
I was just thinking the same thing. There have been numerous posts about the car's ability to do burnouts and not enough about it's characteristics as a daily driver, especially as a family hauler. I have appreciated the few posts that have related to the matters other than burnouts. My wife loves her G8 GT in Magnetic Gray Metallic, and we have found that it works very well for daily hauling duties as well as road trips with our 2 year old.

As Beach15 notes above, the car is great fun to drive hard, but is also a very comfortable commuter/daily grind kind of car.

Is there another car in the IL LT fleet that offers remotely comparable performance, comfort and real utility for anywhere near this price($35K, loaded to the hilt)?

I'm loving my '09 Magnetic Gray G8 GT so far. I'm still getting used to not driving a manual car (previously a BMW 3er), but it's great on my 45 mile daily commute for the past 3 weeks I've had it. The gas mileage isn't so great (~17), but at least I can put regular in it with no problem. I got mine loaded (sport, premium, sunroof) + Motorola IHF1000 bluetooth installed, and 12 miles on the odo for $26.1K + TTL, which is a great bargain. My niggling complaints:

1) Manual seat back/lumbar settings even with premium package, which leads to...
2) No memory seating. This is my biggest complaint. I have a hard time getting in just the right position and when my wife drives, that screws it all up.
3) Stereo could sound better (needs more bass), but fiddling with the settings helped quite a bit.
4) Interior remote trunk popper in the glove box, same as on my '87 Escort GT I had in high school.
5) Door locks don't unlock with a single or double pull, but at least they auto unlock when I put it in park
6) No auto UP on the windows
7) Auto down on windows is tricky to engage
8) Plastic pieces on side spokes of steering wheel make a click sound when you tap them...ONLY sign of not perfect build quality in the interior. Otherwise it's great.
9) Fuel range just says "Low Fuel" when you get blow about 50 miles left. I want to know exactly! Also, I can drive for a little bit with that low fuel warning on and still have 3 gallons in the tank. It also keeps the channel/track controller on the steering wheel from working until you change the computer display to not show the giant low fuel warning. 2nd biggest complaint.
10) No auto dimming mirror, but that is now moot since I got the windows tinted
11) Have to press a button to see the outside temp and when it's on, it overrides the A/C display. I'd rather have it in the mirror with the compass
12) Seats could stand to go about 1/4-1/2" lower and steering wheel telescope 1-2" more for my tastes. Few cars fit me absolutely perfectly though, because then they probably wouldn't fit more common shorter people.
13) Daytime running lights auto turning on puts a little green light on the dash. I'd rather not see that as it's sometimes distracting
14) side mirrors could stand to be a little bigger
15) Would like homelink on the mirror and HID/Xenon headlights, even as an option, or make it part of the premium package. Throw the seat memory in there too.
16) Second key is ginormous, but I make my wife carry that in her purse.
17) Sometimes in bright sunlight, the red display lettering can be hard to read (especially with sunglasses).

Those complaints aside, I still love the car. I have a list of good stuff, but this post is already too big.

Are you sure it doesn't have Sequential F.I. and not Multiport F.I.?

Are you sure it doesn't have Sequential F.I. and not Multiport F.I.?

Sequential F.I. is Multiport F.I. (but Multiport F.I. is not always Sequential F.I.)

As others have said too...it's a shame there weren't more postings on the G8. BUT, that said, it's very likely perhaps you guys just enjoyed driving it so much, why bother? It was just good to go, other than that sensor issue earlier on.

I know I'd rather just drive and toy with mine, than write about it...even though it does deserve the praises;-)

redwoodaggie - almost word for word what I first thought. You'll move past em shortly though.

Wait untill your first long trip at night and kill the interior lights, and none of that stuff will even matter.

That photo takes the old saying "if you got'em, burn'em" to a whole new level! I really like the G8. And get this! They now have rebates!! You can pick up a well equipped GT for about $26K out the door. Now that is what I call a stimulus package!!!