2008 Pontiac G8 GT: Sad Legacy

The Bonneville in the top picture was a good family car. Sure the top line trim was over the top but they were good cars for their day.

Ruined to the point it would have been really hard to overcome the stigma and get a G8 if I were in the market. And I REALLY like the G8. I'd have to get the Pontiac emblem off the wheel at least, so I wouldn't have to stare at it.

compliance - all it took for me to get over the stigma (and it was BAD for me too) was a test drive up an on-ramp in sport and scaring the beeejezus out of the salesman.

I will remember Pontiac by the bright red G8 GT sitting in my garage, and I will remember why it died every time I see that lousy Grand Am next door.

Why no love for the Aztek? OK, so it was one of the ugliest cars ever. It is very functional and I liked it. Looks aren't everything. The Pruis is one ugly car, but it still does the job.

the idea of making the Pontiac brand the performance division was brilliant. but greed, incompetence, greed, shoddy workmanship, lack of vision (and plain ol' old-man corporate greed) killed the concept.

too bad. the G8 is awesome and could have been the turning point. even after all these years.

As Metallica once sang: Sad but TRUE!

fuhteng - Admittedly, I have no such Pontiac stigma. I pretty much love them all(except mabe the sunfire, and aztek), but the test drive was all it took for me too.

I, completely unintentionally, left the dealership a little sideways as I was beginning my test drive. What can I say, I didn't think there'd be THAT much torque. Then I bought the car.

compliance - Drive one and it won't matter what the badge says.

fuhteng - Admittedly, I have no such Pontiac stigma. I pretty much love them all(except mabe the sunfire, and aztek), but the test drive was all it took for me too.

I, completely unintentionally, left the dealership a little sideways as I was beginning my test drive. What can I say, I didn't think there'd be THAT much torque. Then I bought the car.

compliance - Drive one and it won't matter what the badge says.

I usually think of fat chicks driving around in Sunfire droptops with ill-fitting tops. They're usually ashen white white with a shoulder tat, smoking and sipping a venti caramal frapp. At the same time. The car ... usually teal.

Also, wannabe "dude-bros" drive terrible Grand Am/Prix coupes. Disgusting cars.

I was born in '86, so I remember the Bonny SSEi with it's frenched fogs and Firebird T/A's with blue wheels. Oh. And the Aztek.

I won't miss Pontiac.

My three favorite Pontiacs were the 1970 GTO Ram Air IV, the 1973 Grand Am, and the 1973 Trans Am SD 455. If a Poncho ever winds up in my garage it will be one of those three.

It's easy to make fun of Pontiac by cooking up funny jokes about the people that drive them, but I didn't find the cars themselves to be any worse than anything else you could buy from the General.

I grew up in an area with more Pontiacs per square foot foot than humans. I know a bunch of people that still drive one.

The interiors on just about all the newer Grand Prixs are not pretty and there's a bunch of loose paneling. The plastic on the steering wheel in particular peels right off. My sister has one. It runs well enough though, though. The stock GM engine and tranny are pretty smooth.

But I do have a friend that drives a 99 GP and I actually find that car to be pretty well put-together. No loose plastics in the interior and it's got a nice 3.6 liter engine in it that zips just

Also I've found that the G6 is actually not such a bad car. There's a lot of plastic in the interior but it's all screwed together tightly and the dash is soft-touch.

And like some people said the Bonneville was never such a bad family car.

I didn't really grow up with a bias against Pontiacs since everyone drove them and so I guess I always just looked at them as an economy car, a cheap car for cheap people. Kids and McDonald's workers drove them because few members of either group could afford an Avalon off the lot.

"The GXP was one good looking car in my opinion. "

1487: Agreed.

I don't really know what 'embodies' a Pontiac, as I think I was born well after the brand was dead (from an enthusiast point of view). I know that I've bought 3 new cars in recent years, and there has not been a Pontiac model that warranted more then a 60 second look - the one exception being the G8, which is just far more car then I need.

bkochuk hits it on the head. Pontiac as a division was a standout in the John Z. DeLorean days. Then typical GM greed came in... hey, why not put in an Oldsmobile motor instead of a Pontiac 400, why not make the Grand Prix a 4 door instead of staying true to the "personal coupe" roots? New Bonneville, the heck with performance and design, glue some cladding on a LeSabre, no one will know the difference. The list goes on for ever, and don't even bring up the Sunfire, Korean built LeMans or disgusting Aztek. There's a great editorial by Jim Wangers, former Pontiac marketing chief in the 60's & 70's that places blame and substantaites that blame (through Wanger's eyes) on various GM head honchos and finance wonks who neglected the product and underestimated the core constituents of the brand. Google Glory Days to find Wangers rant. Anyway, just as with Oldsmobile & Saab; GM will continue to find ways to squander their brands value and miss the mark as long as they look at the short-term cost of a product rather than the longer-term value of superior product to both the consumer and the corporation.

There are some that will remember when Pontiac offered REAL excitement in the form of the Trans Am. I can recall vividly how cool the KNIGHT RIDER Trans Am was and how bad I wanted to learn how to drive just to pretend I was Michael Knight. Silly, I know but hey....

That's why it's so sad to see what is happening to this once proud brand. And I'm still looking for the exec that OK'ed the AZTEC so I can send him a "dunce" cap.

Interesting that you mention the 1973 SD 455 Trans Am.
The C+D acceleration testing of that ’73 showed:
Quarter Mile: 13.8 sec @ 104 MPH
0 – 60 MPH: 6.4 sec
[ Automatic trans. ]

The C+D test of a G8 GT shows:
[ drum roll please . . . ]
Quarter Mile: 13.8 sec @ 104 MPH
0 – 60 MPH: 5.3 sec
[ Also Automatic trans. ]

Reminder – the G8 is a rather large, 4DR sedan.
The ’73 Trans Am is [ um ] not.

Although clearly no single set of numbers [ acceleration or other ] completely defines any 2 car, I do find it interesting that I can drive a car with roughly equivalent acceleration to that rather quick [ for the day ] iconic Trans Am Coupe – for a very reasonable cash outlay – and also have a huge back seat & trunk, a well sorted IRS, heated leather seats, a sunroof, etc.

Cheers,
- Ray
Very satisfied G8 GT driver . . .

= = =

Sources:

http://www.caranddriver.com/features/08q4/rocket_sleds_the_best_performers_from_50_years_of_car_and_driver_testing-feature/acceleration_page_5

“5.) Pontiac Firebird Trans Am 1973 13.8 @ 104 6.4”

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/08q2/2008_pontiac_g8_gt-road_test/performance_car_for_the_family_3f_page_2

“. . .13.8 seconds at 104 mph.”

I remember the 1970s Trans Ams, from the SD 455 to the 77 Bandit to the '79 square-light 6.6 TA. I remember the more recent Trans Am commercials, especially the one in which it "ate" the car in front of it at a light. What a great name -- Trans Am. Always seemed "right" to me and as American as they come. I think if marketed correctly, the G8 could have been a great halo car, and I'll also remember the GTO, both the original and the last one, which was a far better car than many people think.

Well, I'll sum it up by saying throughout Pontiac's history, there have been a lot more cool models than ugly or crappy ones. I choose to remember the cool Pontiacs, and fortunately, I can still see them at classic car shows and meets.

Having never really considered a Pontiac I will always remember them for the old GTO's, knight rider, and Smokey the bandit.

Otherwise I think they built for the most part generic looking cars like what you got from Japan and Korea the new GTO is IMHO a excelent example of this.

Growing up in the 80s, I'm not going to bother telling you what I think of Pontiac. I do know that a lot of people know and remember Pontiac from its heydays. And maybe that's how it should be remembered: A company that had a voice, lost it, and heard its echo on its deathbed.

Not many car companies have a renaissance when they die. Plymouth, Eagle, and Studebaker all faded out of memories.

The G8 burbles, "Remember me as I was."

I think it was sitting in a friends '97 Grand-Am and just seeing all that plastic and rounded trim that made me wonder if I'd ever buy an American car. Hard to believe it was the same company that made KITT. Never looked at Pontiac the same way again.

Anyone remember the Pontiac Rageous show car? It was a dumping ground of almost every bad styling idea they ever had.

The remaining unwanted scraps of ideas formed the Aztek.