2009 Pontiac G8 GT: A Reader's Long-Term Car

Lone Star!!!

Good question Kev, I'm curious too. I have a bright red G8 GT with the same interior, leather but no sport or sunroof. I love it, but I do wish (a little bit at least) that I had had the money to move up to the GXP with the manual and the LS3. Ah well. I've not owned many cars (1970s Volvo P1800 ES, 1990 Dodge Spirit Turbo, 1993 Chrysler Town and Country) and not surprisingly, given the list, this is easily the best car I've ever owned.

GXP questions aside, I have to admit...the G8 is one of the very few cars that looks pretty damn good in silver. Very nice, keep it up!

He probably wanted an auto, the GXP was only available as a manual.

Ironically, that's what was a non-starter for me with G8. I demanded a manual, but couldn't afford the GXP.

I almost bought that very car at lonestar(silver, prem, sport, no sun roof, red int) because I swear it matches a sales invoice I have somewhere. But if it served me right it didn’t have bluetooth.

Anyways I think your the silver G8 I keep seeing in McKinney. Lonestar has great sales but falls flat on repair work. Most of the down time has been due to them (4 weeks). I have since moved to the Chevy Dealership.

They have:
Curbed a wheel
Lost my oil cap (2x)
Spent 8 months to diagnose a bad strut bushing
Spent 4 weeks to fix said bushing
Scratched my paint
Had a hard time figuring out how much pressure to put in the tires (even though these are stock tires and they just have to read the door)

Needless to say I only drop by for the free car wash, my 6 month free detail, and anything to do with the tires. Anything else I go to a different shop.

GXPs where/are very hard to fine, I thought GXPs where available with a manual and 6 speed automatic.

I've had my 09 G8GT for 20 months now and have over 56K miles as I travel for work. I've had a few problems one of which was a piece of weather stripping that was cosmetically flawed from the factory. I took it to a wind down dealer near my house and waited for the repair. I arrived at 11:00 am, and at 4:45 pm I was told they did not know what was the status of my car and that they would have to give me a loaner. I said fine, as this was a Monday, and I told them I was leaving town tomorrow, and not returning until Friday. All of a sudden, they found my car ant it was repaired and returned to me. They apparently could not justify a loaner for 4 days for a minor repair. The weather stripping was on the drivers door and about a month later I was driving down the road and my drivers window just shattered. I drove to the nearest Pontiac dealer (I was out of town on business) and they got a window the next day and gave me a loaner and repaired it under warranty. I speculate that the wind down dealer might have put some undue stress on the glass. The only other repairs were rear brake pads, under warranty at 20K, and replacement of the drivers seat frame for a squeak that they tried to repair under warranty, but could not.

The car is a blast to drive and is still solid. Overall gas mileage is over 21.5 mpg, and I even achieved this figure the other day when I was in a hurry to get to a town 200 miles away and the average speed was 80.5 mph for the trip. The stock 18" Goodyear Eagles were sooo loud I though I had a bad wheel bearing, but a replacement with BF Goodrich (only on the front at 53K miles) make the car a whole lot quieter.

To answer a few of your questions: I did not purchase the GXP because the only one I could find locally was a "demo" with over 1k miles on the odometer. It was also black, and in Texas, black cars are very warm in the summer. My car, the car you see in the pictures, was fresh off the truck with 4 miles on the clock. I now have 16,800 miles on the car and still makes me smile!

Jonathan

I live in Pittsburgh and have a little over 24k on my black/re GT. My observations:
Great power but you have to floor it to realize how mean I really is... Lazy transmission.

The interior is extremely comfortable but I wish I could put in a stereo with modern iPod control. I can't because of the hvac/stereo LCD combo.

16.6 mpg - it's hilly here and lots of shorter trips mean I'm usually firing all 8 cylinders.

Putting the button for the trunk in the glove compartment is sooo 1985.

I wish I could see the instant mpg.
Handling is fun and predictable. It's not a possible car but I will do a powerslide.
I would have paid $100 more for bracing that made a folding rear sear possible.
Blizzaks make the car pretty good in bad weather.

My '09 gray G8 GT has 25.6K miles on it now. I had to have the fuel cap replaced too. "The ones from the factory are crap" (quote from the service manager). I also had to have the fuel tank replaced for an evaporative emissions problem too (prior to the fuel cap). That and a wonky mirror compass that sometimes got north and south reversed have been my only issues. My windshield wiper blades are fine, though they probably should be replaced just on sheer age at this point. I was offered a GXP for a great price ($34,550), but I couldn't justify the over $8K extra (my loaded, brand new car was $26,164 including $395 for Motorola IHF1000 bluetooth installed), higher insurance, and crappy gas mileage on a car I drive 50+ miles a day for work. I wasn't planning on being in the market as I'd just paid off my other car when somebody rear ended and killed it.

The problem with the G8? There's so much room, especially for back seat passengers (first car I've had where a person could sit behind me) and ease of getting my baby's car seat back there that I'm ruined on smaller cars. I hope I can find a roomy, sporty 4 door like this when I go to replace the car (no time soon). I was excited about the Regal GS, but I sat in a regular Regal recently and the back seat barely has more room than my old 3 series. The LaCrosse has good room, but they'll never make a sporty version of it, I'm sure.

Oh, and for the record, the GXP was available in both manual and auto.

I also have a 2009 G8 GT – a brother of your car in color & equipment [ Silver, Premium, Sport & Red\Black leather seats – with a Sunroof ] and I am at approx. 28,000 miles. I will have had it for 2 years next month.

I compared the G8 GT to every other RWD or AWD 4DR sedan anywhere between $30K and over $40K at the time [ 335i was the
BMW I compared ] and the Pontiac was the clear choice – for me.

I had a transmission issue [ repaired in 1 attempt ] and it has otherwise been trouble-free.

- Ray
No regrets here . . .

Nice car, Jonathan, shame about the two-pedal thing though, ha ha.

fuhteng, you had a P1800ES? Sweet, those were VERY cool cars

Question Jonathan... that neighborhood looks incredibly familiar. Allen?

sad to see an import rebadged to a brand that no longer exists, great car. Though ford > holden of course

SkyGGGe: The picture was not taken in Allen. Seppboy, I do enjoy rowing my own gears, but the traffic in my city is horrific and I am at a place in my life age-wise where an automatic is the only way to go for me. I find the auto stick fun to play with, and it's reasonably responsive compared to other slush boxes I have driven. Not Porsche PDK quick by any means, but for 8/10ths driving, it's fine. When the car is in "Sport" mode, it actually does a commendable job of holding the gear, thus allowing full power when coming out of a turn. Holden did a good job with this car.

Love love love the G8 GT, great choice. You see yourself slapping a Maggie or Pedder's bits on the car in the future?

Ryandigi, thanks for the compliment. The Maggie is a bit much for my needs, and the Pedders, while an excellent choice, are also a bit much as I don't take the car to the track.

Herrstreet
Regarding the lazy transmission - have you thought about getting a tune? I have the VMS tune for the tranny and engine and I've got to say, the tranny tune is killer. It makes a world of difference from stock.

I also added a trunk button to the drivers side very easily. I spliced into the glove compartment wires, ran then to a switch i mounted below the steer wheel kick panel. Now it can be opened from either button.

Regarding instant mpg, go into engineering mode by holding the station select button down on the left side of the steering wheel and then turning the car on. You can then scroll through the options and instant mpg is one of them.

I have 14,000 on my '09 and things are great - but I do need to replace the gas cap as it keeps coming loose setting off a code.

Nice car! It's great to see all the G8 owners posting comments here. I got my 09 G8 GT in June of 09 also. Mine is Black with the Onyx/Red leather. The two tone interior was something I HAD to have when I got mine. I think it looks great. Not too flashy, but it definitely breaks up the otherwise solid black interior. I've got just under 25k miles on my car and I'm still VERY happy I got it. Easily the best car I've ever owned. I'm just holding out that they smarten up at GM and sell a Chevy version. Sure it won't look as nice as the Pontiac, but as long as it drives the same.

One of my favorite things about this car is how rare it is. At least up here in NH where I live. I'm about 45 min north of Boston, MA and I can go weeks at a time without seeing another G8 on the road. I drive about 60 miles a day for work, all highway. I see more Azteks on the road than G8's. This car turns heads still and I get lots of positive comments. One guy told me to garage it and buy another car to use as a daily driver. My wife was with me for that one and she was shocked.

I had convinced myself at one point that I wanted a GXP but the prices were too steep and I couldn't find one locally to check out. So I ended up with an 05 CTS-V with almost 100k on it, but I paid less than half the cheapest GXP I could find, so I think that was a worthwhile trade off. And while I give up some interior space, the CTS-V is still large enough to be comfortable, doesn't give up any straight line, and out handles the GXP, so I'm happy with that. But I still like the G8.

I been driving the Pontiac g8 GT since i bought it 10 months. Great car! The only minor setbacks that i had was when the lower control arms needed replacement. Average 20mpg with mix city and highway. The reason why i have the Gt and not the gXp is because there were none sold in Canada.

Nice car! I also have a G8 GT, it’s been a terrific car and I am quite happy with it. My biggest complaint is actually not about the car, but the GM dealer network. No GM dealers in my area will stock any parts for this car so it seems that I will always be a lengthy backorder when I need a part. My G8 is currently un-drivable, sitting on a jack stand in my garage because my wife damaged a wheel that resulted in my need to replace a wheel stud. Unfortunately, no GM dealer has a spindle nut in stock it and this part will be on backorder for several weeks. So now I’m looking for an aftermarket part that will work and if I am unable to find one my car will be sitting on a jack stand until mid November. I guess I’m lucky that I have an “extra” car that I can drive in the meantime.

As far as the whole GT vs GXP thing; I have to weigh in to say that I found the GXP to be a bit of a rip off when compared to the GT. Thanks to gas guzzler tax, the premium for a GXP is $8,000 and the simple fact is that your just not getting $8,000 more performance or car for your money. If you really want a crazy fast car, that money would actually be much better invested in a GT. You could supercharge it for less money and be way faster than a GXP. I do wish you could the GT with a manual though. I think that was selfish of Pontiac to not offer the manual in the GT because I think it was their strategy to force performance minded people spend more on the expensive GXP trim. On top of that, they actually charge more for the “option” of manual transmission.

I wonder how many GXP owners would have happily saved their money and gotten a GT if it were available with a manual…

"I wonder how many GXP owners would have happily saved their money and gotten a GT if it were available with a manual…"

I would have definitely considered a manual GT. The GXP was more money than I wanted to spend- and for the price there were other cars I liked better.

I wanted one of these sooooo badly and the deals on them were pretty awesome right at the end as they were giving clearing house discounts pending Pontiac's demise! I simply could not swing it at the time, but think about this car often.

I remain blown away by the great balance of interior spaciousness yet a connected feel for the driver in this car.

The lack of a decent, even tall geared, 6 speed manual was somewhat of a killer for me (in the GT, I wasn't willing to spend the extra for the GXP). However, I would've paid $500-1000 more for a manual in this car - its that good IMHO.

Also, I walked away from this because I knew Pontiac was dissapearing and didn't feel like going down that road again (I had just owned a Saab 9-2x, which is easy to find parts for but then you've got support from 2 very different dealerships).

This should've been continued within the Chevy brand....short of the Trans-Am, this was the only Pontiac driving excitement I've seen on the dealer floor during a period of my life when I actually could acquire a car.

Joe

If you missed the G8 boat, what a shame. It truly is a world class car and I love it. Thank you all for your posts and your feedback. Now get out there and drive. :)

Hey everyone, I have an 09' G8 GT and I also have had issues with the fuel tank/gas cap. My local dealer states there is no fix at the present time and are awating a programming fix. Meanwhile while my car was at the dealership waiting for repairs, the car was infested with #$#@ing ANTS. It took the dealer another two days to deal with ANTS. I have the car back but I am taking it to another ex-Pontiac dealership.

I actually do own "one of a few" kind of G8 GT's. I have a white hot G8 GT with black/onyx CLOTH interior. When I was invenstigating buying a G8 I found a little known fact that you could get a GT with onyx/red cloth interior. The selling dealer didnt know this was an option and said I couldnt have it. I was able to locate this car two states away and when it arrived via dealer trade, everyone from the owner down came out to see this car because they didnt know it existed. I feel pretty lucky to have a G8 GT but even luckier to have something that is one of a few.

I am annoyed by any car that has non-functional hood scoops. I can't get past feeling like it's a poser car. I hated the 94-04 Mustang for the same reason. I also hate cars that have quad exhaust, but then you find out the 2 of them aren't being used. It's just dumb.