2009 Pontiac G8
The excitement is back
SAINT JOHN, N.B. - G’day mate!
Fresh from the land Down Under comes Pontiac’s latest performance sedan.
Like the 2004-06 Pontiac GTO, the G8 is built by Holden, General Motors’ Australian subsidiary. Unlike the GTO, which wasn’t sold in this country, the G8 is arriving at Pontiac dealerships in Canada now.
Except for its typically Pontiac hood and front fascia, the G8 shares body panels and powertrains with the Holden Commodore. While there was a limit on how many Holden-built GTOs were available (one reason it wasn’t offered in Canada), there is no volume limit on G8 production. Mike Black, GM Canada’s G8 product planner, says the Port Melbourne assembly plant can handle the anticipated capacity.
The 2009 G8 is the first application of GM’s new global rear-wheel-drive architecture. Next to be built on this platform is the 2010 Camaro, which will be assembled in Oshawa.
This is the kind of car GM should have been building years ago, but didn’t until slowing sales forced it to think like the global company it is. The G8 was designed in Australia with major components coming from all over the world. For instance, the V6 engine is built in Oz, the V8 in Mexico. The five-speed automatic transmission comes from France and the six-speed automatic from the U.S.
The G8 replaces the Grand Prix/Bonneville in Pontiac’s lineup and, no, it isn’t named after the group of industrialized democracies of which Canada is a member. All Pontiac passenger cars now sport a G prefix. The G5 used to be the Pursuit and the G6 is in the niche once occupied by the Grand Am.
The G8 comes in two flavours – base and GT. The former is powered by a 3.6-litre DOHC V6 mated to a five-speed automatic and the latter by a 6.0-litre V8 and six-speed automatic. Both transmissions have tap up/tap down manual shift control and a sport mode to hold gears longer. Each has a final drive ratio of 2:92 and the V8 comes within a whisker of matching the V6’s highway fuel economy (see Data File).
Under hard throttle, GM claims the V6 can sprint from 0-100 km/h in a tick or two over 7.0 seconds. But when you unleash all of its 256 horses the engine note is loud and you can hear just how hard those 24 valves are working.
The much torquier V8 (385 lb.-ft at 4,400 rpm) sends a more masculine exhaust note through its chrome-tipped quad tailpipes and GM says it will race from 0-100 in less than 5.5 seconds G8 has a 50/50 front rear weight distribution and a wide track of 62.7 inches front and 63.3 inches rear. Along with its four-wheel, performance tuned independent suspension that gives the G8 a nice, solid feel on the road. There are no plans to produce an AWD version, so we’ll have to wait for winter to see how well the G8’s balanced weight ratio plus standard StabiliTrak with traction control can handle snowy roads. (A limited slip rear differential is not available on base models, but is standard on the GT.)
Pontiac marketing manager Chris Hay says this is not a muscle car in the old-fashioned sense of the word, but a modern performance sedan the whole family can enjoy. He expects about 70% of buyers to opt for the V6, which starts at $31,995 and can be optioned out with one of three packages to add features such as leather, sunroof and dual-zone A/C. The GT starts at $36,995 and includes some items that are optional on the base model, as well as the big V8.
Enthusiastic drivers will prefer the V8, especially when combined with the optional sport package that provides great-looking 19-inch, machine-faced aluminum wheels and P245/40R19-94W summer tires that improve the ride and help suppress road noise.
Safety hasn’t been forgotten and six airbags plus four-wheel antilocks disc brakes and OnStar are standard across the lineup.
A few peculiarities are evident, courtesy of G8’s Aussie engineers. For one thing, resetting the odometer seems more complicated than it needs to be; for another, after you’ve driven for two solid hours, the image of a tree, with a picnic bench underneath, begins to flash on the driver information centre along with the words “Rest reminder.”
GM says the G8 is “priced for the Canadian market,” and lists slightly under 2008 prices for Dodge Charger SXT and well under those for the 2008 Maxima SE.
However, in the U.S. the base price is $27,595 - $4,500 less than a V6-powered Canadian model with exactly the same equipment.
GM is not alone in employing this marketing strategy. But one of these days, some automaker is going to realize that rather than pricing its products “competitively” in Canada, it can create a sales boom by pricing them closer to what they sell for in the U.S.
That said, this is a car that should bring back some of the lustre Pontiac has recently lost as GM’s performance division. Once again, “Pontiac builds excitement,” even if it has to come from thousands of kilometres across the Pacific to get here.
My take is that the Pontiac faithful won’t care. They’ll just be glad the excitement is back.
Summary:
Strong Points
Weak Points
- - spacious interior and trunk
- - stable handling
- - brisk acceleration
- - no AWD option
- - ho-hum interior design
Editors Rating:
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