rosskoss

2008 Pontiac G8 to start at $27,595





Today in New York during what we believed would be a mundane media event, General Motors dropped a mini-bomb on us when it announced pricing for its highly anticipated rear-wheel-drive Pontiac G8 sedan. The V6 model will arrive with a base price of $27,595, while the G8 GT with a V8 will begin at $29,995. Yep, they somehow managed to get the price of the performance model below $30,000, which, considering this car is basically imported from Australia, is amazing.

The base model is of course powered by GM's excellent 3.6L V6, though the direct inject version that's available with the Cadillac CTS. Expect around 260 HP for the V6, and it's mated to a five-speed automatic. The G8 GT, meanwhile, gets the General's 6.0L V8 paired with a six-speed automatic. Sorry, there's no rowing your own boat in a Pontiac G8, as no manual transmission appears to be offered.

We're pretty impressed that GM managed to keep the base price below $28,000, and that there's only $2,400 separating the two models. Mark our words, this car will sell out, at least in its first year of production and perhaps one or two after that.

Source: www.autoblog.com

maniax

iTrader: (3)

nah it won't sell if they continue to be grimey and not give us the manual tranny!

rosskoss

WTF?!

I just noticed that myself. 6-sp auto is nice but no manual option is completely unacceptable when you have a 360HP LS2 under the hood and you're marketing the car as a sports sedan!

I guess it's because the manual isn't compatible with the engine displacement-on-demand cylinder deactivation feature.

Major letdown.

plex

iTrader: (11)

Despite the lack of the manual tranny I think it will still sell. Most buyers will probably go for the rwd 6.0L V8 starting at 30K well at least I would.

4TehNguyen

iTrader: (1)

damn nice price

rosskoss

Apparently, there will be a 6-sp manual option with the V8 offered later on since that combo is already being offered down under. However, because it's incompatible with the cylinder deactivation option, buyers may incure a gas guzzler tax. But GM engineers are working on a solution.

speedflex

One of the nicer executions from Pontiac. Seems to have some pretty heavy influences from the Acura TL both inside and out.

toy4two

not bad, also like the new pontiac emblem, I had to do a double take that it wasn't an Acura emblem.

Well done. They should just import all their cars/designs, all the winners seem to come from outside the US.

SLegacy99

Thats a nice looking Holden there...I mean Pontiac. I had a lot of respect for this car until I saw the Identical version with Impala slapped on the trunk over the G8 logo. Looks like GM is falling back into the ole lets see how many variants of the same car we can make before anyone notices and we get into debt.

rosskoss

How so?

That's for a totally different market - the Middle East. Most of the Chevrolet cars sold in the Middle East are Holdens. Offering different names of the same car in different international markets is a common strategy employed by many car manufacturers. Rebading is when you do it in the same market. For the longest time, Lexus cars here were Toyotas in Japan. This is no different.

Also, you're confusing two different models. That Holden (the Impala) you speak of isn't this car at all. It's a totally different model and will not be coming to America.

rosskoss

I don't see the resemblance. And even if there was one, it would be Acura copying Pontiac. Seeing that Pontiac has been around since 1926, while Acura only came into being more than half a century later.

SLegacy99

How do you know?


Saturn, Chevy, Pontiac, and Buick all had the same Mini van and now the thing is dead. Oldsmobile is dead too!

SLegacy99

And this one.

Threxx

The Impala won't be out for 2 more years so whatever you saw is unlikely to be anything close to the finished product.

They will both be using the Zeta platform, but so does the new Camaro for that matter, and I doubt you'd call the G8 and new Camaro 'badge engineered', so making that assumption about the Impala based on powertrains and platforms alone would be a mistake this early on.

edit: Those pictures are of a test mule. Not at all intended to be a finished product. When mechanicals are being tested and they just need a body, they'll often slap on the easiest to assemble body they can which often belongs to a related car.

SLegacy99

Yes I know. My point is that the G8 design is not unique to Pontiac when they start spreading it through the rest of GM. So why even have a Pontiac?

Last time I checked, Pontiac or Buick were next in line to be axed, should it come to that.