Comments on: Pontiac names Pontiac G8 ST concept Pontiac G8 ST

By: davey49

davey49 — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:15:06 +0000

J.on- true the Cobalt is nothing special but the Astra’s pretty nice and the pics of the Cruze look pretty good.

By: ppd710

ppd710 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:42:42 +0000

This is a shame. I really like the G8 GT, but an El Camino look a like. No way. They will sell as many as the ugly Chevy truck. Catchy name anyway…LOL Looks like more unemployed GM employees in the next couple of years!!!

By: J.on

J.on — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:26:06 +0000

davey49: I meant you know, an ACTUAL competitor, not what GM puts for sale in the same segment.

By: Dave Baker

Dave Baker — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:15:47 +0000

@Redbarchetta: The idea of the car based truck is not a bad one. Giving you the utility and efficiency of a light truck which no one makes now with the driving dynamics of a car.

Or alternatively, all the passenger capacity of a pickup truck with all the payload and towing capacity of a car.

By: davey49

davey49 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:21:21 +0000

Since I’d just call the G8 the Bonneville, than Bonneville Sport Truck makes sense. If I owned a G8 I’d put Bonneville badges on it. I can’t really think of it as the Grand Prix because I think the GP should be a 2 door.
J.on- the ST already exists as the Holden Commodore Ute in Australia. All the R&D costs went to designing the grille. GM has 2 Civic/Corolla competitors already (Cobalt/Astra) and 1 coming (Cruze)
I like the G8 ST a lot better than the Camaro.

By: J.on

J.on — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:58:45 +0000

I don’t get it: why waste money to make a niche product that in all likelihood won’t sell enough to cover the R&D costs to bring it into fruition in the first place? Wouldn’t it be a far better idea to make a Civic / Corolla competitor and take that segment head-to-head?

By: M20E30

M20E30 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:58:10 +0000

NickR :

Right on. I still don’t know why this vehicle even exists.

By: nevets248

nevets248 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:14:40 +0000

Does this mean that Pontiac dealers will be known as the “G-spot” for all of those great G-whiz models??
Look at all the money they saved in not having to tool up a nifty new nameplate!!!

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:59:26 +0000

monkeyboy The idea of the car based truck is not a bad one. Giving you the utility and efficiency of a light truck which no one makes now with the driving dynamics of a car. The problem is GM is great at screwing up a good idea when they finally produce it. What good is a car based truck that gets the gas mileage of a fullsize truck, has a smaller bed and lower towing capacity for the same price or MORE than that fullsize truck, especially during a time when trucks are suffering big time becuase they suck so much gas. This would have been great as a limited SS package while the majority of buyers had a chance at a V6 or even better the turbo ecotech at a lower price. But no GM had to ignore those buyers and go after the fashion truck crowd that is basicly gone right now.

By: argentla

argentla — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:36:25 +0000

Y’know, Furiosa would be a better name for the new Alfa than MiTo (seriously, WTF?).

I’ve always thought these car/pickup deals (El Camino, Ranchero, BRAT) were fascinatingly tacky. They’re utterly unappealing to me, and yet I can’t look away, particularly in SS-type trim.

By: RayH

RayH — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:22:41 +0000

Talk about SSR redux.

This one should be $20,000 cheaper (not factoring in discounts then or now), have the equivalent horsepower and probably better performance. I don’t know if any of you followed SSR development, but it was supposed to start around $25,000. Then it ended up being $50,000 for a truck that could go really fast in a straight line with a droptop. And have a total load capacity of 700lbs. And not tow anything.
This should have been El Camino or SSR.

By: monkeyboy

monkeyboy — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:04:14 +0000

A car based pickup is PERFECT!!

Didn’t Honda make one with the Ridgeline (Poor Avalanche copy)?

Why is this any different? Oh that’s right!

It CAN’t be good, it’s not JAPANESE!!!

Bull____.

By: Jordan Tenenbaum

Jordan Tenenbaum — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:01:10 +0000

So it’s the Pontiac Gr8 Sanitary Towel?

Attractive.

By: windswords

windswords — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:55:50 +0000

The concept of car/utility truck is not a bad one on it’s own – see http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/el-camino-redux/

In this case it’s the execution that’s messed up. It shouldn’t be a Pontiac and only available as a V8. There are more shouldn’ts but my lunch break is over. Please discuss without me.

By: RFortier1796

RFortier1796 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:43:42 +0000

HPE, I try my best.

By: HPE

HPE — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:26:02 +0000

“I take it they didn’t accept my entry for the Pontiac Combat Wombat.”

That’s coffee-through-nostrils gold right there.

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:53:02 +0000

Justin any idea why they didn’t inform the web designers and marketing that they wouldn’t be offering a V6 here in the states. The contest was in April and they told you in January, but the winner of the contest would have gotten a base trim V6 of the truck as the prize. Guess there was no winner so they dont have to give out any prize, a$$holes.

How you could run a business that size with the right hand doing one thing and the left hand doing another, cluelessness I guess.

By: NickR

NickR — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:47:27 +0000

Well, I don’t think it was quite as much of an epic farce as the Beat whatever whatever voting. GM is getting good that this *expletive*.

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:43:58 +0000

Because they knew it had no prayer with actual utility buyers – only glamor truck buyers.

Hahahaha, I am going to laugh all day at that one. These guys are clueless as to what people want and where the market is going. I actually considered one of these sport trucks because of it’s utility, it doesn’t really have a whole lot when you look at the specs, smaller size and non-truck dynamics. How many glamour truck buyers are their now, or will there be in a year when gas gets even more expensive.

Proof that if GM plans to go right the world will surely go left, because they are 100% wrong in their thinking and planning.

Justin you don’t really need to defend GM, they have a huge PR department for that.

By: Brian E

Brian E — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:41:44 +0000

@Sajeev Mehta: I suggested “Caba”, which is a nod towards Caballero but short enough to be tacked on to “G8″ as a model descriptor.

I think they took the name suggestion bucket, threw it in the trash, and went with “ST”. Lazy.

By: Buick61

Buick61 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:39:46 +0000

Big fat waste of everyone’s time.

Why did anyone even bother entering into the contest if they were just going to change it from G8 st to G8 ST?

Was this done so they wouldn’t have to give one of them away for free to the winner?

By: rudiger

rudiger — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:29:14 +0000

Sajeev Mehta: “Why Pontiac didn’t call the G8 ute a Caballero (a la GMC rebadge of the Elky) is another colossal slip up.”

It looks a lot more like an old Dodge Rampage.

By: Justin Berkowitz

Justin Berkowitz — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:27:57 +0000

@Redbarchetta:

In GM’s defense, they told me in January that the G8 ST was going to be V8/Auto only. Because they knew it had no prayer with actual utility buyers – only glamor truck buyers.

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:13:43 +0000

Justin Berkowitz Seriously they changed the product plan to only offer a V8 even after the website listed specs for the V6, at the time you could even get it with the 6 speed stick for under $25,000.

These guys are so f*cked they are still running their business the way they did 2 decades ago. Always going after the giant profits. Their lesson wont be learned since they never do when they are giving these away with huge discounts 8 weeks after launch.

By: NickR

NickR — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:10:14 +0000

RFortier1796 interesting. BUT GM is a global enterprise and I can’t imagine in the grand scheme of things they will sell enough of these to make it worthwhile. The energies of the people who work on this could have been better spent elsewhere.