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Sedans Pontiac G8 2008 Pontiac G8
1266 messages, Last post on Dec 07, 2009 at 12:07 PM
You are in the Pontiac G8 Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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The G8 is by far superior to the 3 series or for anyone with a family. When I purchased my G8 I test drove both the 3 series & CTS. They are really 2 seaters, may as well purchase a vette. I can’t believe everyone is trashing GM with this winner. Seems like Americans are never happy when an American company does well. It reminds me of when Microssoft was being sued for being a monopoly. Everyone in work wanted to see MS (the company that has kept America alive) lose. Here is my 2 cents on the G8… Pros: Balanced RWD, supple ride, good handling, spacious interior. Runs fine on 87 octane fuel Cons: A Couple of badly placed secondary gauges, no Navigation system Driving experience -- Quiet comfortable ride, excellent everyday handling, short stopping distances, gobs of power & torque Comfort & convenience -- Very spacious interior, decent trunk, comfortable supportive seats, outstanding climate control system. Comments -- Unlike Honda with its Acura line, Nissan with the Maxima, Toyota with the unwieldy handling Camry and still worst Avalon, Pontiac has a 30k rear wheel drive family sedan that is actually pleasing to drive. When you step on the gas with this rear wheel drive sedan, all the weight is transferred to the drive wheels (the rear wheels). Enthusiastic drivers will notice the pleasing handling associated with the vehicles balanced weight distribution and lack of torque steer associated every day driving situations encountered with the pretender aforementioned FWD vehicles. It is beyond me why Honda can’t produce a decent RWD family sedan in this price range. It seems they spend their research dollars trying to hide the fact that their flagship Acura line is front heavy and still emits notable torque steer. Furthermore, nobody will mistake the G8’s V8 engine for a 4 or even V6 cylinder. The pushrod American V8 produces gobs of power without having to rev it up to a screaming 7000RPMs. The power delivery is smooth and consistent at any speed. And with the cylinder shutdown feature I recorded 26MPG on a trip traveling ~65MPH. Best yet, the entire family will enjoy the spacious (roomier than all the above mentioned vehicles) interior. The seats are supportive and comfortable. The interior quality/fit and finish is decent. And the content is fairly complete (excluding the fact there is no Navigation system available) There are a few badly positioned secondary gauges, but all the necessary stuff is there. Kudos to GM to bring us a fun to drive balanced RWD family sedan at an affordable price. As a side benefit, the profit on the sale on this vehicle will not sail oversees.
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Replying to: mrpushrod (Aug 13, 2008 2:44 pm) Conversely, a Toyota Camry built in Kentucky puts money in the pockets of US-based assembly-line workers, suppliers (and their workers), shipping companies and all the other supporting characters that conspire to build a car and bring it to market. Toyota also employs many stateside engineers who develop and test the prototypes. Yes, some of the profit ultimately goes to Japan, but a lot of the money stays in the USA via the hands of all those employed to develop and build it, who buy homes, groceries and pay taxes HERE. Which scenario puts more money overseas? Design philosophy aside, which one is more American? It isn't an easy question to answer--I don't know. As I see it, the name on the badge is no longer an effective way of making this distinction. |
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The G8 will be made in Canada very soon if not already..
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The reason it is not built here is our fault. GM carries a premium of ~ $2500 per every vehicle made in the US over the foreign vehicle transplant factories (Honda, Toyota, Nissan) in the US. due to legacy union deals. The UAW United Auto Workers union is choking our car companies. I personally wanted to puke every time the UAW has held a strike in the past years. Just the payoffs alone for GM to layoff an employee is sick. The amount of money these selfish people on the assembly line make is outrageous and then they have the gall to strike or make threats to hurt their own employee. They don’t care that GM is sucking wind, they want to ride it to the ground. When American’s work they demand top dollar, the best health insurance, the best working conditions, protection against every grievance of with their employee, etc, etc – But when they shop, they want to shop at Wall-mart where the products are made somewhere in a sweatshop in China by employees making $10 a day with no insurance. I too worked in high tech as an engineer. We had a development crew both here and in India where the engineers made 25k VS 100k respectively. It is a global economy and we need to get use to it. Why do Americans blame Bush for the price of oil when China & India are buying up every gallon they can to produce our goods. There is no mystery to the price of oil, It is just simple supply and demand. GM is still one of the largest employer in the US NOT your Toyota or Honda. Now here is the kicker. You say “Conversely, a Toyota Camry built in Kentucky puts money in the pockets of US-based bla bla”. This leads me to believe you are a typical American trying to hurt the country. I bet you too wanted Microsoft to lose the monopoly suite. Too bad Sony didn’t create windows… Toyota a Japanese car company builds some cars in the US. Some of these vehicles are exported too. That’s ok. Yet GM builds some cars in Australia and export them and GM is lame. Toyota and Honda seem to be doing ok with this business model. Don’t forget why Toyota & Honda started building cars here in the first place. It was to avoid tariffs. I don’t know if you realize this, but GM is just about bankrupt. If GM goes down (again, one of our biggest employers) this country is going to the dogs. GM needs all help it can get to dig out of this mess. I am sure if the $2500 legacy UAW per vehicle premium was put toward R&D GM could give the foreign competition a run for its money. My hopes are GM can raise some capital from subsidiaries such as Holden. Certainly I realize they are in no position to retool American factories or to over invest as much in R&D which they should be doing. Having a winner (hopefully) like the G8 built out of their Holden plant costs them very little and could just help their bottom line. Wouldn’t it be good for America if mazda, Jaguar, and Volvo could help Ford out of this mess instead of bleeding it to death. Futhermore, it would be nice if GM was first out of the shoot on an all electric vehicle. I bet you are rooting for Toyota. You are dreaming if you think a healthy Toyota & Honda is better for America than having a healthy Ford and GM. Yaa, like you I would rather see the G8 made in America or even Canada for that matter. But I also realize the uphill battle GM faces over its foreign rivals. You need to put on your business hat and be more realistic though. GM needs short term help, period. One last point. You make it sound like the G8 is totally an Australian design from the ground up. Yet one of the major selling points is the pushrod engine itself. GM has daunted every foreign manufacture with compact lightweight reliable design. Nobody believes me when I say my 6 speed C5 vette easily achieves 33MPG on the highway. I can and did beat a 6 cylinder Camry in a gas mileage test. And I run it on regualar unleaded to boot. GMs full-size trucks are the most fuel efficient in the business. |
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Replying to: flip7 (Aug 13, 2008 3:49 pm) No - it is not. Not likely any time soon... Though the 2010 Camaro ( based on a modified G8 platform ) will be... |
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Replying to: mrpushrod (Aug 13, 2008 2:44 pm) Regards, OW |
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Replying to: mrpushrod (Aug 13, 2008 7:52 pm) G8 is nice and the CTS and Malibu...and always Corvette. That's about it, folks! Unless you like trucks. Regards, OW |
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Replying to: mrpushrod (Aug 13, 2008 7:52 pm)
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Replying to: actualsize (Aug 14, 2008 12:06 pm) Welcome to the Global Economy! Everything is connected. Regards, OW
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Replying to: circlew (Aug 14, 2008 12:19 pm) I am very impressed with the overall appeal, love the color palate offered for this car. If they want to bring back the Pontiac with a new look and name, then they started in the right direction. Because word is, they could get rid of the Pontiac name in the near future. |
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