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Posted: 2/22/2006 6:05:45 AM EDT
www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060221/NEWS11/60221011/1013/RSS07
Breaking news GM will drop GTO this year February 21, 2006 Email this Print this By JOE GUY COLLIER FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER General Motors Corp. confirmed Tuesday it will quit making the Pontiac GTO high-performance vehicle this summer. The last GTO, made at an Australian plant, is expected to roll off the lines in June and reach U.S. customers in July, said Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson. GM decided to stop production of the GTO because of new U.S. safety requirements, Hopson said. The GTO uses the same platform as the Australian Monaro, which has been discontinued. As this platform is being phased out worldwide, it simply doesn't make financial sense to make those kind of investments, Hopson said. The original GTO was an icon of the muscle-car era from 1964 to 1974. The current GTO, revived in late 2003, boasted a 400-horspeower engine that hit home with car enthusiasts. GM sold 11,590 GTOs last year, according to Autodata Corp. As the current GTO is phased out, Pontiac is exploring options for adding another high-performance, rear-wheel-drive vehicle to its portfolio but no decisions have been made about a replacement, Hopson said. Contact JOE GUY COLLIER at 313-222-6512 or [email protected].
I think someone needs to fix their crystal ball. 
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Posted: 2/22/2006 8:16:11 AM EDT
[#1]
Oh yeah, it really hit home with enthusiasts. 12,000 sales a year.
 Had it looked like this (below) with a Judge package, I may have over looked that it was a Chevy powered Aussie car. I still think they had potential, but GM flopped. The high performance Aussie versions were pretty sweet, and the four door model looked good as well, IMO. GM took off the body styling panels, flipped the steering, and decided that was enough to warrant a price tag of double what the Manaro costs. 
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Posted: 2/22/2006 2:33:14 PM EDT
[#2]
Is that a concept version from when it first come out? |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 3:31:13 PM EDT
[#3]
I believe it was the 2004 Ram Air GTO concept car. It's to bad GM never considered it as I think it would have sold fairly well. I don't like the GTO in it's standard form, but I think that car's pretty sweet. |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 3:32:42 PM EDT
[#4]
I like that version as well. I'm not too crazy about the "orange puke" color though. |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 3:35:54 PM EDT
[#5]
Good it was an abortion anyway. It was a disgrace to the name GTO and Pontiac much like the 1980s Nova and the Chevy Malibu's of today.
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Posted: 2/22/2006 3:57:47 PM EDT
[#6]
The "GTO" reminded me of a quote from Working Girl... "just because I sing and dance in my underwear, it doesn't make me Madonna"
Just because a reskinned GrandAm has a GTO sticker on it, DOES NOT MAKE IT A GTO!!! If Pontiac/GM had the balls to actually make a car that could stand out from the pack, and have the power to back it up, the car buyers that want muscle cars might actually line up around the block to buy their shit. [just my $.02 - ymmv] |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 5:45:28 PM EDT
[#7]
Why doesn't GM just go out of business and stop embarassing the men who built it into the biggest of the big 3 all those years ago.
I've been a BowTie fan since I was old enough to appreciate cars..not now. The couldn't build a quality car to save their life. |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 5:47:21 PM EDT
[#8]
No offense bro but I'm rather happy with GM. My mom has a 2005 Chevy TrailBlazer and has had NOTHING go wrong on it. They're definitely coming back. |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 5:51:48 PM EDT
[#9]
There are few GM cars I'd consider right now.
-C6 ZO6. -Trailblazer SS. -Cadillac STS-V. If they made them, I'd buy -Ram Air GTO like above. -Colorado SS. |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 6:06:18 PM EDT
[#10]
I told the dealer when I went to look at it that it reminded me of a Ford Pinto, a GTO just shouldnt be a hatchback.
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Posted: 2/22/2006 6:14:05 PM EDT
[#11]
I agree about the hatch back part. You'd think they would have learned in 1974 with the |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 6:17:38 PM EDT
[#12]
So with the new Camaro due out in 07 or 08, and the death of GTO, we'll get to see the rebadged Camaro as a Firebird......
Cyclical bullshit at GM. |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 6:51:41 PM EDT
[#13]
Like I said..... bullshit car with a "badge" and no balls or appeal to back it up!!!
Reminds me of the bogus Fiero/Ferarri or the fake-assed Corvette/Ferarri bullshit from the 80s. 
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Posted: 2/22/2006 6:55:58 PM EDT
[#14]
Looked like shit from the beginning and one of the biggest let downs in American Car History.
Breaking News: Its looks like shit that Nobody will buy. Period. |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 7:05:53 PM EDT
[#15]
400 horses/ 6 speed manual= no balls? The 06 GTO is the fastest GTO EVER built. 
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Posted: 2/22/2006 7:42:21 PM EDT
[#16]
Bout farking time.
gm exec1: "Hey, I know, let's make a new GTO" gm exec2: "GREAT" gm exec1: "And we'll make it look like an overgrown cavalier" gm exec2: "BRILLIANT! The people will LOVE it!" time passes the people: "WTF is THIS, you said you were making a GTO, not a POS!" time passes gm exec1: "so maybe the gto wasn't a great idea" gm exec2: "what gto?" <cancels production><whistles> "look, a bunny!" |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 8:59:03 PM EDT
[#17]
Give it a couple of years and you'll be replacing every electronic part in it one by one. My 97 Z28 has 65k on it and starting about 3 years ago I've had to replace something expensive every few weeks. When it was still under warranty 3 different dealershits actually did more damage than repair. I'd take it in for a small wrinkle in the dash pad and get it back with a dead alternator, dead battery, speedo needle trapped under the bezel, and ripped headliner, for example. I finally just cut my losses and fixed things myself so I could actually drive my car. After the lastest round of expensive repairs I swore I'd never own another GM again, and bought a Dodge. Unfortunately Dodge doesn't have a Camaro replacement yet, but they're working on it  (Don't even say Viper. If I even think about one, SWMBO comes into my office and smacks me.) |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 9:58:32 PM EDT
[#18]
I thought that was the purpose of the original GTO... shove a large motor into an average car?
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Posted: 2/22/2006 10:06:57 PM EDT
[#19]
it's NOT a hatchback, it has a trunk |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 10:13:56 PM EDT
[#20]
the current GTO is rather bland looking (the original was too IIRC) BUT a 360ci pushrod V-8 with 400hp & 400ft-lbs of torque driving the rear wheels through a 6 speed manual(same 6.0L engine & trans from a C6!) & an IRS for $29k seems like a sleeper/bargain IMHO what other car comes close to that kind of power for that amount of money ??????????? these cars run mid 13's on wimpy factory tires, add a good set of drag radials & it really hauls ass |
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Posted: 2/22/2006 10:21:45 PM EDT
[#21]
 and this car looks radically different from a Tempest/Le Mans how 
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Posted: 2/23/2006 12:07:15 AM EDT
[#22]
wow its a whopping one year old. it must be bulletproof! watch your moms car as slowly things fall apart within the next 3 years starting with the running lights |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 12:50:25 AM EDT
[#23]
I've got a '99 GMC Sierra with 185,000 miles on it. Never babied it. Only problems have been: Alternator went out at 60K, ABS computer died around 95k, CD player got weird around 120K. I was a GM hater until I bought this truck - now I'm a fan of the General's Kool-Aid! |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 5:15:45 AM EDT
[#24]
Okay, so the car had some horsepower. (my bad) But the car still looked like "nothing". It looked like a rebadged grand am type of car and was so far from the legacy of the GTO that the design was an insult.
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Posted: 2/23/2006 7:41:50 AM EDT
[#25]
LMAOPMP totally true, nobody cares how fast it is if it looks like crap. 
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Posted: 2/23/2006 5:53:48 PM EDT
[#26]
Well I went to look at one, kinda liked the look, Pontiac place wouldnt let me tiest drive it. Words were exchanged
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Posted: 2/23/2006 6:18:06 PM EDT
[#27]
I was OK with the looks, I just didn't like the price or the features. I don't want a performance car with power windows, onstar, remote start and all the other crap they force you to pay for. Give me Vynal seats, manual locks and AM/FM four speaker stereo, and sell it for $20K and I might give a crap about them.
That is what killed the muscle car in the first place, it wasn't emmisions, muscle car sales had been in serious decline for two years whe the emmisions laws were passed in 1973. What killed the muscle cars, and will keep killing them is trying to force a lot of overpriced "standard features" that young people can't afford on us. Stripped down Magnums and Chargers are being sold as fast as they can make them, jsut like the inline six Camaros and Mustangs in the sixites, they have the image and style of the V8s but without the big price tags. At least they could offer a stripped down value edition with the V8 at a decent price, but they don't. Ford is the only outfit that gets it, they sell few of the most expensive Cobras, and make big profits on each one, but that isn't where they make thier money, they sell crap loads of V6 LXs to people who want the Mustang image but can't afford the cost of owning the GT, they sell crap loads of plain jane GTs because they are a good value, and the hot rodders know that they are easy to soup up enough to compete with the top of the line models. If Pontiac had released a V6 version at around 20K and a stripped down value V8 version for around 22.5-24K they would have sold lots of them, not the paltry 12K units. |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 6:42:06 PM EDT
[#28]
As an owner of a 2005 GTO, allow me to correct some of the complete and utter bullshit posted so far in this thread.
There are several posts with this same sentiment. What exactly do you people think the original GTO was anyway? For all you geniuses, guess which of the following two pics is a GTO pic 1 pic 2 While we're at it, what difference does it make what they call it? for 400 horses and a low 13 1/4 mile they could call it the "Pontiac Pink Bunny Slipper" for all I care. Why people are so hung up on a name, especially people that never owned or are even old enough to remember the original GTO is beyond me.
Shit, it was supposed to have a hatch? I guess I'm all confused as to why it is when I open my trunk the glass stays put.
Yeah, 400 horses and 13.3 in the 1/4 mile is real balls-less. 
I wouldn't say "nobody". I rather enjoy stomping the shit out of the guys that bought an image and can't figure out why the image won't get them down the track as fast as me. It's ironic that on a site where so many wannabes dress up their rifles to look like something and then spend all day at the static range, we hear comments about how the car should be prettier, damn the performance.
No remote start on onstar on my car. In fact, other than power windows and leather seats I can't really think of any "luxury" items on the GTO. Air conditioning is hardly a luxury item.
That sounds all well and good on paper, but would you really buy one? REALLY buy one? In the current market they likely would have sold even LESS than they actually did had they left out the CD player and leather.
Thank GOD you are not in charge of GM. I am thankful that unlike the crapstang and the camaro, there is no punked-down version of the GTO. If you see a new GTO on the street it has at least a 5.7 liter with 350 HP. If you see hood scoops, chances are it's a 400 HP 6.0 liter. |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 6:45:16 PM EDT
[#29]
Now that we've watered down the ignorance....
I personally like the car. I like the fact that it is a sleeper, I like the fact that I can trounce cars that cost 2-3x as much, and I like the fact that there is no punk version like there is on the Mustang. I also like the fact that it has room in the back seat for 2 real adults, and I like the fact that the insurance is lower than the (much slower) Mustang. I was shopping for 4 different cars; the Mustang, the 350Z, the G35 Coupe, and the GTO. Once I learned what the actual performance of the GTO was, the contest was all but over. Once I got a chance to actually drive one, the deal was sealed. Love it or hate it, that's personal opinion, but at least base your opinions on facts and not ignorance. |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 6:46:36 PM EDT
[#30]
Oh, and for those that don't get it, let me repeat
400 HP and 13.3 in the 1/4 mile on stock tires The rest is all just background noise. |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 7:25:29 PM EDT
[#31]
I'd like to point out this was a planned demise, the original plan was to build the car for 3 years. The platform has been retired down under, not feasible to continue with it just for the US market. There is alot of buzz around a newly designed GTO due out in a couple years, not sure how firm that is though. It was never meant to sell 100,000 units a year BTW, I think they ended up a llittle short of their goals of like 18,000 a year but it was supposed to be a limited run (no V6 base model, no verts, etc). Honestly I like that idea, I get pretty tired of seeing watered down poser mobile V6 Camaros, Firebirds, and Mustangs myself. The GTO's somewhat muted styling was surely a big part of it's relatively low numbers as well though.
It's clear from reading the thread that the naysayers know little or nothing about what a GTO really was or is today. I would have personally preferred a slightly more aggressive fresh design instead of the lightly tweaked Holden, but they actually look fairly muscular in person IMO and are actually a pretty perfect definition of a GTO. The ram air hood and opposite side exhaust exits they added in 05 (along w/ the 400hp LS2 engine, 350 hp LS1 was for 04) helped a lot IMO, I really liked the 05-06s. And they DEFINITELY have the balls to back up the GTO name, in fact they'll dropkick any production GTO ever made that I'm aware of, along w/ most of the quasi performance imports around that come anywhere near the GTO's price range. I wouldn't mind getting one sometime, but my next expensive car purchase will be the new 09-ish Camaro. My mildly modded 94 Z28 will get me by until then most likely. |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 7:28:45 PM EDT
[#32]
Gm did the same thing with the Camaro, they had them starting at $20K when you could get a Mustang for $16, they don't make them anymore, people prefered to buy Mustangs. A LX mustang may not be your thing, but they are selling well over a hundred thousand LXs a year., so somebody must like them. You won't be seing any new GTOs on the street with any engine, you don't have to worry about watered down versions. I guess that is a good thing? |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 7:30:47 PM EDT
[#33]
Now is the chance for speculators to pick up the loaded 6 speed GTO's and keep them for 30 years.
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Posted: 2/23/2006 8:27:35 PM EDT
[#34]
actually I care about performance FIRST & looks last, it's fun driving a "sleeper" & then blowing the doors of all the posers with their " all show & NO go " cars |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 8:49:39 PM EDT
[#35]
Im hoping to catch one abit cheaper then normal |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 8:58:46 PM EDT
[#36]
The new ones looked like beefed up sunbirds to me
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Posted: 2/23/2006 9:02:07 PM EDT
[#37]
www.ebaymotors.com |
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Posted: 2/23/2006 9:03:27 PM EDT
[#38]
Maybe after I test drive one and if I like it, Only problem with Ebay was if I was going to sell something fucked up and pull a fast one thats how Id do it |
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Posted: 2/24/2006 6:22:44 PM EDT
[#39]
If it weren't so damn expensive, I'd consider it. They want too much damn money for a 2 door sedan and a motor. Hell, at least the corvette has a lot of (continuous) history, looks, and performance (handling and power). If they had priced it to compete with the mustang, then maybe it would have taken off. Hell, if you are smart, you can get a New mustang GT for around 22k
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Posted: 2/25/2006 6:31:46 AM EDT
[#40]
What else are you going to find brand new for $30k that runs the 1/4 mile in the low 13s?
You can debate the appearance all you want, hell I own one and the appearance doesn't do that much for me, but the $:performance is undeniable. |
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Posted: 2/25/2006 6:45:56 PM EDT
[#41]
It didn't sell for two reasons:
1) GM didn't market it very well 2) It looks like a friggin' Grand Am!!! |
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Posted: 2/26/2006 4:13:58 AM EDT
[#42]
Unfortunately you're right. The bottom line is that the car-buying public is more concerned with appearance than performance (much like the average arfcommer and their rifle actually). I think that GM could have even overcome the appearnce had they marketed the performance better. The initial 350 HP offering didn't help things much either. I was anxiously awaiting the return of the GTO, but when it came out with only 350 horses in a rather heavy package I was less than enthused. I never even realized that the '05 upped the HP to 400 until I happened to walk past one at an auto show. Literally walked right past it and just happened to look back and notice the "GTO" on the bottom rear facia. Once I found out it now had 400 horses I started doing my research and was hooked. Had GM come out with the '05 in '04 I think the GTO would have faired much better in the market. Then again, I'm not so sure GM wanted it to. I think they just wanted something with a performance attitude to placate the go-faster market until they could get a Camaro back to the showrooms. |
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Posted: 2/27/2006 10:03:58 AM EDT
[#43]
cnatra...is that your '67 GTO in the picture? I have a '66 that is Palmetto Green in color which appears the same as your picture. Nice looking car!
 Someday I wouldn't mind having a '06 GTO as it'd be a 40th Anniversary model of the GTO that I own and that the parents had bought brand new. |
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Posted: 2/27/2006 1:42:42 PM EDT
[#44]
nah, I wouldn't mine having one though ! |
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Posted: 3/2/2006 7:19:24 PM EDT
[#45]
BTW, my soon to be obsolete FWD V6 Cavalier look-a-like did the 1/4 mile in 13.4 seconds last night, stock, on street tires. Another guy with a cam and headers was in the low 12s, on street tires.
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Posted: 3/3/2006 5:22:58 PM EDT
[#46]
Well shit.
Looks like the abomination isn't going away afterall. www.leftlanenews.com/2006/03/02/its-official-pontiac-gto-will-return/ |
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Posted: 3/3/2006 6:44:40 PM EDT
[#47]
Chevy's bringing back the Camaro in 08 (supposedly), so the answer should be rather obvious.... Bring back the Trans Am.... |
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Posted: 3/3/2006 6:47:11 PM EDT
[#48]
The question is, if they do this will it look right, or will they serve up more retro bullshit (or even worse, a Mustang/GTO-style 'Super Sedan' appearance).... |
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Posted: 3/4/2006 9:14:35 AM EDT
[#49]
It's hard to sell 2dr cars,just not in this day and age(gotta think about the family!),and no high schooler would be able to afford one,be lucky just to afford a 5yo Mustang with a V-6.(you can thank the insurance industry for that).
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Posted: 3/5/2006 7:26:43 AM EDT
[#50]
I am hoping that the new Camaro SS has a 450hp detuned LS7. |
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