Originally posted by Chris Hafner on Feb. 8, 2008.
As we ponder the automotive landscape of the 00's, this is the. . .well, okay, the second vehicle that came to mind; the first was my old Thunderbird post. But I will submit to you, gentle readers, that the reborn Pontiac GTO is truly emblematic of the resurgence in automotive performance that took place during this period. As Hafner notes, performance was stellar and for a really great price. The trouble was the styling; it aimed to bring back a hallowed nameplate but made not even an eyebrow raise, let alone a simple nod, to the original. One can argue the merits of whether or not styling should be a crucial issue to buyers -- and it was hashed out in the comments -- but I think it's fairly clear that simply rebadging a Holden and calling it a GTO didn't work very well.
Which does, I suppose, make it a useful contrary note to the Thunderbird of that period. -- AJC
When Pontiac announced its plans to release a brand new GTO to the motoring public after a nearly 30-year hiatus, excitement ran high. Pontiac had used the long-neglected GTO nameplate to kick off the whole muscle car craze back in the early 1960s, and the revival of the GTO represented not only a potentially exciting new car, but a chance to cleanse the palatte from the sour taste left by the last GTO, the tape-and-sticker Ventura-based 1974 GTO.
When the new GTO debuted, however, it was to sighs of disappointment. The anticlimax had nothing to do with the performance. With a 350-horsepower LS1 small-block V-8, replaced the following year with the 400-horsepower LS2, acceleration was certainly potent. Car & Driver clocked the 2005 GTO at less than 5 seconds from 0-60 and the 13-second range in the quarter-mile.
But, to some, the GTO lacked the visual chutzpah of its predecessors--and in an age of overtly demonstrative cars, that seemed a fatal flaw. The GTO's feeble sales compared to the brisk movement of the new, retro-styled Mustang just drove home the point. After only three years of production, the GTO was quietly canceled.
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