Filed under: Chicago Auto Show, Spy Photos, Sedans/Saloons, Pontiac
Sneak Peek! Wagoner lifts cover on Pontiac G8
As we reported earlier today, Charles Gibson is in Detroit this week doing World News Tonight from Motown. Avid Autoblog reader Arthur just tipped us off to this sneak peak of the show in which Rick Wagoner escorts Gibson into the Pontiac design studio and lifts the cover off the front end of the Pontiac G8 that will debut early next month at the Chicago Auto Show. Our inside sources tell us the G8 is officially listed as a concept, but we're obviously pretty certain that Pontiac's going to get a rear-wheel drive sedan based on Holden's Zeta platform and that what you see here isn't far from production at all. Click here to watch the video clip.
Thanks for the tip, Arthur!
[Source: ABC News]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
P. Andco 6:58PM (1/29/2007)
Looking good Pontiac! This small glimpse shows good things are going on at GM's "performance" division. Can't wait till Chicago.
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chris 7:02PM (1/29/2007)
Ah, who would have thought they'd mess up a clean Australian car with hood scoops again...
Has HSV wheels too, you'd think they could at least come up with their own wheels since they can't manage to make their own cars good enough.
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Misaniovent 7:10PM (1/29/2007)
Looks fantastic, even if it's just a small image. It also looks quite a bit like a BMW, but with a little bit more aggression. I really hope that those wheels don't shrink, though I am sure they will.
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dis_guy 7:10PM (1/29/2007)
The Pontiac style grille just doesn't look right on this car to me.
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dom 7:13PM (1/29/2007)
Looks like a Serie 3 !
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JayP 7:14PM (1/29/2007)
At a glance, it was an M3 for me...
Shocking!
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Typesbad 7:23PM (1/29/2007)
Looks like an E36 3-Series to me as well. The funny thing is, when I first saw the E36, I thought it looked too much like a Pontiac. I got over it. Love the short front overhang.
C'mon GM, get this one right!
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naggs 7:28PM (1/29/2007)
looks awesome, love the short overhang and the wheels look great
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SSBR 7:37PM (1/29/2007)
I thought it was a picture of a covered up 3-series. I have respect for GM, but at the same time they are desperate. With a shrinking market share and smarter buyers, GM needs to pull out all the stops from now on, and NOTHING LESS. While I applaud there effort for injecting life back into Pontiac, I think the new G8 (aka Holden Commodore VE) will be a good product, but like I said.. we have more smarter buyers now.
Cheers to the new poor mans BMW!
http://www.rolesor.com
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Tool 7:37PM (1/29/2007)
Holy shit. This looks like another winner.
Very BMW-esque with the EXTREMELY short overhang.
The Lutz-driven product development culture is in full swing. Great to see GM making this incredible comeback.
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victor casado 7:40PM (1/29/2007)
another piece of SHIT..... never will get the luck or the quality or the value of a HONDA or TOYOTA........
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Jared 7:48PM (1/29/2007)
This looks hot no matter how you slice it. GM needs to get this out in a timely fashion though. A lot of there recent launches have had people excited for a long time, but then there attention diminishes by the time the vehicle is actually available. Also it needs to exceed what the competition is right now not just match, because again by the time the vehicle is available it is behind in a year when the competition comes out with new offerings.
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Jared 7:50PM (1/29/2007)
Please keep ignorant, biased statements out of the blogs. You lower iq's faster than drinking and smoking dope put together. Victor I wish I could say I heart you, but I keep feeling like i want to throw a trident through your heart. Is that wrong Mr. Casado? No, the answer is no.
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Michael Karesh 7:50PM (1/29/2007)
I've been thinking "M46 M3" ever since I first saw the new Commodore.
Posted to my blog earlier today about the challenges of offering overseas models in the U.S.:
http://www.truedelta.com/blog/?p=18
Hopefully the next round ends the curse. Maybe all the GTO needed after all was a second pair of doors?
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MK 7:54PM (1/29/2007)
Wow... a re-badged Holden Commodore. If there's one company that can screw up the "cross the ocean & re-badge" model it's GM (see Honda Accord/Acura TSX or Toyota Camry/Lexus ES).
I don't like GM, but even I'm pulling for them here. Can you call them an "underdog" when they're still technically #1?
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yeahright 8:02PM (1/29/2007)
I guess this is how you define American auto design in the 21st century: slap a new front fascia (and hood scoops - ugh) on an Australian designed and engineered car. Oh well, at least it's a nice one. I can't help noticing, though, that this generation of the Commodore has been in the works since 1999 - eight years ago. Going forward, GM is going to have to shorten that production cycle if it wants to be truly competitive.
By the way, why are so many people cheering about the fact that the car looks like a 3-series knockoff? Are we supposed to be proud that GM knows how to copy?
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Jared 8:04PM (1/29/2007)
By the way all "there" that were written in my postings were supposed to be their. I am an idiot sometimes apologies.
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jg 8:09PM (1/29/2007)
A brand new car from Detroit thats actually a rebadged old car from Australia which looks like a late model BMW. This is worth cheering?
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SSBR 8:13PM (1/29/2007)
Poster #12: well said.
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Ross 8:16PM (1/29/2007)
#11 writes, "The Lutz-driven product development culture is in full swing"
Sorry, but Lutz joined GM in 2001, more than two years after the Australians settled on this car's basic design. You COULD say that Lutz deserves credit for helping to convince GM to start leveraging some of its better overseas designs (as with the new Opel/Saturns. But geeez ... everybody in the world has been telling GM to do that for years. (I remember telling GM's design director, Chuck Jordan, pretty much the same thing in 1991. He didn't seem to take it well. Of course, my comments about the Chev Caprice looking too big for its wheelbase probably put him in a bad mood.)
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