An old school muscle car GTO club is not a great source to tell you why they think it's not selling as well as they think it should. Most people who make the comments know nothing of the 18000 limit, nor of the cutback for 05 to 12000 due to model year sync, plus they're in a rage because it isn't a carbon copy of a 1969 Judge. The GTO was always a big engine in a lighter bodied ordinary looking car with hood scoops. In fact, ignoring the Judge, take away the hood scoops and it looked like a LeMans. Of course now people fawn over their looks due to the classic appeal of even everyday cars from the 60's but back in then it would have looked like a slightly gussied-up everyday car. The funny part too, the non-car people and some partial-car people who I know and used to work with all loved the looks. Most didn't really know much about the car but they did make comments about how nice the car was. The only complaints I've ever heard are from some f-body lovers who were expecting something that stuck out as much as the later WS.6's.

I think guionM hit the nail on the head.

Chris

 

You're so WRONG it's hilarious. The first GTO's were tempests/le mans with hood scoops, badges and engines. They looked like EVERY other pontiac sitting on the lot.

Here's a pretty sweet 66 GTO with a flat hood on it



Whoops that was a grand prix, let me try again




Damn, missed again, that's a tempest.





Yeah, that really stands out



vs.




ROFLMAO, that's so different. I wish i could get some cheap vinyl stickers on my car from the factory

 

Here's a (very hypothetical) thought for you,


Base 3.9L OHV 250 hp..... at about 9:0 to 1
Manual 5 speed trans (T-5)

Then an aftermarket company steps up to the plate and offers a Signle and twin turbo kit, pumping out 8psi, bringing that hp to roughly 375.

Now consider this base camaro is 20k, and the turbo kit is 3k, for 23k you can have a 375 hp Camaro.

Does anyone think this would be popular?

While I don't think it would sell like hotcakes, it would sell well enough.
So much for turbo 350Zs and G35s.

 

If you want the V6 with good power bad enough, we will have to make some demands to make it happen. Write a whole bunch of letter. If they see plenty, then it will come.

 

notgetleft thanks for doing what I've wanted to do every time someone says the new GTO is too "ordinary" looking.

Shall we say... ?

 

You forgot the bucket seats and floor shifters. It really stood out when they hit the accelerator tho..
1965 Pontiac GTO Tri Power 389 4.11 360@5200 424@3600 5.8 14.5@100mph Car Life 5/65

 

Still.. people just say, the car itself, regardless of the name, isn't very emotionally moving to look at.

IMO, they need add subtle lines and fender flares to it, especially to widen the tires.

 

Yep I remember the 65 GTO well a friend back then had just got one new one week with the tri-power motor and 4-speed and took us all for a ride in it that night and let each one of us drive it and let us run it through the gears from a stand still till well past 120 in 4th and it was a very fast car in its day and even with 4 people in the car it would get rubber in all 4 gears. Todays GTO has the drive tran and motor the car looks is not there. Nice inside but the body is way lacking

 

i dunno, i got a guy i work with that has a bright red "modern" GTO, i don't think it looks bad or plain at all, i actually think it is a pretty damn good looking car but it just looks like a completely different breed next to my 3rd gen but you could say the same about the lexus on the other side of us

i guess it just goes back to that saying that you can't please everyone all the time, well the GTO certainly does please a good enough amount of people and no one can argue that isn't a powerful car, just because you dislike a car doesn't mean it will bomb in sales, i don't think it was ever intended to be a high volume sold car anyways

 

Exactly the point I tried to make with all the new GTO haters when the car came out and they thought it looked too plain. The GTO was always a plain car with a big engine, and if you got The Judge, stickers, wild paint, and a wing.

 

You know what would be awesome? If everyday, a group of about 10 people didn't have to jack thread after thread trying to educate the ignorant people of this board about the new GTO.

The new GTO won't scream "look at me" like a 98+ WS6 T/A. GET OVER IT. Like pointed out before, neither would the original. That is one of the reasons I love mine. It glides under people's radar. Also, as for the GTO Club didn't like it: We like to remember what we think was the truth, whether it was or not.

As for sales: The car is selling exactly where it was supposed to sell. Do look back at what cars were moving well enough to be discontinued from the Employee Discount sale... (hint: GTO was one of them). Lastly, you have to remember it is based on the Monaro. The Monaro is at the end of its current life cycle, and that is why the current GTO will be gone after this year.

The new GTO has 100% of the Muscle Car formula, and IMHO, is a good representation of what the GTO may have turned out to be had it been in production for 40 years.

 

Well back on topic, as Scott pointed out the LS1 was CAFE positive, and the new one with displacement on demand should get at least as good a mileage.

The v6 car is a must, and it has to have at least as much ***** as the V6 Stang, preferably more. 200 horsepower was outstanding from 96-02. 250 horsepower is what it's going to take to cut the mustard in todays market. It's good if the V6 car has *****, because it makes all Camaros look tough, and your not getting a "fake" camaro if you get the V6. Yeah, the V8 car is the halo car, but if every Camaro out there is fast, and the V8 cars are just stupid fast, that helps make the Camaro image that much better, and hopefully, better selling.

 

Yeah that was the 265--baby LT1. It had a s/c too. It was the T/A that has the 3800 S/C--it ran high 14's to low 15's--not alot of hp in that one for one reason or another.

The Formula had the S/C 4.3L V8 making around 300hp. It ran about the same as an LT1 did. I am loooking at the magazine article on them as we speak.

 

Probably not because a blown 3.8 still falls victim to the "fast engine in a box" complaint about the Camaros.

They might have sold a few more, paving the way for a great entry level racer with tons of potential - but at the same time, it might have cut into SS sales.

And to this day, there still isn't a huge turbo/supercharger aftermarket segment for late model V6 f-bods. There's a far greater market for v8 forced induction, and it makesme scratch my head as to why. There are all of these 4 banger Evos and StIs running around with gobs of horsepower, and yet no one seems to be taking advantage of these v6s out there. Heck, many STi and Evo cars outpower built LS1s. Seems to me that the turbo v6 market is simply untapped.

 

I hate it when almost every thread about the Camaro somehow turns into a GTO bash.

I love my new GTO and it looks just fine, and fits right in with my other GTO's.