Pontiac Ending GTO Production

[TrainTrac]

GM to put halt to GTO



High-performance Camaro may sub



BY JOE GUY COLLIER

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER



February 22, 2006



General Motors Corp. confirmed Tuesday that it will quit making the Pontiac GTO high-performance vehicle this summer.



The last GTO is expected to roll off the lines in June and reach U.S. customers in July, Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson said. The car is made in Australia.



GM decided to stop production of the GTO because of new U.S. safety requirements, Hopson said. The GTO shared a platform with 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 kinds of investments," Hopson said.



Pontiac is exploring the possibility of adding a high-performance, rear-wheel-drive vehicle to its portfolio, but no decisions have been made in this regard, Hopson said.



The original GTO was an icon of the muscle-car era from 1964 to 1974. Revived in late 2003, the current GTO, which starts at $31,990, received high marks for performance and power, has a 400-horsepower engine. But the styling was considered boring.



Last year GM sold 11,590 GTOs, down 15% from the first full-year production in 2004, Autodata Corp. reports.



Despite the drop in sales, the GTO was doing well for a high-performance car and winning customers who traditionally didn't buy GM vehicles, James Hall, vice president of industry analysis for AutoPacific Inc. in Southfield, said. About half of all GTOs were sold to customers migrating from a non-GM vehicle, company data show.



But the GTO couldn't reach the sales volume necessary to justify reengineering the old platform, Hall said. And the decision to build it on a new platform is complicated by the possible production of a Chevrolet Camaro, he said.



GM showcased a Camaro concept at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. If GM decides to make it, the Camaro, also a rear-wheel drive, probably would come in a wide range of versions, including a high-performance model.



This could crowd out the GTO, Hall said. "The whole market has been cluttered with the possibility of a Camaro," he added.



Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

 

[TrainTrac]

Another story about the demise of the GTO. I always thought the styling was very bland. It looked like a Cavalier on steriods. No real style to it at all.

Going Nowhere Fast: GM to Halt Production of the GTO



By John O'Dell

Times Staff Writer



February 22, 2006



Little GTO, you're really lookin' fine



Three deuces and a four-speed and a 389….



Ronny & the Daytonas had it right back in 1964 when Pontiac's GTO was king of the muscle cars.



But far from lookin' fine, today's GTO is lookin' pretty dead.



General Motors Corp. reintroduced the GTO in December 2003 after a 30-year hiatus, but the struggling automaker said Tuesday that it would stop building the car in June.



Company executives say the $32,000 GTO is going away because redesigning it to meet federal air bag rules for 2007 is too expensive.



Pontiac's classic muscle car was affectionately known as "the goat" when it was launched.



With the GTO's three deuces — a reference to the trio of two-barrel carburetors — the original 389-cubic-inch, 360-horsepower model immortalized in song delivered just 10 miles per gallon around town and 17 mpg on the highway. That mileage dropped precipitously when a driver would, as the song urged, "turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO."



The GTO's high performance and rugged looks inspired other muscle cars. The vehicle lasted a decade before being dropped from GM's roster in 1973 amid slumping sales. By then, federal emissions controls had sapped the GTO's power and the oil crisis was spurring a national U-turn toward fuel-efficient, four-cylinder compacts from Japan.



Today's GTO delivers more punch, 400 horsepower and better fuel economy at 16 mpg in the city and 21 on the highway.



But instead of the eye-catching muscular design that made the original GTO stand out, today's version has the bland styling of a standard passenger car. And the latest GTO isn't even made in the U.S. — it's a modified Australian car made by GM's Holden subsidiary.



"It's got the name and the performance but not the look, and in today's market you need all three," said Rebecca Lindland, auto industry analyst at Global Insight in Lexington, Mass.



Last year Pontiac sold 11,590 GTOs, off 15% from 2004. The pace slowed in January to 594 cars, down 34% year over year.



So the real reason GM is ending production may be that this GTO, unlike its predecessor, never scored a hit — in showrooms or on Billboard's top 10.

 

[Richard L]

I bought a new 1965 GTO and really loved that car. I had always hoped that GM would start making an updated version of the old GTO. Well they did, but the styling was not in any way an updated version of the early GTO's. It looks like something that Kia would make.



Performance was reported to be great but it was the styling that killed it. GM claimed they were not intending to make a throwback vehicle and were targeting BMW's etc as their competition. The problem was that these other vehicles had styling that the GTO did not have. I hope GM learned it lesson that pure performance will not sell cars...Great styling does.



...Rich

 

[Tom Schindler]

I hope GM learned it lesson that pure performance will not sell cars...Great styling does.

You would have thought they figured that out with the previous Camaro model.





Tom

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

I've seen a few of the new GTO's at the track. They like lots of fuel...LOL 150 miles on the track...3 tanks of fuel later.

 

[Richard L]

SeattleST,

Yes, it takes a lot of fuel to feed 400+ HP, especially under race conditions.



...Rich

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Rich...LOL I track 3 cars that range from 200-400 WHP I'm well aware of how much fuel they burn up under those conditions.

 

[Larry Phillips]

Overgrown Sunfire...

 

[Travis Munday]

lol, Larry...drive a Sunfire, then a GTO and try to make that statement.



It's really a shame people and the American press can't get over the fact that the GTO of today isn't the GTO they remember and wish Pontiac would've built, because it's a great car. Blindingly fast, well sorted out, well built, and enough luxuries to make the money justifiable.

 

[Richard L]

Tiger,

The original GTO's like my 1965 were very fast and had good looking styling, but they were not well built, had poor brakes, poor handling, poor ride, very little luxury and assorted other problems like nearly all muscle cars of that era. But we loved them because they were raw muscle with just the right styling ques.



I wanted thenew GTO to have some styling ques that were similar to the early GTO's like how the 05 Mustang luoks like an updated 1967 Mustang but with better brakes, better ride, better handling and luxury options



Hell, GM did not even put a hood scoop on the new GTO, and that was the most distinctive feature of all the early GTO's. It took GM a year to put the hood scoop on the new GTO only when they realized people were not going to buy a GTO that did not have any resemblence to the original GTO's and did not at least a hood scoop.



GM is trying to make it sound like the new GTO was such a success, but why would they stop making a car model if it was so popular. The simple answer is they didn't sell at a starting price of $31K+.



...Rich