My Take on the Pontiac G8

If you are a fan of cars or if you are in the market for a new car, you have probably heard the hype about the new G8 in production by Pontiac. The other possibility is that you are a professional automotive technician like me and naturally hear and learn about the new cars. Although it is not available to the general public for test driving, the basic facts and features of this car have been released. In order to keep up with the competition, GM has been making a lot of changes and additions to its line-up of automobiles, and this is a good example of their new products.

Pontiac's G8 will be a part of GM's new Zeta platform of full-size cars. Thus, the car will be propelled by rear wheel drive. This is a major change, and it will help the G8 compete with other cars in its class such as BMW, Infiniti, Lexus and Audi. It will also be competing with Cadillac, but that is no benefit to GM since they own both products anyways. The rear wheel drive market has lost some popularity lately because of the better gas mileage attained from front wheel drive, but it appears GM is trying to give it some resurgence.

So how is the Pontiac G8 going to compete with other rear wheel drive luxury cars in its class? One way is the performance aspect of the car. On Pontiac's website, the G8 is listed with two available engines. One is a 3.6 Liter V6 with 256 Horsepower and 248 foot pounds of torque. If that isn't enough for you, the GT version offers a 6.0 Liter V8 with 361 horsepower and a whopping 385 foot pounds of torque. This offers the nice power of a luxury car, but it's not going to be enough for many performance-oriented consumers because of one significant drawback. This drawback is the fact that there is no option for a manual transmission for the 2008 Pontiac G8. However, rumor has it that the 2009 G8 will offer a manual six speed transmission.

The appearance of the car is a combination between luxury and performance. The hood vents give the car an aggressive look as well as the front end styling. Eighteen inch wheels are standard and can be upgraded to nineteen inch. The G8 features four wheel independent suspension with four wheel disc brakes, and the new Zeta system is designed to give great steering response similar to other luxury vehicles. Leather seats, wrapped steering wheel, and shift knob can also be added to give a more vibrant luxury appearance.

All in all, the G8 is a decent option for those wanting a combination of both luxury and performance. The G8 GT version is supposed to be priced at just under $30,000, but that is not loaded. For a fully loaded Pontiac G8 GT, expect a price somewhere around $33,000. Pontiac has the base model listed for $27,595, so it isn't much cheaper than the base GT. I would go for the GT model personally, but I think there are better options available. If I were in the market for a car with both luxury and performance combined, I would look into the Infiniti G35. They have a proven reliability and are in a similar price range. However, with GM's new 100,000 mile powertrain warranty, I don't think you can really go wrong with the Pontiac G8. If you are most concerned with brute power in a luxury car, the GT version may be a good fit for you and is definitely worth checking out.