DETROIT (AP) - Pontiac wants to beef up its performance credentials with two
new rear-wheel-drive vehicles that will debut at next week's New York
International Auto Show, but the timing couldn't be worse as high gas prices
test consumers' appetite for growling engines.
The 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP upgrades the G8 sedan with a new 6.2-liter
small-block V-8 engine that's rated at 402 horsepower. Pontiac says the G8 GXP
will be able to go from zero to 60 mph in 4.7 seconds. The GXP also has a
specially tuned suspension and an optional new six-speed manual transmission.
The sedan will go on sale late this year.
Pontiac will also launch the 2010 Pontiac G8 sport truck, a two-seater built
on the G8 platform with a 73-inch cargo bed. The sport truck has the same
361-horsepower, 6.0-liter V-8 used in the G8 GT sedan. It's expected in
dealerships in late 2009.
"There's simply nothing else like the G8 sport truck on the road today, and
we definitely believe that there are customers who will be excited by its
distinctive design, performance and cargo capabilities," Jim Bunnell, general
manager of Pontiac, Buick and GMC, said in a statement.
Pontiac plans to let consumers name the new sport truck in a monthlong
contest on its Web site that ends April 15.
Both vehicles will be built in Australia by Holden, General Motors Corp.'s
Australian subsidiary, which developed the new rear-wheel-drive architecture.
The Pontiac G8, which went on sale this year, is a rebadged Holden Commodore.
Pontiac has been due for the kind of overhaul that's reinvigorating Cadillac
and Buick. In New York three years ago, GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz called Pontiac
a damaged and undernourished brand and said GM's resources should be focused on
healthier brands such as Hummer and GMC. Pontiac's U.S. sales have fallen by 31
percent since 2002, to 358,000 vehicles last year, according to Ward's
AutoInfoBank.
The high-performance G8 family was supposed to help repair the brand, but a
new federal law mandating increases in the corporate average fuel economy -- or
CAFE -- could put up a roadblock. Aaron Bragman, an auto analyst with the
consulting company Global Insight, now considers Pontiac the most at-risk of
GM's eight brands.
"The renaissance was on the books, but it's basically been thrown into
confusion with the new CAFE rules," Bragman said. "The future depends on what
they can do with Pontiac. Can they make it a four-cylinder, turbocharged brand,
or are Americans so set on it being the rumbly, rear-wheel-drive V-8 division
that anything else is not going to fly?"
Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson said performance doesn't necessarily mean
horsepower, but can also mean sporty handling in a crossover like the Vibe,
which gets 36 miles per gallon on the highway.
"We will provide an appropriate level of performance in every segment in
which we play, but that doesn't necessarily mean every car we have is going to
be a rear-wheel-drive V-8," he said.
But Bragman suggests Pontiac's image as a sporty, high-performance brand
also has been diluted by staid crossovers like the Vibe. Stand-alone Pontiac
dealers have demanded such vehicles to ensure a full lineup, but Bragman said
Pontiac needs freedom to concentrate on performance. That could happen as GM
continues its push for dealers to offer Buick, GMC and Pontiac under one roof,
he said.
Jack Nerad, executive market analyst for Irvine, Calif.-based Kelley Blue
Book, said Pontiac's return to its performance roots is a positive step, but
years of lukewarm vehicles have made the brand irrelevant to many consumers.
"They're on the brink of either great success or marginalization," Nerad
said.
Hopson said when he joined Pontiac six years ago, many customers were angry
at the brand for abandoning its performance heritage, which dates to the John
DeLorean-designed 1964 Pontiac GTO muscle car. Hopson said he considered it
positive that people were upset, and not just apathetic, about Pontiac.
"Pontiac has always been about style and performance. There have certainly
been times that we've fulfilled that mission better than others," he said.
"We're again getting the vehicles that fulfill that mission very clearly."
The New York show opens to the public Friday after two days of media
previews.
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