Pontiac attempts high-performance revival

ByABC News
March 15, 2008, 6:08 PM

DETROIT -- Pontiac wants to beef up its performance credentials with two new rear-wheel-drive vehicles scheduled to 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 G-8 GXP upgrades the G-8 sedan with a new 6.2-liter small-block V-8 engine that's rated at 402 horsepower. Pontiac says the G-8 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 G-8 sport truck, a two-seater built on the G-8 platform with a 73-inch cargo bed. The sport truck has the same 361-horsepower, 6.0-liter V-8 used in the G-8 GT sedan. It's expected in dealerships in late 2009.

"There's simply nothing else like the G-8 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 month-long contest on its website 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 G-8, 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% since 2002, to 358,000 vehicles last year, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank.

The high-performance G-8 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.