Pontiac G8 better than a BMW 550i?

[Guibo]

Wow, I was looking at the interior volume space specs on this car, and it seems huge inside. Bigger than an S-Class, and bigger than the boat that is the DTS (despite being much shorter).

But here's what BMW should do: With their sales already tanking in the States, they should do a similar commercial. But this time, instead of using the G8 vs 550, use a G8 vs Cadillac CTS. Why pay more for a slower, more cramped automobile unless it's just for the badge.

 

[Kowalski]

Which is owned and operated by GM, which is American.

Following your reasoning, then, Jaguar is Indian, Rolls-Royce is German and Volvo is American.

So what the hell is the point of having an Opel section in this forum? Why don't we post Opel related news on "American cars section"? After all, Opel is owned by GM which is an American company.

 

[Kowalski]

Regardless it of where it's made it has an American soul.

Just like the Saturn Astra...

 

[Monster]

Dude, wake up! To say GM had nothing to do with it is quite ludicrous as Holden is hardly an independent operation working under the GM umbrella - it is very much a part of the GM company. The Commodore and LWB Statesman were built with other markets in mind - do you think GM would allow Holden to produce the car with no outside imput? In today's heavily globalised world?;

In terms of the actual engineering and design work, it is carried out by Holden, of course they designed the car with other markets in mind, both US and the Middle East.

And the engines, gearbox and much of the mechanicals are all sourced from GM. Hardly the picture of "engineered entirely in Australia" Holden + the aussie car press would like us to believe

Yeah, we all know the engine is from GM, but the gearbox, much like most companies are designed and manufactured by an outside supplier. Which of the other mechanicals are sourced from GM, cause I really don't know what else besides the engine

Again, none of these cars were completely independent Holden jobs, and many were nothing more than a thinly veiled rebadge (80's Holdens sourced from Opel, etc). Most were crap too, which I hope you agree with

Yes they are crap, and where rebadged from Opel, the VL Commodore even used Nissan engines! I was trying to say even if they are crap, I think they can compete relatively well with similar sized american cars, I know it doesn't mean much.

 

[Choleric]

Following your reasoning, then, Jaguar is Indian, Rolls-Royce is German and Volvo is American.
.

I didn't see you giving all the praise for the Vauxhall VXR8 to the Australians when it was introduced...

 

[Zafiro]

If Pontiac is a better car than BMW , then my cousin is George W Bush.

 

[Tarek]

If Pontiac is a better car than BMW , then my cousin is George W Bush.

Lol

Man trust me u don't want anyone in ur family to be G W Crap

 

[castagna]

If Pontiac is a better car than BMW , then my cousin is George W Bush.

Does this Pontiac count?

I think that the G8 is a very good car and that its V8 engine offers "infinite" possibilities.

The BMW is a great car too and is aimed at different sector of the market.

 

[Zafiro]

Does this Pontiac count?

Kit rules!

 

[HighestOfHigh]

If Pontiac is a better car than BMW , then my cousin is George W Bush.

Well tell your cousin to pull the troops out of Iraq then.

Pontiac has a real winner on their hands regardless of personal loyalty.

 

[Mr Robert]

This is the same car as the Vauxhall VXR8, right?

 

[Merc1]

Fifteen months ago, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner gave his engineers the green light to modify the Holden Commodore for the North American market. Fifteen minutes after I met Doug Houlihan, global vehicle chief engineer for the Pontiac G8, he told me that "the heart and soul of the G8 is its chassis." And fifteen seconds after I climbed behind the wheel of a G8, I pitched it sideways on the skid pad, stood on the throttle, and churned out enough tire smoke to blot out the sun.

Predictable, right? Journalist gets the keys to a new rear-wheel-drive American muscle car. Journalist pronounces said muscle car "good hooligan fun" but nevertheless declares it ultimately flawed for random reasons X and Y. End of story.

What came next, however, wasn't so predictable. After leaving the track, I ventured onto a few twisty mountain roads. Remarkably, the G8 did something few muscle cars do: It handled. And stopped. And it did these things in a surprisingly un-Pontiac-like manner, which is to say, well.

Hold on. We're talking about a Pontiac? Let's back up.

Like the 2004-06 Pontiac GTO, the G8 started life at GM's Australian Holden division. Its existence is the result of GM's recent globalization: over the past two and a half years, the General has shuffled an enormous amount of talent and resources worldwide, all in the name of building better cars.

This reorganization has yielded a number of different "world car" projects - the forthcoming 2010 Chevrolet Camaro is the most well-known of these - built on a small number of shared platforms. By tailoring the fundamental dimensions of these platforms to each market and model and centralizing development based on historical success (small cars in Europe, rear-wheel-drive sedans in Australia, trucks in North America), GM hopes to play to each division's strengths.

The Pontiac G8 is one of the first cars to emerge from this process and find its way into North American showrooms (the GTO was conceived prior to recent globalization efforts). Coming as it does from a brand that long specialized in unfulfilled ad hype and flabby body cladding, the Pontiac's spec sheet is shockingly appealing. The top-of-the-line G8 GT boasts a 361-hp, 6.0-liter pushrod V-8, 51.0/49.0 percent front-to-rear weight distribution, a standard limited-slip differential, a six-speed automatic transmission, independent front and rear suspensions, and rear-wheel drive. Not to mention styling that actually looks as if it was penned in this century. It's enough to wake even the sleepiest car freak. Heck, on paper, the Pontiac even garners that most coveted of all sport-sedan compliments: it seems a lot like a BMW.

That comparison - along with a 2003 quote from GM vice chairman Bob Lutz, who said, "We want to make Pontiac an affordable, American BMW" - got our calculators going. At $30,690 in base V-8 form, the G8 falls into the same price bracket as BMW's 3-series. If you go by horsepower, engine configuration, weight, and sheer size, however, the G8 more closely resembles BMW's larger, more expensive 5-series. As such, we succumbed to the spec sheet and brought along a ringer: the 360-hp, V-8-powered BMW 550i, which starts at $59,275. Lutz - who was an executive vice president at BMW from 1971 to 1974 - knows cars, and he knows of what he speaks when he invokes the Bavarians. If the G8 fares well alongside its twice-the-price German competition, then you can be assured that GM's long-awaited turnaround is in full swing.

Like the 2010 Camaro, the G8 is built on GM's Zeta rear-wheel-drive platform, which is the same platform that underpins Holden's Commodore and Ute, the Chinese-market Buick Park Avenue, and - don't laugh - the Korean-market Daewoo Veritas. In line with the newly "globalized" GM, all Zeta engineering and development occurs in Holden's Melbourne, Australia, facility.

Holden has long been known for producing inexpensive, fun-to-drive, V-8-powered sedans and coupes - in other words, modern updates of the traditional American muscle car, albeit ones intended for Aussie soil. Like the GTO, the G8 is based around a current Holden, in this case, the Commodore. Little is changed for our market: front and rear bumpers are different, and subtle changes have been made to emissions configuration, air-bag layout, instrumentation, and badging. All told, the Commodore and the G8 share roughly 80 percent of their components.

Chiefly, suspension tuning also carries over. All U.S.-bound G8s share their FE2 suspension calibration with the top-of-the-line Commodore SS V. A strut-type front setup accompanies a four-link independent rear layout. Happily, V-8-powered G8s (a 256-hp, 3.6-liter V-6 is offered, too) also receive the aforementioned limited-slip differential and performance tires as standard equipment. Eighteen-inch aluminum wheels are standard across the board, with nineteen-inch wheels available through the optional sport package, which was fitted to our car.

Inside, the G8's expatriate heritage is immediately obvious, if only because it looks and feels like no other stateside GM offering. Soft-touch plastics and attractive (if somewhat dated-looking) layouts abound. A few lingering Aussie and right-hand-drive touches remain (open the trunk, and you'll spot the battery on the left to offset the weight of a right-side driver), and certain choices give us pause (a Blaupunkt radio - does that brand even mean anything here?), but the overall effect is one of budget-oriented Euro confidence, not down-to-a-price, cop-out cheapness.

Most people don't buy a $30,000, V-8-powered sedan for the interior, though - they buy it for what's under the hood. After all, if you want frugal, boring transportation, Toyota will happily sell you a Camry. To that end, the Pontiac succeeds. The G8's 6.0-liter spits out 361 hp at 5300 rpm, and while it's no high-rpm screamer - fuel cutoff comes at an ordinary 6000 rpm - the V-8 is tractable, full of midrange grunt, and possessed of enough top-end pull that you end up winding it out just for kicks. It doesn't sound like much from inside the cabin (mostly muffled, uncharacteristically weedy exhaust rasp), but it's a damn fine engine. Surprisingly, though, it doesn't become your main focus. That distinction is reserved for the suspension.

Toss the G8 down a curvy road, and you'll probably be a little surprised. The overboosted steering doesn't deliver a lot of feedback - it's a little too woolly and self-centering and tends to err on the side of fighting you, not working with you - but that's one of the chassis' few flaws. Excess wheel and body motion is easily (albeit softly) kept in check, and the dampers become overwhelmed only over the harshest of midcorner bumps. The G8 understeers a little, bounding from corner to corner easily, always doing what you expect. Switch off the standard stability control, stab the throttle, and you can drift across tight switchbacks, cackling endlessly.

So: the Aussie transplant is good, but is it good enough? Can the gold standard of sport sedans - especially in brawny V-8 guise - be upset by a half-price, Oz-hailing Detroiter? The answer is yes. And no. And . . . it depends.

Park the G8 next to the 550i, and take a good long look at them both. The Pontiac looks for all the world like the BMW's twin, from its perfectly copycatted C-pillar and rear flanks to its twin-port grille, fender marker lights, and squared-off wheel-arch lips. Exterior dimensions differ little, and the proportions and stance all match up. Imitation as flattery, or imitation as complete and total creative forfeit? To be honest, we're not quite sure.

Stepping into the 550i from the G8, the differences are immediately apparent - sure, the big, bad, $70,000 car beats up on the $30,000 one in terms of interior quality and finish, but that's to be expected. What isn't expected is the striking difference in involvement. The G8 seems pretty good until you get into the BMW and almost have the wheel wrenched from your hands. There's that much steering feel. The 550i's 4.8-liter V-8 doesn't feel like it lacks grunt (its peak torque actually arrives 1000 rpm lower than the G8's does), and yet, unlike the G8's pushrod 6.0-liter, it also thrives on revs, emitting an intoxicating, glassy snarl at its 6500-rpm redline. The BMW's transmission, whether you choose the standard six-speed manual or the optional automatic, also far outpaces the Pontiac's automatic for both smoothness and entertainment, although the G8 does offer blip-throttle downshifts and gear-holding in manual mode. And the 550i's braking performance, brake feel, and cornering grip are each a few ticks better than those of the G8. All in all, the difference is simple: if the Pontiac begs to be driven, then the BMW begs to be flogged.

Of course, doing an apples-to-apples comparison between a tire-shredding, big-engine Pontiac and a doubly expensive BMW isn't really fair. Given the cost difference and the pedigrees of the two manufacturers, it only makes sense that one car would be more satisfying to drive than the other. Yet by the numbers - and on American roads - the 5-series and the G8 are equals. Nine out of ten drag races between them end in a dead heat. Weight distribution, speed through the gears, and quarter-mile performance all check in relatively close to each other. Even given the contrasts in braking and grip, on a twisty road, helmed by similarly talented drivers, neither car will pull ahead.

On that note, the point isn't how well the Pontiac stacks up to the BMW. It's that it stacks up at all. Should a $30,000 sport sedan - much less a Pontiac - even be comparable to a $60,000 one (let alone the $70,000 5-series we tested)? Not on your life. And yet, in more than a few ways, the Pontiac holds its own. Thirty grand for the speed, interior space, and much of the capability of a BMW 5-series? A modern Detroit sedan with . . . dare we say it . . . personality? Pontiac as a relevant carmaker again?

How's that for predictable?


2008 Pontiac G8 GT - The Down-Under Express - Latest News, Features, and Reviews - Automobile Magazine


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[Monster]

Interesting read and a fair review. I was expecting the testers to criticise the G8's ride quality because the local journalists have criticised the FE2 suspension for being a little too harsh, so I was surprised there wasn't any complain in the article because americans traditionally want a softer ride.

As for this

a Blaupunkt radio - does that brand even mean anything here?

Blaupunkt is a german company and it is a division from Bosch. If the guy know any better Blaupunk should mean something to them because they supply the COMMAND system in all Mercedes.

 

[Mr Robert]

Seems like there are a few modifications done compared to the VXR8. The latter has been described as having a sharp steering and bad suspension.

 

[Monster]

This is the same car as the Vauxhall VXR8, right?

This car isn't really the same as the VX R8. The Pontiac G8 is like the SS or Calais V Commodore while the VX R8 is the full on HSV version.