Report: A more exciting redesign of the current GTO likely to arrive for 2008.
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - If the looks of the Pontiac GTO are a little too bland for your taste, there will be a new, more exciting-looking version in a couple of years, a Detroit newspaper reports.
The current Pontiac GTO is a modified version of a car built by GM's Australian subsidiary, Holden. The car is sold in very similar form as the Holden Monaro in Australia. Holden will stop production of the Monaro later this year.
Production of the GTO, which has a different grille and a more powerful engine -- the same 400-horsepower engine used in the Chevrolet Corvette
-- will continue at least through the 2006 model year, the Detroit Free Press reported. Both the Holden Monaro and Pontiac GTO cars are built in the same factory in Australia. The GTO's engines are exported to Austrialia from the U.S,
The next-generation GTO will share much of its engineering with a new GM family of rear-wheel-drive cars, according to Jim Hopson, a Pontiac spokesperson quoted in the story.
The new car is expected to begin production in 2008. likely in Australia, and it will be more striking in appearance than the current GTO, the newspaper said, citing unnamed company sources.
Inside Line, an automotive Website produced by CNN.com automotive partner Edmunds.com, is reporting that the new GTO could be a four-door car with a coupe-like profile. That conjecture is based on information from sources at GM and other companies involved with the project, a spokeswoman for Edmunds.com said.
Any details of the car reported in the news media, beyond the mere fact that is being worked on, are "pure conjecture," Hopson told CNN/Money.
"The next-generation GTO will fulfill the promise of the current car," Hopson was quoted as saying in the Free Press story. "We have every intention of getting it to the street as soon as possible."