No offense to the GTO owners, but I saw one sunday, and I thought I was looking at a Grand AM....until I saw the GTO badge on the fender. The Front reminded me of a Grand Am, the back, front, heck everything looked like Grand Am......what's the big deal? Is it the engine?
Robert Lutz ( GM Brand Manager) thought that the market was ready for a retro classic high performance vehicle and imported this vehicle from Australia.
The GTO is supposed to stir the soul of every fifty+ year old in America who yearned for a muscle car that could not afford one the first time around back in the sixties.
But... the styling is not distinctive enough, the performance is not stellar, and the price is too high. So... it's just another overpriced uninspiring American vehicle as far as the public is concerned.
: No offense to the GTO owners, but I saw one sunday, and I thought I : was looking at a Grand AM....until I saw the GTO badge on the fender. : The Front reminded me of a Grand Am, the back, front, heck everything : looked like Grand Am......what's the big deal? Is it the engine? :
THOR opined in news:g0udd.1$ snipped-for-privacy@news.uswest.net:
Hey...i'm WELL into that age bracket, but I sure aint in that demographic!!
When i look at some of those cars driven into "cruise-in" gatherings i want to puke... and I'm glad I was away from cars and then rekindled my interest with NEW technology.
That said, to me, there's VERY few muscle and others that look good today....
Orig Mustang and camaro and mid-late sixties Nova and Malibu being among the few
I somewhat agree, however I believe there's more to it. I think GM relies too heavily on support from the older crowd who knew the original GTO. The current GTO is a spectacular car with a world class chassis built by an enthusiastic arm of GM who truly understands high performance, rear wheel drive cars. The power plant is that GM blend of high/low tech that works well. I've seen a supercharged GTO and it's performance is outstanding. Everyhting is in there for a great, well performing automobile. The current GTO absolutely crushes any of the original versions in all categories. I'm going to include looks as well since the A-body, at the time it was new, was pretty blah, even with color, cladding, and badging. It took 20 years for them to become cool looking and asthetic to most folks I know.
But, so far, I haven't seen GM pushing this car to the newer, younger audience that would appreciate those qualities. The older Goat lovers are just like the older Mustang lovers, they don't want better performance, better quality, better everything. They want their old car back. GM needs to suck it up and build a new legend out of this car. Perhaps the prcing strategy ruined the process, I dunno. Looks can be fixed and the next gen will have the LS2 in it at 400 bhp, so if they can just stop trying to get old fogies to give up their dreams of the past, they might get it done.
Ford went through the exact same thing with the Mustang: twice. Fortunately for Ford the sheer number of enthusiasts and a decent combination of features and pricing allowed the changes to be accecpted in high enough quantity to allow the car keep making it over the hump. There just are not, and never were, that high a number of younger, impressionable GTO enthusiasts.
I'd own one. I have a bias against the old school tech in the motor but for the chassis and suspension I might overlook it. I'd certainly step into a new GTO before I spent a dime on a 'Vette.
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