I usually stay away from modern cars--but there are some that catch my fancy; one of these is the Pontiac G8. It was introduced in 2008, and only a year after it was introduced, it was killed (as was the whole Pontiac brand). For being fairly rare, I still see a good number out my way--but they're still not common by any stretch. Hailed as a cut-price BMW 550i, Car and Driver, Automobile, and Motor Trend liked the G8, whereas a number of foreign publications didn't. For $35,000 or thereabouts, one really couldn't go wrong; problem was, most Pontiac dealers (at least my way) didn't really know much about the cars, and I can recall more than once I asked an obvious question (is it rear-wheel-drive?) and the salespeople didn't know.
But that wasn't the main problem; like most modern cars that are considered niche products, the ads simply were not there. GM cited slow sales as the reason for killing Pontiac, but the only thing they really advertised was the fucking Grand Prix (which by this time was almost five years old), and the dowdy-looking G6 range. So, how bout them dollars you could've spent advertising the G8?
Since this is a farily new car, I'm not going to bitch about the condition of the thing; I'm going to praise it. I love these things, and probably will for a very long time. 2008 was a shit year for GM. While GM did bring out a new Malibu (which they haven't topped yet), Saturn and Pontiac both got knocked out for good--right after redesigning the whole lineup to go from meh, to "wow, that's nice"... and the phrase "for a Pontiac" needn't be uttered. The G8 is simply a nice car.
I love these wheels on it, too; I know they're simple five spokes in brushed aluminum, but they look fantastic. And no cheesy Holden centrecaps either. I would definitely drive one of these--hell, I'd even sport the V6 base model--and I don't say that with very many GM cars. Just goes to show that GM did make a mistake. Oh well, at least the Camaro is a hit.
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