All I can say is, wow...wow, wow, wow...to those of you who own LS2 GTOs, I am so goddamned jealous...

To back up a second, about a week ago I drove a Brazen Orange Metallic M6 GTO with 18s my old Pontiac dealer still has in stock. Its one that I ordered back in February when I still worked there. I'd never had the chance to drive an LS2 GTO, but I called my old sales manager to see what a price would be. $33k became $27,300 with my GM card points, so I figured I'd take it for a spin. What a bad, bad move that was...

The car is simply badass, pure and simple. The LS2 makes an LS1 F body feel like the parking brake is still on. It is so smooth, quiet and fast, its unreal. The quality of the interior remains top notch, even after 3 years on the road in the US. The seats are great. My 3 gripes are...

1) No dead pedal is completely asinine, and uncomfortable.
2) Not allowing a sunroof as an option, when you can get it on a Monaro, kept my father from trading his t-top Formula on one, and limits the appeal to me as well, 400hp or not.
3) The shift throw is about as long as my drive from Western MA to Bowling Green.

Otherwise? I've never driven an OEM car so brutal in acceleration. And yet, there are no annoyances aside from the above. The handling even give up surprisingly little to an F body. One of my favorite roads is a couple miles from the dealership. I've "tested" probably 30 some-odd different combinations of cars on that road repeatedly for years...everything from 2000 GTPs to 2006 GXP Grand Prixs to G6 GTPs to Firehawks. The balance of this GTO is outstanding. To be honest, I took a corner a little hotter than I thought I should have without knowing the car better, and got white knuckles as I swore I'd be understeering near the outter edge of the corner...yet it simply hauled *** right through, with nary a whimper...

So yeah, I can have it for $611 for 48, or $505 for 60, with 3 grand down. I decided to pass, because 3 grand almost finishes my RS, and its paid for. The other major consideration for me is that I'll be ordering a 5th gen 24 months from now, and the GTO will either be sold or collect dust.

To the rest of you, go buy one...what an amazing vehicle. Period.

 

i drove a black on black 6-speed '05 GTO last year....GREAT car! If the 5th gen wasn't coming out in a few years, I might have sprung for a Goat.

 

im wondering how they would do in the snow? in the past 6 years of driving only 2 been spent in something that wasnt a rwd sporty vehicle. 1 was a 4wd blazer, one was a fwd 6000le pontiac. the rest has been my colorado sport or a pair of fbodies (one being an L98 auto with a small stall).

so my question is, a 6 speed ls2 gto in the snow driven humanely, it should do decent right? do they have a decent tcs setup?

 

I drive mine in the snow and as long as the tires aren't bald they aren't bad at all. That's of course the 17" ones with the all season BFG's, not the summer only 18" ones. The TCS on the LS1 (which I assume is almost exactly the same as the LS2's) works very well.

Absolutely positutely a million times better then the WS.6 was.

Chris

 

Snow? What dat??

 

GTO has be better weight distro than the SS/WS6 plus the tires are 245 vs. 275 on the WS6 which helps the GTO in snow. The 17" BFG G-Force KDWS are a good winter/sport tire.

I find that just about any car can be great in the snow if you get 4 snow tires.

 

If you think the dead pedal is bad on an 06, drive an 04. The dead pedal was an option added to the 05+ models although it is still pretty much useless.

 

Even though I've made several GTO hate post, I looked at an 06 myself... just couldn't bring myself to trade my 02 WS6 for it. Nice car but parked beside my 02 it was no contest. It would be a great DD but as a weekend toy... nah

 

1) There is a small dead pedal built into the carpet on the '05-'06. As someone else posted, there was nada on the '04's.
2) Sunroof's aren't a huge demand in Oz due to the intensity of the sun. Nevertheless, the factory sunroof installed in Oz is available in the States. It's the Webasto 710:
http://www.webastoshowroom.com/pontiac_gto_710.htm
About $1k + install, and the headliner looks stock. Just find a decent install shop, and you'll have no worries.
3) Regarding the shifter, time to get a GMM RipShift http://www.gmmotorsport.com/ - the only short-throw shifter worth its salt.

I agree the GTO's are amazing cars whose bad launch and bad press (undeserved - mostly styling critiques) have given it a bad reputation. Very few who go on test-drives in them have anything bad to say about 'em...

As to why there are so many left, well, Pontiac planned it that way. Holden couldn't manufacture the Monaro after Jan. 1 (since it still used the LS1 and that didn't meet 2006 Australian/European emissions regulations), so the bulk of early '06 production was Monaros. The volume switched over to GTO's in January, at a production rate of nearly 2k per month, finishing up on June 7th.

Pontiac won't have a larger RWD V8 until *maybe* the VE in a year. With 5700 still on lots, and a sell rate of 700-1000 a month, they'll sell 'em all by the time VE is here, I would bet...

 

As far as snow goes, a set of Dunlop WinterSports would go a long way to help drive it in the elements. The stock 17's are all-season but basically suck for traction - you can drive in winter if you're careful - unlike the stock 18's, which are definitely "summer-only" and useless in any kind of snow/cold temps.

Traction control is OK, but there's no stability control. I would say a GTO with snows would be at least as capable as an F-body...

 

I tried to get a 04 Cosmos Purple GTO, but didn't want to pay an arm and a leg for insurance, which led to me getting my CL. I love the interior of the GTO's. It's on par with my Acura, and better than many other imports. Even with just the LS1, I thought it had great power.

 

I think Cobalt SS owners are going to clear out the rest of the 06 GTO's . Seriously theres like a couple new people a month have posted about trading for a new GTO .

 

Asked

And answered

 

Agreed on your thoughts on all counts there Jason E. Wonder how much 05's will cost used in 3-4 years!

The cars that will be available in 10-15 years on the used market will be ridiculous.

 

I'm like you Jason, I'd love to have a '05-'06 GTO but I just can't part with my T-Tops, summers just wouldn't be the same.

I finally saw a Brazen Orange Metallic GTO on the road a couple of weeks ago, that color is pretty hot. If I got a GTO I would have to get one in a color that would make it stand out like the BOM, Yellow, or Impulse Blue.