Umm, where are the 05's? I have been looking for infoi. I just saw an 05 "pilot" car at the Central Florida Intl. Auto show, but the dude said that 05's wont even be shipped till the end of january? Anyone got any reasoning behind this?

 

They are still set to make it to the U.S. towards the end of December/first of January. Lilke last year when the '04's arrived.

GM decided to start building the '06's in July though of next year, so we don't have to wait months for them.

 

05 regular production vehicles starting shipping earlier this month. Official on-sale date for the 05's is supposed to be December 20. I would expect wide availability by the end of January. Since the 06 will be "lame duck" model (last model year for this version) they apparently will begin production in June/July to get them to dealers in August/September and leave open the possiblity of a longer production year in case the all-new 07 is delayed.

 

So the 2005's will drop in the middle of winter? That's exactly when the 2004s hit the ground. It seems they've learned very little.

If GM skipped the 2005 model year for the GTO, the 6-month hiatus until the arrival of the 2006s would be fairly painless for the dealers. Perhaps it would allow for a second, more successful product launch. They could even pull the incentives on left-over 2004 GTOs - something that would have a very positive effect on resale value and product image.

 

The '04's are/were a wash out and GM can only blame themselves. The styling was slammed from day 1. The price was out of reach for people that would buy the vehicle, and the power was just not there. I'm only guessing but with the late '05 build could probably be chalked up to more testing, or poor logistics as last years build. As was mentioned by myself and routesixtysixer, the '06's (which will remain essentially unchanged from the '05's) will start their build in June/July.

At the dealership I work at, we've been without the GTO for months now, but we'll be getting the first of the '05's and that's late December.

 

You missed the U.S. Dollar's fall compared to the Aussie dollar. Between the currency squeeze, increased content for 2005 and the posibility (probability?) of very large incentives, someone at GM must be wondering about the profitability of the GTO. Faced with the prospect of selling GTOs with a $3,500 rebate, you have to wonder if the product plan looks much healthier than the F-bodys' did.


Would an extra 6 months+ wait for the 2006 GTO have effected your dealership's bottom line or your own paycheck very much?

 

Absolutely. We have people that come in every other day asking if we have any GTO's on the lot. Both 2004's and 2005's. The 2005 has created plenty of enthusiasm, but lets see how the General prices it. If it's a few thousand more, forget about it. If they can keep the price where the '04's sat at, then it will be a desirable vehicle again.

I said from day 1 that the GTO was priced about $4,000 too much. As soon as the $3,500 incentives were put on the hood, they were flying off the lots.

We need the GTO here now, but we need the Solstice more.

 

With a $28,995 MSRP, the 2004 GTO might have had a successful introduction. Notice I said 2004. With the coming of the 2005 Chrysler 300C and Mustang GT, Pontiac missed the GTO's window of opportunity.

 

I think at $32K , an LS2 powered GTO will do very well .That is really one hell of a car for the money "if" the looks suit your taste , which they do mine to a tee . The hood I would do without , but the dual exhaust with the blacked out valance will go a LONG way in breaking up the back end . Ive seen pics and it looks fantastic . Hopefully GM avoids like the plague a $34-36K sticker and make up for it with rebates and GM dealers learned from the 04's with markups .

 

On the price, I'm getting pessimistic.

The '04 GTO had an all inclusive price of about $32,000 save taxes. Early indications are that the '05 GTO will have a price of around $33,000, but prices that were included before won't be included this time, effectively giving the '05 GTO a substantial price increase.

Josh, your price observation was 100% right IMO. At $28-29,000 without incentives, I suspect GTO would sell more than the 18,000 GM planned to sell. But even at $32K, I was at the verge of getting one. It was the attitude of no fewer than 4 dealers I went to that turned me off to the whole thing till fire-sale time.

 

The bubble-headed bleach blonde at the auto show said the 05 will be priced "competitively" with the 04.......

 

2005 price has already been released. $2,000+ increase over 2004 model.....

 

There really is no delay in the '05 coming over. The Aussie's seem to start production later the US. But the '05 production will supposedly be cut short in May to allow the '06 to roll off the line. That way, they get here in Sept. instead of late December. Total production hasn't officially been released for the '04 yet but it should be between 13-15K cars from what I've seen.

Only 12K cars being made for '05 because of the short model year run.

The 18K figure is what the UAW said. So you'll never see more than that with the car being built over there.

As for pricing, I could have sworn the numbers I've seen show <$1K increase over the '04

 

Wouldn't this be essentially the same model year run as the 04?

 

In total cars, more than likely. But the actual production time is cut short. So they are actually making more cars for '05 up to May. Then changing over to start making '06's.