I still disagree. The car is a flop. It should have sold more by now, that was the whole point of the Autoweek article. If you don't believe me now, just wait a few months. Unless they give big markdowns, GM won't move more than 8,000 GTOs, and even then maybe 9500 will sell.

2002 OVERALL PRODUCTION
Firebird coupe 8,423
Firebird convertible 1,498
Formula coupe 901
Trans Am coupe 3,962
Trans Am convertible 998
Trans Am cpe. w/Ram Air* 12,212
Trans Am cony. w/Ram Air* 2,696
Total 30,690

In it's last year, the Firebird was still outselling this year's GTO by a wide margin - and that doesn't even include the Camaro sales which were 10% better.

Face it, there is no market for Granpa's musclecar. Nothing about the GTO says "new".

 

..and a shared GRAND AM look. Ahem.


edit: as an advocate to the contrary, i must disclaim the above statement is a joke and does not truly reflect my opinion

 

If you are referring to people like me, the history of the GTO is just that; history.

From my other thread:

"I did not grow up in the 60's or 70's. Perhaps that is the reason that I do not see the older GTO's (http://images5.fotki.com/v69/photos....jpg?1081290669 ) and think to myself "How boring " . It seems that the daily driver cars of the 60's and early 70's had more style and excitment to their design than the daily driver cars of today.

The "boring" of yesteryear seems to have a different meaning than the "boring" of today. I don't believe the retro-boring theme was a success by any means."

 

Total: 30,690

There will only be 18,000 or so GTOs THIS YEAR and the year is still 7 months from ending. You can't sell a car that's not here yet guy. You want to talk about GTO sales? The local Pontiac Dealer here has had 2 GTOs, One Black and One Yellow. They are BOTH SOLD. And the dealer is getting two more. One Red and One Silver and BOTH will be sold at MSRP Like the Last two were.

BECAUSE of the gas prices not many GTOs will sell these next few months. Dads don't get to be gear heads because "Sweetie, the kids are out of school and I need you to run them to their soccer game, ballet, grocery store, McDonalds, and pick the dog up from the groomers." So come on age group that the car is aimed at What will you choose for the summer with the insance gas prices? New Minivan? or New GTO? Sure the dealer markup doesn't help, but it's not the ONLY reason sales have slowed down.

I say wait till fall and these will start selling VERY well. Gas will have gone down because everyone will be paying mainly for heating again and Saudi Arabia is already in talks about cutting us a deal with their oil AND we'll be out of Iraq. I bet MONEY that Pontiac meets it's quota of GTOs sold.

 

Bleh - it makes little difference to GM. The whole Monaro program, without any sales from the GTO, was originally budgeted to be profitable on the following sales figures:

6000 in the first year
3000 in the second
1500 in the third

The car would have then been retired, having made money for Holden. It has well and truely beat those figures.

You guys need to learn that some places do not need to build a hundred thousand cars to make money. These cars are all about bringing people into the dealerships, and selling them a GP or something else they can afford.

 

The new Mustang isn't even in the showrooms yet, but people are still lined up around the block to buy them with cheques in hand.

I don't believe that's a factor. Every truck for sale here gets worse mileage than a GTO, and their sales haven't slowed that much. And it's not stopping people from wanting Mustangs either.

I agree that dealer gouging is a large factor, as well as GM not offering rebates. GM's doing the right thing by not discounting it, though. Hopefully potential buyers are just holding out hoping for the typical $3000 discount, and as long as GM doesn't blink first, these consumers might realize it's not going to happen and will belly up to the bar. It'd be one small step towards GM getting off the rebate death spiral.

 

Remember also the GTO calender year started in september and they only started being built then. So they have several more months to go. They wont be 05's like every other car built in this part of the world by july. They will still be 04's till sept.

 

Can you get the GTO at supplier pricing or gm employee pricing?

 

The GTO is a flop. The only kind of person excited about the gto is a teenage girl. Its a Grand Prix for christ sakes! The car has an appearence of having "no *****". I predict sales numbers will not get any better for this car.

 

This is a horrendously stupid statement. And again for the ten millionth time if you cant tell the difference between a grand prix and this GTO then you really dont know much.

 

Then there must be a lot of people that don't know much. It happens all the time. If you're not looking for this car, you'll think it's just another GA or GP until you see the tail end of it. Truth hurts, but there it is.

 

Teenaged girls around here are more into "surface excitement", e.g. scissor wings, chrome rims, faggy colours, decals, etc. I doubt many of them appreciate the subtle muscularity and all-round performance of the GTO.

 

My dealer (Bob Sellers, Farmington Hills MI) has 26 GTO's in stock and they are discounting them, for example they are allowing GM-Supplier discount.

 

These are extremely good points. For those apologists making excuses for the GTO you're in for a hell of a shock. When that new Mustang hits the streets you're going to see just what "retro styling" can do for a car's sales. They've probably already got more people on the waiting list than GTO will sell in a year. There are so many orders that Ford is already suggesting it will be their best selling car next year.

There can be no excuses. People do not like the GTO, it's kidney bean grille, it's own "retro Grand Am" look and its large size and weight.

 

Well I saw my first two in person this week and like most cars, they are hard to judge till you see them in person.

The first goat just caught my eye as I sat at a red light. A silver one few by. Looked sharp and CAUGHT MY EYE. I could tell it wasent a GP.

The next was a red one being trailored I guess to a dealership.
It was 6 am so I wasent very awake, but I looked up said "whats that" and then saw the Pontiac arrow. Knowing it was a GTO then I slowed down ad did a look over. These cars look sharp. Nothing tacky about the styleing at all. I'd drive one.

I think sales with go up. Just like anyting good give it time. The more that trickle out on the road and turns heads like mine, the more people will find themselves on the showroom floor checking them out.

And I'll stand by my word that in person and in traffic they do stand out. You'd have to be an idiot to confuse it with a GP.