ckt101

Hi everybody. I went to detroit yesterday for the auto show. It was a great experience, so much to see. I wanted to share some of my impressions with what I saw.

Chevrolet SS: It is gorgeous. The front fenders look so much better in person, in photos they look kinda overdone.

GTO: not ugly is the best i can say about this car. It is however, VERY plain looking. There wasn't an exciting angle to the car. As many have said here before, the front looks like a grand prix (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, just nothing new). The side view looks like a cavalier, and even the back end is dull. There was barely anybody around the car checking it out, it was kinda on it's own off to one end of the pontiac section.

Mustang: Also gorgeous. I think for me it's a tie between the mustang and the SS for the most exciting concepts I saw.

G6: Very nice. It has a sporty, aggressive shape without all the ugly cladding/ground effects/spoiler/etc. that pontiac has used too much of lately.

XLR: very nice. You can see corvette in the overall proportions of the car, but it is very distinct with cadillacs new futuristic edgy design. Looks very classy.

04 Grand prix: nothing wrong with it, it's a nice looking car, but I found it somehow a little plainer looking than the current model.

Bonneville GXP: Also very nice. When I saw the pictures on the internet, I thought it was pretty much the same as the ordinary bonneville. Seeing them side by side, the gxp is really different, and much better looking.

guionM

Intresting you mention the backend of the GTO. I love the car, but I also think they could have done more with the rear. There's no fuel tank back there anymore, so if nothing else, they could put pipes on each side with bumper cutouts.

The new GP is plainer then the current model. It seemed the interior & exterior has gone in different directions. Soon all Pontiacs will be somewhat plain. Very, very fast, but plain.

Pentatonic

Yeah, I've noticed that too. Why the heck are they doing that? With the Firebird gone, Pontiacs are either UGLY (ie. aztek) or ungodly plain (ie. GTO).

Ude-lose

The only reason you think Monaro is plain, is that your not used to seeing it driving on the road, wait till you get used to its lines... youll love it ... IMO they shouldnt have had a spoiler ,,,, wrecks the smooth lines.

In the mean time wait till the Mustang gets ready for production, and the roof line gets taller, the car is stretched to accomodate back seats, and what things will change due to cost.... and we will see if it is as impressive... i also agree the mustang concept as it is looks gorgeous but will it stay that way ?

small clip of a monaro... to see what it looks like driving by...
http://www.micro-op.com.au/execls1/nm.mpeg


and an ad for the Ute/El-camino...
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~pajones/VYUte.avi (divX)

Burmite

So Guion, they DID move the gas tank then? I thought they didn't. I was wondering about the dual exhaust. When I was at the GTO display at the LA auto show and it was spinning around, I ducked myself under the railing on the ground to have a look under the car, and there seemed to be PLENTY of room there to do exhaust routing behind the rear axle. If they wanted to be simply, they even could have put in a setup like in the 3rd-4th gen's with a single pipe leading to a perpendicular muffler with dual outlets easily. I was disappointed in the imbalance of the rear end of the GTO without the duals. To me, it wrecked the sleek lines with something that was not symmetrical. That was my only complaint.

ckt101

About the plain look of the pontiac cars, I think Lutz had the right idea about giving the pontiac cars a clean, uncluttered look. However, the cars will need some interesting lines or shape, otherwise they can look really dull. The G6 has a sporty aggressive shape, it doesn't need scoops/spoiler/cladding etc. to pull it off. The new grand prix is clean looking, but so was the last one (the current one). I think the current one had a more aggressive shape overall though.
And about the backend of the gto, I have to agree about the exhaust, I think that was the most disappointing part. When the car spun around to the back, I was hoping to see a nice big exhaust pipe on each side, instead there were two little tips barely protruding from under the drivers side. Like I said before, it's not an ugly car, it's just not at all an exciting car.

StreamlineZ28

that car does look sweet in that littl evideo
i cant wait to see one in person