Sadly, two of Pontiac's recent introductions, the G6 and G5, offer about as much excitement as a nice walk in the park. The G5 compact is nothing more than a rebadged Chevrolet Cobalt, and not even a Cobalt SS. From the outside, the G5 and G6 are as eye-catching as a pair of styrofoam cups, small and medium.
The Pontiac Solstice, a two-seat convertible sports car, offers some of the promised thrills. In its performance-oriented GXP trim, it's even a viable competitor to a car like the Mazda Miata. A hard to wrangle top and cheap, scratchy interior materials are serious drawbacks, but it is, indeed, exciting.
To really see where Pontiac is headed, you need to rewind a little to the most recent GTO. It was a quick and dirty solution to Pontiac's critical excitement deficit. GM sent Corvette engines to Australia, dropped them into Holden Monaro coupes and slapped on Pontiac grills and taillights for the trip to the States.
Outside, the GTO was as anonymous as any other Pontiac (hood scoops, added for 2005, helped a bit). And it ended up priced a little too high for a two-door Detroit offering. But it was an exciting, fun car that felt like it had more power than it should, the very essence of a "muscle car."
As an added benefit, the interior was also nicer than just about anything else available from GM at the time.
The GTO bowed out last year, but coming soon is the G8. The G8 is a rear-drive four door sedan with an available 6.0-liter V8 and a nice pair of hood scoops. Again, it's based on a Holden product from Australia, where rear-wheel-drive remains popular.
In the future, look for more cooperation between Pontiac and Holden, which is taking the lead for GM in developing rear-wheel-drive engineering for vehicles around the world.
GM won't say for sure, but all Pontiacs are likely to be rear-wheel-drive in the future. Expect a more grown-up feel, too. The new Pontiac won't be all about "boy toys." GM wants sophisticated performance cars adults won't be embarrassed to drive.
