I was at the Pontiac website today and they had a feature on countering excuses to not get a convertible. Their defense basically boiled down to "man up." They didn't actually address the concerns I have actually heard about convertibles - they have no space and when you take the roof off of a car, you lose torsional stiffness unless you put huge steel beams in the sides that add weight and spoil the performance.
Whatever. I wasn't at the Pontiac website to look at convertibles. I was there for this, which is now my new car to dream about buying. It's the Grand Prix replacement, the G8. Top Gear had the Vauxhall VXR8 on display in a recent episode, and I remembered hearing rumors that Pontiac might import and rebadge its own version of the Australian car it's based on, and apparently it shall come to pass. The G8 GT is supposed to have 362 HP, and I'm guessing the GTP model would be around the Vauxhall's 420 HP (before the supercharger kit.)
For those of you playing along at home, the G8 is actually a step back from the brink of total irresponsibility. Once upon a time I wanted a Prius above all else. Then the new Civic got Car of the Year from Motor Trend, and I thought about the hybrid a little bit. But then it turns out the normal one is almost as eco-friendly and actually moves. Then once you think about the Civic, there's a thought about the Si model, the hot one. But once you get that far there start to be similar GM products, and the GM equivalent would roughly be a Cobalt SS. I respect the Cobalt, but I'm used to the Malibu which is the next step up. There is a Malibu SS, but it didn't really catch my fancy.
Around this time its cousin the Saturn Aura was coming out, and I actually test drove a base model, but a little while after this the Aura's UK origin, the Vauxhall Vectra, was on Top Gear, and the Vectra is far from JC's favorite car. So I started looking at other cars in this class. Fischer had been down in Corvallis around then, and his G6 didn't seem too bad. So since then I have been lusting after the G6, particularly the top-end GTP model because it's got some options you can't get in the other ones, and also a good sized V6 with a little more power than the Malibu's got. I also test drove a G6 and thought it was OK, although a bit tight for a big guy like me. This has pretty much where I've been for the past few months, until PJ got a real job, got internet again and implanted an evil idea in my head because it's been rattling around in his. It can almost be rationalized. And so I've gone from wanting a Prius to wanting a muscle car.
The G8 is therefore a slightly more rational choice. It's a sedan and not a coupe. Maybe it has better trunk space or something too. That's about all I can think of. Perhaps only 97% as irresponsible as the alternative. It would certainly be more interesting than a G6 though, especially with RWD and a V8 with a hundred and ten more horsepower, and possibly more on the way. That's quite a bit. It almost makes me stop and wonder how much is enough. 362 HP is probably twice as much as my Malibu, and that 420 HP in the Vauxhall is comparable to something like an Audi RS4 or a BMW M3. Power is good, but I don't want a car that is so twitchy if I barely touch the gas pedal it tears off at 100 MPH and torque steers into a tree. I think I would be plenty happy with having the GT instead of a GTP.
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