Is the GTO a good performer.....Yes
Is it refined......Yes
Is it a good value for what you get.....Yes
Is the Small Block Chevy a great engine.......Yes
Is the interior great.....Yes
Does all this matter to most people when you package it in an ugly wrapper....No
Most people don’t want to pay $33,000 for a car that looks like a $15,000 family car.
I really wish GM would have given the GTO a great looking body. It’s silly to even try and argue that the car is acceptable in the styling area. I hope, really I do, that GM will fix the GTO styling in 2007/2008 so this car doesn’t go out of production. When you can’t even sell half of your target in the first year of a sports car with a legendary name then something is VERY wrong. I hope the car lasts long enough to improve before the GM bean counters axe it.
The sales failure of the GTO will hurt anyone interested in the American performance scene. The death of the Camaro/Firebird was a bad thing for Mustang owners also as competition makes the car better.
GM has to learn you can’t just throw horsepower at a car to fix its slow sales, you would think they would have taken a lesson from the Camaro/Firebird. The F body was almost always a better performing car than the Mustang but the mustang outsold the combined sales of the Camaro+Firebird+Trans Am almost 2 to 1.
Gm gives it 50 more horsepower trying to boost sales but the only gripe in a magazine or review of the car is its styling, that’s poor GM logic ruining an otherwise great car.
If they put a kick arse or even decent body on the GTO I would consider purchasing one.
I don’t hate the GTO, I hate it for the way GM executed it. They got everything right but the biggest point in the sport coupe segment…styling. You can try and argue that point all you want but 99% of the public seems to feel this way, and the extremely slow sales and heavy discounts bare this out. I know some of you will try and argue this point but please be realistic, why else is the GTO selling so poorly even with its $7000 discount?
Someone needs to start a petition to GM to restyle the GTO completely.