By far the best day in my automotive life was the Friday in September 2005 when I took delivery of a new, 2005 Phantom Black Pontiac GTO. I had the car for three years, and it brought me great joy and a fair amount of angst as well.
It's probably not necessary to state, but the 2004-2006 GTO was a rebadged, left hand drive Holden Commodore coupe, designed and built in Australia. The car had a lukewarm reception at launch, so in 2005 it got a 50HP upgrade in the form of the 6.0 Liter LS3 'Vette engine. The 05 and 06 Goats were good for 400HP and 400 lb.ft of torque. They were available with a manual 6 spd or an automatic 4 speed.
The Good:
Performance was unlike anything most of us have ever experienced. Getting into the throttle on a GTO produced a permanent **** -eating grin and caused you to instantly fall in love with the car. A lot of us took the test drive as a lark and ended up driving the things home and explaining them to our wives.
In addition to the power, the chassis was set up beautifully. The car could cruise around town serenely, smoothly and quietly if that was your mood, and transform instantly into a snarling beast with a tap on the accelerator. I had the Goat on the interstate at 120 a couple of times and it was always solid and composed. It could take almost every other production car on the road that you were likely to encounter. The exhaust note was amazing.
The interior was very nice. Great seats, good quality leather, a lot of attention to detail, a decent amount of tech for the day. At the time it was light years ahead of the standard GM interior, although GM has upped its game considerably since then.
The Bad
There were quite a few manufacturer defects that plagued the cars. The front struts rubbed against the tires on a lot of cars, ruining them and GM was reluctant to step up. Most owners replaced the stock arms and bushings with Pedders upgrades at their own expense. The rear differentials were prone to bearing failure and would whine loudly. GM did replace those diffs under warranty. The entire glovebox assembly dropped out of my car and it took a month for a replacement. There were paint issues, and body part attachment issues. Holden is a good builder, but not great, at least as far as the prior gen Commodore was concerned.
The Ugly
Pontiac dealers weren't happy about having this odd Australian import forced upon them. To their sales team, and to their service team, it was a foreign car...because it really was. Nobody had any experience working on them and nobody seemed to want to work on them.
Chevy may be better with the SS. They've been dealing with the Holden based Camaro now for a few years, and they've had the Vette forerver, but this Aussie RWD 415HP performance sedan is going to be the red headed stepchild in the product line.
The Bottom Line
Pricing out of the gate was insane on the GTO. Dealers only got a couple of cars a piece and slapped $5000 market adjustments on top the $34,000 sticker. A year later, I bought my GTO with 50 more HP at a $5000 discount and had six cars on the lot to choose from. Depending on how aggressive Holden is with the initial production run, expect more of the same on the SS. I'd stay clear for the first six months or so. In the meantime, get yourself a GM credit card if you don't already have one and start racking up the bonus dollars. The SS will likely be excluded from the program to start, but it will eventually get folded in.
Me, I currently drive a very nice Mercedes S Class but my heart still skips a beat when I see a GTO on the road, and I plan on giving the SS a serious look.
It's probably not necessary to state, but the 2004-2006 GTO was a rebadged, left hand drive Holden Commodore coupe, designed and built in Australia. The car had a lukewarm reception at launch, so in 2005 it got a 50HP upgrade in the form of the 6.0 Liter LS3 'Vette engine. The 05 and 06 Goats were good for 400HP and 400 lb.ft of torque. They were available with a manual 6 spd or an automatic 4 speed.
The Good:
Performance was unlike anything most of us have ever experienced. Getting into the throttle on a GTO produced a permanent **** -eating grin and caused you to instantly fall in love with the car. A lot of us took the test drive as a lark and ended up driving the things home and explaining them to our wives.
In addition to the power, the chassis was set up beautifully. The car could cruise around town serenely, smoothly and quietly if that was your mood, and transform instantly into a snarling beast with a tap on the accelerator. I had the Goat on the interstate at 120 a couple of times and it was always solid and composed. It could take almost every other production car on the road that you were likely to encounter. The exhaust note was amazing.
The interior was very nice. Great seats, good quality leather, a lot of attention to detail, a decent amount of tech for the day. At the time it was light years ahead of the standard GM interior, although GM has upped its game considerably since then.
The Bad
There were quite a few manufacturer defects that plagued the cars. The front struts rubbed against the tires on a lot of cars, ruining them and GM was reluctant to step up. Most owners replaced the stock arms and bushings with Pedders upgrades at their own expense. The rear differentials were prone to bearing failure and would whine loudly. GM did replace those diffs under warranty. The entire glovebox assembly dropped out of my car and it took a month for a replacement. There were paint issues, and body part attachment issues. Holden is a good builder, but not great, at least as far as the prior gen Commodore was concerned.
The Ugly
Pontiac dealers weren't happy about having this odd Australian import forced upon them. To their sales team, and to their service team, it was a foreign car...because it really was. Nobody had any experience working on them and nobody seemed to want to work on them.
Chevy may be better with the SS. They've been dealing with the Holden based Camaro now for a few years, and they've had the Vette forerver, but this Aussie RWD 415HP performance sedan is going to be the red headed stepchild in the product line.
The Bottom Line
Pricing out of the gate was insane on the GTO. Dealers only got a couple of cars a piece and slapped $5000 market adjustments on top the $34,000 sticker. A year later, I bought my GTO with 50 more HP at a $5000 discount and had six cars on the lot to choose from. Depending on how aggressive Holden is with the initial production run, expect more of the same on the SS. I'd stay clear for the first six months or so. In the meantime, get yourself a GM credit card if you don't already have one and start racking up the bonus dollars. The SS will likely be excluded from the program to start, but it will eventually get folded in.
Me, I currently drive a very nice Mercedes S Class but my heart still skips a beat when I see a GTO on the road, and I plan on giving the SS a serious look.
