Pontiac G8 Day

A Liquid Red 2008 Pontiac G8 GT arrived at the Cars.com offices today, and I’m the lucky reviewer who gets to take it home for the weekend. I’ll be posting a review sometime after its week with us.

The mere presence of the 361-hp, V-8-powered sedan should be enough to merit it unofficially Pontiac G8 Day, but there’s more: Pontiac released a very cool new commercial for the G8 that takes a spin at the classic arcade game “Spy Hunter.” We've embedded the video below. The company also launched a new website around the G8 called www.g8iscar.com. Bad grammar aside, the interactive mosaic is pretty neat.

Oh, and one other teensy, tiny thing: There will be some major news hitting this blog come midnight EST tonight, which may or may not revolve around the said G8 platform. Don’t forget to come back for it.

Comments

I'm excited about the G8 and I love the commercial, but the tagline: "Pontiac is car" leads me to assume "Pontiac is illiterate." I understand the desire to play off "Fit is Go" from Honda, but please.

I would think that the G8, with it's sportier look, will pull sales away from the Malibu. And I thought GM's goal was to sell tons of Malibus with their million dollar campaign. Doesn't make too much sense.

Ziggy,
The Malibu is a different brand (Chevy) and I think the roughly $5-$10K difference in price, RWD set-up etc will keep them quite separate.

Not to GM loyalist that don't pay attention to specifications and a $5,000 price difference. If they want to buy a midsize sedan and only want GM then they'll likely pick the G8.

Seems a redundant arguement to me - how many GM loayalists who are manufacturer loyal but brand blind, don't care about price or indeed two completely different implimentations are there? About 4, i'd imagine.

Besides, this isn't a midsize but more a fullsize isn't it?

I doubt there will be too much canibalisation between these two, unless the average buyer is COMPLETELY blind to what these cars are all about?

i'm taking bets on the wagon being announced tonight, which'll be awesome...

Ask salespeople - a lot of buyers are blind.

Midnight Major News Guess/Wish?:

Maybe an uplevel HSV Spec GXP? With either the 6.2L 425-plus horsepower LS3, or, the 500ish hp supercharged LSA in the new CTS-V.

Assuming the interior will be sufficiently high-end, the G8 GXP would be a great BMW M5 competitor with better pricing.

Al,
You're right on the GXP!
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2008/03/g8-gxp.html

And a sport truck
http://blogs.cars.com/kickingtires/2008/03/g8-sport-truck.html

I have a Pontiac Grand Prix GXP,it's an alright car performance wise. I will definitely test drive the G8 but not until pontiac ups the power and releases a six speed. Oh and lose the interior chrome accents! By the way its 23:17 15 MAr 08,where's the big news?

I love that commercial.

I used to dump quarters by the pound into Spyhunter, and whoever did the graphics on that commercial did an inspired job.