Humbler-
I am not contemptuous of the car. I agree that GM needs this class of vehicle in its lineup, and it is the best thing to happen in a long time. From a practical standpoint as a consumer product however, it comes up a bit short for the price. In my opinion (the only one that matters for my buy/no buy decision), the trunk is too small, the steering too slow, the interior too cheezy, seat adjust/rear seat access too slow, no dead pedal, weird central locking function, the rear spoiler looks like a JC Whitney special, and of course, the car looks lame overall. As far as I'm concerned, these are not show stoppers on a sub-25k car, but they are most certainly unacceptable on the 35k, "flagship" of the Pontiac line. These issues are much more important to me (and the general public, it seems) than its quarter mile performance. Overwhelming evidence of this is the fact that Mustang kills everyone in sales largely due to cheesy 6 banger models. Face it, gearheads are a very small and unimportant part of the market.
From an enthusiast perpective, Lutz handled this wrong. If anyone has taken a marketing course, they are familiar with the "marketing mix" - the four "Ps". Lutz had direct control over the Price, Product, Promotion and Position. I think several years from now, at the end of his career, Lutz will give a magazine interview and will admit that marketing this thing as the Pontiac GTO, vs bringing the car here some other way, was a mistake. That has always been my prediction, and the facts seem to be supporting that so far.
The bright spot in all this? I predict deep discounts by the end of summer to blow out all the unsold 04 models to make way for the improved 05's. I may just get one yet!
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