GM chops bland Pontiac GTO

Car-maker blames federal safety rules

By PH Staff / Wednesday, 22 February 2006 / Loading comments

Bland: 2004 Pontiac GTO

The General is to discontinue making the Pontiac GTO, the car which helped define American muscle in the 1960s. The 360bhp car was sold until 1973 when the fuel crisis killed it.

After a thirty-year hiatus, GM started making it again in 2003 but has decided that federal safety rules make too expensive to redesign and continue manufacturing.

Not that too many car nuts are likely to be terribly upset. Although an icon, the new 400bhp version didn't really look the part and, at $32,000 retail -- a lot in cheap car land USA -- and it wasn't selling that well. Although GM talked it up, it only sold 11,590 GTOs last year. In a land where GM and Ford between them made nearly six million motors, it's not volume. It's also not even all that American, which also matters. Only the drive-train is fitted in the US, the rest is shipped from GM's Holden subsidiary in Australia.

GM has told its dealers that it would build some 10,000 to 12,000 more GTOs until the end of May. According to the Detroit Free Press, "Pontiac is exploring options for adding another high-performance, rear-wheel-drive vehicle to its portfolio but no decisions have been made about a replacement."

More bad news

The GTO chop follows more bad news from the General, which has moved to cut a shift at a truck-making assembly plant in Ohio, cutting 1,150 jobs, and closed yet another car-making plant in Oklahoma, with the loss of 2,400 jobs.