I saw my first GTO today!!!

I can't remember seeing one before but today I passed one.

Do you know how I knew? There was a huge GTO sticker on the top of the windshield.

I thought it was an Oldsmobile. No wonder I haven't seen one. It is a cross between an 82 olds and a Saturn.

I know that I don't have to put a huge **** sticker on my windshield that says, MUSTANG just for someone to know what I am driving.



:flame2:

 

When the G6 came out, Pontiac had a contest where you could send in G6 photos taken on your camera phone to win stuff. If they'd have done that with the GTO, all of us Mustang owners would've sent in thousands of old Cavalier and Grand-Am photos..."I think it's a GTO...maybe.."

 

 

I keep missing the fender badges and thinking they are brightly painted Honda Accords from the early '90's. Same shape and tailights.

 

The 05's have nothing that say GTO on the back of them. The have the pontiac arrow, and the 6.0, but no GTO badge. I keep seeing grand am's, gran prixs, and thing they are a GTO. I can't tell them apart. Pretty sad when you need a big sticker across your windshield.

Oh, I found a picture of one, here you go!

 

Are you sure that's not a riced out Cavalier?

 

I'm not trying to bash GM or the "Goat", I was just surprised by the low # of GTO's that expect to be sold. I agree that the 'Stang need competition from GM and Chrysler.

 

 

I can understand not wanting to buy the GTO because of the looks. I wasn't that crazy about it until I DROVE it.

As far as it not being a convertible, that car was never designed with a convertible in mind. If you've been around cars at all in the past twenty years you know what happens when they don't take a convertible into account when designing the platform (can anyone say cowl shake Tbird?) Thats why its not a convertible, it was never designed as one and it would take alot of re-engineering to make it one (and would probably add alot of weight in extra bracing which it doesn't need).

The 05 GTO has GTO stamped in the lower valance between the exhaust pipes, kind of like the previous Mustang had Mustang stamped in the rear bumper.

I think everyone (including GM) is painfully aware of the styling issues. Hopefully the Chevy RWD V8 coupe is going to take this into account. We can only hope.

As far as Mustangs go, I didn't care for the previous generation. I did like the Fox bodies, my two favorites are the 79 pace car and 82 GT. Probably the one I like the most of the Foxes was the SVO. The classics are the best though, my favorites there are the 65 GT fastback and the 70 Boss 302.

 

Yeah...I understand it wasn't designed to be a vert, but it seems like a lot performance cars these days are designed to have a vert variant (911s, vettes, mustangs, 350Zs, etc.) Fast cars are so much fun when the top is down. I just think it is always an oversight when there is no vert even offered for those that would be interested, particularly with technology in verts these days, taking away the old problems of wind noise, leaking, etc. quite a bit.

 

It's hard to believe that GM set a sales target of only 18,000 for the GTO. For a huge manufacturer, that's not even a drop in the bucket.

They really shot themselves in the foot with the styling. That's really the only thing wrong with this car. When they correct that, if they ever do, they will sell a lot more of them, and that will be good for all car enthusiasts everywhere.

 

I imagine that UAW had a lot to do with how many non-union vehicles would be imported.

 

I really hate to see all the GTO bashing... it unfortunately is the only competition that Ford's Mustang has and that is never a good situation for consumers. Competition is definitely a good thing.

I personally don't particularly like the styling, but I admire what the General is doing - stuffing a HUGE POWERFUL engine into a "normal" car. That's what gave rise to the whole muscle car era. Now, if gas prices would stay low for a while, we might enjoy a second coming of the muscle car era.

Don't get me wrong - I love my '05 mustang. But I would LOVE it more if it had a 6.2 liter 450HP engine...

 

Well guys I do agree with you on the GTO styling. Not atractive what so ever. It looks like a Cavalier IMO as others have said. I cant say a thing about how it drives because I have not had that experience and really dont care to either since I dont look its looks.

With that said I believe that its fair not to go everboard and be rude to the GTO owners. The reason I state that is because their is a Mustang (I dont know the year) that I believe is not attractive at all. The one that looks like an escort. I believe its the one from the '80s. I know their are folks here that loved that body but I am not the only Mustang fan that would agree with me. I

So I guess vehicle manufactures make mistakes just like Ford did IMO.

Hope I dont get flamed but I hope you folks realize that this is just not my opinion but many others as well.

 

I really don't know what all the bashing on the GTO is about-People begged GM for years to build a new GTO and when they do-the "experts" flame the thing. It does everything better than the old GTO and they still bash it. Okay the styling is what it is but the car is based on a regular coupe in Australia just like the old GTO-at least it doesn't look like the Monte Carlo.
At least you guys get the oportunity to buy the car-none are imported to Canada because the bumpers are just 2.5mph and our standards never changed from 5mph. (Same reason a Ford Executive told me the GT wasn't coming to Canada in the immediate future)

 

You guys have a short memory. Ford did not exactly have much more sucess with the retro thunderbird. I believe this is it's last year. It's styling was nearly as uninspiring as the GTO ( ok it still looked better than the GTO) and it was over priced. Some times car companies make a turkey and sometimes tham make a hit....

The worst part is, GM could have made a lot of money off of a properly styled GTO. They could have still used the same platform, just with beter sheet metal. The bean counters ( the CEO is more of a bean counter than a gar guy ) it the ones that made the mistake. GM is in troublyeright now and a boost like the new Mustang gave Ford would have been very helpful to the company. To make matters worse, the other two of the big three are churning out some cool designs that people can actually afford. I know the vette is a cool car, but most people cannot afford the 50K price tag ( Yea I know they start at 45K, but add a few basic options ant the car is 50K ) The people ta can afford 50K tend to prefer the imports. I personally would rather have a new boxter than a new vette.. I gave up on the vetts when they went to the big wedge look in the late 80's and 90's. When they lost the stingray curves, they no longer applealed to me.

I drove an 04 GTO and it did ride much better than the mustang and had far less road noise coming off the tires and chassis. It certianly did not handle as well as the mustang. It has a lot of body roll and oversteer. Of course it was still fun to drive. If they had offered it to me for say 20K I might have been interested in owning it as a "sleeper" car. However, at 31-35K it was not even on my short list....

I personally think that the main problem at GM is POOR management at the top. The CEO NEEDS TO GO!!!

 

There's plenty of numbers presented here as far as differences in production and I've even read somewhere recently that 1 out of 2 sports cars sold in the US now is a 2005 Mustang.

With that said, I'll ask my stupid question: Where are they all?!?!?

I live in Michigan (2 hours from Detroit) and the only Mustang GT's I've ever seen are from pictures posted in these forums. I've wanted to buy one since March. There's no dealer allocation in Michigan for these things. I could not even get a brochure so I bought one on eBay for $6.00.

Oddly enough, I asked a friend of mine who lives in a burb of the Motor City and they are not even present there. I am working with a local dealer and have one built in the system now for a 2006 order, but they are waiting on allocations to submit it. I may just have better luck attempting to order a space shuttle from NASA.

Long story short and to get back to the topic, I see more new GTO's and semi-exotic cars like Vipers and Ferrari's around the area than 2005 Mustang GT's. I have seen two V6's so far though.

 

Totally agree. Before I ordered my Mustang GT, I drove both an '04 and an '05 GTO. Can't say anything more about the styling that's not already been said. Neither the '04 nor the '05 felt significantly faster (or slower) than the Mustang GT. On the track there may be some difference (the '04 GTO being a little slower and the '05 GTO being a little faster than the Mustang GT).

The big "gotcha" for me was the way the GTO handled (or didn't handle). It felt heavy and didn't have the reflexes of the Mustang GT. Add to that, as much as has been made about the interior of the GTO, I preferred the Mustang's interior. I did like the seats in the GTO, however.

Long and short of it, I think competition is good. But, even if the GTO was priced exactly the same as the Mustang, I still would have bought my Mustang GT.

GM needs to reload the GTO gun and take another shot. The one that they fired with the current iteration missed it's mark. It isn't really clear whether there will be an updated GTO platform since the ZETA platform was killed by GM for NA.

 

That pic is of a cavalier.

 

I totally agree with this. I was wondering the same thing. Here in Texas mustangs are pretty big (bigger than they are in the DC area where I used to live) and I see a few V6s but rarely see a GT AT ALL.

I figured they were in California and such......

Oh....and I think the Monte Carlo has good styling. It's different. Not too bubbly but has some curves.