My wife, her best friend Janna, and my oldest son are in Colorado skiing, they left last Friday and I've had Dad duty with our 3yr old since then. I'm looking forward to them coming home tomorrow so I can have some ME time. Ha! Anyway, about a year ago Janna was looking for an economy car to replace her Grand Cherokee, and I looked around and found her a little Pontiac G6 sedan. I really didn't know much about the G6's (other than G6 is a STUPID name and it's really just the new Grand Am), but I thought they looked a lot better than the previous Grand Ams, and it kept her out of a Honda or Toyota. It took a while to find her a clean one in her price range, and I wanted it to have some better options, and this one has the V6, the better stereo, fog lights and the aluminum wheels instead of hubcaps. It looked like a fun car, it was in nice shape, and was in her budget. She's been happy with the car, and it's been basically reliable (tires and brake pads last summer, no biggies). Well I drove them all to the airport and she left the G6 at the house, and she asked me to do some little fix-it's on it while they were gone. So the car has 71K miles on it now. The license plate light was out, the front passenger door was popping when it opened, and she could not figure out how to get the Change Oil indicator off on the dash. Also the inspection went out in November (!) and she asked me to run it through. It was also filthy outside and there was dog hair inside. So anyway I messed with the little thing a lot on Saturday and then used it to go to dinner Sat night and run errends on Sunday. After owning many Bonnevilles, our current Grand Prix, and numerous other Pontiacs over the years, I wanted to spend some seat time in one of the last Pontiacs. I've always loved Pontiacs, from my brother-in-law's goofy '91 Sunbird convertible to the old GTO's, I love the arrowhead cars. First, I worked on the fix-it list while my son Tuck and our big goofy dog played in the back yard. On the passenger door there was a 10mm nut missing on the detent rod. I replaced it and the door no longer popped, and then checked the others for good measure, there are two nuts per detent, on each door. All were loose...they are tight now! The license plate light was just a bulb, but I gotta say getting the light re-mounted to the bumper was a pain with my big hands. There is no room and you have to hold the light to the inside of the bumper while lining the screws up from the outside....a pain for a job that should be easy. It took all of a minute to get the oil change indicator re-set. Next I washed the car and was amazed when the headlights both got water inside! How cheap! The paint has held up well and I pulled out the Meguire's and waxed it, and then vaccumed it out and wiped down the dash and door panels. The car looked much better. Headed for the local oil change place and it went right through state inspection, and then I picked up my Dad and we went to Catfish Parlour in it. So anyway, heres some thoughts... I still like the styling from the front, and I like the "kick" in the side widow design and the general shape of the car. From the rear, it really needs the optional spoiler, since it looks fairly generic. I've watched the salvage yards for a white one but so far no luck. I did have the windows tinted for her after she got it, which made it look as little less like a rental car. The interior looks much better than the overstyled and plastic-filled interior the previous Grand Ams had, and everything still lines up, nothing inside is missing, warped, or fallen/broken off in 71K miles, and all the buttons, switches, levers and such are still tight and feel made well. That is a big improvement over the previous Grand Ams, which have dashboards that warp like mad in the Texas sun. BUT....... This car does not feel anything like a Pontiac when you drive it. From the outside it "looks" like a Pontiac, but the only thing inside that says Pontiac is the red gauge lighting and the emblem on the steering wheel. The steering wheel itself is hard plastic and only adjusts a tiny bit up and down. The shifter is small and hard, the door panels are hard as rocks, no padding at all. The seats are also rock-hard and not very wide...it's just weird....it feels like it wants to be a foreign car....which I know is what sells now, but it's not comfortable. It just does not feel right. Nothing says Pontiac, styling-wise or in feel. Pontiacs, for the most part, always felt kind of special. Admittedly there were a lot of BAD Pontiacs toward the end, but even the most basic of them, with a few exceptions...felt like Pontiacs. This car feels totally generic...you could be driving anything... The V6 is not very powerful and makes no sound at all, no burble, no noise, it hums inside like an electric car.....how is this a Pontiac, why is it no fun? Anyway, I'm glad she likes the car and that it's been reliable for her, but after living with this car a while, I understand more why Pontiac died. Pontiacs were never supposed to be uncomfortable, boring and forgetable...sad to see them end like this.... The GTO and G8 didn't feel much like Pontiacs either, but they SOUNDED like them and were exciting and fun to drive, so I have no issue with them wearing the arrowhead badges. If the G6 was the bread-and-butter Pontiac, then again, I know a good reason Pontiac is no more. -Mike
I had a G6 lease car for two years; I think mine was a 2006 also, but I got the "value leader" package. Four banger, cloth interior, didn't even have aluminum wheels. It was an appliance. i found the seats to be very comfortable and I liked the handling. But you're correct about Pontiac "losing its way". Once they started the transparent badge engineering of the late 70's/early 80's, it was all over but the shouting. The whole Pontiac situation still makes me angry when I think about it. I've been a Pontiac fanatic for many years... I think Pontiac totally lost its focus on what made it so successful in the 1959-69 years. Pontiac's were designed to attract the attention of YOUNG buyers. In the 60's, that meant selling performance. They tried to hang on to that performance image into the 80's, but the cars didn't deliver and - even worse - young buyers were not interested in that same old performance pitch. Pontiac did not offer vehicles that got young people excited about their cars. I'm not sure what might have worked, but what if those small J2000 and Sunbird and FWD Grand Ams had been crammed with leading-edge technology, double overhead cam engines, more expressive styling and incredible handling? They might have staved off the Hondas and Nissans... We've got a G8 and we love it, but it was too little, too late.
By the way, the "G6" name was Pontiac's way of acknowledging that this was the 6th generation Grand Am.
Mike, there is a white rental car blocking the view of the Roadie. Please remove it and retake the pics again.
Friend of mine down in Orange County has a G6 -pretty much like your wife's - GT, V6, etc. Only problem he's had is with the 'trick' power moon roof. It's a different design - 4 separate glass panels that fold back on each other as the the front one retracts (they 'stack' - they don't slide under the roof panel). Apparently GM decided to let some buyers be the ginnea pigs on this one, because they apparently leak. From what I hear, the design was dropped after a year or two. I had a ride in it recently. Seemed to have a 'sport' suspension similar to the one in my HHR. Found it hard to get used to the low seating position after driving the HHR....
I believe that G8 represents the 8th generation of the Grand Prix. Not sure if there were similar meanings behind the G3 and G5 designations... Just guessing, but G5 might have referred to the 5th generation of the "J" platform (starting with the J2000/Sunbird/Sunfire)
That's good to know info Jmt455. I always wondered what was up with the "G" thing. Generation 6 now makes perfect sense.
