YACT: My New 2006 Pontiac GTO

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,556
1
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So this is my first new car ever, a 2006 Pontiac GTO. I've always wanted a muscle car, V8 RWD manual transmission and now I have it. Reminds me of American Beauty:

Carolyn Burnham: Uh, who's car is that out front?
Lester Burnham: Mine. 1970 Pontiac Firebird. The car I've always wanted and now I have it. I rule!

Anyway, picked it up Friday October 27th with exactly 2 miles on it. When I saw the car in the first place, it still had the paper covers over the seats and everything. Pristine, untouched: exactly what I wanted in my first car. Yeah I know I'm paying the depreciation and its not as good of a value, but I wanted at least one pristine, brand new car in my life and this is it. :D

The only options on these cars are the wheels and transmission: I opted for the 17" wheels and of course 6-speed transmission. Downside to the 18" wheels is they come with summer tires and wouldn't be good for the rainy Raleigh winter (or god forbid we get snow), and the only low mileage car with 18" wheels in NC was a 6 hour round trip; this one was a 2 hour round trip and near my parent's house anyway.

So, onto the goodies, here are the pictures:
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~tjsupple/gto/index.html

As you can see I opted for Spice Red Metallic. I was considering Cyclone Grey Metallic, and saw that in person, but I was sold once I saw SRM. SRM looks almost burgundy under low light, but under direct light it has a red-orangish color that really stands out IMO. I love it :D

I have filled up once thus far and with ~150 miles highway driving combined with the rest learning to drive a stick in stop & go city driving, I got about 16MPG. Once it is all broken in, I should get about 25-28MPG highway and 15-18MPG city. Frankly that's about as good as my 210K mile Subaru did, but it's not running right.

Learning to drive a stick has been quite the experience, made easier thanks to Marlin! Went up to his house and he gave me some pointers on getting started into 1st/2nd which really helped. Now my driving is pretty damn smooth and I almost never stall it, one week into owning a manual transmission vehicle. Not too shabby!

Let me say I love the power in this car. Around town I shift at 2000RPM (going 1->3->5 or 2->4->6) and have zero issues staying with traffic & passing. On the highway revs are ~1700RPM @ 60mph, ~2000RPM @ 80mph in 6th gear and smoothly passing people is no problem in 6th. When its time to haul ass, I put it in "freight train gear" (aka 4th) and going from 50 to 100 is fun as hell :D I've not yet redlined the car and only had a couple fast 1-2 romps. The first time I turned off traction control, ran it to 5000RPM in 1st, then did a hard shift into 2nd the ass slid out on me some :Q A little surprising, but still fun :D I've been very careful with this car though, don't want to do something stupid in moving from sub-200HP cars to a 400HP muscle car ;)

And before I forget, price came to $30,600 out the door with $2000 in rebates and no trade-in. MSRP was $32,685, invoice (as checked by my Dad's connection) was $31,342. I don't feel like I got the best deal possible, but still a pretty good one. I could've got a better deal if I waited another month, but I really wanted an untouched Spice Red Metallic which would've been harder to come by then. Only 502 6-speed 17" SRM's manufactured after all ;)

Anyway, enough rambling, just wanted to show off my baby :D

Review

I'll try to keep this short and sweet:

Pro's:
Tons of power
Good value for the performance
Good qualtiy interior (no rattles or squeaks yet)
OK sound system, lots of bass for a factory system
Super comfy front seats
Tons of rear seat space for the +2 people, very comfortable in the back
Tons of info in the cluster guages, you can customize car-specific things like light timeouts and stuff; you can't tell it to unlock when you take the key out of the ignition though...

Con's:
Trunk - yes its insanely tiny, you could only fit several large duffel bags or a couple golf bags and even then it will be tight. I don't care, I didn't buy it for the trunk, but if you need a fully functional storage vehicle with lots of HP, this car isn't it.

Rear-seat entry - this is just dumb. Since both seats are power, you can't just fold the seatback and quickly roll it forward to let someone in the back. There is a button on the top of the seat that only moves the seat forward & back, which is convenient, but it is slow for letting someone in & out reasonably quickly. Also, when you pull the handle to fold the seatback forward, it does not go forward very far. I think this is due to the bolstering in the front seats, which is excellent, but the seat just doesn't fold forward enough for convenient entry/exit. My gf's sister is tiny and flexible (no comments) and she can barely fit in the back without moving the seat forward. My gf's 92 Camaro is much easier to get in due to these simple fvck-ups.

Cup holders - I was hoping for decent cup holders here, given my Subaru's only cup holders were built-in above the radio. The cup holders are in the console, which is a good location, but they are so narrow you can't fit very large cups in there. Again, I didn't buy the car for the cup holders, but c'mon GM/Holden! A man can't have a Big Gulp in his muscle car?

Driver Information Center - You can get tons of info in the cluster gauge. When you change something in the radio/CD player, it tells you what's happening in the main display, you can have a digital speedo, avg MPG, instant MPG, trip distance, overspeed alarm, etc etc. Tons of info! But you can't customize it. You use the "mode" button to browse between like 5-6 preset screens with different info on each, but you can't customize what is on each gauge. For instance, when you have the digital speedo screen up there is nothing to the left or right of it on those displays. Why can't I customize that display and put instant MPG & distance on either side of the speedo? That's stupid, but a minor gripe. There is a company that will reprogram it however you want, which is nice.

I think that's about it, but I'll add more if I forgot something.
 

paulney

Diamond Member
Sep 24, 2003
6,912
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Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Originally posted by: paulney
What happened to the Camry???
I never wanted a Camry...jesus! I was considering a new Legacy GT...that's about it

Ugh... That was a quote from American Beauty. The next phrase in the dialog was by Lester's wife: "What happened to the Camry? - I sold it!"
 

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,556
1
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Originally posted by: Pepsi90919
i think you're a little obsessed
And? I love cars, I love muscle cars, I've always wanted a GTO, and now I have it.

Originally posted by: state 08
Go easy on the gas until you break it in.
Only taken it to 5000RPM a couple times, most of the time mid-RPM 3rd or 4th gear is plenty to move around. :D
 

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,556
1
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Originally posted by: paulney
Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Originally posted by: paulney
What happened to the Camry???
I never wanted a Camry...jesus! I was considering a new Legacy GT...that's about it

Ugh... That was a quote from American Beauty. The next phrase in the dialog was by Lester's wife: "What happened to the Camry? - I sold it!"
Doh, sorry :eek:
 
Oct 19, 2000
17,861
4
81
Originally posted by: state 08
Go easy on the gas until you break it in.
QFT. Don't break the thing until you break it in. And by the way, absolutely gorgeous car! I'd absolutely love to have one myself, but I barely make more in a year than what that thing costs. Guess I'll stick with my Grand Prix for right now.
 

imported_Devine

Golden Member
Oct 10, 2006
1,293
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Looks nice and clean, but I guess I was expecting something a little more flashy. What does flashy matter when you got the hp to blow the doors off most cars though :D
 

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,556
1
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Originally posted by: Devine
Looks nice and clean, but I guess I was expecting something a little more flashy. What does flashy matter when you got the hp to blow the doors off most cars though :D
That's funny, 'cuz most people think it is "too flashy" for a "muscle car." Looks too European or even "ricey;" I will agree the overall design looks more like a Cavalier than a GTO. But I found something unique enough about the new GTO's design that I love it :D

Originally posted by: chuckywang
Don't let any 14 year olds drive it.
I saw that video :laugh: The only other person who will drive this is my gf, once its broken in. Gonna teach her stick as well ;) Maybe 6-speed girl? :Q:D:p
 

John

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
33,944
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Nice looking car and congrats on your new vehicle. :)

I've owned one Pontiac in my lifetime and it was a brand new 2002 FireHawk (#51). However it left a bad taste in my mouth so I sold it and bought a 2002 SVT Lightning work truck instead. :D
 

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,556
1
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Originally posted by: John
Nice looking car and congrats on your new vehicle. :)

I've owned one Pontiac in my lifetime and it was a brand new 2002 FireHawk (#51). However it left a bad taste in my mouth so I sold it and bought a 2002 SVT Lightning work truck instead. :D
Yeah I thought about a 4th Gen F-Body (cheap power, still good fuel mileage, fast as hell), but I wanted a nicer car. I decided if I was gonna spend the money, I'd do it right and get everything I want in one-swoop. This is about my dream car....
 

SmoochyTX

Lifer
Apr 19, 2003
13,618
0
0
Very nice! I love how it looks and sounds like it would be great to drive.

ETA - And I love Pontiacs and how their grills look. :)
 

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,556
1
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Originally posted by: tfinch2
Nice car, but wow, 30 grand? How much did you put down?
Credit Union FTW

Yeah I started out wanting to only pay about $28K since they aren't selling well, but scouring the whole state and my Dad's dealer connections, no one was ready to sell below invoice yet. I could've waited, but then I might not have gotten the exact car I wanted. I chose to bite the bullet, pay a little more, and get the exact untouched car I wanted.
 

fbrdphreak

Lifer
Apr 17, 2004
17,556
1
0
Originally posted by: Aimster
how much HP did the GTO have when it first came out? The new one

340?
2004 models had the 5.7L LS1 350HP/365TQ. 2005-2006 has the 6.0L LS2 400HP/400TQ.