Chryslancia! The Plan Revealed

It worked for Saturn and Opel and Pontiac and Vauxhall...oh....wait.

Well, Fiat's got nothing else, so look for Chrysler and Lancia to share gene pools, but not sales markets.

From Automobile.

This Time It's Real: The Caprice Is Back...For Police

Well, forget that stuff about GM importing the Pontiac G8 as a cop car.

The real deal, according to Jalopnik, is a revival of the Caprice.

Pontiac G8 GXP Review

Finish big.

Always leave them wanting more.

83 years making cars, and it turns out Pontiac learned the rules of show business instead.

All those years of building cheap knock-offs of Chevrolets clothed in ludicrous plastic body cladding, they should have been building this.

Of course, Pontiac doesn't really build the G8 GXP...it comes to them from GM's Australian division, Holden. But it looks, feels and goes like what Pontiacs from the glory days (1961-1970) spoiled us into expecting.

It's too late now...GM having announced that Pontiac's a dead division. The only 2010 Pontiac will be the Vibe...not because they'll just make that, but because it was an early 2010 model and has been on sale for months.

And GM's new boss (for now, anyway) Fritz Henderson, has repeatedly swatted down proposals from inside and outside GM that the G8 live on as a Chevrolet.

Let's just cut to the chase: This is the best car General Motors sells. It may be the best car GM has ever sold. It certainly is in the top 3.

Quality materials and assembly, an all-business 6.2 liter V8 with a six-speed automatic...it's a four-door GTO. It's the car domestic car buyers would buy instead of a BMW 5-series if there were such a thing as domestic car buyers who wouldn't dream of buying an import.

It's $37,610...and if you stopped right there and didn't order a single option, you'd still probably have the best car in town.

In fact, the tester I had for a week had only one option...a $900 moonroof that had I been playing with my own money would never have made it onto the car. It would have kept the sticker price under 40 grand ($1700 for the gas guzzler tax and $685 in destination charges add to that otherwise reasonable base price).

And yes, it guzzles gas...at least by modern standards. 13 city/20 highway is what the EPA says and they're probably right and it took a six-speed transmission to make it that good.

But folks, what we're talking about here is probably the last true American big muscle sedan. And after decades of disappointments, it needs to be noted that on the way out the door, Pontiac got it absolutely right.

Pontiac Solstice GXP Review

GM built a reputation over the years (especially the bad years) of introducing cars that weren't quite ready and then refining them during the production run so that the final few years of a model were pretty close to perfect.

Well, this wasn't supposed to be the end of the Solstice (or Pontiac, for that matter), but events have overtaken the once-mighty GM and this is in fact the end of the line for Pontiac.

And, wouldn't you know it...the last Solstice is way better than the first. Part of it certainly has to do with the fact that the Solstice I just drove for a week was the GXP...the one with the 260 horsepower turbocharged engine. Yep, it's quick.

Plus, there's been some attention to niggling little details...the reverse-hinged trunk actually shuts on the first try now...ending the frustration of jumping out of the car, closing it again, getting back in and finding the "trunk ajar" light still illuminating on start-up.

Base price is $28,460...quite a bit more than a Miata, but again, more powerful, too. The tester was loaded up with a Premium Package (leather, steering wheel audio cotrols and Bluetooth), air conditioning (yep, it's an option), 18-inch chrome wheels, the Monsoon audio system and a rear spoiler.

Bottom line: $32,125. Not a bargain, but not bad.

And...this is a huge surprise...I beat the EPA mileage estimates by a large margin. They say 19 city/28 highway and in my mix of city street and freeway driving I saw 32.5 for the week. I've beaten the government numbers before, but not by so much. I wonder what it would've done if a six-speed manual were available instead of the five-speed.

It's not my first choice for a 2-seat roadster (the Miata wins that one based on handling, build quality and sheer fun), but if you've never driven the Mazda and love the look of the Solstice (and a lot of people do), now's the time.

Toyota Corolla Matrix XRS/Pontiac Vibe GT Review

The above could probably make a pretty good puzzle. You know..."find at least x number of differences between these two pictures".

Well, I'll jump straight to the answers. The top picture is the Toyota Corolla Matrix and the bottom shot is the Pontiac Vibe GT. And, apart from some exterior styling cues, they are the same vehicle.

Wait...what? Toyota and Pontiac? The same car? Yep. This is the current fruit of a partnership between GM and Toyota going back to the 1980s, which produced the short-lived Geo. The cars are built here in the U.S. (the Toyotas in Detroit and the Pontiac in Fremont, California, near San Francisco), using 61% American parts and 39% Japanese.

Essentially, it's a five-door hatchback version of a Corolla (which is why that name is part of the Toyota version). If you need a competitor to help pigeonhole the Corolla Matrix/Vibe, the Chrysler PT Cruiser is probably the one to think of: We're talking small sedans made more versatile with the hatchback. And the Matrix/Vibe, especially the new for 2009 models, are more fun to drive.

The Pontiac gets the edge because of little things like OnStar, 3 months free of XM Satellite Radio and bigger things like a better warranty. But it's not likely to break and the Toyota is likely to have better resale value, for no reason other than brand prejudices. Dealers can sell used Toyotas better than used Pontiacs, even when they're the same car.

Pick either and you'll get an EPA estimated 21 city/29 highway miles per gallon with an automatic transmission (inexplicably, the number drops to 21/28 with a stick), the same standard features and the same options, more or less. Base prices are within a few hundred dollars of each other (the XRS and GT are the top of the line and start around $21,000...you can get the base models of Matrix/Vibe for the low $16,000s).

If you've driven the previous generation Matrix/Vibe, test drive the new '09...both are hugely improved.

Pontiac G8 Review

My driver's ed car in high school was a big Pontiac sedan...a 1972 Catalina...with a 455-cubic inch V8 engine. Just perfect for three not-yet-licensed 15 and a half year olds and a teacher with what may have been narcolepsy. Mr. Walkup's snore (usually about 20 minutes into the 90-minute class) was the signal to my best friend and myself (the third student was an exceptionally timid girl) to bury our right feet to the floorboards on the wide-open stretches of U.S. 395 between Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, California.

That was probably the last big Pontiac you could do that in and have any fun. Emissions regulations, insurance surcharges and the Arab oil embargo of 1973 all conspired to end the horsepower party soon afterward. Later attempts to recapture a performance image usually involved red cockpit lighting and ill-advised amounts of plastic body cladding, but, as so many have pointed out over the years...there's no substitute for cubic inches.

Well, even Pontiac doesn't measure 'em in cubic inches anymore, but the 6-liter V8 (roughly 366 CID) under the hood of the Pontiac G8 will do just fine. It's 361 horsepower in a car that manages to keep its curb weight just five pounds shy of two tons. Plant your right foot in the G8 and it moves right now...with a solidity, assurance and handling capabilities GM couldn't have imagined in '72.

And while the Driver's Ed Car of Doom would have looked right at home in Grandma's driveway (white, with a blue vinyl interior), the G8 announces its high-performance intentions the second you see it. It's a taut, muscular look that some writers have compared favorably with BMW.

Like the not-quite-there GTO of a couple of years back, this Pontiac is actually an Australian Holden rebadged for U.S. consumption. The good news in that deal is that Australians never gave up building hot sedans, and that the G8 interior is way different from...and way better than...anything else GM sells stateside.

The really good news is price...the G8 GT starts at $29,995 and our tester, loaded with a premium package that includes leather, power and heated seats, topped out at $31,395...a bargain bottom line. It's ironic that the re-birth of the big American performance sedan comes from Australia, but after a 35-year drought, we're not asking questions. Go drive one.