Aren't the Camry, Accord, Altima, and Fusion pulling around 270 hp out of a 3.5? What kind of gas mileage does this car get.

Hmmm, a 6L V8 putting out only 360HP? Seems a little low for such a large engine, and the torque numbers aren't anything to write home about either. I dont want to get into the HP/L debate, but they could obviously do a bit better.

Interior looks OK, not great not horrible. Seems rather bland. Exterior looks nice though for a Pontiac.

60 HP per litre does seem a little sad for modern engines.

I suppose this could be a good thing though. It leaves a lot of potential HP gains for tuners.

This is a good looking car for a Pontiac. Lately Pontiacs have been butt ugly but this car looks decent.

This horsepower per liter crap is flawed. It doesn't take torque into consideration which in my opinion is where its at. It does seem a little tuned down if you compare it to the 06 Goat but its not the same engine. I drive an 04 GTO black/red for three years now and I still love it. I would like to see a next gen goat > )

Dont be fooled, this is the Holden Clubsport R8 (Australian market) also known as the VXR8 in the UK
The Australian and UK versions of the car gets more BHP

give credit where credit is due. I believe this car to be a holden commodore with a different "face". The car as i understand it was design from ground up by GM holdens aussie franchise studio.

This car lacks focus IMO.

Front end is tough/macho looking, but the entire rear end looks like a Nissan Altima or Honda design.

The rear window appears to bubble and be back too far, which is great for headroom, but is not sporty at all. They should copy Mustang's fastback look, not the current Japanese "giant egg" styling.

I'm sure the V8 sounds awesome, but the interior looks like any family current sedan. It needs some "American Sports Car" appeal.

I'm confused and very happy I didn't wait for this and bought an 08 Mustang.

The horsepower per liter crap is not flawed. It's only 1 metric of many which are important in judging a car or engine's performance. The real problem with it is too many people take it too seriously, or as the only thnig that matters. Torque as well, is only 1 measurement of an engine's capabilities. They all have to be considered. As far as passenger vehicles go, most people would probably prefer a high HP/L engine over a large displacement but torqy engine. Especially in the days of high fuel costs.

There's lots to be said about big torquey V8s. But in this day and age it's days are numbered. Don't get me wrong, I'd always love to have a big torqy V8 sitting in my garage, but for realism sakes, a turbo'd 4 or 6 would be preferable, with far fewer trips to the pumps.

The torque vs. Horsepower debate is most prevalent in bikes (inline 4's vs. twins). Even the best twins can't touch the I4 for HP, but will smoke them on torque. Both would be fast, but different kinda of fast. I've ridden plenty of both, and on the old coutry roads I'd take a sporty twin any day (like Ducati), whereas on the track - japanese inline all the way. Different engines, different personalities. It's all personal preference.

Keep in mind as well that GM is going to have some aggressive CAFE restrictions to work with in the near future. They will likely keep the HP of the V8 to a reasonable level to avoid penalties. It's not like GM couldn't get more out of it, it's likely they don't want to saddle the G8 with a $2000 gas-guzzler tax, which is what the new Challenger SRT-8 is going to face.

I hope they're considering releasing a manual (standard) transmission along with a rev limiter marking on the tachometer. . . . probably not though.

What the hell is wrong with car makers today? It looks like every other damn ugly Pontiac. Come up with something creative PLEASE. Dodge is doing the same thing, every one of their cars looks damn near Identical. Am I the only one who would like something that isn't the same as the last 25 Pontiacs? Or something that isn't a square like every Dodge out right now? Thank god for the Challenger, it actually is shaped a little different!

@WS:

Don't look now, but this car is already saddled with the gas guzzler tax. Unless you get the 6 cylinder.

As far as tuners getting more power, the point is we shouldn't have to tune it and void the warranty to get more power. The engine is clearly capable of more (hell, the LS2 with the L76/L92 setup was tested by GMHighTechPerformance Magazine and they got into the 450s I think).

Tuners try to squeeze power out of a car, not do what the manufacturer should of already done. And how much cheaper was it to reduce the power of the engine? Really? I mean, its an LS2 with different intake and exhaust. Which actually makes it breath EASIER, not less so.

The people on Torque report are far too critical. The car is CHEAP! It's like a G35 for 26k. It's not supposed to look like a freaking muscle car/fastback, it's a fast family sedan! 385 torque isn't enough? You're an idiot! This engine, I'm sure, cost far less than the corvette motor, but there will probably be a 6.2l performance ediition with the 430hp, just wait.

If you want a smaller engine with better economy get the 3.6 liter, don't complain about the 6.0! 256hp for a 3.6 liter is good too, so don't complain about it.

For the price, this car is amazing, kudos to GM.

My issue is this car should NOT require premium fuel with either engine. Whats up with that? Cheap americans who buy cheap american cars want to use cheap gas.

Give up a 6 speed stick shift!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can we PLEASE get the Holden Coupe 60 as the next GTO?

And another thing, HP/Liter doesnt matter. Remember it has 360hp, that's quite a lot... I'd rather see you people comparing HP/lbs.

Crap...

For once I actually agree with Cheap Car Lover. HP / torque per (engine) lb is a way better measurement.

V8 rules!! If I had anything but a V8 I would prolly fall asleep because there boring. I love torque its what pushes you to the finish line. Torque is fun. Love my 97 LT1. Love the sound. If your a pussy buy a 4 banger you girls.

I don't care what you guys say, I would buy this car in a flash if I had the money. It may be Pontiac but its not like I'm gonna have this car for 15 years.

This engine will likely not get hit with a gas guzzler tax, should be good for 25/18 unlike the Honda S2000. Those hp/lt engine are the one that have that problem. See for yourself here http://www.epa.gov/fueleconomy/guzzler/420b07018.pdf .The car is rather uninspiring though yet still being a bargin…

The new G8 seems to be a nice direction for Pontiac. The problem lies in the impending CAFE rules that has hampered the progress of the G8 conterparts. Pontiac was already committed to delivering the G8 whereas other variants are on hold. It is a shame really, but a product of instability in oil, CAFE restrictions, etc.

Back to the car itself, the G8 has a nicely intergrated front half and the proportions seem well though out. The interior looks on par with the last GTO (which IMO was a superb interior). In regards to the HP, both V6 and V8 engine choices should move this car with authority. We are all enthusiasts on this site and with that always want more power, but for a production 4dr sport sedan both engine choices should satisfy most buyers. I am glad GM decided to use its 3.6liter V6 for the base engine. I just hope there is still a market for this car when it hits the streets.

Belive it or not, we already have the v6 over here (brazil), its called Chevrolet Omega, and is exactly the same car (except for the holes in the bonet).

Well my impressions of it are: its a lazy car. And im not complaning about the engine. its about the felling.

If you put your foot really down, the response is ok. but try making some sharp turns or stopping it and you will see what im talking about. the ride confort is very, very good though.

I bet the coupe version with the 6 litter will be a very, very nice car, they just need to tune it AS A SPORTS COUPE.

this is a holedn dammit pontiac had no say in design at all!!!!!!!!

it is built and designed in australia

CheapCarLover, Nope, you guys I think are missing the point, entirely.

Is 381ft/lbs of torque impressive? Very! Is 360 HP impressive? Yes! Problem is, those figures aren't terribly inspiring coming out of a..... 6L V8. I will never balk at that kind of power in a car. My daily driver isn't even in the 200's. I would just expect that a car with an engine that big would be putting out a little... more.

It's not that those numbers are dreadful, I never said that. Like GM, they're merely average and mundane, in a time where GM needs to stand out and be recognized for something other than beign cheaper than the others. Don't get me wrong, I like the car - it's a lot of ponies for the price.

The GTO is a legacy American muscle car. Please don't screw it up again GM. Do it right next time and give the car the honor the "GTO" brand deserves.

Hi all. This is an Australian design and built car. Its called the Holden Commodore here though. Suprisingly the specs are the same, but has a different front bumper design. And for some reason the desided that it would be alot cheaper for Americans, even though it is Australias most popular selling car.
anywho heres the link:
http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/action/vehicleentry?vehicleid=4
Oh, and as for the engine. Despite its capacity, it doesn't drink alot of fuel, and can be modified pretty heavelly. In aus there is a kit to make it 800KW and 900NM torque. Twin turbo kit (doesn't sound like it though, and have to look pretty close to see them. Stuff I got told from mates in the business. Have seen it too! Blody crazy

Lower power for better gas mileage?

For the people above. 60hp per liter is extremely sad. A big engine in a car, whoopy doo. So you want to make the motor better and beef it up? Why not just by the already beefed up Audi or BMW then. Cause by then it would cost the same. My Yamaha R6 gets 220hp per liter stock. Pontiac had their hey-days, and there over. They can't even keep their car as the new Knight Rider. When you lose out to Ford, you might as well quit.

THAT'S A FRICKEN' HOLDEN!!

The reason it looks good/bad/unfocused/better-than-before/whatever is because it's a Holden with a "Pontiac"ed up front end.

I think these Holdens look good! I used to ignore Holden... [nb - Holden's always been part of the GM stable]

I like this car.

I've liked it from the beginning, but they really eased up on the styling from the original release/showing and watering it down a bit, but it's still nice. I would have liked those flared fenders from that car.

I hope they release a manual version as well, instead of just an auto for the lazy North Americans who need to drive and eat doughnuts simulataneously.

360hp and 6-speed manual. Maybe I'll trade in the WRX for it. ha ha

A split front grille almost never looks good, as this one demonstrates by ruining a perfectly nice design.

This is a solid looking car, with two good engine options. Don't get too caught up on power/displacement either, because if you go through the thought process you'll realize displacement is another way of doing things. Just because it has a higher displacement, does not mean it will eat more gas. Modern engine components combined with advanced computer engine management means that a turbocharged 4 cylinder isn't necessarily going to be more efficient in terms of mileage.

In other words, yes they could have tuned it from the factory to make more power. They would have to burn more fuel to do so. There are various ways (forced induction, VVT, direct injection, variable displacement, etc) of making engines more fuel and/or power efficient, but at the end of the day the energy you extract comes from the gasoline you burn. Tuning it for more power would make it LESS efficient, in terms of fuel, its only more "efficient" if all you're looking at is power per liter.

Not to mention that their choice of drivetrains helped keep both the V6 and the GT models affordable.

oh good!! another V8 with awful MPG. just what america needs, next to a 8L corvette. they could make a supercharged 6 4L with the same power, and more MPG. noone here will but that car. it will sit like the charger does. they only sell to guys with small peni that try and compensate,

The v8 engine is pretty disappointing in terms of modern engines. The 4.6L v8 on the LS460 gets 380hp with 18/27mpg. This thing probably won't be as efficient as that engine in terms of mpg either because of the 8 speed.

I just wanted to change the mileage to 18/24. Man the EPA keeps changing the way they measure this like every year.

For 2008, I'm seeing 16/24 for the LS460, and 15/24 for the G8. Also, here's a something to consider - the Lexus is using Premium fuel. The G8 uses Regular. If you reprogram the PCM and optimize it for Premium fuel, even in an engine not specifically built for it (compression-wise) you'll get more power and/or better mileage, depending on how you tune it. They opted not to saddle their customers with a higher fuel cost - the very same thing you were saying the G8 suffered from!

What a crock. You're comparing an 8 speed, $70,000 car to a $30,000 car, for purposes of fuel economy, when the fact is that the G8 will have lower fuel costs due to the use of less expensive fuel. Yeah, they could have supercharged it or turbocharged a V6. GM isn't new to that sort of thing - the 05 Impala SS V6 SC has higher fuel costs than the 06 Impala SS V8, due to type of fuel used. Generally any serious forced air induction setup is going to lean strongly toward premium fuel and also will increase your drivetrain/maintenence costs. They're trying to keep a fairly high performance sedan under the $30,000 mark, while keeping it halfway economical to drive.

For what its worth, I love small-displacement turbocharged engines. My favorite turbocharged engine of all time is the 231ci olds engine found in the Grand National and GNX. Some versions of that engine could put out serious power, and you can still get that kind of power and then some out of a modified modern-day turbocharged 231 3800 series II or III. But sometimes a simple low-cost V8 gets the job done well enough without breaking the bank.

Alexvrb:

When you can find a turbo 4 cylinder in a production car that gets worse or even equal mileage to the G8, I'll buy the G8. But you won't, because I just went through a list of EVERY production 4 cylinder (took long enough) and not a single one gets that bad of mileage.

Secondly, take a 4.8L DOHC V8 with 360 hp and a 6L push-rod V8 with 360hp and 6L and which one will get worse mileage?

I've been putting together LS series V8 engines since before I could drive, and with the exception of in the Corvette C6 (due to light weight and knife-like aero dynamics) they are incredibly thirsty engines, way more thirsty than my 08 550i. As far as less expensive fuel, I haven't checked, but someone here just mentioned that both engines need premium fuel. 91 octane is universally expense in the States.

Lastly, I've now driven this car, twice. Once in Australia as the Holden Commodore, once in the Middle East as the Chevrolet Caprice. It handles like slop (other cars in its weight are much better), neither one (although this could just be a bad batch or something) had firm shifting in the automatic, and it is actually really thirsty. If you drive it any other way than as mundanely as possible (slow acceleration, easy acceleration to highway speeds), its fuel economy doesn't reach the EPA numbers. When taking it down Carpentaria Highway, the Commodore was absolutely lousy, I averaged (this was at steady speed) 19 mpg.

Well thats enough for my rants, btw, the Gunbarrel Highway is loads of fun with anyone that has the guts and a old Land Rover. Just bring some damn water, god I forgot the damn water.

Find me a turbo 4 that makes 362hp and 385 ft-lb of torque on 87 octane without direct injection. The 4 cylinder engines have great gas millage, no argument there. The problem is when you run them into the boost, millage goes down. An extreme example of this is the box trucks I drive. Keep them out of the boost and your making 10 mpg, in the boost its 6 mpg. More air=more fuel.

The LS460 engine has direct injection, give that to the L76 and you will be over 400 hp and 400 ft-lb of torque. Tune it to run on premium like the LS460, and it will make LS2 numbers. So if we tune it to run premium, and add direct injection, it will be around 450 hp. The G8 0-60 is "Just above 5 seconds." compared to the 5.4 of the LS460. It also makes the same gas millage with a 6 speed vs an 8 speed and again, no direct injection. Seems to me like the G8 is stacking up well against the LS460 performance number wise, as laughable as it is comparing a $62,000 car to a $30,000 car.

If you know about the LS series engines, then you would know about the L92 heads with an L76 intake on an LS2 with a cam. Very cheap power. The L76 is that engine, minus the cam and a tune. That means even cheaper power. Looks like the L76 isn't as bad as some would make it out to be.

The 6L Gen IV motor is a great motor. Im sure they de-tuned it for gas mileage and insurance reasons. I would imagine it has VVT, which will improve gas mileage too.
Its the same engine design as the corvette/silverado and/or any other small block GM product. (Late model obviously) Its very easy to make 500+ horsepower with those engines, im sure GM just had other goals than power with this engine in this car. IMO they should have gone with the 5.3L.
http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles/ccrp_0705_chevrolet_ls2_l92_cylinder_heads/index.html

The amount of speculation and misinformation in this thread makes my head spin.

The L76 in the G8 has active fuel mgmt (Displacement on Demand) and runs on 87 octane.

The G8 receives the FE2 suspension which is equal to the Commodore SS in Aus. (not sure about the Brazilian bound cars)

The GXP version will have a 6 speed manual available and will most likely come with the LS3 engine.

If anyone has a open mind I'd suggest you start by reading some of the press reviews. Its getting a nice reception by most of the press.

I won't get in to the HP/liter debate but I will say for reliability, endurance and everyday performance I'll take a simple OHV 2 valve pushrod over a multi valve overhead cam engine any day. I'm not a big fan of revving my engine to 7000 RPM to make power but thats just me.

People, Radkon is correct. This is a well reviewed car that has not got the Holden SS-V or HSV body treatments.

Check out a red HSV Clubsport and tell me that looks crap!

They are cheap and VERY tunable if anyone knows even a micron about these engines.

THey handle well on the street and the club sport is just ONE SECOND off the pace of a Porche Boxter S and an Evo X around a tight challenging racetrack.

Did I mention it's cheap, can tow boats, caravans, lugg 5 large (US?) adults around and pulls a 13.7 on the quarter mile?

So what crap arse car are you going to pitch me that could POSSIBLY do this for the money and be able to drag it off without a 7000rpm jackstand takeoff?

Miles per gallon...dudes it's a 6 litre engine? If you are complaining DON'T buy and go hug your Prius.

Don't even both debating this with me...go read the reviews, look at the HSV pics...then find me a car that can compete for the money...just bring that boat and 4 mates in the same car for the comparison!!