Automotive Trends

2004 Pontiac GTO cresting a hill on a beautiful Michigan autumn afternoon.

No Style But A Little Substance

     As I stated in my review of the Ford Mustang Mach 1, muscle cars are about two things and two things only. Style and power. Having one without the other is a recipe for poor sales and even poorer reviews from guys like us. General Motors however, was faced with the reality of not having an affordable sports car in its lineup after the retirement of the Camaro and Firebird models. It didn’t take Bob Lutz long to realize GM needed to offer some performance, especially in its so-called Driving Excitement division. The most time and cost-effective solution was to borrow the big coupe from Holden, a division of General Motors in the land Down Under. After all, the well-finished 2 + 2 was already powered by the Corvette’s small-block V8 and adapting the car to meet some of our stricter regulations would be rather easy. The green light was given to get the car badged as the GTO and on sale in America as soon as possible. Sounds good, right? Read more…

     With the introduction of the Holden Commodore Concept Coupe at the turn of the millennium, it looked as if the designers at Holden had found a way to breathe some new life into GM’s slowly aging RWD midsize platform.  By merely changing the roofline and stretching the front doors, the conservative sedan was transformed into an attractive coupe.  Read more…