Pontiac says new GTO shows division's future

DETROIT, June 19 Reuters reported that General Motors Corp. is counting on a modern version of the Pontiac GTO sports car to help reverse a decline in sales of its Pontiac nameplate, whose luster has faded since the GTO's "muscle car" heyday in 1960s.

GM on Thursday released a sketch and more details about the Australian-built GTO, which is due to go on sale in the fall of 2003. The GTO, powered by a version of the Chevrolet Corvette's V8 engine making more than 300 horsepower, will carry a price tag between $30,000 and $35,000, said GTO marketing manager Bob Kraut.

GM aims to sell about 18,000 GTOs a year, a negligible number compared with the 2 million cars the company sells in the United States every year. But Kraut said Pontiac would use the GTO to get customers interested in the brand again, and that the GTO offered a preview of how future Pontiac models would look and drive.

"A lot of manufacturers put out 'halo' vehicles that are supposed to spread goodness and light to other vehicles in the showroom," Kraut said. "But there's nothing like them to buy.

"The GTO will represent what every Pontiac can be and will be in the future."

The new GTO would stand as one of a series of retro cars introduced by major automakers inspired by the success of Volkswagen's New Beetle. GM's Chervolet division re-introduced the Impala sedan in 1994, after a 25-year absence, while BMW began selling a redesigned Mini, a British classic, just this year in the U.S. and Japan.

Pontiac car sales fell 16 percent last year, as the division's aging lineup competed for buyers' attention against several new models from import automakers. Through May, Pontiac's car sales are down 4 percent, with only the midsize Grand Prix outselling its prior year's results.

In addition to the GTO, Pontiac will get a reworked Grand Prix in the first quarter of 2004, followed by a revamped version of the smaller Grand Am a year later. Kraut said performance would be a strong selling point of the new cars, and that the GTO's sleek styling would be reflected in the new models.

GM will build the engines for the GTO in North America, then ship them to Australia where the cars will be assembled. GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz chose the unusual arrangement because he wanted to revive the GTO as a rear-wheel-drive sports car, and GM's Australian division was already offering such a vehicle, the Holden Monaro.

Dave Himmelberg, the GTO's program engineering manager, said the changes required to make the Monaro into the GTO -- including converting it from right- to left-hand drive -- were challenging mostly for the 18-month deadline set by the company, about half the time such a project would usually take.

Himmelberg and Kraut said the exact output of the GTO's V8 had not been determined, and that it was not clear whether the car would face a federal "gas guzzler" tax for cars that fall below fuel economy targets.