2007 Pontiac G5

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From what I hear, it seems like the “all new” Pontiac G5 will be the same car as the Canadian Pursuit.
Which is a Cobalt with a new nose.
Just when Pontiac started having cool new cars, that didn’t look like their Chevy cousins. Liek the G6 or the Solstice.
I was hoping until a few days ago that the new G5 might actually be something new.

A very sad thing…

If Pontiac wanted a small coupe so badly. Why didn’t they look at this Opel Astra Coupe. Same platform as the Cobalt.
But it looks great, and it is not a Cobalt clone.
It is there, alreay design. Just put a Pontiac nose on this!
They even sell it is south America.

Something that could actually compete with the Civic SI and the Acura RSX.

It’s hard to imagine GM moving forward with bonehead decisions like this one…

Conversation 46 comments

  1. Pontiac shouldn’t use the Opel Astra, that should used for Saturn.
    Pontiac is a dissappointment to me because they are just using some rebadges.

  2. Pontiac shouldn’t use the Opel Astra, that should used for Saturn.
    Pontiac is a dissappointment to me because they are just using some rebadges.

  3. probably cause the opel you are showing is our next saturn ion from a few reports i read ! so pontiac could not use it !

  4. You know, all of you that are so disappointed about “badge Engineering” are forgetting something: This is all about styling, and the medium-to-small cars with the MOST GENERIC styling are also the biggest sellers– Camery, Tarus, Accord. If I were GM I wouldn’t even spend money re-styling the grill and tailights. Look what (much more profitable) Chrysler did with the Plymouth/Dodge NEON. MOST buyers of cheap transportation just don’t care anymore.

  5. Everyone is complaining about the “re-badging” Isnt it still re-badging with the Opel and say Saturn?

  6. Yeah, but at least we don’t get Opels in the US. Offering Opels as Saturns seems like a decent idea. On the flip side, we already have Cobalts here. Why tack on a different grill and try to pass it off as something completely different?

  7. It’s not even different like the sunfire/Cavilier were. It’s pretty much just the damn grill. Lazy.

  8. GM seems to be terminally stupid. More badge engineered crap instead of distict styles–I thought GM finally understood that badge engineering demeans brands.

    Why bother to buy a GM brand? Only reason to buy a GM vehicle is because of the deal, not the car.

    Fools!

  9. The G5 is supposed to the Solstice’s GXP engine so it will be slightly different than the Cobalt. I have heard the trim will get a bigger upgrade.

    Saturn is getting the Astra. In fact they will use Astra name instead of Evoke which they had planned. This is a good thing since the Redline version be based on the awesome rally car they make. The ION is now a dead car driving.

  10. Any idiot knows that Toyota is Quality and GM is Crap. Thats why GM has to resort to “Badge Engineering” instead of making UNIQUE products like Toyota ALWAYS does. And that’s why I traded my old Corolla in on a “uniquely Toyota” Matrix. ( Or was that the old Geo Prism… that I traded in on a Pontiac Vibe?) wait a minute… Who’s the idiot?

  11. well i think saturn is getting the astra as its next compact, i think the problem with this car is even though the cavalier and sunfire were the same car, you could tell them apart on the road and next to each other they at least were different to make sense of 2 names on the same car, but these are exactly alike and except the grill, and rear tail lights they are identical cars……, the cavalier and sunfire had different desighns

  12. Pointing out that the Toyota Corolla / Geo Prism / Chevy Nova were all the same care ( or that Toyota Matrix is just a re-badged Pontiac Vibe) is not necessarily “Toyota Bashing”. conservatively speaking; it could just as accurately be called “GM Bashing”– depending on your prejudice.

  13. It really isn’t as easy as putting a pontiac badge on an Opel product. Ofcourse, its easy to say if you are an ill-informed person who thinks they know what they’re talking about, but not so easy to do… North American Rules prevent the Astra being sold in the States without some pretty significant change. Thats why the Saturn won’t be just an Astra with a saturn badge.

  14. This is probably the new corolla. It’s a fact that the next Corolla is built on the cobalt platform. I hate Toyota’s, you can really feel the GM in them. By the way, the all-new Camry is an Impala..Fact!

  15. i just wanted to comment on the no toyota badge engineering….lets make a list, toyota matrix, lexus gx470, lexus lx470, every lexus for that matter, the toyota corolla, everybody except for a few companies badge engineer, so that has nothing to do with gm being crap. at least most of the time gm cars actually look different. now if you want to talk platform engineering different story. but at the same time the highlander, camry, avalon, es300, and rx, are on the same platform. so if u hate a brand and love a boring one thats your opinion…..

  16. I don’t like being brainwashed either. Toyotas are ok but there are so many other brands that are as good or better. VW, Mazda, Nissan, These boys and girls are building some great stuff. Toyotas reign is over and you will notice a decline in sales over the next three years. Every dog has it’s day, remember when Ford and GM looked indestructable. Think about it, Toyota’s premium price is not justified any longer, don’t be a sheep

  17. It’s hard for people with common sense to understand why GM and Ford dilute their brands with badge engineering. They are costing themselves a lot of engineering and design resources for very few marginal sales.

    However, it makes sense when you look at from their dealerships’ marketing perspective. Pontiac dealers must be screaming at GM for a sporty compact. They see it as a “hole” in their lineup. Also, without an entry-level offering, they lose out on the young customer who they expect will have brand-loyalty and graduate up to the loaded Grand Am one day.

    Of course, this thinking is nonsense. American OEMs and dealers seem to think all they have to do is get someone in the doors of the dealership and then they will chose their model from that dealer’s stable of vehicles. Maybe people shopped that way in the 1950’s, but not any more.

    I suppose they know this, but they make so much more money off the loan than the car that they continue.

    People are attracted to reputation, design, performance, and prestige (image). GM and Ford erode these qualties with each silly badge job.

  18. “I’ll give it 10 years that pontiac brand is gonna be gone, and 5 years for the buick….”

    you make me sick!
    you anti american bastard!

    pontiac and buick put out some of the best cars out there. period.
    i will use my own site to post pictures of my friends with their american cars. all happy campers.

  19. Someone said that VW was bulding better product than Toyota. ROFL…But I digress. Yes, their product is more entertaining to drive and look at than a Toyota, but will a new Jetta 2.5 last as long as a Camry? I seriously doubt it based on recent VWs(late 90s-present). At least the Jetta looks like a Toyota, now.

    Also, Mazda is better than Toyota, you say? Which Mazda are you talking about…the one who just recalled every single Mazda 5 wagon? Or the one that can’t be reccommended by Consumer Reports because of consumer-reported poor quality/reliability?

  20. So DoucheBag… how can you explain GM cutting Oldsmobile? If they can axe it, Pontiac and Buick are fair game.

  21. Tried and tried idea. Yeah, way to f*cking go GM. “Let’s take the Canadian pursuit and rebadge it that nobody will buy,so that way we can lose money and kill Pontiac.”

    What a bunch of pathetic retards.

  22. Dang, pontiac rebadging a car again. Out of all the cars why did they have to rebadge a useless Cobalt?

  23. I thought they were trying to pair down their brands and to focue them better. This is a step in the wrong direction. No reason to sell 3 of the same car to people.

    This is the bad king od badge engineering. VW is probably the best. Nobody would imagine a Audi TT, VW Jetta, Gold MKIV and New Beetle were all on the same platform. They look completely different. But this is just crap. Plain and simple.

  24. GM will always treat America like the red-headed step-child. Get used to it and buy something better. Let Canada enjoy its G5.

  25. Douchebag Jones will post pics of friends who are happy with their American cars?

    No doubt there are plenty of happy GM and Ford owners, but methinks Douchebag’s problem is finding friends.

  26. GM vehicles are shit shit shit shit.. fuck you DOUCHBAG JONES, and i hear you wife was fuckign a japanese guy between work and home.

  27. You know why Toyota does SO MUCH “Badge-engineering?” (aka; “platform sharing”) Because they watched GM go from just-another-car-maker (early 1900’s) to The Largest Car Manufacturer On Earth (consistantly for 60 years from 1948-2008) ONLY because of Sloans Geneus in Marketing (aka; “Badge Engineering”) In the Grocery business they call it “gaining shelf space”. He took “good/better/best” to a whole new level, that even NOW, has kept them at #1 in worldwide sales. It may be true that they’ve “stayed-with-what-works” a bit too long– but I think that even on that– the jury is still out. In a world where Business is incessently changeing and evolving, it’s pretty amazing that this simple concept has been so extremely sucessful for so very long. But of course, nothing lasts forever. And in ANY business — including the auto business — staying at #1 (in sales vol.) by staying with the SAME PHILOSOPHY FOR 60 years is ABSOLUTELY UNHEARD OF! You can hate Gm or love them, but you have to admit, they’ve accomplished something that no other auto company has ever accomplished (being #1 in sales) –and they’ve done it every year -continuously- for better than half a century. I think that’s pretty impressive. who else has done that? IBM? XEROX? Holiday Inn? Kmart? Poloroid? Nobody I can think of.

  28. GM has never had one genius working there. It consists of overweight, out-of-touch Fat Cats. Toyota is next on the chopping block

  29. I just googled toyota sludge, that guy I thought was an idiot was right, I apologize whoever you are..WOW, try it for yourself, I guess we shouldn’t prejudge. I never thought it possible that toyota had such a fiasco going on…they hid it well

  30. Does any Toyota fan not want to respond to the FACTS posted, obviously you uppity, brainwashed ladeedahs are stupified and silenced! It feels good, you Toyota jerks don’t ever make sense, you hide behind empty words like Quality,resale value, like no-one else can say those things, as far as I’m concerned,that’s false advertising

  31. I got it from a good source that the new Opel Corsa is also the new Corolla? Is that true? can anyone help with this?

  32. No Toyota has ever been based on a GM platform, and currently only the Vibe is based on a Toyota platform. The only reason Pontiac has a Vibe based on Toyota mechanicals is because GM and Toyota share a plant in California where they are built. Previously the ’80s Chevy Nova and ’90s Geo Prizm were built there, and Corollas have been built there since the ’80s. Chevy didn’t have a need for any more Geo product so they gave the production capacity to Pontiac to build a slightly restyled Matrix spin-off. They even export the Vibe back to Japan as a Toyota! My guess is that when the current-generation Corolla/Matrix is replaced, Toyota will buy the plant from financially starved GM outright and the Toyota-built GM car will be history.

  33. This is a toyota. Toyota trucks are based on a GM chassis. They also use Yamaha engines. What Toyota. They actually don’t even build cars. Except for subaru and daewoo

  34. Yes, just announced, Kirk and the GM gang are apparantly teaming to buy out Toyota. It will be renamed Goyotam. Watch for more.

  35. The Pursuit or G5 is actually a lot nicer than the cobalt and in fact isn’t as much of a rebadge as one would think. The interior has the same basic design, but the Pontiac has the red backlighting, the white gauges and a few other trim things that do help offset the similarities. The back end in the sedan is the same but the coupe has a unique back end. It is basically a rebadge but it hasn’t been hurting pontiac’s image or sales in Canada. In fact I usually see more Pursuits than Cobalts.

  36. Interesting comments by those who know some things and those who don`t….
    for all those people out there that say blanket statements like “toyota is quality“ and `GM is crap`, ponder the following:

    -Toyota`s quality is so good that they have completely removed the service bays and mechanics from all their dealerships

    I hope you will see the sarcasm…every automaker has their problems..that`s why there is warranty, mechanics, and service bays…for all manufacturers…

    great blog by the way…

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