I got to thinking the other day about how stupid GM has become, and wondering what new gimmick they'd come up with next to give their cars away, and drive down the value of the ones we own... and got to thinking once again how they've never marketed the GTO appropriately from day one.
Anyone who's ever driven a new GTO knows it's a much higher caliber car than the Mustang or even the Camaro/Firebirds that everyone wants to compare it to. So why didn't GM market it against an M6 instead of setting it in the back corner of a Pontiac lot?
Since I've been to Australia, which is where I fell in love with Holdens (and several other cars we can't get here), I have some idea what things cost there versus here... and I'd never checked to see what a GTO sells for there.
Just for the heck of it, I just went to the Holden and HSV sites to see if there were prices on them. First of all, from what I can see, the 2005 Pontiac GTO isn't an equivalent to a Holden Monaro, it's an equivalent of a Holden HSV GTO Coupe.
http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/action/modeloverview?modelid=12001
http://www.hsv.com.au/cars/vz/main.asp?link=main/gto.html
Base price for the Monaro is $60,490 AU, and base price for the GTO Coupe is $78,840 AU.
Using a conversion calculator on
http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html
$78,840 is equivalent to $60,115 US dollars.
Absolutely incredible that we can buy a car of that caliber for half price !!! I bet the Aussies would love to come here and take one home with them
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in my assumptions here.
Anyone who's ever driven a new GTO knows it's a much higher caliber car than the Mustang or even the Camaro/Firebirds that everyone wants to compare it to. So why didn't GM market it against an M6 instead of setting it in the back corner of a Pontiac lot?
Since I've been to Australia, which is where I fell in love with Holdens (and several other cars we can't get here), I have some idea what things cost there versus here... and I'd never checked to see what a GTO sells for there.
Just for the heck of it, I just went to the Holden and HSV sites to see if there were prices on them. First of all, from what I can see, the 2005 Pontiac GTO isn't an equivalent to a Holden Monaro, it's an equivalent of a Holden HSV GTO Coupe.
http://www.holden.com.au/www-holden/action/modeloverview?modelid=12001
http://www.hsv.com.au/cars/vz/main.asp?link=main/gto.html
Base price for the Monaro is $60,490 AU, and base price for the GTO Coupe is $78,840 AU.
Using a conversion calculator on
http://www.x-rates.com/calculator.html
$78,840 is equivalent to $60,115 US dollars.
Absolutely incredible that we can buy a car of that caliber for half price !!! I bet the Aussies would love to come here and take one home with them
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in my assumptions here.