I can see this topic being debated as heated as the mpg posts.....
The car is classified as a performance car.
My thoughts..... This car has the power plant of the vets. Is the vet a touring car? Just because the GTO rides great, handles great, is built solid does not demean from the over all spectrum of the car's muscle status. Granted the car feels great while touring but the power plant is what gives it it's gnash. You don't need 400 HP to tour.
A sports car? Nooooooo. The solstice is a sports car. The GTO was to be the rebirth of the new age muscle car. If this was early 60's to mid 70's this car would be tearing the streets up, along with the traditional muscle cars of that era. Just because it handles and rides better than those cars of that era does not diminish from the fact that it is what it is... a performance car. If the technology of today was available for the muscles of the past, that technology would have been incorporated into the build.
The GTO rides like a touring car, and performs like a muscle car because it is a performance car.
I have ridden, and driven most of the past muscle cars and this GTO is right there with them in every category except ride. It is heads and tails over anything in the past in the performance / muscle category.
The space shuttle is still a space craft even though it is light years ahead of the ******'s and Gemini space crafts of the past. Just because it is newer, faster, rides better, and performs better than those of the past, doesn't make it any less than what it is,.....a space craft.
Call the GTO what ya want, when you combine performance, muscle, touring, and value, it's a fantastic car.