The Pontiac G8 may be “too good to waste,” but the Australian-built sports sedan will die alongside the rest of the Pontiac brand later this year. General Motors vice chairman Bob Lutz had indicated the G8 would resurface in America as the Chevrolet Caprice, but the 77 year old executive now says the project is dead in the water.
It was less than a week ago that Lutz said the G8 was coming back as the Caprice, but the entire program has now been scrapped. Although Lutz still feels the G8 is “too good to waste”, the sedan’s low-volume and GM’s extreme cost cutting ultimately led to the Caprice’s demise.
“And therein lies the news: The G8 will not be a Caprice after all. I’d mentioned it, and said we were studying it, giving it a serious look, because a car like the G8 was just too good to waste,” Lutz said on GM’s corporate blog.
“That’s all still true. But I have to say that, with my new “marketing” hat on, upon further review and careful study, we simply cannot make a business case for such a program. Not in today’s market, in this economy, and with fuel regulations what they are and will be.”
Lutz says that the Caprice’s cancellation will not put a damper on GM’s performance or rear-wheel drive plans, but the loss of the G8 will put a major gap in GM’s lineup. The Cadillac CTS will carry on as GM’s lone rear-wheel drive sedan; with a base model CTS listing for thousands over a fully loaded G8 GT.
