Don't you worry about the bed capacity. It looks plenty big enough to hold all the crushed Bud cans you can aim at it.

Sweet

Holden has been building great RWD V8 powered sedans & utes (truck from sedan body) for years. Ford even has some sophisticated RWD V8 sedans with independent suspension in Australia. The General & FoMoCo just fuck us with inferior products. Wake up America, and quit buying the crap.

I love it.

I also bet it falls into the shadow of the SSR on sales volume.

Ponchomino, so shiny and new . . .

Anyone know where I can get an old Scooby Brat for the LeMons?

@CafeRacer1200: What about Foster's cans. They are bigger.

Haha! Look at the interior shots! Oh-Shit handles on the center console for the car with no weight on the drive-wheels!

Congratulations U.S!

I awe you.....and Australians....and South African...

You guys should have brought some old El Camino emblems from a scrap yard and used some JB Weld to slap them on this car when nobody was looking. If I was there, I would create a distraction for ya.

No curvy Cyber-Chick etched in the back window = FAIL!

@wookie1901:
Bigger cans lead to worse aim.

Overheard from the direction of the Chevy booth; "Dude, that used to be my girl!"

There seems to be a rowing-like stick missing from the center console,

AND THERE'S A FOOT PEDAL MISSING! How'd they get it out on stage like that?

@ash78: Not if I buy 50,000 of them.

Step 1: Collect Underpants
Step 2: ?
Step 3: Buy 50,000 Pontiac G8 El Caminos

This thing is going to fail BIG TIME.

It will be priced too high and have too much of an emphasis on performance.

GM fails to look back at the original El Camino and figured out what it did, who bought it, and how much people paid.

Idiots = GM

^ Are we getting posts from AutoBl*g now? ^

There is absolutey nothing right about that.

What kind of market research was done to show that America needs another El Camino? Dinosaurs died for a reason, as did the Trar (truck/car).

First BMW decides the US doesn't like hatchbacks and refuses us the 1-Series hatch, and Pontiac decides that rednecks need another car they can carry their dead deer in.

Great.

@CafeRacer1200: But the bigger cans will fill up the bed faster, so you will not have to drink as many. Which is good, because Foster's is far from the tastiest beer I can think of.

@TPSreports: I doubt they are going for volume on this one. Bubba isn't gonna cross shop a Tacoma, Colorado (is it me or is that a dumbestass name for a vehicle) and a ElGeeate. I am still holding out hope that Ford will get the "me too's" and bring the Falcon Ute over...SPV version of course. Let the muscle-truck wars begin! All we need is a Magnum-page from Chryco.

...I mean FPV. Wrong lettew.

I'm in agreement with TPSreports. Who is this car going to be marketed to? High school kids? I'm barely out of high school myself and I wouldn't want one. You get two seats and the opportunity to look like a fucktard in a truckcar. Seems like its trying to do 2 things well, while succeeding at none.

I want to know:
1. Towing capacity
2. Payload

@ash78: My thoughts exactly!
As nice as it is, there aren't enough mullet heads around to remotely support any sort of sales volume.

@Lounatic: But Ford already has a muscle truck, its called the Lightning.

Id much rather see the coupe60 reach our shores than this "muscle truck".

@TPSreports: I suspect that you're right. I really want to hope you aren't, it'd be nice. Look at how low to the ground it is it's clear to me this is not the El Camino my father has rusting out front of his house.

@Danio3834: nice!

Based off the 1959 Pontiac prototype, Should it be called El'Catalina?

@keelay: The coupe60 wont come here. Pontiac wont bring it for sure and Chevy wont want any competition for the holy Vette. Now a modern Buick GNX would be a welcome change. As for the Lightning, they haven't made it in 3 years? I think a Falcon ute or a tamer G8 st (as a GMC) would be good for the compact truck customer and get rid of that fugly Canyon.

How about callin it the El Camullet?

Whatever they call it the car has a killer profile.

I wonder what the curb weight is.

@MattP:

Answers:

1. Hauls ass

2. You'll have to pay a load to buy one

You know, thinking about that second one; I guess sperm banks have a pay-load policy don't they?

I have a car and a truck, I love them both. To me this is perfect for what I normally use both for. Add the hotrod factor and its a double sell.

Is very ugly, People who miss the Monte Carlo will like it. Looking forward to the special graphic tape packages.

It needs an optional set of seats for the bed.

@keelay: It's discontinued. The Subie Baja is gone too.

Since the big trend in US trucks is the crewcab, I'm shocked they didn't offer the 4-door first. I know the Camino purists might have cried foul.

But apart from contractors, I can't think of any truck buyer who has gone with a regular cab in the past 5 years. So what you have here is the definition of limited market: a hot rod combined with a regular cab p/u.

It's about damned time this was introduced to the NA continent!

When my wife took me on a 30 day tour of Australia/NZ three years ago, the first thing I noticed about the vehicles is how many cool ute's there are. Then I thought, "why in the hell aren't these sold in the US?!?! They have all the truck capability 85% of pickup owners in the US actually need, get better MPG, handle better, are nicer, etc..."

Wait, that's applying logic to the US consumer. My bad.

I hope they plan to bring over the sedan versions, too, as they're way less uglier than that Subaru Avalanche thing.

The problem I see with selling this here is they won't be able to brag on towing capacity or payload capacity, neither of which are important to the target consumer, but not not have bragging rights....

I'd wager it can tow 3K lbs...maybe 5K, but start socking away transmission rebuild money now,, with a total payload of 900 lbs.

I have no idea who is going to buy this but I love it.

---SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT---
I'm addressing future comments.

Why isn't it named the Chevy El Camino? GM already played the nostalgia game with a 400HP coupe named the GTO and the Monaro could never live upto that name. The same exact thing would have happened if the G8 ST was named the Chevy El Camino. Plus GM is trying to get away from blatant badge engineering.

Why isn't it a GMC? GMC is getting a 4door version of the UTE. It's focus is more on towing/payload/comfort than performance which makes perfect sense for the brand.

Who's going to buy the UTE? GM knows this is a niche vehicle. The beauty of the G8 ST is all the cost to bring it over to the United States were payed for with the G8. It's costing GM nothing to bring the G8 ST along with the G8. GM is only looking to sell 6,000-10,000 G8 ST's which is very realistic. This vehicle isn't for everyone, but I know there's 6,000-10,000 people who have always had a soft spot for the El Camino/Ranchero and think the idea of a sport car with a bed is pretty neat. Plus, there will be nothing like this one the road. If it doesn't work out, then it cost GM nothing.

@seethurya: If they sell all 10,000 of them (to me) would that then be considered a "success"?

That thing is going to sell like a hot cake.

@carloscuderia: That thing IS a hot cake!

It seems to me that the truck part, AKA bed, on the G8 ute is bigger and more truck like than the rear of, say, a 1976 El Camino.
The rear view is a bit broad and less attractive than it could be.
But it probably can hold a lot more beer cans than a '76 'mino.

The front is so ugly that it's almost impossible to believe. Seriously, it looks like they took the Aztek and smooshed it down.

Must.. control... urge to grow.. mullet...

For the love of God make a GXP model in ORANGE.

dammit all the mullet comments have been made.

Drop springs, fatter meat in the back, and a catback.
Glorious.