When most people think “Pontiac GTO,” the first thing that comes to mind is the ’60s car, not today’s Nice Price or No Dice Aussie import reconstitution. Let’s see if this well-equipped coupe is priced to give a second thought.
I’ve never entertained the thought of owning a Toyota RAV4 like the extremely tidy 1996 edition we looked at yesterday, but were I to do so, I would name it RAVishing Ronald after a character in the 1951 Bugs Bunny cartoon, Bunny Hugged. At $5,880, our RAV4 earned some hugs and kisses in the comments. At the same time, it also took home an overwhelming 76 percent Nice Price win.
Gran Turismo Omologato, or, in English, Grand Touring Homologation, is a venerated term in automotive history. Before designating a car—either Ferrari or Pontiac—GTO was a class of racing rules set down by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) dictating specifications and production numbers for Group 3 Grand Touring competition.
Ferrari and Pontiac both released models with the GTO name in the 1960s, and each would later revive the nameplate after a long absence, Ferrari in the late 1980s with the 288 GTO and Pontiac in the mid-aughts with the Holden-derived GTO coupe. Today, we’re going to look at one of the latter.
This 2005 Pontiac GTO is dealer-offered and comes with just 87,284 miles on the clock. When new, one of the nits that was picked about the Aussie-built GTO was that its looks played an ill-prepared understudy to the drivetrain’s star-making performance.
That’s totally subjective, and in the case of this particular GTO, the bodywork is appropriately gussied up with a coat of Torrid Red paint and an original dealer-installed Sport Appearance package. That adds inset grilles, rocker extensions, and a larger wing out back. Underneath all that are the standard 17-inch five-spoke factory alloys that look to be free of any malarkey.
Things are a little weirder in the cabin. It’s appreciably stock, save for a phone mount on the dash that hopefully is suction-cupped on and a pair of black seat pads on the front buckets that—fingers crossed—aren’t hiding any wear or tears in the leather upholstery. The best guess is that they are there to prevent such marring, but it would have been a benefit to have removed those for the photoshoot.
Of course, the mechanicals are really important here, and this GTO has that covered. Under the hood is a 400-horsepower LS2 V8, a substantial upgrade over the 350-horse LS1 with which the GTO was saddled the prior year. Handily, that’s matched here with a Tremec six-speed manual, along with front brakes from the Corvette and a heftier driveshaft and axles. Contemporary tests pegged the manual GTO’s zero to sixty time at a few ticks under five seconds, with the quarter mile taking a little over 13 seconds to hit.
Per the ad, this GTO’s condition is “excellent” and notes that it comes with a clean title. The ad is heavy on the model’s specs and history but light on this particular car’s ownership record. Also, all of the photos in the ad look like they were taken on a potato, which isn’t doing the car or the dealer any favors, either. Fortunately, a quick VIN search doesn’t bring up any red flags or spidey sense of scams, so it warrants further investigation.
Part of the investigation involves this GTO’s $17,988 price. It’s hard to decide how much a chunk of change that represents in this topsy-turvy car market, but suffice it to say the manual makes this GTO a bit of a rare duck and, hence, more desirable to some.
What do you think? Is this row-yer-own GTO worth that $17,988 asking as it sits and is presented in the ad? Or is that too much money to homologate in its purchase?
You decide!
Springfield, Missouri, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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