The GTO in the name of today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Pontiac stands for Gran Turismo Omolgato, but a more familiar eponym is goat. Let’s see if this muscle-laden coupe’s price makes up for its somewhat barnyard appearance.
In terms of physics, the concept of ‘Work’ is generally attributed to the French mechanical engineer and scientist, Gaspard-Gustave de Coriolis who first coined the term in his book, Calcul de l’Effet des Machines.
Coriolis attributed Work to the force applied to move an object. Contrastingly, we attribute work to value, and pretty honestly, when it comes to fixing up cars for sale, we tend not to value that work all that very much.
Consider yesterday’s 1991 BMW 318is for example. That car represented years worth of work to bring it to its present lust-worthy shape. Did that sway many of you? To quote the always breviloquent Samual L. Jackson, “Aww hell no.”
Nope, a $12,000 price was deemed too high by fully 65 percent of you, dunning both seller and his blood, sweat and tears to a Crack Pipe loss. That’s too bad, but I think we all still appreciate the work that went into that awesome little Bimmer.
Okay, enough of cars that have had work done, today let’s look at one that could stand some attention here and there. And, maybe over there.
This 2006 Pontiac GTO looks to be a solid foundation for whatever you want to do, whether that be smoking the rear tires, fulfilling your kinky Aussie fetish, or just checking blue car in the driveway off your bucket list.
As you’re most likely aware, the GTO was based on the Australian Holden Monaro and brought back both the hallowed Gran Turismo Omolgato name (originally lifted from Ferrari) and exciting rear-wheel drive performance to the Pontiac brand. We’ll just discount the whole Pontiac dying just a few years later issue since the two are probably unrelated. Probably.
The GTO certainly had the chops. Under the hood was GM’s powerhouse V8 and that could be matched to either a four-speed automatic, or more appropriately, a six cog manual.
Being an ’06, this GTO brings the more powerful (400 BHP) LS2 V8 and that’s backed up by three pedals and a joy stick, just the way we like ‘em.
The car comes in Impulse Blue Metallic over a black leather interior and it’s in that dead cow shrine where things look a little worse for wear. It’s not the leather itself, which seems to be in decent shape. The surrounding plastics and tactile surfaces seem to be holding up their end of the bargain as well.
The problem is with the threads that are holding everything together. They’re all splitting like John Goodman’s skinny jeans. That’s evident on the shoulder bolster of the driver’s seat, and on the headrests in back which, through the back window, look like some sort of character out of The Nightmare Before Christmas. The passenger seat has also lost its back cap and looks like it was just rolled out of surgery as a result.
This all serves to make the interior look a bit tacky. It’s not a fatal flaw, just something to be addressed, preferably by a decent car tailor.
The rest of the car looks worn in but hopefully not worn out. There’s a substantial 184,000 miles on the clock and while the seller says the car passed California’s biannual smog test this year, he gives no mention of any service undertaken. How much of the clutch is left? How about the shocks?
Meh, I guess we’ll have to let the pictures do the talking. The engine bay seems a mad mix of good and bad. Overall it’s pretty clean in there. There are some issues, however. One plastic rocker cover cover has been stripped of its silver paint by sloppy oil refills and could stand to be replaced if that kind of thing bothers you.
The battery seems to have had something bad happen to its positive terminal cap as well. Did rats gnaw on it? Was its melted due to a short? Who knows?
Across the room a Volant intake and air cleaner sits, and I for one have to say, WTF is Volant? To be honest, just because I’ve never heard of them and am too lazy to even undertake a Web search to find out doesn’t mean they don’t make top-notch stuff.
A car cover comes with the car and takes up most of the boot when not in use. I don’t know why you’d want to mask the seemingly decent paint and honestly, not-bad aftermarket wheels. The last GTO wasn’t the model’s best looking edition, but its somewhat anonymous styling seems to have aged reasonably well.
This one is a two-owner ride, and it comes with a clear title and what the ad says is complete maintenance records. For all that, the seller is asking $6,000. Now, should you happen to be tracking GTO prices, you’ll no doubt note that is on the low end of the spectrum. If you followed the description in the ad, you might alternatively feel that to be on the high end of what you might pay for the car.
What do you think, is $6,000 a fair price for this GTO that’s splitting at the seams? Or, is that just too much too much cabbage for one goat to eat?
You decide!
Sacramento, CA Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to Joseph G. for the hookup!
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