Going Nowhere Fast: GM to Halt Production of the GTO

Little GTO, you’re really lookin’ fine

Three deuces and a four-speed and a 389....

Ronny & the Daytonas had it right back in 1964 when Pontiac’s GTO was king of the muscle cars.

But far from lookin’ fine, today’s GTO is lookin’ pretty dead.

General Motors Corp. reintroduced the GTO in December 2003 after a 30-year hiatus, but the struggling automaker said Tuesday that it would stop building the car in June.

Company executives say the $32,000 GTO is going away because redesigning it to meet federal air bag rules for 2007 is too expensive.

Pontiac’s classic muscle car was affectionately known as “the goat” when it was launched.

With the GTO’s three deuces -- a reference to the trio of two-barrel carburetors -- the original 389-cubic-inch, 360-horsepower model immortalized in song delivered just 10 miles per gallon around town and 17 mpg on the highway. That mileage dropped precipitously when a driver would, as the song urged, “turn it on, wind it up, blow it out GTO.”

The GTO’s high performance and rugged looks inspired other muscle cars. The vehicle lasted a decade before being dropped from GM’s roster in 1973 amid slumping sales. By then, federal emissions controls had sapped the GTO’s power and the oil crisis was spurring a national U-turn toward fuel-efficient, four-cylinder compacts from Japan.

Today’s GTO delivers more punch, 400 horsepower and better fuel economy at 16 mpg in the city and 21 on the highway.

But instead of the eye-catching muscular design that made the original GTO stand out, today’s version has the bland styling of a standard passenger car. And the latest GTO isn’t even made in the U.S. -- it’s a modified Australian car made by GM’s Holden subsidiary.

“It’s got the name and the performance but not the look, and in today’s market you need all three,” said Rebecca Lindland, auto industry analyst at Global Insight in Lexington, Mass.

Last year Pontiac sold 11,590 GTOs, off 15% from 2004. The pace slowed in January to 594 cars, down 34% year over year.

So the real reason GM is ending production may be that this GTO, unlike its predecessor, never scored a hit -- in showrooms or on Billboard’s top 10.