2004 Pontiac GTO | Retro Review 

I've had mine since '07, and I too, can't bring myself to part with it. Such a nice car.

@@jamesborek8125 Bought my 04 new 18 years ago...still looks good. 78000 miles. Keeping it for my son. A sleeper of a car. Getting rarer to find now locally.

Oh yeah never ever get rid of it. If you wife bugs you, tell her where to go. So many guys dump their nice cars for some family hauler and kick themselves for the rest of their lives. Women are replaceable.

What state are you in

@@tientrinh943 I live in NYC. Garaging this car I no longer daily costs an arm and a leg.

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As an Australian, I wish my country still produced such cars.

Wasn't "foreign" that was the problem... it was the high price and Chevy engine and bland company car looks and small trunk...

If GM had advertised them plenty.. But GM only cares about Camaro n Corvette sales so th as that's why..

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GM should offer HSV GTS n Maloo with LSA V8 that would had better sales plus respect from Americans.

The car was fine. Between Cafe bullshit and lack of advertising, of course it could have done better.

They DID do well. The problem was the 'ss' wasn't even advertised, and it's a supremely retarded name for a car that held the caprice name in cop car form. The G8 sold amazingly well before GM pulled the plug to move to China. Even now, a V8 G8 will run you $20k. And the GXP is hitting $35k and up.

I've owned basically every sports/muscle car from the 90's up. The GTO had the most comfortable seats by far. Only one that comes close is the Challenger. The 6.0L was limited by the bacon strips GM called tires, but once off the line, it would run right with a bolt on LS1 Fbody or C5 corvette.

@@316Autos I've owned both and the challengers seats don't even come close to the GTOs. The Goat has Volvo level seats. I'm sure that is subjective though.

it destroyed the mustang when it came to stats gm had a golden egg and they blew it 3 times

@@LukeKraus360 GM has this really bad habit of not advertising sports cars, like at all. Most people don't even know that the 16+ Camaro is completely redesigned from the 09-15 Camaro. I am a car guy and I never knew what the Chevy SS was.

@@316Autos Very true. They barely advertised the 4th gen F-body and those were the sleek performance bargains of the planet. Basically some ads in 1993,1994 and 1998. The GTO and later Chevy SS were almost hidden.

GM has let down a lot of cars. Like the camaro...twice. speaking of... the 2010 camaro was made with a very high percentage of Australian parts because they were so much better. Not sure how much of that percentage changed after the 5th gen tho.

Also the Solstice and the Saturn Sky

Unfortunately imo GM has made so many corporate errors like this they now have one foot in the grave imo. And the current management will bury them altogether.

@@smiddysmidton8313 I believe so too. Even during the bailout, they should have kept pontiac and dropped the highest trims of the chevy versions, and made the pontiac cars as the highest trim version of those cars. And on top of that, drop the lower trims of GMC and the higher trims of chevy. So for instance you could get a base model silverado, an LT, but drop the LTZ and make that the Sierra, and then have the Sierra Denali. They sell a base model silverado AND a base model Sierra...which the base Sierra is like $3k more and has absolutely nothing over the base silverado. So who would even bother looking at one?

Don't forget they were going to bring the Ute to the US too as a Pontiac.

Australia doesn't have auto industry anymore

@@ricomartinez2869 Thanks Sherlock, this was from 2004, thus we did.

Nice !

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Yes, very proud! But we didn't really like the GTO nose or rear spoiler, and thr VY SS rims in 17" didnt work either.

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Holden was only killed off two years ago but it feels like ages.

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I wished I owned one, and wanted to buy one around 2004, but the look is why it flopped.

I swear people must only know those 2 makes of pontiac.

@@theforgottenorg I love the look, but I guess it’s because I’m more into import sport car styling than American muscle

You liked how people thought it was a Pos Grand Am/Prix? 🤔

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Yup!

@@aidaaliten8817 what are all those numbers you are throwing out for?

YES!

Drive it..

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@@P71ScrewHead I have 56K on it. I do drive it. Sparingly. 😁

@@stephenmontgomery5807 Sounds good man, kick that gas pedal..lol

@@stephenmontgomery5807 how much would it be to get rid of it? Or put it in auction?

I had an '05 Goat loved it. Unfortunately the 4L65E tranny was the weak spot. Had the dreaded no 2/3 shift.

You are correct about the Automatic transmission. Mine failed at 32,000 miles when the AT cooler which runs through the radiator leaked antifreeze in the transmission. Put in a new radiator and had the auto rebuilt by a professional and so far so good. Here in Scottsdale Arizona I like the 6.0 GTO because it looks so ordinary but it's like a USA/ Australian M3🙂

That's awesome. While not a DD, I have my '05 sitting around 56K. I'll never part with it. I have other fast cars and such, but that one is my special one. I know that IF I did part with it, I'd regret it haha. You probably already know this but, find an extra rear-end for the GTO on eBay before they're all gone. I had to replace mine, but more because it did sit for a bit.

​@@pjcornell9691 It's a classic for sure.

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@@aidaaliten8817 huh?

Wrong video bro.

@@MitchZero9 🤡 He's in the right place.

@@aidaaliten8817 Marked for spam.

At 19? Damn, how was that insurance?

@@thefuzzypickle8277 Insurance was stupid expensive! But cheaper than some other performance alternatives at the time. Like the 03 Cobra, Evo 8 to name a couple.

I’m sure that was a fun car for 19. My first car at 16 and had until I was 21 was a Volvo 850 GLT😂

Even though it's a rebadged Holden Monaro from Australia mate.

@Spectacular Spectacular Since it's made in Australia and it's technically a Holden Monaro and not a real GTO like the originals.

I'm in my early 40s. I remember wanting one of these when I was in my 20s, and I still do. Maybe one day

youre better off with the wrx I promise

@@jordansimon6070 I do love my WRX so much.

@@jordansimon6070 lol

@@renobloodworth5601 Head gasket

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how many hp does it put into the dyno?

@@americantrucking6843 its rated at 400 bhp with an ls2. Anywhere between a 15-20 percent drivetrain loss would be 350ish whp

I owned a 2005 - and the interior was really solid, very compariable to a Cadillac CTS. That's what I owned back to back to back, a 07 CTS -> 05 GTO -> 08 CTS (new model), and the GTO held up really well in ride and quality. As for handling, it was fine for a car like this, again, I'd compare it to the CTS, which isn't a bad thing if you know anything about the CTS, but I certainly wasn't going to think I was in my Corvette or later BMW M-sport. Overall I really liked the car, I just got bored of the styling, it was so bland, I just bored looking at it and got another CTS.

I loved the exterior, and I think it's aged nicely. Very undersated which was nice after so many years of fwd base model pontac family sedans that looked like they wanted to scream at you going 100mph but could only manage a polite "excuse me" as the struggled to hit 80. Just really cool to finally see a pontiac badge on something fast and clean. The later GTPs G8s G6 and the 05 bonnevilles all cleaned up really well too for that matter.

@@BigWheel. if you love this exterior, you probably think a Camry is too stylish for you. But I will agree it's aged well, it doesn't look as generic now as it did at the time. Again, I owned one, really liked it outside of the boring looks.

@@BigWheel. Its still a rebadged Holden Monaro from Australia mate

I own a 03 Cobra and want one of these someday. 6.0 and 6 speed. I agree the interior is very good compared to most back then.

Right! gm has a bad habit of fixing what's wrong with a car right at the end smh lol

A bland jelly bean.

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@@mikek5298 I doubt anything made in the USA at the time was any better

@@mikek5298 that’s why I liked it. Sleeper.

If you're looking to get one, find some facebook groups to join. Peeps sell decent ones there all the time.

My grandma has a 2004 marauder that has 8,500 miles and is mint. She is looking to sell it for the right price 😏

@@Dave-dh7rt Hope she gets it sold for the right price, that is one MEAN car, I was REALLY close to pulling the trigger on the cheap one I was looking at, despite it having a collapsed air suspension, high miles, and a rough paint job and interior. But I'm happy with my Ecoboost Lincoln MKS which is basically just a Taurus SHO in a tux.

@@man_on_wheelz And still as every bit as overpriced as a Tarus Sho.

@@CJColvin When it was new it was pretty expensive, yeah, especially for 10 less HP than the SHO but it is admittedly a really nice and nicely equipped car for a 2010, which I bought well used, so it didn't cost me all that much in comparison. However, unlike the SHO, my car is more of a sleeper since nothing about it's appearance screams "I can go from 0-60 in 5.4 seconds" unless you get the one with the Ecoboost appearance package which mine does not have.

I owned and '05 and the interior was excellent - and I've owned Caddy's and BMW's, so I know what a good interior is. Excellent, big, heavy, thick leather seats. The headunit is just a radio, so in today's world, you pull it out, put it in the closet and install a Carplay unit and you got something that feels very modern. The exterior is why I traded it in on a CTS back in 08, because it was just so boring looking, like a big Grand Am. It's aged decently, but mainly because all the Grand Am's have broken down and are in junkyards, so you don't see them everywhere. Had Pontiac made these look more interesting and special, they'd had sold a lot more. On the engine, I wouldn't say the 400hp 6.0 made it 'better' to drive, as a heavier engine pretty much always means worse handling (slightly in this case), but the extra 50hp and 50tq made a very noticeable difference once you were moving.

I bought a new GTO in '04, test drove the Mustang when it came out and was disappointed how little torque it made compared to the GTO.

@@IceTTom The ugliest Mustang ever made, now with a voided warranty!

@@joconnell3473 The New Edge is the ugliest Mustang? Have you seen that rebaged 1974 Pinto they tried to pass off as a Mustang?

@@hakeemsd70m but that was technically a Mustang II, I stick with my claim.

@@joconnell3473 Doesn't matter what they call it, it was still a Pinto coupe, a firecracker piece of sh!t. It was ugly, slow, and the Cobra II could probably be outran by a Country Squire of the same vintage.

You can get a nice used one for about that price, that's practically new. They've been stagnant in price for years thanks to other muscle cars coming out.

@@Lrules364 wdym? They have shot up in the past year or 2 lol

@@sling__sh0t909 the 04s go for high teens low twenties for low mileage ones

@@musclecarenjoyer I know I bought a 06 about 7/8 months ago

Except the 04 to 06 GTOs we're rebadged Holden Monaros from Australia not made by Pontiac like the old school GTOs were.

@@CJColvin dk why that matters so much. holden is gm. chevy is gm. pontiac is gm. therefore, gm still did their shit w this car and ofc failed the ppl w marketing

@charles synowiec Then why didn't it revived the Pontiac brand then?

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Yes, it kinda was. But I'm thankful they did it when they did. Because we had 2 full years of LS2 goodness before GM stupidly pulled the plug on their only muscle car at the time.

Here in Australia the Monaro initially came out with the 5.7 in 2001 so that is the reason why you only had the 5.7 for a year. It just happened that you got the GTO late in its first generation cycle.

Except the GTO was a rebadged Holden Monaro from Australia 🇦🇺

If GM would’ve made those GXP/GTPs, Monte Carlo SS, and all those 5.3/3.8sc fwd cars rear wheel drive they would have been so much more appreciated, they’re practically forgotten now and it’s tough to keep a damn transmission in them lmao

Must have been the only one they made with launch control, wow! Should have kept it, sounds extremely rare.

Never heard of one having adjustable reactive suspension either...

@@jdubskiwright2380 lol right? This guy's had some serious work done, must have been a fortune! *wink wink*

@@JohnMachado24 Nope maybe your's doesn't have it. I believe the 05 and 06 were a bit different from the one in this video. Mine preloaded its rear end whether I wanted it to or not. It's factory. If you have an 05 or 06 check your owners guide.

@@tingokuman I'm sorry but this is not a feature on any of the GTO's (04-06), it does not have that nor was an option. If anything you are feeling that from all the torque the car has, car just had a regular suspension like all the other muscle cars from this era.

I believe that mostly had to do with the importing of parts. Not something GM was proud of at the time.

Might have ended up being cheaper if it meant avoiding the gas guzzler tax

There's others. Challenger is a current example.

If all goes well, my 2005 Vibe will be good for another 10 years. 😁

We all do man. We did what we could to try to save the brand, but obams, his car czars, and 'new GM' all had their hands already in china's honey pot, and Pontiac was an American brand that stood for freedom. Can't have that when the NWO takes over with it's Chinese money.

No, you drive a Toyota Matrix

Could imagine Americans would be boosting all the v6 base model commodores with the buick v6 3.8L 😂

The Caprice was sold as a fleet vehicle at the same time they were selling the SS

Yet still a rebadged Holden Monaro from Australia mate

@@CJColvin Hey the Monaro was a damn good car.

@@hakeemsd70m We already know that but all I'm saying is this is a Holden Monaro from Australia 🇦🇺 not a real Pontiac GTO.

@@CJColvin according to my title it reads Pontiac gto and i'll refer to it as such, its not any less real then your ego. please continue to let everyone know what they already knew its a great car plagued with people that love to call it out particularly keyboard warriors. If you were a real stickler you would have informed people that it was built in Elizabeth Australia by holden but that would still be common knowledge as it's clearly stated on the door vin sticker and its a dead giveaway vins that start with a 6.

@@LouieRU-vid Whats the vin number between the Holden Monaro and GTO mate!!!!

YoloSwag no one really knew much about that Bonneville. It was huge with a million buttons on the dash but it was a sweet car nonetheless. Engine was nice but very unreliable. If I could find one with low miles I'd buy immediately

@@kevinharris1462 A 2004 Northstar should be way more reliable than earlier versions. 2004 is the year GM fixed the head bolt issue. I would do anything to find a clean 2004-05 Bonneville GXP. They are rare cars, as are all final-gen Bonnevilles, because GM only sold 12,000 Bonnevilles period from late 1999 (for the 2000 model year) to 2005.

@@hakeemsd70m I agree bro. I had a 04 GXP in Metallic Gray and I had no issues. Unfortunately they only let me keep it for a month and then I had to take it back and get something newer. Got a 07 Monte Carlo same color with only 16k miles in Jan 08

The only problem was that the Ford Crownvic and Mercury Grand Marquis were more reliable and robust than the Bonneville with the Northstar V8 and plus the Bonnevilles from the 2000s never looked as beautiful as the Bonnevilles from the 1960s.

I always thought it was odd that they put the Northstar in the Bonneville and the bigger, more powerfull LS4 in the smaller Grand Prix which they then paired with a weaker transaxle.

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That's the reason why I bought mines 😌

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They're actually a rebadged Holden Monaro from Australia mate and they're made in Australia as well.

@@CJColvin ok ok ok we get it it's a rebadged holden monaro from Australia smh

@@CJColvin Yessssss I knew this,, still a great rebadged product!! I wanted a blue one soo badly!! It had a 6.0 !! Thanks

@@ricardocorbie6803 Nice, just not as beautiful looking as the original (considering it isn't a real Pontiac).

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Well, thats how the Monaro was designed for its market (Australia) and its still gorgeous today. That platform and basic design goes back to 94~ish as a Opel/Vauxhall before Holden done their thing with it and released it as the VT Commodore in 97. Australia didn't like the GTO treatment either. It screwed the lines.

It reminds me of the 1990 Chevy Beretta on the outside.

The car that its based on, came out in 97, so no surprise that it looks like its from the 90's.

Yep you got it brother and not to mention that it nothing but a rebadged Holden Monaro from Australia as well (meaning not a real Pontiac nor a real GTO like the old GTOs were).

Actually, it does look better now. I did like the styling then too but when I see one now It just looks good next to all these boring ass cars and suv's lol

Agreed. Thank you Holden and Pontiac for making these outstanding cars!

Funny, I bought an '05 late that year and thought the same thing. Now when I look at pictures of my goat it looks better than ever. Funny how times and taste changes.

But not as cool as the Old school GTOs considering this is a rebadged Holden Monaro from Australia mate.

@@floridaman2528 Still looks bland and boring compared to the original GTOs.

@@CJColvin The 1966/67 GTO is pretty much unbeatable in the looks department IMO

@@rickhunter6513 Yep you got it brother.

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Crazy, I had an '05 PBM, modded the heck out of it but never had one issue over 72k miles. Who knows.

Same can be said for the European Opel and Vauxhall, both brands shared a lot with Buick in recent years and even Pontiac, Chevrolet and Cadillac in the past, selling them to the French PSA that same year was a suicide move, unless lower sales in Europe was GM's ultimate goal....sad. GM owned Opel since 1926 or 29 !

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They're rebadged Holdens from Australia mate

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Well if it had retro styling to match its performance then it would've sold servely well mate.

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that trans am was a piece of shit compared to the gto

@@orion5813 Why do you think that ?

business casual JNCOs

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How has reliability been over the 214k miles. I had mine for 72k miles and never had one issue.

@@floridaman2528 Over the years it has done regular maintenance, when it was closer to 200k had the transmission rebuilt, cracked radiator, have recently replaced worn out bushings, and recently put a new water pump in it, etc, but overall it has been super reliable! Biggest hassle was when it was new and no one really knew the suspension sucked stock, so took awhile to figure out how to dial that in, after multiple warn out tires. Overall, a solid LS car! Can be a little tough to track down some parts as they do not make them anymore also, such as the power steering rack, had to find a used one when it needed to be replaced.

nobody wanted them, now there worth a small fortune in low mileage.

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