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50 Cent reveals new Pontiac Ute


Music artist 50-Cent introduced the 2010 Pontiac G8 Sport Truck at the New York Auto Show today, as well as other new Pontiacs, in New York. The sport truck combines the handling of a performance coupe with the cargo capabilities of a light truck. It provides both car-like fuel economy and a 0-to-60 time of 5.4 seconds. It can also carry a payload of more than 1,074 pounds. The sport truck is expected to arrive in dealer showrooms in late 2009.

For more on the Pontiac Sport truck, read Kevin Hepworth's full story below..

Australia's “working man's sportscar” has cracked the biggest new car market in the world with the announcement that a Holden Ute will be sold by Pontiac in the US.

With General Motors already marketing the Commodore SS as the Pontiac G8, the news from New York that a ute will be added to the lineup from next year has sent local spirits soaring.

“It's not every day that a manufacturer announces a vehicle that creates a whole new segment in a market, but with this, the first ute export to North America in the form of the G8 sport truck, it is exactly what Pontiac is doing,” GM Holden's chairman and managing director Mark Reuss, said.

“The design, engineering and performance of the G8 sedan is already drawing praise from US media and Pontiac fans alike and we're confident that the sport truck and the GXP sedan will be as warmly received.”

Speculation on a North American export opportunity for the Aussie Ute first surfaced at the Detroit Motor Show in 2002.

GM product boss Bob Lutz, the man who later that year championed the Monaro into North America as the Pontiac GTO, suggested it as a replacement for the classic Chevrolet El Camino.

That plan never eventuated but with the free trade agreement removing the 20 per cent tariff which had hindered the Ute previously GM decided to green-light the Pontiac program.

“The FTA situation certainly made it viable,” GM Holden's John Lindsay said. “The numbers are not expected to be huge but it is great news for us.”

The G8 sport truck is based off the new V8 SS Ute with a similar specification level and the same revised front styling treatment on the G8 sedan.

Buick-Pontiac-GMC general manager, Jim Bunnell, said: “Pontiac has never shied away from offering segment-defining vehicles. There's simply nothing else like the G8 sport truck on the road today, and we definitely believe that there are customers who will be excited by its distinctive design, performance and cargo capabilities.”

The sport truck will be officially unveiled at the New York Motor Show on Wednesday and sitting alongside it will be a fourth Holden model wearing a Pontiac badge.

The new flagship, G8 GXP high performance sedan joins the G8 and G8 GT as Commodore-based Pontiacs.

The GXP sedan, production of which will start in Adelaide later this year, and the sport truck due next year means Holden's Elizabeth plant will be producing 45 models off six variants.

The G8 GXP utilises GM's new small-block LS3 6.2-litre V8 with 300kW and 546Nm. It will be the first Aussie-built Pontiac to offer both a six-speed manual and six-speed automatic gearbox.

 

“Two countries separated by a common language”.

It is unlikely that George Bernard Shaw was thinking of the classic Aussie Ute when he made his famous observation on America ... yet it is still relevant.

To North Americans a Ute is an indigenous native, the people for which the state of Utah is named.

That language barrier has prompted Pontiac to turn to the public in searching for a name for its new G8 sports truck, built off the Holden Ute and to be unveiled at the New York Motor Show on Wednesday.

Pontiac has opened a website on which suggestions for a suitable name for the segment-busting new car can be lodged.

Pontiac's marketing director, Craig Bierley, said the company was aware that the simple sport truck moniker did not fully describe the vehicle's ability to blur the lines between sports car and truck (the US description of any range of SUVs and pick-ups).