Bob Lutz Confirms Pontiac G8 Will Become Chevrolet Caprice

It didn’t take long for Bob Lutz to make his impact felt on the new General Motors just hours after announcing he would not retire as planned. Today’s big news involves the fate of the current Pontiac G8 following the elimination of the brand later this year. At first, the G8 was to suffer the same fate as the rest of Pontiac’s lineup, but this morning Lutz announced that the Holden-built G8 would be transferred over to the Chevrolet brand reviving the Caprice nameplate. The Holden Commodore is already sold as the Chevy Lumina in the Middle East, and now the rear-wheel drive sedan will remain on U.S. soil for a little bit longer graced with a bowtie on the grille. No timetable has been set for the Pontiac-to-Chevrolet conversion, but the Caprice will most likely go on sale next year as either a 2010 or 2011 model.

Against recent announcements that GM would no longer import the Commodore to the U.S., adding such a capable rear-wheel drive car to the Chevrolet lineup will add stiff competition to cars such as the 2010 Ford Taurus, Dodge Charger and Hyundai Genesis. Adding the Caprice to its lineup, Chevrolet’s revival of the historical nameplate would mark its first use since the full-size, rear-wheel drive sedan was canceled back in 1996. One reason for the G8’s stay of execution could be the car’s relative sales success compared to the Holden Monaro-based GTO coupe that preceded it. Over its only two model years (2008 and 2009), the Pontiac G8 sold just over 30,000 units consisting of the base V-6 model, the 6.0-liter G8 GT and the 6.2-liter G8 GXP.

One promising aspect of this announcement could be the fact that the powerful Pontiac G8 GXP has a chance to live on as a Caprice SS following the recent cancellation of the death of the front-wheel drive, V-8-powered Impala SS. The 2009 Pontiac G8 GXP will instantly become a collector’s classic as it only sold for a single model year, but a Caprice SS could carry on the car’s performance abilities thanks to a 6.2-liter V-8 that produces 415 horsepower and an equal amount of torque. As the only model to offer a manual transmission, the G8 GXP is a true enthusiast’s performance sedan.

While this news may be good for sport sedan enthusiasts, this announcement also leaves GM with an abundance of sedans in its lineup that could cause a cannibalization of sales across the different vehicles – one thing that plagued “Old GM” and that “New GM” is trying desperately to avoid. It is not clear whether the front-wheel drive Impala will stay in production with both the Malibu and the Caprice competing for big sedan sales, but considering the Impala’s sister car, the Buick LaCrosse, is moving from its current W-body platform assembled in Oshawa, Ontario to the Epsilon II platform assembled in Kansas City, Ks., the writing may already be on the wall. The Caprice could also replace the Impala in police department fleets to better compete with the Ford Crown Victoria and the Dodge Charger.

In other news, Lutz also said that the Cadillac CTS-V coupe is pretty much a sure thing, while the CTS wagon could also get its own V-series model. For Camaro fans, Lutz’s words may not carry so well as he all but confirmed that a V-8-powered Camaro Z28 will not see production. If the car had gone into production, the Camaro Z28 was rumored to be offering the same supercharged LSA V-8 as the current CTS-V sedan. Instead, Lutz hinted that future performance vehicles from GM may utilize either the company’s powerful 3.6-liter direct-injected V-6 engine found in the base Camaro and CTS sport sedan or 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-4 used in the Pontiac Solstice GXP and Chevrolet HHR SS.

In regards to Pontiac, the division will only offer a single model, the Vibe, for the 2010 model year, before being completely phased out. The run of 2010 Pontiac Vibes should be very short seeing as how GM plans to cancel the vehicle’s production at the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc (NUMMI) assembly plant by the end of next month. As we previously reported, the Toyota-GM joint venture will cease as GM’s share of the Fremont, Calif. plant was included among the assets of “Old GM” during the automaker’s bankruptcy proceedings. Following the 2010 Vibe, GM’s Pontiac division will be eliminated after 84 years n the market.

Update 7/20/2009: Lutz Puts Stake Into Reanimated Pontiac G8's Heart