Located in Mount Vernon, OH / 43 miles away from Columbus, OH
This 2007 Pontiac G6 G6, has a GRAY exterior and an Ebony interior color. 164,212 miles. Stock Number MG1686A. No Accidents! OTHER NOTABLE FEATURES A...
No, our Pontiac G6 GT convertible is not on par with a $50,000 Infiniti G37, but as hardtop convertibles go there is not anything better even at twice the price. If you are looking for a low-cost used convertible, don't buy anything before you drive one of these!
We were looking for a retractable hard-top convertible under $15,000, mostly for my wife ;-).
Previously she'd owned a VW … Jetta, and we'd just sold her Infiniti G35xS Sedan. She (we) liked both cars, so we test drove the G37 and the EOS. We were underwhelmed with the EOS. We were very impressed with the G37 but not surprised because it is nearly identical to the G35. Then we found a 2008 G6 GT and figured 'what the heck, it's half the price of the G37 and it has the optional 3.9L six...let's drive it and see...'.
Wow..the G6 blows away the VW EOS on so many levels. The german-built Karmann retractable hard-top in the Pontiac is much more smooth and solid than VW's, and the Karmann top mechanism seems as good or better than the one in the G37. (Note, Pontiac and Karmann made some improvements to the retractable top mechanism for 2008, so I would try to find a 2008-2010 model). The V6 engines (especially the LZ9 3.9L) are, in a word, SATISFYING. The low end torque is great, the sound is mellow with just the right amount of rumble to the exhaust and the car is more than fast enough...but without ever feeling whiney or buzzy like the EOS. The front-drive G6 is not as fast or sporty feeling as the rear-wheel drive G37, but the G6 feels much more like the G37 than the EOS.
What I think is most surprising about the G6 is how 'German' it feels, but it turns out that the car really IS German -- it is based on GM's 'epsilon' platform that was designed in Germany by Opel. Other cars based on the the same platform are the Saab 9-3, Cadillac Catera, Opel Insignia and a whole bunch of other well regarded vehicles. Look up 'epsilon platform' on wikipedia for more details.
The G6 convertible was a joint project between Opel and Karmann and it is surprisingly well executed -- almost unbelievable considering the original prices for these cars were under $30,000.
The G6 GT has a gorgeous body, areal head-turner -- the EOS by comparison looks mundane and boring. In the end it was probably the design and visual appeal that hooked us.
One of the complaints about the G6 sedans and coupes that reviewers noted back in 2006/07 when these came out was the interior seemed 'plastic-ey', but except for the glove-compartment door, we don't share that impression in our GT Convertible. Twelve years and 80,000 miles later the interior of our car is quite beautiful with almost no rattles or buzzing. All of the controls, handles and levers are very high quality with great feel, especially the parking brake lever (VERY beefy and nice), radio/electronics/climate controls and the air-conditioning vents (these are easily the best and smoothest of any car we've owned). I rate all of these as equal or better than what we had in our up-scaled Infiniti G35xS, and also better than what we saw in the EOS. Ergonomics in the G6 are also uniformly excellent.
Another complaint was that the gussets and braces that Opel/Karmann added to the G6 coupe didn't go far enough in stiffening the chassis. Here I will agree, with the top down on a rough/bumpy road I find myself slowing down because the chassis flex is a little unnerving. Better than many convertibles, but I would have preferred the extra stiffness even if it would have added another 300lbs to the car's weight.
That said, the Karmann and Opel designed hardtop is an engineering marvel -- it stiffens the car to a surprising extent when the top is up, and then the G6 GT not only looks like a coupe, it 'feels' like a coupe. Very solid.
Here's a real bonus -- the eight-speaker 400w "Monsoon" audio system in the G6 GT is unbelievably great. It is substantially better than the optional Bose system that we had in our 2008 Infiniti G35xS, and is WAY better than the 2009 G37 convertible audio. The Monsoon audio system performs far beyond my expectations, especially for a convertible, which is a notoriously difficult problem for audio engineers to solve. The junk that was in the EOS wasn't even close and I'm not sure we could have 'fixed' it even if we'd spent $3,000 in aftermarket upgrades. One beef with the G6 audio system -- the big subwoofers in the doors cause some resonance vibrations that make the rearview mirrors get blurry when you have the bass cranked up...but as a former audio engineer I can probably fix that. Normal people don't listen as loud as I do so this might not bother you.
The bottom line is that we're surprisingly delighted with this car. Our only dilemma is what we are going to do with the extra $8,000 we didn't spend on the G37 convertible...