Obviously the GM leadership read my piece and thought better of continuing the Pontiac line. The only unfortunate part is that apparently the G8 GXP is a good car. They finally built something good, but it’s too late.

The story of the fall of the US auto industry is ultimately going to be a languishing thing for later generations to read about. The fact that it drug on for so long as a limping, wounded version of its former self will likely shock them.

In the meantime, I’m going to basque in the glory of being a tremendously influential blogger who can kill off a multi-national brand.

The interior was pretty basic, but standard for the class. Cloth and plastic all over. The engine had torque though it felt like it was in a much higher RPM range than the Beta II in my Elantra. That’s one thing I didn’t like that much. I’m a fan of lower-end torque because during day-to day driving, most drivers don’t end up that high up in the RPM range. The fuel gauge spanned 3/4 of a circle. While it doesn’t really seem like it should matter, it certainly gave the impression of poor mileage. Even the briefest of drives seemed to move the needle. I doubt it was anywhere near as bad as my eyes told me. The Kilometer count and rough estimate of fuel I put in set the fuel consumption somewhere in and around the 10 L / 100 km range. That’s about the same as I get with my Elantra, though I do much more city driving with my car than I did with the G5.

Ride quality was a mixed bag. It was nice and firm at highway speeds, offering some fairly predictable lane changes, but upon accelerating hard from a stop, or through a corner, it felt more like a bucking bronco than a sporty little car. It wasn’t out of control, but it was beyond what most would describe as comfortable. The low profile tires helped when you were at speed, but wow, hit a pothole and your teeth fillings would rattle.

Fit of body panels and overall design of those same body panels was poor for today’s standards. Sure you can get away with this lack of thought thirty years ago, but in today’s market, you’re killing yourself. So there’s a few spots where the panels just don’t seem to come together properly. They were just too far apart. Then there’s the crinkles. Seriously, how can you show sheet metal like this? I have no doubt that there are crinkles like this on my Hyundai, but there’s one major difference. You can’t see them. In case GM isn’t aware, you can hide these things with the plastic trim that’s hiding most of the seams. In the G5’s case, the trim just seems to fell short leaving the crinkles. Now this isn’t an assembly issue, it’s a fundamental design flaw.

So was there anything good about the car? Well it was a car. It worked, got us to where we needed to be. The only true problem with it is its competition. The G5 is simply not up to the task of competing with the other vehicles in its class. If perfect information was available and consumers would make educated decisions, I have a hard time believing they could really sell any of these things.

I’m not a market expert. I’m just a consumer, and GM is just a company dying due to lack of connection with the consumer. So you can take what you want from this review.

The bright side of my white knuckle driving on the freshly snowed upon roads was that I received great praise for my winter driving skills from my passenger. To a Canadian, that’s a very big compliment. On the downside, I had to demonstrate that I could drive in conditions that many people don’t do so well in. That’s not a lot of fun, no matter how good a driver you may think you are.

But on Saturday morning came relief from the gripping fear that is snowy/icy roads on all seasons. I managed to get a fresh set of snow tires on the car. I was floored at the immediate difference. Usually I have them on early-ish and I don’t notice any dramatic change, I just maintain good grip through the seasons. But this time! Wow! Like night and day. I don’t even know what to compare it to. Perhaps the nearest analogy is comparing walking across a skating rink on shoes as compared to getting a good set of skates on your feet and having a pleasant (controlled) skate.

Normally at this point, I would normally offer my vote of encouragement for anyone who doesn’t have snows on yet and lives in a winter climate to get some on now. However, I don’t think that I need to bother because anyone who doesn’t have snows on and is driving in snow is already getting plenty of head’s up from mother nature. I don’t think anything I say will make much of a difference.

I’m in the market for a newer car. Our 1999 Elantra has been treating us very well, but she’s showing a couple of rust spots. Rust tends to be like an iceberg where you only see 10% of it, the rest is hidden. Even still the rust alone isn’t a big deal. The added factor is that we’ve had some changes in our lives and I need something that I feel more confident in. We’re about to break 200K km on the car and that starts to bring it into slightly more unpredictable territory for me. Combine that with the fact that we only have one car and travel has become a far more vital part of our lives and it all points to a newer car.

I really like my Elantra and all the reviews indicate that the later models are even better than the 1999 model. So I’m leaning very heavily into buying another. That’s where the homework really begins. Now I need to find out what we can afford, what options are we want (A/C is a necessity for us now) and what model year those factors will steer us into. I began shopping around just to see what was out there. There are lots of 2003s available but far fewer in later years which is where I’m hoping to end up. One ad did stick out at me though. It was a one year old Elantra with low kilometres. Just one problem. The price!

If you check the ad, you’ll see that it may seem fairly innocuous until you start price comparing. So where would I price compare a lightly used 2007? How about with Hyundai themselves with a brand new 2008? Yep, that’s right. Lightly used 2007, $25000 + sales taxes at the DMV or brand spanking new, top of the line 2008 Elantra (which is a slightly improved model over the 2007) for $24540 + taxes at the dealership. Now I’m not 100% sure if there are tax savings to be had on the 2007 because I’m not that well versed in the details of used car taxes vs new car taxes, but surely it such a gap that would make the ‘07 a sensible buy? If you want to dig further into the question, the ‘07 is a 5 speed which means it’s standard. The top of the line ‘08 is an automatic. The top of the line standard transmission car for 2008 ends up with a price tag of $22340 + tax.

So that’s where homework can demonstrate its importance. If you were considering a lightly used 2007 Elantra, you could approach this particular ad in one of two ways. You could walk away because you feel the seller has unreasonable expectations or you can approach the seller with what you feel is a fair offer and have facts to back up that position.

I drive a 1999 Hyundai Elantra. Yes, I know. You’re wondering how I managed to get my hands on such a sweet set of wheels. Well I’ll tell you, it wasn’t easy and I feel lucky.

The car’s been a pretty solid car overall. It’s quite reasonable on insurance costs, though I think we need to compare car insurance rates again this November to see if we can do better than what we have.

There’s a lot of reliability in this car. But it’s not just about reliability. It has a sweet am/fm cassette deck that lets me listen to those awesome songs from the 70s that nobody likes on Q104. The seats are adjustable both forward and backwards.

There are also some great speed streaks and simples along the sides. The streaks are etched into the clear coat to help the aerodynamics of the vehicle along with the speed dimples. The dimples are formed when the specially designed doors receive pressure from other people’s doors in parking lots. They’re designed to increase as time wears on so as you lose horsepower, the aerodynamics improve to maintain your fuel mileage.

My favourite part of our car though is that it came without loans. That was a big deal for us. Yeah we bought an older car, it looked a little rough around the edges and it had a lot of kilometres on it, but it was paid for. That was the best feature of all

Unfortunately late Sunday we heard a strange sound from the car, something like running over a small branch and it getting kicked up under the car, but there was no branch to be seen. I pulled over, had a quick look underneath, saw no obvious damage in the suspension so I drove off. On Monday morning I thought to check the engine and noticed that the alternator belt had split in half. Exactly in half. Leaving half of the alternator belt perfectly intact and seemed to function well enough.

Given that Monday was a holiday, a garage wasn’t a really an option. So we figured we’d give it a try and see how things went. We made it all the way to the Cobequid Pass (about 150km away from home) and I saw that the clock on my dash had dimmed to near nothing. I knew that I’d lost the remaining half of the alternator belt so I turned off anything that was on, radio, lights (it was the middle of the day), etc… There was an exit near us and we made it off the highway. We thought it wouldn’t be too bad as we pulled up near a garage, but as it turned out that garage was closed and for sale. With nothing else in sight, we tried to call CAA. My cell phone for one reason or another wasn’t allowed to use the network that it was connecting to, so a very, very friendly Roger’s operator who patched us through.

CAA picked us up and brought the car in to the Canadian Tire in Bedford and we were able to get home. The car was fixed this morning and is running shockingly better with a working alternator belt.

Moral of the story, keep an eye on your belts, sometimes they squeak a lot before they give up, sometimes they just give up. CAA is like insurance. It’s not worth it until you need it, then it’s the most valuable thing you can have. We were out in the middle of nowhere and knew who to call. That’s a comforting feeling.