Restyle the Holden VE Commodore? What is Pontiac (GM) Thinking?

Photo: Will Pontiac's Ugly Styling Beast Rear its Head Again?

News has leaked that Pontiac's upcoming "G8" RWD sedan will not keep the Commodore VE front end, but will instead have the styling of a Solstice from the A-pillar forward.

The Holden VE Commodore has a very techy/sharp look. The Solstice is more of a rounded homage to a 1950's Porsche.

Personally I hate the idea. GM Execs are no doubt worried about people who said that they didn't do enough in Detroit to change the former imported GTO from the Monaro. What they just don't seem to get is that the Monaro's bubbly 1990's styling was one of the reasons many people hated the look, NOT the fact that it was little changed from the Monaro itself.

For GM's sake, it had better blend well, and "Solstice Inspired" should not be an excuse for 1990's bubble styling. Personally I would have preferred the Commodore as-is, with a twin port grille. I hope GM can pull it off, but their restyling efforts of the past have been mixed at best (no Aztek comments, please), and the G6 GXP show car with the huge elongated nostrils that GM went ahead with despite lots of negative feedback (at least from sites like GMInsideNews when the concept sketches were shown) does not give me much hope.

I would buy a Commodore with a Pontiac grille. I would not buy a Frankenstein-styled G8 that looks like a hybrid of a current Grand Prix and a Solstice up front. Something tells me to expect the latter. See the photo of the G6 GXP above for an idea of what I'm talking about. Blech.

Hence, GM pushes me ever farther away from Pontiac and its products, and into the arms of "import" styling that I seem to like so much.