Gear Sports

At first glance, the G6 GTP convertible is a large coupe with a long and sleek profile, Pontiac grille and (thankfully) restrained character lines. At 70 mph, the interior sound level is slightly quieter than similar cars with retractable hardtops. Gaining access to the rear seat, however, can be a problem.

First you have to tilt and slide the front seat forward (fine) but that leaves the seatbelt stretched across the gap at waist level. Now you either have to duck under the roof and simultaneously limbo under the belt or detach the seatbelt from its holder/guide and step over it like a trip wire. Hmm. Might it be possible to incorporate the front seatbelt into the seat itself? Certainly, but that (and other suggestions to follow) would undoubtedly drive the price up from the G6 convertible’s very attractive sub-$30,000 MSRP.

Once there, two rear-seat passengers will enjoy over 34 inches of legroom and 36 inches of headroom. That’s a little tight, but dimensionally about the same as a current BMW 3 Series sedan which doesn’t seem to bother most buyers. Of course, lowering the top allows headroom to be limited only by the lowest parking garage or tree limb.

With the touch of a button on the windshield header, the multipanel roof folds and stows beneath a hard tonneau cover in about 30 seconds. This top system is supplied by the German company, Karmann, and we’ve sampled some similar systems on more expensive cars and the G6’s top operates as quickly and very quietly.

Once it is stowed, the G6 becomes a large four-place convertible — something a Porsche Carrera cabriolet or Jaguar XK convertible can’t honestly say. Luggage capacity, however, shrinks from an already tight 12.6 to a miniscule 2.2 cubic feet. All that folding metal has to go somewhere and with rear-seat accommodations an obvious priority, the trunk suffers.

In GTP trim, power comes from a cast-iron 3.9-liter V6 that earns an EPA rating of 18 mpg city/26 mpg highway. Its 227 horsepower and 235 pound-feet of torque are routed to the front wheels through the only transmission available in the convertible, a four-speed automatic.

Dynamically, the G6 GTP convertible is a modest performer and suffers from abundant torque steer under hard acceleration. Covering the dash to 60 mph in 8.4 seconds and the quarter-mile in 16-flat at just over 86 mph places it on the sporty side of similarly sized cars. At wide-open throttle, that placid interior sound level we mentioned earlier goes out the window though, and the 3.9-liter engine produces a much louder din than its peers.

For the record, the GTP convertible model has been discontinued for 2007 and the GT convertible with the sport package effectively replaces it with the same powertrain. Newly available in ‘07 will be a smaller, more sophisticated and more powerful 252-hp 3.6-liter V6 mated to a six-speed automatic, but this attractive, new combo will only be available in the GTP sedan and GTP coupe. Be that as it may, the one thing this G6 convertible doesn’t need is more power.

Leave a Reply