fcsuper’s unofficial Pontiac G8 experience

Blossom Hill Road is a fairly long street that cuts through several areas of southern Santa Clara Valley. Usually, people see only one short stretch of the street, but I’m guessing most have rarely seen its entire length at one time nor in parts. Besides that, when seen in parts, it’s not a particular interesting street. Most of it is fairly straight. However, when driving its entire length at one time, it is actually very interesting. It ends at Freeway 101, crosses Freeway 85, cuts through south San Jose and Almaden, goes up the green and slightly overgrown Blossom Hill (from which its name comes) and starts up just north of Downtown Los Gatos. Quite a strange mix of sights.  It can also be a fun drive if Silver Creek Valley Road is included.

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Under warranty, I’ve now had one major issue and one minor issue handled. The minor issue was a scratch on the underside of the front bump cover that was likely put there during one of its test drives…so that doesn’t really count.

The major issue is with the transmission. Over time, my G8 GT developed a clunking when I would shift from reverse directly into drive. It was inconsistent. It was more pronounced when the car was cold started. Every once in awhile, the car would actually jerk forward so much that I had to get into the habit of pressing very tightly onto my brakes before moving into drive.

When I first reported the issue to my dealership at 6000 miles, the service dept said that there was no bulletin on the issue even though I did get the service manager to reproduce the issue. I didn’t make a stink at that time, though I prolly should’ve. The problem got worse from there. It got so bad, I couldn’t let anyone else drive it.

So, at about 8000 miles I had enough. I took it in. The dealership was claiming that they could not reproduce the problem to the degree I stated. In addition, they claimed that a bulletin from GM (just issued a month before) said that clunking transmission was “normal operation”. To me, this was not just operation, but safety (since the behavior of the car was actually dangerous). I insisted that the issue be addressed. I had to include the involvement of the general GM customer service department. After I insisted they keep the car and keep trying, the dealership was finally were able to reproduce the issue and finally realized that something needed to be done.

A lot of time was supposedly wasted because the GM technical service didn’t have the staff assigned to handle any issues in the NorCal region (something to do with the restructuring that was going on at the time). Finally, an engineer was assigned to the case and determined the issue was mechanical. The dealership followed Detroit’s instructions, replacing a bunch of parts deep inside the tranny.

All said, the dealership had my car for two weeks. The issue was much less obvious afterward. There is still some tendency for the tranny to engage a bit aggressively when going from reverse to drive, but at this point, that seems to fit the “normal operation” mentioned in the GM bulletin. At least I don’t have to be concerned with it jerking forward.

Now that the car is over its 10K mark, everything seems to have broken in.

The Aug 15 Meet and Ride for G8’s and GTO’s had a great turnout with about 15 cars along for the trip. The drive from San Jose to Half Moon Bay through highways 35, 9 and freeway 84 was a lot of fun, even if we did get caught behind the occational slow car. Lunch suck, but that didn’t spoil and otherwise great day!

This was a great ride through the hills on the way to Half Moon Bay.

The video speaks for itself!

We are meeting in Santa Clara, CA at the Winchester Shopping Center
at 11:00AM on Aug 15, 2009 (this Saturday). It’s an easy to get to location a couple a blocks off of Highway 880 or 280.

3137 Stevens Creek Blvd, Santa Clara, CA

We’ll do a quick cruise through Santana Row then head to Half Moon Bay. We got time to pick the destination. I’ll update this post when we pick a place. Here’s the preliminary path. (Thanks to Todd for helping set up the route).

Map: The Ride and Destination

We will be having lunch at:

Some where in the main area of Half Moon Bay, CA 94019

If you cannot make the ride itself, please still come out and meet us at the restaruant for lunch! So far, I’ll be making a reservation for 15, but more are welcome!!! They can seat up to 25 of us together.

See you guys there!

My wife and I took a relaxing road trip to Santa Barbara recently to beat the heat wave in Silicon Valley. The weather in Santa Barbara was cool in the 70’s, and the sun came out in the mid-afternoon. Meanwhile, back at home, some areas hit 100’s. Oh darn!

I guess we’d just suffer with this horrible weather in the Los Padres National Forest.

Or this unbearable sunshine in the San Luis Obispo Downtown.

Don’t get me started about lovely Pismo Beach!

Actually, Santa Barbara itself had a little over-cast in the mornings. Oh, the horror of it all.

I took a trip over to my cuzin’s birthday party in the San Joaquin Valley yesterday. On the way over, I spotted a modern GTO driving along the freeway. I gots a thumbs up from the driver before he exited.

Some have derided the Pontiac Sunfire, but it was actually a pretty good car.  I actually owned a Pontiac Sunfire at one point.  It was a shared car between me and my ex-fiance.  In my opinion, the Sunfire GT 2001 was the best looking of all the Pontiac Sunfires every made.  It was just enough pizazz, without too much flare.  It had the round parking lights on the rear; this was replaced with clean yet plain slits.  The headlights also didn’t look like a big grin that was on the 2003 model.

The car was a little underpowered, yet still fun to drive around. And yes, I had the red one just like the one imaged here. It was my ex’s choice.