Pontiac Names the G8 Sport Truck simply G8 ST

Thursday, August 14, 2008 | 7 comments » Categories | , , | Bookmark and Share

Much to the misfortune of our Jalop friends and despite a huge online competition (see here) that saw more than 18,000 different names being entered, GM decided to stick with the totally bland “G8 ST” where ST stands for -you guessed it- Sport Truck. “Frankly, we were blown away by both the volume and quality of the names that were submitted,” said Craig Bierley, BPG product marketing director for cars and crossovers. “G8 ST was one of the most popular suggestions, plus we noticed a far broader trend toward simple, easy-to-remember names.”

And what about the “El Camino” nameplate given the G8 ST’s resemblance to the classic Chevy? “We actually thought very long about El Camino,” said Bierley. “In the end, we felt it was more appropriate to honour the El Camino’s unique place as part of Chevy’s heritage and not use that nameplate on a Pontiac.” What do you think about Pontiac’s decision to “keep it simple”?


7 comments

  1. Anonymous // August 14, 2008  

    Not a cool name at all. They should have gone with 'Ute'. At least its a name. They probably thought hey Audi have got the TT, why don't we do ST? Hey! That's a good idea. Wankers.

  2. Anonymous // August 14, 2008  

    A 2 seater pickup, great idea GM ! Didn't Chevy have something like this ?? The SSR, and we all know how well that sold. The problem with GM is they keep coming out with vehicles that people don't want and this will be another. Have yet to see a G8 on the road.

  3. Andreybld // August 14, 2008  

    well i don't know in other cases, but to me, ST only reminds me of Ford and it's performance models
    it's kinda like naming the car GTI or something like that

  4. Anonymous // August 14, 2008  

    The best name I heard of was
    G8TR (TR stands for TRuck), which when pronounced out was GATOR,
    I could already see the cool Gator
    logo a la Rumblebee. Too bad they missed the boat on the name.

  5. Anonymous // August 14, 2008  

    and further, the name G8TR or "GATOR" also paid homage to the Aussies for keeping/recreating the UTE/el camino concept alive.

  6. Anonymous // August 14, 2008  

    you could say the chevy did something like this before and point to the SSR as a failure. YOu could also point to the El Camino. Was this a failure? Perhaps ou could argue in terms of the wrong product at the wrong time. But I blame GMs failures more in terms of poor quality products, poor taste, poor execution and bad pricing. Many who may like this vehicle may not be able to afford it if priced to high. Either way, GMs idea is proably that it'd be bought by the B-Boomers who had fond memories of the El Camino and will buy this one as a "toy"/second car. Let's see what happens...

  7. Anonymous // August 15, 2008  

    'Sports Truck' sounds like something Hyundai would use.

    What a crappy moniker.

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