That's what I liked about them. A 5.7 litre V8, RWD car the size of a Grand Am = A LOT OF FUN. But I heard a lot of purists say... "not American made + not retro looking = SH*TTY CAR NOT WORTH OF THE GTO NAME".

I don't care. I like it.

 

If it was American made than it would be crappy i love it puriest at times are close minded

 

Now first, I thought the old GTOs were cool, but I hardly know enough about the label to evaluate it like a hardcore fan/purist. But some things I heard from the purist community:
- The original return of the label did not have hood scoops from the factory. It broke a tradition in the linage of the car.
- It was never made to be a GTO (true, it was actually a Holden vehicle from an Australian line, re-badged and brought to North America as a GTO). This brings your comment about the "not American built" (but let's see, most traditionally "American" labeled vehicles are not made in the U.S., no offense to the Canadian members, but a lot of the cars associated with Red-White-and-Blue, like a Camaro are made elsewhere, like Canada).
- Looks too much like a Grand Prix. As much as *I* like the re-badged Holden car, it has exterior qualities that I feel resemble a '04+ Grand Prix.

I loved the car before it was released, the first time I sat in a GTO (then when I drove one, OH WOW). Things I liked:
- Looked good (especially with a pair of hood scoops)
- RWD
- 6 Speed manual (no auto for me if I had one)
- How I felt sitting in it
- Window controls in the center console (my '84 Camaro and '94 Grand Am are like this, LOVE it for some reason)
- Black interior with red thread for stitching
- Cluster layout, easy to view
- And then I drove one and OH YEAH! Nice and powerful.

Sorry for my long wind there

 

We all gotta remember too that the origonal GTO was just a Lemans with a big engine so they cant complain much about it being based of another car & its resembles more of a 97-03 GP than the 04 & i hate the hood scoops lol i like a clean flat hood

 

Looks great!