Pontiac G6 vs. Honda Civic

[GlennS]

Forward: The following are some of my informal thoughts regarding a 2006 Pontiac G6 rental car -vs.- the 2006 Honda Civic. Call it a “mini review” if you’d like, but it’s really just me doing a “brain dump” after putting a little over 520 miles on the Pontiac G6 from General Motors.
BTW: This post includes LOTS of pics at the end of this write-up. :-)

Introduction: Each summer, we like to rent a car for one (or more) of our usual summer vacation weeks. We do this to give our primary daily drivers a bit of a rest, and hey its fun to see, and drive, other cars that are out there. Our primary cars are a 2000 Subaru Legacy wagon, MT (wife’s car), and my 2006 Civic EX coupe, MT.

Usually we end up with rental cars that are fun in their own ways: One year it was a Chrysler Sebring convertible, and another year we rented a Mitsubishi Spyder convertible. We’ve also rented the usual assortment of American cars, such as Mustangs. This year we ended up with a red Pontiac G6 sedan, with a V6.

Honda prides itself on making cars that are, among other attributes, "fun to drive." And this is why, in part, we purchased our 8th Gen Hondas. Meanwhile, GM is making, in my opinion, more "average" cars (and is selling a lot of cars to the fleet market--like my Avis G6 rental). There are a lot of subtle things (and some not so subtle) that make one car "fun" to drive and another car somewhat "average." To put it another way, some cars are better suited to highway cruising, say, as opposed to being "enthusiasts" types of cars (i.e. fun to drive). I'll try point out some things that differentiate the "fun to drive" Civic from the “generic” Pontiac G6 along the way.

Background: Recently, I’d traded in a 2006 Civic AT sedan, for the ’06 Civic MT coupe. Anyway, after 4 months and 6,000 miles in the ’06 Civic sedan, I feel my “comparo” is a valid one. In addition, both the Civic sedan and the Pontiac G6 sedan are rated by the EPA as compact cars. And, both the Civic sedan and the G6 sedan sell for about $20,000 give or take. One major difference is the engine--the G6 had a 6-cyclinder engine.

Here are some basic specs on the G6 sedan AT -vs.- the Civic sedan AT:
G6 (sedan) Curb Weight: 3,420 lbs. / Civic (sedan): 2,690 lbs.
G6 Length: 189.0 / Civic: 176.7
G6 Width: 70.6 / Civic: 69.0
G6 Height: 57.1 / Civic: 56.5
G6 Wheelbase: 112.3 / Civic 106.3
G6: 216/60 tires on 16" wheels / Civic 225/60/16

The GM “3500” V6 engine in the G6 generates 201 HP @5600 RPM, and 222 ft.-lbs. of torque @ 3200 RPM. By comparison, the 2006 Civic Si engine generates 197 HP @ 7,800 RPM, and 139 ft.-lbs. of torque at 6,100 RPM. My guess is, and it’s only a guess, that the ’06 G6, with its V6 might well give the new Si a run for its money—but only in a straight-line (drag-type) race. I’m pretty certain that on twisty roads, the 8th Gen Si would simply carve up the G6, have it for lunch, and, if it could talk, casually say: “Next?”

Here are some random thoughts on the 2006 Pontiac G6 sedan:

GM G6: Things I liked...
Engine:The 3.5L V6 engine in the G6 gets the car moving quite nicely and the G6 seemed reasonable on gas (mileage), but I did not pay much attention to that. The V6 got the car up to 80 MPH in a hurry on the highway, and the AT/engine seemed to pull smoothly. The G6-V6 is EPA rated for a cruising range of 416 miles, and for 22 MPG city, 32 MPG highway. The V6 idled at about 860 RPM; highway cruising at 65 MPH was at 1,800 RPM.

AT: The automatic transmission (AT) works fine: It shifts at the appropriate points, and you almost forget it's there. This leads to the car being "less fun" to drive if you like to “row your own gears,” but the AT, for what it is, is fine. The 3.5L pushrod V6 with 4-speed auto may seem like old technology, but they work well together.

Trip computer: The G6 had a nice little trip computer in it (I’ve included pics of some, but not all of its functions). It has an outside temperature indicator; average MPG; expected range (from the gas on board); and so on. While I like the Civic EX outdoor temperature indicator, some of the functionality of the G6 trip computer would be nice to have, but certainly not essential.

Auto-on headlights: The G6 had 'em. They are, to me, more of a toy type of thing, really, but they worked just fine. (There’s a pic of the “auto” position on the control stalk in the G6, as well as a pic of the dash-mounted sensor.)

Style: The overall body (exterior) design is kind of sporty—for a sedan--and I liked the rear spoiler. See the pics.

Ride comfort: The G6 sedan offers what I’d call a "cushy" ride. If you like that kind of ride, or do a lot of highway cruising, it’d be a fine car for those needs. I’d also be a fine “grocery getter,” and/or family car.

Front seats: The front-bucket seats in the G6 are reasonably supportive and comfortable. The drivers seat is power adjustable (forward and back only), and I liked that feature.

Wheels: The 16" alloy wheels kind of reminded me of the stock Si wheels (note that I said sorta), and look okay.

GM G6: Things I'm neutral on...
Gauges: The analog gauges in the IC (instrument cluster) are back lit by a blood red color. My wife did not care for the gloominess of the red, but its okay I guess. And everything is red backlit--including the stereo controls and display, the IC gauges. The trip computer display uses red LEDs. All the gauges do a little “dancing needles” routine upon startup: For example the speedometer jumps from zero MPH, up to 140 MPH, and back to zero MPH when you first start the car. The first time you see the needles peg and then settle back down it’s kind of neat. By the 3rd or 4th time you see it, you pretty much ignore it. All in all? Whatever…is how I felt.

Stereo: There was an AM/FM/CD stereo with 6 speakers in the G6 sedan. (There are two tweeters in the doors--inboard of where the side rear-view mirrors are attached.) The stereo was okay--not killer--but it worked fine. The plastic control knobs looked and felt cheap. The center stack control knobs in the Civics are far superior.

Adjustable pedals: The G6 I rented had electrically-adjustable foot pedals--the brake and gas pedals move forward or back at the touch of a button. These are neat, but once you set them for your tastes, then that's that. If your “significant other” drives, they might wish to fiddle with the pedal settings, but then you'd need to move them back where you had them in the first place. There did not seem to be a “memory” setting.

Misc.: The outside door handles on the G6 are quite similar to the Civics, and the G6 trunk has a remote open feature on its key fob. The drivers side window had an auto-down feature, but not auto up. The ingntion location was right in the dash, but was behind the steering wheel rim, when looked at from the normal seating postion of the driver. (See pics.) For those that like such features, the G6 had a door over its coin holder cubby in the dash, and had lighted vanity mirrors under the sun visors.

AC: The G6 AC works like the AC in the Civics: That is, during our recent heat wave--multiple 100-degree (F) days--it worked better when the car was moving, then when not. That said, the AC in the G6 kept the car nice and cool when motoring along, and we had no problems with it. The temperature is set via a rotating knob, as in the Civics, but the knobs (and other center-stack plastics) in the Civics looks better.

Rattles and buzzes:The G6 had two annoying spurious noises: One mild rattle occasionally came from either the sunroof shade, or the dome light in back of it. I was never able to nail that one down.

The other, and far more annoying, noise came from the AT shifter release button (or “trigger” if you will). At certain speeds and on certain road surfaces, the AT shifter release button would buzz loudly. My wife tracked that one down while I was driving one day. The release button is at the front of the shifter, and seemed to be made of hollow, thin, plastic. At times it would vibrate inside the shifter handle/grip and I’d have to move the trigger side-to-side within its housing to make the buzzing go away. Other times, it went away on its own when either the road surface changed or your speed on that road surface varied. This was not a show stopper, but was annoying at times.

Owners manual: The G6 owner’s manual I found in the car was on a CD. Usually, I can find the (printed) owners manual in rental cars where you’d find the spare tire (in the trunk, under the cover for the spare). When I looked for the printed manual for the G6, all I found was a CD with the manual on it. I did not bother loading it into my PC at home, so I can’t really comment on the owner’s manual.

GM G6: Things I did not like...
Steering / Suspension: The steering in the G6 is non-communicative: That is, you get little feedback from road surfaces. In contrast, the Civics offers plenty of feedback: As one forum user here said about the 8th Gen Civics: “You can tell when you run over a playing card” laying on the road surface. While that may be a wee bit overstated, if we use the same analogy for the G6, you could run over a stack of 10 or 12 playing cards lying in the road and you would probably never notice. The G6 would just roll along, absorbing minor imperfections on the road and offering you no feedback regarding those minor imperfections. The Civics’ steering response and suspension feedback are utterly superior. There’s no question that I’d much rather drive a Civic on twisty roads.

With its "point it and it goes there" steering and cushy/floaty kind of ride, the G6 is, to me, simply not set up for “fun” handling. This is one example of things that make the Hondas “fun to drive,” as compared to some other cars. However if you like a cushy, highway cruiser kind of ride, then the Pontiac G6 sedan would suit you fine.

Steering wheel: The steering wheel in the G6 is 15" in diameter, and the Civics’ is 14" across and only 13 1/2" tall (i.e. the Civics’ is not perfectly round). For that reason, the 15-inch round steering wheel in the G6 just feels huge by comparison. The steering wheel rims are about the same thickness in either car. The steering wheel in the G6 tilts, but does not telescope.

Brakes: While the G6 had 4-wheel disk brakes, they are non-linear: After the first bit of pedal travel the brakes begin to bite but there’s little brake-pedal travel after that. It's like pressing your foot on a brick that's sitting on a fairly compressed bed of sand. The more pressure you apply, the more the brakes take hold, but there's precious little feedback via the seemingly non-moving brake pedal. (The expression "standing on the brakes" would aptly apply to the experience of using the G6 brakes to stop that car quickly.) Ultimately, the G6 stops fine, and that's the important thing. This is yet another "ergonomic" issue that makes the G6 less "fun to drive" than a Civic: The brakes on a Civic are far easier to modulate, and to me, feel more “controllable” overall.

Headlights: The low-beams of the G6 are pretty poor: On dark back roads, it feels as if you might "outrun" the low beams: Going 40 MPH on a dark, country back road, I really felt the need to use the high beams, is the only way I can explain this. And the high beams in the G6 are more like the Civics’ low beams, IMHO. The Civics high beams far outperform the high beams in the Pontiac G6 sedan, was my take on this.

<edit>Fuel-filler door: The fuel filler door on the G6 was totally unsecure. There was no interior fuel-door release, you simply walked up to the car, put a finger in the filler doors curved access point and flipped the door open. Unscrew the gas cap and you're in. In these days of $3 per gallon gas, it's a bit disconcerting to know anyone could siphon out your tank full of gas without much effort at all. The Civics interior-release only fuel door is more secure. Sure a screwdriver might get you into the Civics, but at least it's more of a challenge than the completely unsecure door used on the G6.

Controls: The G6 high-low headlight control stalk has a bit too much travel: In the Civic, the high-low beam stalk starts out 4" from the front of the steering wheel, and it's the same in the G6. However, when you push the stalk forward in the G6, it travels a full inch. In the Civic, it moves forward only a half-inch to get the high beams on. While this does not sound like much of a difference, in the G6 it’s more of a reach, and it really feels like you’re stretching your fingers more than a half-inch when you want to pull the G6 stalk back from the high-beam, to the low-beam position. To me, this is all about ergonomics. And here yet again, the Civic is superior.

Fog lights: The tiny, round, fog lights are minimally helpful at night. (A pic below shows one of the small-round fog lights, but they were not turned on—it’s just the flash from my camera showing in the fog light reflector.)

Remote control: Speaking of lights, the reverse lights come on—along with all of the other exterior lights--when you unlock the car via its remote key fob. It makes for a rather overly-bright light show on a dark night.

Sun roof: Tilts up with one touch and opens fully with a press and hold, and it works fine. The sun roof has one annoying flaw: When you close one of the front doors of the G6, the entire rear edge of the sunroof pops up into the air! It’s not much movement, but certainly visible. What sent me looking for this was the “swoosh” sound I heard one time when my wife got out of the passengers side of the car and shut the car door: Whoosh! Huh? What was that? When I tested it with the G6 sunshade open, or closed, it still popped the rear edge of the sunroof up a fraction of an inch—every time. When I ran the same door-closing test on my EX Civic coupe, the sunroof did not move at all. I guess all this shows is that the G6 has a fairly air-tight interior, but the moving sunroof edge upon door closure bugged me.

The sun roof in the G6 is fairly noisy when tilted up (wind noise), but when open is fairly quiet: At 40 MPH, only the sound of air rushing could be heard through the perforated cloth-like air dam at the front of the sunroof (see pics). When it's fully open the sun roof goes back "over" the rear roof of the car, and the look of it perched over the rear of the car roof like that just looked funny to me. (Shrug.) The sun shade had kind of funky slits in it--at the leading edge--see the pics at the end of this text.

Cup holders: Compared with the nice cup holders in the 8th Gen Civics, the front two cup holders between the two front seats in the G6 are far too shallow, and have no spring-loaded cup “holders” in them. In the G6, the cup holders are only 2 1/4" deep, while in the Civic (coupe), the front cup holder is 3 1/4" deep, and, even better, the rear one is 3 1/2" deep (i.e. the 2nd one just to the rear of the front one in the coupe). The Civics front cup holders have the G6 front cup holders beat by a country mile. However, I did like the fold out rear cup holders in the G6 (see pics), and wish the Civic had that feature--our 2000 Subaru has the same fold-away rear cup holder setup as the G6 does and it's a neat little feature. (The Civic coupe has shallow cup holders built into the rear armrests, while the Civic EX sedan has them in the fold-down rear-seat armrest.)

Side mirrors: The G6 outside mirrors are unpainted, black plastic, and look cheap in contrast to the nice body-color painted ones on the 8th Gen Civics.

Conclusion:
If General Motors could design and manufacture cars that were somewhat more unique, and dare I say, fun to drive, they might find more people willing to buy them. Many of us enjoy driving our Civics—just for the sheer fun they offer. Be it a sedan, or coupe, or Si, our 8th Generation Civics truly inspire many of us.

There are many GM car owners who like their cars, of that I’m sure. However, I’ve got to wonder:
Do many (mid-priced) GM cars truly inspire their owners? Is there any emotion there? Does GM “get it?”

Thank you for a great forum, and I hope some of you enjoyed my thoughts on the 2006 Pontiac G6.
(Anyway, I had fun doing this up.) Enjoy the pictures!

Regards,
Glenn in CT







Fogs were not on, just lit up by the camera flash:










Sorta-kinda reminds one of the Si wheels:


Looking good:


Not sure I liked the look when open:


Sunroof windscreen:




Sunroof shade:






V6:




The IC:


Dash at night(low-quality shot):


Where is that redline, exactly?




Trip computer: Default is time and temp.


Has several other functions, too--here's just one of them:


Ingnition location; Behind the steering wheel rim:


Long reach required to turn off the high beams:


Adjusters: Pedals, dash-lights, fogs:


Center stack:


The front side of this shifter held the annoying buzzing trigger:


Cup holders:


Are you vain? ;-)


Air vents closed:


Automatic headlights:


The auto headlight sensor--front and center on the dash:


Stow-away rear-seat cup holders:




Trunk release button is in the door--lower front:


Rental car = Lots of abuse (scuff marks):


That's it!

[Shark Tek]

Originally Posted by GlennS

The GM “3500” V6 engine in the G6 generates 201 HP @5600 RPM, and 222 ft.-lbs. of torque @ 3200 RPM. By comparison, the 2006 Civic Si enginegenerates 197 HP @ 7,800 RPM, and 139 ft.-lbs. of torque at 6,100 RPM. My guess is, and it’s only a guess, that the ’06 G6, with its V6 might well give the new Si a run for its money—but only in a straight-line (drag-type) race. I’m pretty certain that on twisty roads, the 8th Gen Si would simply carve up the G6, have it for lunch, and, if it could talk, casually say: “Next?”

Very good review but there is no way that the G6 could beat the SI maybe it can get close in a 0-20mph race thanks to his low end torque but in the other scenarios is impossible. It is almost 600 pounds heavier.

[brooklynscat69]

WOW THat was a great great writeup. +1. IMO, you shuld do one for the civic coupe as well for all the people who are still thinking about getting one. Man you should work for an article company. I dont think you skipped anything.

[Special Ringpop]

If you're comparing the G6 to the Si, you should be using the GTP model G6.

[J-StarR]

Great writeup! I was actually looking into getting a G6 before I got the Si. I was looking at the G6 GTP actually but eventually got turned off to it once I took a look at the specs and the interior. From the looks of it I made the right choice!

[GlennS]

Originally Posted by Special Ringpop

If you're comparing the G6 to the Si, you should be using the GTP model G6.

Actually, it's more of a general comparison between the Civics in general and the G6. The only mention of the Si was because the G6 had the V6 in it; other than that, it's more a comparison between the sedans, really, but with some generic Civic stuff thrown in. Saw one GTP sedan on an Avis lot, but it was reserved for someone. Bummer.

Sure, I would have loved to compare even the basic G6 coupe to the Civic coupe, but I could not find a G6 coupe sitting on either of the two different Avis lots I went to. Sometimes when renting, you take what you can get...

Thank you for the kudos, everyone, I appreciate your positive feedback. :-)
-Glenn

[atruhondagrl]

Great right up, Glenn. I liked the G6's exterior styling as well and briefly considered buying a coupe. About 2 minutes of thought is what I mean by brief.

One of the girls in my reserve unit has a G6 sedan and I have to say the features I didn't like about the G6 are the lack of style on the interior and I felt the ride had that typical GM "riding on over inflated basketballs" feeling to it.

Look forward to your next review.

[06CivEXJon]

Some if not all of GM's cars,Fords and Chrysler cars are rental cars

[BATANG CITY JAIL]

is g6 is faster than v6 accord?? i always race my friend's accord and its close till i hit the v-tec 3x (2nd,3rd,4th) then its like 2 car lenths..

[6ft5inAllMan]

I actually kinda like the G6 V6 Coup. Looks kinda nice

[Yodums]

The car has excellent engine specs, but I'd probably never buy it because:

1) The interior looks really cheap. The only thing that caught my attention were the adjustable pedals

2) It's a GM.

[gbae007]

Good information here Glenn.

The 3.5L engine in the G6 is so underdeveloped that it's shocking. For reference, the VQ35DE 3.5L in the 350z is 287hp and 270lbs of torque.

[GlennS]

Originally Posted by 6ft5inAllMan

I actually kinda like the G6 V6 Coup. Looks kinda nice

Yes, and even the sedan I rented was pretty good looking.
It's not that the G6 is a "bad" car, and I enjoyed it for a week.

However, if it were possible to hug a car, I'd have
hugged my Civic after experiencing the Pontiac G6.


-Glenn

[Chase]

My Mom has a 99 Pontiac Grand Am SE sedan with the 3.4L V6! looks like its pretty much the same but it only has 170hp! It seems like they have these things turned down from the factory. It seems like the g6 Belongs in the mid-size market though. I know the N-body (GM chassy code) is!

[Retread]

Great write up Glenn! I had considered the G6 Coupe when I was shopping. I have no regrets that I bought the Civic. I'm amazed that someone caught my
"playing card" reference earlier this year. I will admit, I said it and knew it was stretching the point just a bit.

[Special Ringpop]

Where do people get off saying the interior on the G6 is so bad? I've test driven several of them, from all trim levels, and I don't think it was that bad.

[SIpimpin13]

I thought I liked the looks of the g6 coupe from the commercials, then I saw it in real life and it just looks so plain...it definately needs a spoiler, even a really small one

[Special Ringpop]

They make a spoiler for it, and the G6 hardtop convertable has a third brake light spoiler on the trunk lid.

It's gorgeous.

[GlennS]

Originally Posted by Special Ringpop

Where do people get off saying the interior on the G6 is so bad? I've test driven several of them, from all trim levels, and I don't think it was that bad.

Who's saying it's bad? I thought it was a great car for highway travel, and the V6 was fun, too. It's just not as enthusiast-oriented as a Civic, I felt.
-Glenn

[peliROJO]

You're bored! j/k Looks great, don't have time to read it all right now but I promise I will finish your article. Looks like it took you a long time.