What the hell kind of car is that?

[Supersport350]

Living in Detroit, I see some unique cars on the road. Many are factory masked/camo cars in which are pre-production being road tested. It's not often that I see a car I can't identify, regardless of make, and even the pre-production cars can't fool me. I can often still determine at least the make, if not what future model it will be.

Today, I spotted a production car, that from a distance had me going "WTF is that?" As I got closer, I could read it's badges: Pontiac G3. A G3? Really? They built those? Obviously, the gearhead in my had absolutely zero interest in the car itself, yet I couldn't help but scratch my head wondering "When the hell did they build this?" They guy was next to me as we waited in traffic, so I inquired. It was a 2009, apparently built only one year, and was based upon a Chevy Aveo.

He said he gets a lot of people who ask about it. I can only assume it's a pretty "rare" car, as I have never seen one before, and in my line of work (law enforcement) I see a lot of cars and obviously pay great attention to makes/models. As rare is it may be, the econo-box piece of shit did nothing for me, and isn't my style any way. Yet like I said, I couldn't let it go, I had to inquire about it.

Anybody else come across a car lately on the road that threw you, where you just weren't able to figure out what it was?

[tardis454]

Here's a write up about it.

http://www.edmunds.com/pontiac/g3/

"The five-door Pontiac G3 subcompact hatchback enjoys the dubious distinction of being the shortest-lived Pontiac model of all time. It"

[RAIV70Judge]

Whie up in the Detroit area a few weeks ago, I was cruising down the road with Milner351 and we saw a heavily flat black camoflaged small tuner looking car. The seams were all taped up and it had very small round tail lights. I asked what that was and he pointed out the "M" tag on the rear. Manufacturer plate. I had never seen a car in disguise before. The next day, while I was heading home, I had just left his place and that same little car buzzed righ past me. Even in the day light I couldnt even get a hint of what type of car it was.

[Supersport350]

Not sure if you were able to see the front or not, but I would bet it was probably a Fiat. I think I've seen this flat black/masked Fiat running around Detroit and Metro Detroit for 3 straight days. Very likely there are multiple cars running around I suppose. Only way I I.D.'d them is the classic Fiat triangle type grill.

[Beagle]

I saw a Tesla roadster on the toll-way. No shit. I thought they were vapor-ware. I kept blinking.. Lotus? no... hmmm. F*ING TESLA!

Maybe it was a kit car. I didn't think they had actually built any for sale. Tucker Rare indeed!

[daved931]

When I lived in MI, I always loved seeing all of the camo'd preproduction stuff running around. Some of my friends had jobs at tier 1 suppliers and the big three and they would bring home preproduction cars that we could do brake stands in and drive like retards. Good times. I did brake stands in a Colorado before they were on sale to the public. I also ruined the rear rotors in a Lincoln LS.

[Brian Lohnes]

There's a Fisker Karma running around m parts now. Weird ass looking car.

[BBR]

There's a Fisker Karma running around m parts now. Weird ass looking car.

I looked at one of those at North Park Mall in Dallas last weekend. I had never heard of it before.

[Barry Donovan]

pontiac G3
blah

Power came from a 1.6-liter four-cylinder rated at 106 horsepower and 105 pound-feet of torque

drop the screamer and add some foot pounds. how the hell does the market hang on for 50 years to the worlds dumbest shit.


I never see anything rare.Although the coast has some hidden eccentric lifestyles..

a gold and a silver cobra rumbles through once and awhile. Don't ever assume an ever common version of anything.
just yesterday, a hemi pickup with a daytona wing and logo (silly), but it was a manufactured truck.

[milner351]

Fisker has done allot of testing here, it sure is a car you won't mistake for another. I think it's aimed squarely at the Hollywood green crowd - I don't think anyone with any common sense would buy one.

[BBR]

It wasn't interesting enough to me to take a pic. lol

[BlackouT]

I work second shift in Rochester Hills, and coming back home after midnight, I tend to spot a lot of pre-production vehicles. At one point, driving back home, I saw two pre-production vehicles driving damn near next to each other, yet I couldn't figure out what they were. One looked like it was a lincoln, the other looked to be some kind of a buick. (speculating based on the recent vehicles by both companies). I'm surprised that you seen this on the road though. Usually, pre-production vehicles (if not produced) generally get scrapped.

[Thumpin455]

I saw a Vette cruising through Marquette in January, snow, salt, crappy weather definitely not Vette weather. It looked kinda funny, had a strange black thing on its hood and some other stuff that didnt look right. A closer look showed a manufacturer plate. About a year later I saw pics of a Vette just like the one in the salted snow up here, they called it a ZR1.

A few winters ago I saw a line 5 of Challengers, they didnt have the cladding and camo stuff on them, but there was a 4 door that did have it the camo netting. All of them had a big black box stuck on the dash, and every driver looked at me funny as I drove by in the beater Gran Prix. The car with the cladding had weird strakes on the doors, turns out it was the new Charger. Every one of them had the Hemi in them, and they were driving in the snow and salt.

I dont usually see M stuff up here in summer, but they sure do like to test in the winter here.

[milner351]

Todd those guys were probably looking at you funny because you were actually paying attention to what they were doing, they probably figured it would be uninhabited up there in the winter....
I used to do drive trips when I was at Honda - they were fun at times, and exhausting all the time - long days, some times getting up in the middle of the night to do cold starts so we'd have more start tests in a tight window of time.

[JOES66FURY]

I have only seen one cammo clad test car in my life. It was out here in the summer time, running around town in traffic...no freaking clue what it was but it was pretty cool to see one.