The tacky interiors

I am looking to buy either the new 350Z or a Corvette Z06 for weekend sport driving only. Interiors are essentially on par (lots of plastic) and the exterior styling on the 350Z leaves me with a feeling it is fad styling. Any opinions on the Z06? BMW M3 and others are out due to lack of local dealerships.

GM has 60 months @ 0% on new cars until April 30.

Went to the New York Auto Show this weekend. I was blown away by how cheap the 350Z's interior was. The Infiniti G35 Coupe was better, but still not up to the interior quality of a Lexus (for example).

The Z06's interior looked better than I would expect from GM. I didn't sit in the driver's seat, but my friend did. He fell in love with the shifter.

I looked very seriously at a Boxster the last time I was car shopping. There's just no way to pile a serious amount of crud into that car. I just drove to Dallas last weekend (~4 hours) with my PowerMac, 23" monitor, travel bags, and came back with all that plus a crate full of CDs. Sadly, none of the two-seat convertibles have that kind of space. The Z3 Coupe was just exactly what I needed... on paper...

As to Corvettes, I'd say the correct answer is the Pontiac GTO (a.k.a. Holden Monaro). I saw one at the Houston Auto Show and I was impressed. They wouldn't let you sit in it, but it looks to have a significantly improved interior relative to the usual GM fodder, and you've got Corvette guts.

Yeah go for the Pontiac GTO:
Real engine (V8)
Rear wheel drive
Great styling
Fast
Designed in Australia (Holden Monaro)!!

If it's a Pontiac, where's all the ugly, crappy plastic body cladding?

Can you get it with a manual transmission? If so, will it when it hits the States?

It is pretty much a Pontiac in name only, (the ubiquitous badge engineering) although apparently the front end styling is different to the Holden Monaro :-

Holden designers worked under direction from their counterparts in the US to inject some Pontiac "DNA" by grafting a bolder, pointier nose on the Monaro's body.


It should already be on sale in the States with a six speed manual :-

The Pontiac GTO will be sold with the Chevrolet-sourced 5.7-litre V8 engine and a four-speed auto or six-speed manual transmission.

Quotes are from this (old) article.

Also see this article for a styling comparison - I must say I prefer the Holden front-end to the Pontiac version!

Another article with 'more definite' (?) info.
Also for a drool session try this site.

It should already be on sale in the States with a six speed manual

It's not. I went by a Pontiac dealership two weekends ago (to test drive a Cadillac CTS) and, while they knew of its existence, and probably had some specs for it, they weren't even sure when they'd see them.

Check out www.pontiac.com
Its hidden in the Vehicles pulldown (New Vehicles)
Typical GM website flash setup, the car looks good though.

I found it. It looked better with the Holden nose, I think, but the specs are impressive. Not the kind of car I'm looking for, though.

Not my kind of car either, I am still waiting for the Chevy SSR to finally get here.