Junkyard Find: 2008 Pontiac Torrent GXP AWD
The first decade of our current century, bookended by the Dot-Com Crash and the Great Recession, was a grim period for The General. This publication chronicled quite a bit of GM's pain with the General Motors Death Watch series, which began in 2005, and announced the end for the Pontiac Division in the spring of 2009. Today's Junkyard Find is a long-forgotten performance Pontiac from that era, found in a boneyard in northeastern Colorado.
The Pontiac Torrent was sibling to the first-generation Chevrolet Equinox and thus a cousin to the Saturn Vue. It was built for the 2006 through 2009 model years and therefore held on almost to the end of Pontiac.
Oldsmobile had been axed back in 2004, while the final Saturns were 2010 models. Saab managed to cling to the cliff edge by its fingernails but met its doom in 2011.
I'm convinced that the Torrent name was chosen because its association with BitTorrent (and Dot-Com Boom predecessors Napster and Gnutella) made it sound youth-oriented by GM's marketers. The Saturn Outlook was launched a year after the Torrent, and no doubt its name reminded younger car shoppers of their positive association with Microsoft Outlook and Clippit the Office Assistant.
The GXP was the high-performance Torrent, theoretically built to compete with the likes of the BMW X3. It got this mean-looking hood and a one-inch lowering job.
The Torrent GXP joined the Grand Prix GXP, the Solstice GXP, the G6 GXP and the G8 GXP in the Great Recession high-performance Pontiac lineup. Collect them all! Note the GM " Mark of Impending Bankruptcy Excellence" fender badges.
The Torrent GXP really did have respectable power, thanks to GM's ability to get big horses from 60° V6s that were well-suited for small engine compartments. This 3.6-liter High Feature engine was rated at 264 horsepower.
The interior is standard 2000s GM and includes the same radio that went into the Suzuki Forenza.
The GXP AWD was the top-of-the-line Torrent for 2008, with an MSRP of $29,745. That's about $44,964 in 2025 dollars.
More power than the BMW X3 2.5, more stars in frontal-crash tests than the Ford Escape, more passenger room than Jeep Liberty… and more looks than all of them combined.
GM mixed the car with the SUV, added a Ringside song, and didn't miss a beat.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
2008 Pontiac Torrent in Colorado wrecking yard.
[Images: The Author]
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Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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JUST like the BMW X3, but its FWD based like every other "European competitor" from America. Why did they always get that wrong? Nobody looked at that and went "cool, the X3M competitor from Poncho". They went "GTFO of my way in your cheap azz low credit GM"
That "High Feature" 3.6 V6 with DOHC and 4 valves per cylinder was not well suited to the Torrent and particularly the 4-speed automatic's wide ratios. GM had a 3.9L pushrod V6 used in the Impala and G6 of that generation that wa a great engine. Torquey and smooth, it was also a 60 degree design, originating with the 2.8V6 developed for the X and A body's. Lower maintenance as well.