The Pontiac G6 has a nice interior with attractive fabrics and comfortable bucket seats. At first, it has that tank-like Pontiac feeling of sitting down low in the cockpit, but that feeling goes away with a little familiarity and the G6 becomes a happy companion. The cabin is altogether different from the old soft-plastic, fat-knob theme of older Pontiacs. It's much more modern, more European.
The sporty front bucket seats are made for body comfort and body retention in high-speed maneuvers, and they are very comfortable and thickly padded.
Rear-seat space benefits from the relatively long wheelbase of 112.3 inches. In the sedan, a 6-foot, 4-inch passenger can sit behind a 6-foot, 4-inch driver with plenty of room. Those with tall friends or family may want to remember that the Panoramic sunroof is powered by a motor that takes up a big chunk of headroom at the trailing edge of the sedan's headliner. The coupe's rear seating is a little tighter, and the convertible's tighter still, especially in shoulder and hip room. The available rear bucket seats in the G6 convertible are appropriate because we wouldn't want to put three people back there.
The dash is done in four major sections including a stark, ungrained plastic center stack that holds two vents, the sound system, heater controls, and a 12-volt power outlet. Instruments and controls are presented in white on black (red at night). Every single knob and escutcheon has a chrome ring around it; very tasteful, and nicely presented, with small, conservative graphics on the faces and labels.
The center stack has a red-LED readout and control panel that allows every owner to use the sound system's features, and to customize the locking, lighting, and other functions, with a trip computer and driver information system that's easy, intuitive and fun to use. This G6 offers a remote starting system for those cold winter mornings, power adjustable pedals, and OnStar and XM Satellite Radio, which use a single integrated antenna. The audio system works well and the knobs are sized well for operating while driving, a welcome relief from the tiny buttons and knobs on many systems. However, we miss the smart pre-set buttons used on previous GM vehicles that let the driver switch from favorite AM, FM and XM stations simply by pressing the pre-set; the new setup works like most radios, requiring the driver first change the band before switching to the favored station.
The Panoramic roof available for the four-door sedan comes open in four stacking segments, front to rear, and has about twice as much open area as the conventional sunroof, which is also offered. It's remarkable how easily it works, and keeps conversation possible even at very high road speeds. It's an interesting feature and we recommend it.
The convertible's top was engineered with Karmann, which specializes in convertibles. The big top opens and closes within 30 seconds, storing under the truck lid and a hard tonneau cover when open. We found it works exceptionally well, powering up or down with the press of a button. Hold the button down after it's done and the windows will power up or down appropriately.
The trunk is still accessible when the top is down, but space is reduced from a tiny 5.8 cubic feet to a grocery-bag sized 1.8 cubic feet. By comparison, the coupe offers 11 cubic feet of trunk space, while the sedan offers 14 cubic feet. Obviously, that can limit your use of the convertible's top-down mode on long trips. The trunklid on the convertible was heavy and relatively hard to lift open.
