GM to pull the plug on Pontiac

[travs_g8gt]

Yeah that is what is so perplexing. Here in the states, the G8 has gotten great reviews, the press loves it, heck it even won a Consumer Reports Best Buy award. In the last sales report, February was listed as the G8's fastest selling month with almost 3000 sold, so it may have just been catching on...

With that said, with our government now in control of GM, there was pressure to get rid of these big V8 cars. Rumors are now, the Corvette program had its budget cut bigtime to focus more on the Chevy Volt. With GM's troubles, it seems odd to me they would stop all imports of such a well received car.

I bet if they slapped a chevy badge on it and called it an Impala, it would sell like crazy--which I have a hunch our government DOES not want to happen! They want HYBRIDS!!!!

 

[Calaber]

I think the person making the statements about cessation of G8's in the States and Australia was under the misapprehension that they are marketed here as Pontiacs too.

Think about this for a minute. Commodore still sells around 3000 per month in Australia and is exported to the Middle East in substantial numbers, Brazil, New Zealand, South Africa and various other markets. Manufacture of the Commodore is still Holden's bread and butter. If they cease its production, what replaces it on the model line up? The Cruze is aimed at a different market segment and Commodores currently outsell Falcon by about 3 to 2 - why would you surrender your major market segment to your competitor who isn't doing as well as yourself?

No doubt, Holden has to re-assess its long range production plans for Commodore now as the G8 deal is about to die. Marketing the car as a Chev Impala might seem to open up a broader market in the States, but the auto unions in the States are powerful and were responsible for restrictions in numbers of imports of the Monaro as the GTO. Ultimately of course, the GTO never sold in the numbers anticipated anyway. The unions certainly won't tolerate Australian production for all the Impalas - they will demand that it be made over there.

To produce the Impala from a Commodore base would extend the Commodore life span, as the basic architecture would be shared and this would assist to amortize design and production costs. But, if the car is seen as a "gas guzzler" in the States, and the US government is keen to promote more fuel efficient cars, this proposal could be doomed unless more efficient engines are incorporated into the design.

I think we will see the VF as the last Australian designed Commodore and that any future models would be designed with Australian input only. Holden is still the GM centre of rear wheel drive engineering, but how long rear wheel drive will remain a priority, only GM knows. Like it or not, I believe that by 2015, the VJ/VM (next available "V" series designations available after VF) will be about Camry size, FWD, diesel/LPG/hybrid powered.

And might not appeal to any of us as Commodore fans.......

 

[greenfoam]

Well in the end the VE was the first Australian designed Commodore so no big deal if they go back to using other cars as a base