What if?

[StrayKiwi]

I was looking at the Cadillac ATS-V and thought, imagine if that had been selected as the basis for the ZB Commodore instead of the Opel Insignia?

 

[figjam]

The main stumbling block would be that GM would never let anything other than a Cadillac badge be put on it. They may have put Caddy badges on generic shitheaps in the past, but never another badge on a real Caddy.

When you read about the development history of the VE, it was originally going to be a Caddy wrapped in Holden clothes, but bean counters gradually cut bits out until the final compromise was reached.

At the 2008 Sydney Motor Show, Holden had the Coupe60/Monaro and a Cadillac CTS coupe side by side. After I had finished licking the chrome paint off the Coupe60 and telling the missus that I was going to buy another Monaro, I decided that the Caddy was ugly, too Yank, potentially too expensive in comparison. Oh, how we were encouragingly and naively misled back then.

Yes, today all we can only imagine is a HSV converted 2019 ATS V coupe. Ignoring the unknown cost, could it be a better, more practical choice than the Camaro.

 

[StrayKiwi]

I see similarities in the lines of the Caddy vs VE/VF. But yeah the external styling is very American and the less said about the interior the better.

 

[vs-lover]

If this were released here in Australia as a RHD then it would've clearly been a much better seller than any Camaro would've ever been. This style of vehicle would certainly attract the VF style purchaser that would want a more generic looking car than a low roof flyer that's really only good for two occupants.

But as figjam suggested GM would never allow a Holden badge to be displayed on a Caddy.

 

[greenacc]

Well I thought I'd click on the link and see what could have been. Honestly that's the ugliest sedan I have seen since the disappearance of the Camira!
It's like a Daewoo styled Honda Civic type R, Wow!

 

[Calaber]

B

If this were released here in Australia as a RHD then it would've clearly been a much better seller than any Camaro would've ever been. This style of vehicle would certainly attract the VF style purchaser that would want a more generic looking car than a low roof flyer that's really only good for two occupants.

But as figjam suggested GM would never allow a Holden badge to be displayed on a Caddy.

Buuuut.... It was quite OK to put an adapted Caddy badge on a Holden.

 

[figjam]

Caddy designers probably didn't even know about a low rent Holden Statesman back in the days.

 

[vs-lover]

Buuuut.... It was quite OK to put an adapted Caddy badge on a Holden.

Their company, their call I guess. Everyone's precious about something and GM are really precious over Cadillac.