Holden Commodore = Pontiac G8

[WhereHaveYouBeen]

http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=22497&vf=2

"We're seriously looking to import a lot of Commodore SSs in the guise of the Pontiac G8. Let's see how that goes," he said at the Detroit Motor Show yesterday.

"It's such a logical thing to do. The volume range is 30,000 to 50,000. It depends a little bit on how we price it."

"We haven't fully announced it. We have yet to make an official announcement," Mr Lutz said. "Much more will be revealed at the Chicago show."

"While the GTO program might not have fulfilled all our hopes and dreams in terms of profitability, it did break the ice on global programs," Mr Lutz said.

"With the GTO we made a bit of a mistake.

"The deterioration in profitability through the appreciation of the Australian dollar, we passed on to the customer.

"It gets to be an oxygen-deprived environment. This time we're going to try very hard to keep the vehicle (http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43081#) in the mid-$20,000s."

Uh, Ford, are you listening? You should have done this a long time ago with the Mondeo, and with the Current Euro Focus. Ford makes me angry.

This is a good idea, and while I don't believe the "Mid-$20's" for a second, it's what the Grand Prix should have been. I hope they don't mess this up.

[helldorado]

If they can actually bring the car over at 25k as a base V8 model, it'll be a huge hit. But I have a hard time seeing it happening. They couldn't bring the GTO over for less than 32k and that was pretty damn spartan.

And if they don't bring the SS-V, I'm not interested!

[helldorado]

Did a quick look at the Commodore's specs. Its the LS2 and the transmissions are pretty much a copy for the C6's 6 speed auto and the Z51 6 speed manual.

Bad news, it weighs in at 3950-4000 lbs. I certainly hope that isn't an indicator of the weight for the Camaro because it'll really kill its performance.

[NissT]

That's a nice car and a very smart move by GM. I am sure that the interior will be on pars with at least Cadillac.
It puzzles me why Ford isn't doing something similar with it's Australian muscle cars. I brought up a conversation about Ford with my good friend today and he said that even though they loose so much money they still have billions in cash and he said buy the stock when it goes below $6 :rolleyes:
He's got 3 degrees in financing/business related fields, but I am still very sceptical.

[Sorin]

You know "mid-$20,000s" is going to be the absolute baseline bottom of the barrel model with nothing nice or useful in it. So many manufacturers are the same in that. They announce some target price point, and it always turns out to be a completely stripped vehicle. If they bring this over, it will no doubt be over $30k to get any useful sorts of options on it in order to get some kind of passing resemblance to comfort and enjoyment while driving.

At least GM hasn't been as gay as Nissan with option packages (last I checked anyways, it's been a while). Last time I tooled around with a vehicle builder for a GM brand, I could still keep the price decent because there weren't any flamingly retarded requirements when choosing options - like having a sunroof (and it's full price) forced on you when selecting something as monumentally unrelated as a CD player or comfort/convenience package.

But mid-$20,000s for something usable in day to day driving? I doubt it.