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Commodore to sail the seas, morph into new Pontiac G8
Filed under: Miscellaneous, Pontiac , Sedans, Midsize
Holden, General Motor’s Australian outpost, builds some interesting cars. Although not well-known outside of Australia and New Zealand, they do occasionally sell some of their own models elsewhere. Holden’s Caprice, for instance, is sold in the Middle East as the Chevrolet Caprice, a moniker that has disappeared from the U.S. Chevrolet stable.
Most recently, Holden exported its Monaro sports coupe to the States, where Pontiac slapped on a Pontiac-style "twin kidney" grille and dubbed it the GTO, hoping to bask in the reflected glory of resurrecting an iconic model from the 1960s. It didn’t quite work out that way. Although praised by some reviewers, the car’s styling was criticized for being too bland, and the initial excitement soon quieted to a dull roar. Or maybe just dull—sales started tapering off, and last year’s sales were 15% less than the previous year. Regardless of the reason, GM stopped making it after the 2006 model year, citing new U.S. airbag regulations that would have necessitated a very expensive redesign on a model that Holden had stopped selling in Australia the year before. But the momentary Monaro meltdown hasn’t stopped Holden’s export dreams. Pontiac has looked over the various Holden offerings, and has picked the Holden Commodore (pictured) as the next model to make the trans-Pacific voyage to North American shores, where it will be slightly restyled and dubbed the Pontiac G8. The Holden Commodore is Australia’s largest-selling vehicle. GM’s Bob Lutz said at the Detroit Auto Show this week, “We're seriously looking to import a lot of Commodore SSs in the guise of the Pontiac G8. Let's see how that goes. 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.” Lutz said that they had not completely finalized the deal, but that more details would be revealed at the Chicago Auto Show in a few months’ time. It turns out that the newest-model Commodore had been eyed for export since the design days; the engineering on a left-hand-drive version had already been done, for possible export to the Middle East and China. Lutz said getting into the U.S. market was the primary objective--in terms of exports—as well as learning from what happened to the Monaro/GTO. It may not have worked out well in monetary terms, but “it did break the ice on global programs,” he observed. Our take? Speculation has it that this may be a possible Pontiac Grand Prix replacement. At first glance, the Pontiac G8 name might make you think it is replacing the old top-of-the-line (and now defunct) Pontiac Bonneville, but given that Holden already makes a Caprice (which fit into the same slot in the model lineup as the Bonneville), it’s a better bet that the G8 will be the new Grand Prix. Note that if GM ever wants to replace the Bonneville, it’ll have to call it a G9, to match current naming trends. But no word yet on if the automaker ever plan to do that.
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