While most of the commotion at the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro unveiling was around, well, the 2016 Camaro, we decided to poke around for a few answers on where Holden’s promised V8 sports car stands.
Our gut feeling was an all-new Holden Monaro, via a sixth-generation Chevrolet Camaro in right-hand drive guise, but according to our sources it’s highly unlikely to happen. At least anytime soon.
Holden has publicly committed to a rear-wheel drive V8 sports car multiple times in the past, which leads us to believe to 2016 C7 Corvette Stingray may actually be the real contender after all. Though, we’ve also received intel from Bowling Green, home of Corvette production, stating the complications with producing the 2016 C7 Corvette in right-hand drive configuration.
It truly sounds like a toss up at this point in time. Or perhaps development is very early on in a RHD program for either car, with no significant information to surface at this point in time. Though, General Motors may have a wildcard up their sleeve.
GM shocked us with the Buick Avenir concept, developed and designed in Australia via Holden, meaning maybe there’s another project lurking about in the shadows.
But, we digress. It’s most likely the 2016 Camaro or 2016 C7 Corvette will find its way to Aussie shores. Our mates down under may just have to wait for some time.
Comments
I expect there is another car with RHD and the Buick was only the first version.
Biggest problem for volume is not enough doors,
a V8 sedan will always out sell a two door in au, having a two door may be a nice option for some but most will always choose a sedan.
I have both two & four door cars and never use the coupe if passengers are involved.
There a lots of very smart people running GM now, but I have to say this decision is baffling. Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the UK, there are lots of right hand drive market out there. In Australia, for example, there are reports of thousand of confirmed order for the Mustang, which won’t arrive there until December. I think its a mistake not to offer this car to right hand drive market
The fact is all is not known here.
In GM speak the Camaro is not coming but they did not say another model is not coming. We may have not see all yet.
Also even if you add up all the sales and then factor in the exchange rates and fluctuation in currency then spread it out over the say 10-15 thousand cars they would sell would they still make a profit?
Your biggest markets would be down under and UK but even there you would be hard pressed to sell 8,000 units tops.
I would really love to see them rework the Camaro but even then is there money to be made?
Even Ford has limited the Mustang to the V6 only on exports. Not sure if it is because they can not fit the RHD with the V8 or why but they are not even getting the good model in most markets as an export.
I just think a coupe or sedan on the Omega may have a better shot as it has a wider profit margin and has a better change of making money. Also with the new construction while it would be larger it may weigh about the same.
I would let GM fully complete and announce what they will do as the smart people there still have a lot of work to do. For once they are winning and most have not been in place even 5 years yet a model cycle.
I’m not sure I agree with u Scott. Firstly, re-working this car with a new name doesn’t make sense. People outside of North America are yearning for the Mustang, primarily because of the iconic nameplate, and the name Camaro is just as well known, and would peak lots of interest. Secondly, the Mustang V8 will be available in the UK and Australia, among other countries, in fact, Australians love V8s. Now, I’m not sure if the chassis of the Camaro, as it now stands, can accommodate the steering wheel on the other side, but that’s a different matter.
My point is that GM may have a different model in mind here for Holden based on the Omega.
There has been talk of Buick getting a coupe and if that is the case that also could be tied to Opel and Holden.
The bottom line is GM needs to leverage out the Omega and if not a coupe I expect the odds are greater that you will see some kind of V8 and V6 sedan.
The only issues in play that could hurt this is dropping sales of larger V8 cars in country and the exchange rates.
GM appears to be specific that some models will not be coming but they generally appear to have some RWD in mind and I suspect it is one we have yet to see.
We heard the same thing on the Colorado here once you got one. It would not be coming but we did get one and they even reworked it for our market.
The Mustang will be interesting to see how it sells. While they said it sold out in places we much also remind ourselves it is not exactly being exported in great numbers. It is only being sent with a V6 in limited numbers and is not cheap in other countries.
Ford Marketing is very creative on how they state sales of the car and while they give true statements they are carefully worded misleading statements too.
The real issue here is to build the Camaro here and ship it there and in the numbers it will sell how well will it sell. While there is a great interest a smaller market with car that is priced too high by the time it arrives with the extra cost of reengineering could lead to limited sales.
While the Holden’s that came to America were popular sales were limited because of price. By the time we go them they were at a price we had many other options in the same price or less with a V8.
The only real bargain we had was the G8 as Pontiac was shutting down. GM was trying to clear the lots and people were not wanting to buy a car that was going out of production. I passed on a G8 GT at $25,000 new. One of my greatest mistakes as that was about $10,000 off sticker.
Right now what is really hurting in Australia is the increase in sales of smaller FWD imports just as we suffered in the 70’s and 80’s here. The larger cars still have a following but the numbers are growing smaller and harder to support. It was not just GM as Ford made the move to cut the RWD V8 first for the same reasons.
Here we sell more cars so we were able to support a couple cars but even today with the new models we have we are short so many of the RWD V8 models we used to have.
With people going to Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai and others it has changed the market. It used to be that most of the Chevys sold were a Caprice V8 and today it is a 4 cylinder Cruze or hopefully a new Malibu very soon.
We even lost the Camaro once because of dying sales and the cost of a new model was so great. We were lucky there were a few inside GM that fought for the car and with the loss of the Firebird it moved all the sales to one model. They knew they needed to have a better car too and it has paid off to where we are today. While 100 K units are small compare to 2-3 times what the small sedans sell it is enough to support this model. The key was to get the sales as close or over 100K units or this deal would have never made it as I was told.
No V6 Mustangs will be exported Scott, only GT V8 and Ecoboost models.
F&”k GM are dumb c$&ts……
I wonder if GM is waiting for the end of Commodore production to gauge the void that’s left in the market and create pent up demand while they are working behind the scenes on a product to replace it. Similar to the way the Colorado/Canyons were pulled from the US market only to be reintroduce later to great sales. I know that’s a frustrating approach in the eyes of the consumer.
I’m also curious if the new Camaro is prohibitively difficult to convert to RHD. I mean, we keep hearing that this is a global economy/industry and that cars are supposed to be designed to fit as many markets as possible. Even though the Camaro is primarily a North America product, I would think they understand the potential for the Camaro in the right hand markets and built that in to this new design to be adaptable for LHD and RHD.
I don’t see the Corvette as a correct replacement for the Commodore. That’s apple to oranges.
Wheels Magazine interviewed GM Head of Design and he said a Holden Avenir was highly unlikely and cited that the curviture of it and the Buick design language isn’t suited to Holden.
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Dear GM executives outside of Holden management,
You suck at market research and product research.
Sincerely,
Holden Fans and Potential customers
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Dear Stephen Jacoby of GM,
We F*&$%^# hate you.
Sincerely,
Holden fans
I’m at odds to grasp how one of the three world’s largest car manufacturers is still designing new cars as LHD only, and not simultaneously as LHD and RHD.
This shows that the Detroit provincialism, which had been at the basis of the bankruptcy of old GM, is still not overcome.
At least at Opel, every car designed and constructed in Rüsselsheim is available in LHD and RHD from the very first day. Why can’t they do that in Warren? Are they blind there?
And have they never thought about GM’s inability of selling cars in Japan, when they can’t offer RHD cars for this country driving on the left side of the road?
looks like NZ will be riddled with the new Right hand drive MUSTANG …wot a shame