An Australian publication has reported that General Motors will no longer export Holden Commodores to the Middle East and Brazil as the Chevrolet Lumina sedan starting next year. However, the larger Caprice will continue to be exported to the Middle East for the time being.
While some Australian publications point towards the strengthening Australian dollar as the reason, it’s more plausible to believe that with the introduction of cars like the Camaro and next-generation Malibu into these markets, the Lumina simply got squeezed out. That, and with the seemingly immanent phasing out of The General’s rear-wheel-drive Zeta architecture for the more modern Alpha rear-wheel-drive architecture, the writing was on the wall for a while now. Though chances are it’s a combination of all those things.
What does this mean for the U.S.-bound Chevrolet Zeta sedan and  El Camino rumors that simply won’t die? Something tells us those plans are somewhere in Limbo land right about now.
Source: Carsales.com.au
Comments
As long as GM has an affordable RWD platform, Zeta or Alpha, I personally don’t care. I just want a civilian Caprice available here in North America – ASAP!!
Zeta won’t go away until 2018 at the earliest. The upcoming Commodore is still going to be coming to the States – may be built in Oshawa alongside Camaro, rather than imported (as local Cruze production + high Aussie $$ makes import difficult). No clue if Ute will come here.
Alpha will not let you produce LWB Caprice-sized cars, or Utes, so it’s not really a replacement for Zeta. Alpha will be considerably smaller (the big question is how much lighter it will be). At some point CTS will move to a stretched Alpha, but Alpha will be a very expensive chassis – not sure how they’re going to cheapen it for Camaro or non-Caddy cars and still make money on it…
Zaphod, the next generation Camaro may not even be built in Oshawa at all. It could instead be built with its Alpha platform mates, the Cadillac ATS and next generation CTS in Lansing, Michigan.
We have also gathered intel stating that the Alpha is flexible enough to support LWB vehicles. And if it can’t, the Omega platform certainly can… as far as making the architecture profitable, it all comes down to the economies of scale. And the funneling of all of GM’s RWD cars to use just one platform certainly helps. Lastly, both the Alpha and Omega platforms are set to bow well before 2018. The Zeta’s days seem to be numbered.
Manoli, Camaro may not be produced at Oshawa after 2015, you are correct. LGR was tentatively assigned the Alpha Camaro, no idea if that’s changing. Alpha can stretch to maybe CTS size, no larger. Not big enough for a Caprice or Ute (Holden may be pushing the new Colorado to replace the Ute in the marketplace).
Holden’s new 2013 Commodore will be viable in the marketplace until 2018 so we will not see Zeta die before then, as much as some people want to shovel dirt on it. What happens post-2018 is the subject of much debate in GM, and GMH telling the Aussie government that unless they contribute to help fund the development (like the Green Car Innovation Fund led to the local production of Cruze), it’s likely the post-2018 Commodore will not be engineered in Oz, may not be RWD, and may not be assembled there…
You seem to have a lot of knowledge regarding the matter, you wouldn’t happen to be an “insider” would you? 😉 Most of GM’s cars (full-sized-trucks aside) seem to have taken a global development approach, why can’t the Commodore? So long as they can continue to build it in Oz and keep Holden at the helm of its development, I fail to see the issue. Hopefully GM has more sense than to soil the Commodore’s iconic reputation with a FWD platform. That would essentially be like pinning the Camaro with a front drivetrain.
Manoli,
On the question of the Lumina, I know that in the Middle East Chevrolet was losing US$4000 per unit on sale because of the strength of the Australian dollar. On those terms it was no longer economicaly viable. I doubt a zeta-based sedan or ute will be viable in North America under the current financial climate.
Zaphod is quite correct on the future of zeta in Australia. It is guaranteed at least until 2018 with negotiations ongoing beyond.
On your question of why the Commodore cant be developed globally, the reason lies in the aftermath of the GM bankruptcy. US taxpayers dollars couldn’t be spent propping up what was essentially a foreign car company. Therefore since then, GM Holden has had to stand on it’s own two feet, and has done so quite profitably. How much longer it can do so, without a viable export market remains to be seen.
i think they phased them out because the Chevy SS will replace them. South Africa still imports the Commodore as the Lumina so I think the VF Commodore will be exported to SA.