Trademark Filings Suggest Chevy-Badged Holden Commodore To Be Called SS
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Like a zombie, the rumor of the Holden Commodore making its way (back) to North America following the demise of the Pontiac G8 has been relentless. Unfortunately, all automotive enthusiasts had to go on was a bag of hope mixed with a healthy dose of optimism. Until today.
GM Authority just discovered an April 13, 2012 General Motors trademark filing for the word “SS”. The filing has a serial number of 85597402 and a brief description that reads: “The mark consists of the letters SS in a fanciful design.”
Now that GM has filed for the SS mark, we can start putting the pieces together in figuring out exactly what’s in store from The General. To start, let’s travel back to the end of 2009, when an unassuming email from General Motors support to a dealer service department contained the following clue:
“…a fix is planned for MY11.5 Chevy Police Program and MY12 Chevy SS. The fix will involve a protective sleeve that covers the buckle and section of the buckle stem that rubs on the plastic trim.”
But that’s just the beginning. Barely a month into 2010, we got wind of the following quote from none other than Maximum Bob Lutz himself:
If we can pull that off and we have the next generation Commodore in as a police vehicle then we want to take a look at reintroducing a civil version as a high-end Chevrolet. Because when you get down to it the thrill of high performance driving is unmatched by anything that doesn’t have rear-wheel drive, bags of torque and a nice transmission. So there’s a possibility of a premium Chevrolet sedan that would be sold in limited numbers. Think of it as a kind of four-door Corvette.
Combine these tidbits with the upcoming VF refresh of the Holden Commodore for the 2014 model year, a new NASCAR model that will not wear the Impala nameplate, as well as the trademark filing for the SS name, and what we’re starting to see is rather clear: GM decided to delay until the Commodore VF update to bring the vaunted Commodore to the States as the Chevrolet SS. Sure, a trademark filing by itself doesn’t confirm anything — but given the hushed nature of the project and the amount of surrounding evidence presented, we’d wager than the Zeta-based Commodore will land Stateside shortly.
Be sure to stay tuned to GM Authority for the latest GM news surrounding this car… and much more!
Update: several folks have suggested that the name of this vehicle will be Monte Carlo or Commodore; while that’s not out of the realm of possibility, we’d like to note that — at this time — GM doesn’t seem to own any trademark rights to those names.
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I think GM might call it ” Lumina” like in the middle east and South Africa, and the SS was one of five trim levels were available. Also, in 2008 up to 2011 there were a special edition was called CR8.
Possibly. Bit at this time, there is no trademark filing (or otherwise) for the word Lumina that belongs to GM.
This is not to say that it can’t be filed for… Or haven’t been filed for over the last couple of days.
Would they need to re-file a trademark for the Lumina name? Wouldn’t they still have the rights to the name from the old fwd model? Or do the trademark laws not work like that?
I think they still have the rights to the lumina name as long as it wasnt liquidated during the bankruptcy period.
Sometimes, when a car is named after a trademark they once had, but now another company has, they both end up existing as neither company has enough legal firepower to overpower the quasi legal defense of the other.
Such a case is with the now discontinued Lincoln’s LS and Lexus’ LS
But I havent heard of any other company with a car named lumina so it shouldnt be a problem id they pick that name.
@Babersher That may be, but if they were, indeed, planning on using the name, they’d play the safe card and file for it anyway — which would give them undisputed rights to use the name in the automotive space. Given that there is no such trademark, I’m skeptical.
Well yes, and I personally dont think GM will ever revive the Lumina name, as it was an only unloved uninspiring poorly built fwd boat that was mourned by little and missed by none. Plus the luminas target demographic is in the hands of the impala now.
Sounds Promising! Hope some lame choice of Grey only interiors is not in the works(94-96 Impala SS). We need 426 HP Plus, Automatic and Rear Wheel Drive.
Why not just call it the “Chevy Commodore?”
I agree, but one of the purposes of this car is to make up for the FWD Impala for the enthusiasts. Expect it to have a nostalgic name.
I hope I can get 1 w/AWD and a Gen V LS3 and the new 8-speed tranny.
Still want to see an El Camino. Please GM do the right thing!!!
I think you’re right on this one Alex. Chevy SS, that’s it. I also have read and believe that the availability of this car will be limted, possibly very limited? I can see the “dealer bump” stickers already.
YES !!!
This better be one blow away looking car, to me if it looks exactly like a Holden that will be a huge mistake. This is very exciting but I could see it becoming not so exciting and even rather disappointing if it isn’t all Chevy…
SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!!!
Should be the Monaro! Not the Commodore! Just another rebadged sedan.. Yaaaawn Bah! Nothing new I’ll Pass…
The Monaro is dead and gone, and rebadging/platform sharing is a fact of life in the auto industry.
Would be better to do away with the Holden brand altogether overtime… The guys who truly care about Holden are the ones NOT buying the Barina/Sonic, Spark, Cruze, or Malibu.
Move Holden to niche status and move Chevy in?
I would!
No one is going to give you the reigns!
If I remember correctly, you lied to me about the return of the G3, so why should I belive you and your fanciful world of Holden/Chevy?
Personally, I don’t think GM will get rid of Holden. You can’t compare the Holden brand to Pontiac or Oldsmobile. It pretty much is/was THE Australian car company. Australians are extremely patriotic and would NOT appreciate it if the Holden name was scrapped for Chevrolet. Even though most of the core models are badge engineered Chevys in this day in age, it’s about an image. It reminds me of when there was a bit of a backlash in that country for US-based Kraft Foods buying Australia’s national icon Vegemite, that some locally owned copies like “Aussiemite” started cropping up in response.
It’s the same reason why Vauxhall exists in the UK alongside the continental Opel. It’s marketing to national identity. I’ll put it this way… Imagine if Fiat were to replace Chrysler in the US with Lancia? LOL, I’m sure that wouldn’t go over well.
Agreed. That’s why it won’t necessarily be an instant change-over. The Chevy name can be “applied” to Holdens in one way or another for years, if not decades… until the two are synonymous. There are specific yet flexible marketing theory and strategy that applies to a huge renaming/rebranding effort like that. The same goes for Vauxhall.
But what’s really the reason of doing this? In my opinion, the reason is globalization of not only products/services, but also brands. GM will be at a disadvantage in the long run by not having a true mainstream global brand like Chevy. Ford, Hyundai, Toyota, Kia, Honda, etc. have the advantage of being a global name — so people all over the planet will be able to talk about/discuss the brand and its products using today’s global social media networks… while those who live in “specialty brand areas” such as Holden and Vauxhall will not be part of the conversation.
One big problem with this, Alex, as I have mentioned some time ago on your blog, is that Holden’s strategy has been highly variable in the past, regardless of Levitt, homogenization, globalization and brand theory. It was not that long ago that Holden (apart from the V cars) fielded Opels and the Holden Cruze, which was a rebodied Suzuki. Based on your argument, Holden should have shifted to Opel in the 1990s, because a global brand strategy demands it. It makes sense, and I wrote something along these very lines in 1992.
The reality is that Holden seems to be whatever the CEO wants at the time: if they put a German in there, it becomes Opel-like; if they put an American in there, it becomes Chevrolet-like. Never mind marketing theory, GM has always been political, and wisdom suggests it always will be so.
Since Hanenberger (an ex-Opel man) left, and the Opel-sourcing strategy fell, and now that Holden sells Chevrolets (née Daewoo), would that mean another change of marque for these global conversations? And who is to say that GM doesn’t have yet another change of heart in another 10 years’ time and Holden starts selling Opels again?
Shall we succumb to the needs of this global consumer who cannot fathom the confusion between brands as he moves across continents? If so, Holden (by now called Opel) should have been renamed Daewoo in the mid-2000s when Lacetti, Tosca, Winstorm and Kalos were launched into the range (N. B. Daewoo was represented in far more countries in 1999–2003 than Chevrolet was), and Chevrolet now. It sounds expensive, and the loss of goodwill with each change would be immense.
I’m not saying GM has got it right, nor am I saying your theory is wrong, because, deep down, I prefer single brands. I see it with Adidas, Nike, Benetton, L’Oréal and Chanel. I realize full well what savings can be generated.
However, historically, Holden has been a highly confused brand that sources cars from all over the place. Go through its history, especially after 1975, and you will see a bunch of strategies for Holden. Among the leaked but unimplemented ideas included fielding Cadillacs to replace the Statesman in the 1980s, and calling them Holdens. The Holden range could have been a mix of Suzuki, Nissan, Opel, and Cadillac if one scenario was realized.
So, you might argue, why not just adopt global brands for each car for those global conversations? Makes sense. Call the Barina the Suzuki Cultus, and the Camira the Opel Ascona. Answer: it’s been done. And it flopped.
As GM New Zealand discovered in the late 1980s, having a disunited range with a model per segment was a disaster. It fielded what it considered to be the most suitable for each segment: Holden Barina (Suzuki was already selling the Cultus in New Zealand as the Swift), Pontiac Le Mans, Opel Vectra, Holden Commodore. The population in New Zealand, and to some extent Australia, was simply too small for a larger range per marque, nor were there sufficient marketing resources to support even that “global brands” scenario.
In 1994, GMNZ decided on Holden as the unifying brand for Opel, Holden, Isuzu and Chevrolet cars (for ‘Chevrolet’, read ‘Suburban’, the only one sold as a Holden in the 1990s). For a while, it did very well.
One other global brand realignment in the car industry has not worked. Remember when Nissan insisted on consistency, and Datsun disappeared from most markets? Some believe that the company never recovered from that. You can argue that Chevy is more widely established than Nissan was, but does it really have much loyalty, perceived quality or positive brand associations? Looking at cars like the recently renamed Daewoo Matiz Creative, or the old J241 Lacetti, both sold as Chevys outside Korea, I would say no. Chevrolet, as a budget brand (which it is in many countries) lacks a history. Of the global GM brands, I prefer Opel a lot more because it potentially has more equity (and Wheels magazine regards Cruze as a retrograde step from Astra H), yet I still wouldn’t kill Holden.
Global brands work at some levels, but not at others, especially not when localization has led to brand loyalty which, as you know, is a component of brand equity. In a real-life scenario, how many boardrooms would want to see that equity reduced? Not many, and this happens all the time, especially in FMCG.
You might see global brands with some, such as Ford and Kia as you state, but even some of the others you mention don’t do it. Toyota did not sell Lexus in the home market till relatively recently, and Scion is unique to North America—so Toyota is learning to field different brands in different markets, positioning each model differently. The Honda Accord is young and sporty as the American Acura, but sold to old ladies in Britain—while the car called Accord in the US and Canada is the Inspire back in Japan. You see Renaults sold as Nissans in some countries and Samsungs sold as Renaults. Hyundai has a marque—not model line—called Genesis in Korea, but it has deemed it too risky to start the new brand elsewhere, so it’s Hyundai Genesis in the US. GM Korea has Chevrolet, but it also has a brand called Alpheon (formerly Daewoo Alpheon), selling a rebadged Buick Lacrosse. These folks aren’t wanting global conversations.
V-cars aside, Holden is a brand that’s a shell in to which GM dumps a mixture of cars from different sources. You say it would miss out on your social media conversations—but, look, we’re having one right now. And GM may well want people to not have those conversations because it still desires a top–down approach to marketing.
Brands are not just aimed at consumers, they are aimed at internal staff. Your theories have not addressed (to my knowledge) the effect the Chevrolet rebrand would have on Holden’s engineering and design teams, who arguably view themselves as mavericks in a faraway GM post. These are the guys who did the Monaro in secret, after hours, because they didn’t see themselves as GM or Chevy guys: they saw themselves as Holden guys. Call it Chevrolet, and what would be their identity? And would it not be tied (in Holden’s eyes) with Brand USA, a nation brand that is as variable as who the president is and what wars the country engages in?
Finally, you may be underestimating the intelligence of consumers. I do not currently live in a country in which Chevrolet is a mainstream brand. Yet I know exactly what you are talking about, as any car enthusiast does. With social networks, I can make recommendations based on conversations we have, because people ask my opinion on cars. These very global social networks allow us to bridge linguistic divides as well as brand-based ones. GM may well see it that way, so Holden and Vauxhall will live on, at least till rationalization re-presents itself as the only option.
Who cares if it’s a rebadge if they aren’t available in the same place? Sure, I hated the rebadging of G5s and Cobalts, but this is fine.
Yea, I actually strongly support Global rebadging which I think is very good for sales and profit. Theres only a problem with rebadging if the rebadged cars are being sold in the same place. Thats why I support the rebadging of Buick and Opels lineup.
How about the paradox that is China, with Buick and now Opel in the same market?
Remember the Isuzu Gemini badged as Buick/Opel? 🙂 (I am being facetious.)
I thought someone from GM was quoted as saying “we’ve got a really good name in store for [the new vehicle]”. THIS IS NOT A COOL NAME!! ITS WEEEEEEAKSAUCE. I’m hoping this filing just means an Impala SS. If the new sports sedan is just called “SS”, mine will be rebadged to a Holden Commodore.
This car, while really awesome, needs some upgrade as it`s getting dated – it debuted a few years ago.
That’s why they’ve been waiting for the VF update for 2014.
So there`s an update for this cars coming…good news. I hope they’ll make a good bad-ass RWD Chevy sedan out of this platform. However it all takes them too long don`t you think?
Good things take time 🙂
Check this out… anyone think The General could launch Holden in the states????
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4004:k624b6.9.3
Sorry… this link works better:
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85258433
Apart from only 2 cars, the LWB and SWB Zeta’s, putting Holden in the US would interfer and overlap with Chevrolet’s car sales.
There might be a case for the Ute, but not as a Holden. It certainly didn’t work as a Pontiac ST, and even then the forthcoming new-gen Colorado would take care of that.
So, no, Holden isn’t going to make it to US so long as Chevrolet still exists as GM’s “bread and butter” brand in the US.
Outside of Commodore, Caprice, and Ute, it’s the same lineup. Holden will make its way to the States when Buick makes it way to Europe… Or Opel comes to North America.
I think Holden would be a good niche brand for people like me that wish Pontiac would come back. Pontiac is a much more storied brand, but I think starting fresh with Holden would get people excited.
I know I’m daydreaming with the idea of either being brought here/resurrected, but it’s still fun!
The Aussies could say just as much of Holden over Pontiac.
I mean that last time a Pontiac actually raced as a Pontiac was probably when NASCAR had lax safety standards and cars looked like the showroom models.
Then there is Holden and it’s V8 supercars history….which pretty much writes itself.
@Chris Just don’t tell that to PontiacRulz. 🙂
Yuck. “SS”. You’re setting the bar wayyyy too high, GM. While I’m sure in reality the car will be great, it’s still not going to come close to our expectations. And if it does, expect a hefty price tag. Look at the 04-06 GTO… the looks disappointed everyone (not me), but you got a friggin LS1/3 for $32k!!! I think (read: HOPE) this will be the opposite… looks great and is a beast. Will be thoroughly surprised if this thing topped-out stays in the low $30’s. #fingerscrossed
I’m just happy to read about a car that isn’t a 4 cyl or a hybrid as fans of G.M. let’s all get behind them on this one
Amen
I’m starting to understand why awd is not available on the new Impala
Interesting, right? I would, however, point out that the Commodore is a class smaller than the new Impala and the Commodore’s bigger sibling — the Caprice/Statesman. So forcing folks into the Commodore/SS may not be such a good idea due to the decrease in size (and overall cabin space).
The more I think about it, perhaps “SS” isn’t such a bad name after all. If it IS a limited model, than it kind of represents a flagship “Super Sport” sedan for all Chevy SS models. It seems to me that GM is ready to fight Chrysler’s “SRT Viper” and upcoming “SRT Barracuda.”
this will have the SRT family in it’s sights along with the SHO and some forgien marks that all compete in the higher horsepower market. the price will be very competitive and lower than most in the market it will have lots of power and will be very sporting looking and have the new look of Chevy with a very aggressive twist, It will be wide low and be best in class as far as power and weight. hope this helps.
Thanks for the info jd – sounds exciting!
man can’t wait to see it this is gonna be one hell of a car
JD, will it be available w/AWD?