Not long ago we wrote about a Colorado-based company called Left Hand Utes, which imports Holden’s El Camino-like Ute to North America. There’s always been a following in the U.S. for the forbidden fruit that is Holden’s half car half truck, and Left Hand Utes has managed to become rather successful by filling a niche market many never knew was there.
Two of Left Hand Utes’ creations were at the SEMA show in Las Vegas this past week, including the Ivy Green 2010 Maloo the company said it was working on in April. For those not in-the-know, the Maloo is Holden Special Vehicles’ take on the Ute and uses General Motors’ 425 horsepower 6.2-liter LS3 V8. The example at SEMA even had a manual transmission, raising the drool factor even more.
The two owners of Left Hand Utes, John Ehrlich and Randall Reese, spoke to Australia’s CarsGuide at the SEMA show about their interesting start-up idea. They opened up shop in Denver about 18 months ago, and have completed 16 left hand drive Utes to date. According to them, GM “is crazy” for not bringing the Ute over stateside and missed “a massive opportunity.”
Some of you may remember when GM did have plans to bring the Ute to America, branded as a Pontiac and sold as the ‘G8 Sport Truck’. They even gave it a public unveiling at the 2008 New York Auto Show, but the plans fell through once the 2009 financial crisis hit.
Left Hand Utes will sell you a standard converted ute for about $40,000, while the top-of-the-line HSV Maloo version will run you about $95,000. That’s a 20 percent markup compared to what an Aussie customer would pay, but for the work involved, we’d say it’s worth it. Now who’s going to be first person to ask them to convert a Gen-F HSV GTS Maloo?
Comments
The suits in GM product plannlng department need to loosen their ties and get out to see what people are driving. I see old El Caminos every day here in CA.
GM – getting some of it right and some of it wrong.
they build huge trucks and suvs that cannot go on forever…. and disregard this great personal size more reasonable fun truck/ute that’s been in there backyard for a long time.’
i like holden.
While the El Camino looks like it has held on for years you must remember too many are kept by a small group of owners that keep them alive as where else are they going to get one.
I am a past owner and would be a future owner if there was one offered for a reasonable price.
The problem comes in is the majority of buyers in America would not pay the same price for a small car based vehicle that would cost nearly as much as a full size truck. If you base it on a smaller car it is going to end up FWD and not make anyone happy.
The best shot we had was with the Pontiac ST but too many in GM were working to move Pontiac out as it has no real global foot print. Share production with Holden would have provided the right number of cars to make it viable here though not cheap.
What really killed the Camino here before was the smaller truck. Now that it is back there is no real foot hold for a product like this to be made in numbers great enough to sold globally at a cheap enough price.
Get one of these here in a Alpha bases size and sell it for $30K even with the 300 V6 I would be all over it. But I also understand they would sell in numbers less than a Corvette.
Right now our best hope is for a even smaller truck than the Colorado at some point in the future that is nearly S10 size. Note I am not holding my breath on that one showing up soon.
Maybe so, but they’ve done many “niche” market products before and never batted an eye about them. They then come up with all the so called excuses about this vehicle. The reason I say this as I would be one of those buyers.
Most niche models were built on bunch of parts bin parts and the results were spotty at best. Then they often would charge a very high price that often sealed the fate of a car that was then over prices.
Case in point.
Niche mode SSR. Based on a Trailblazer frame with bits and parts from everything including an Alfa Romeo. Then it was priced at over $40K. Some like to say styling was at fault but the similar styled HHR sold in 6 figure numbers for many years.
Niche model Kappa. While they did pretty good on price the fact is it was another parts bin car with parts from everything including GMC Envoy, Pontiac GP and even a CTS Cadillac. While that was not bad it was small inside with no trunk. If they had started with a clean sheet they would have done better but the cost would have climbed and you never would have had a chance at $20K base prices.
Here is were we are at today. The Alpha or Omega is the only platform left that could support this. Even then we do not have the engineering studies that would prove it could support this.
They then would have to borrow and use many bin parts to keep this car with a base price in the $30K plus range compromising the model. Then you are looking at best for a model priced close to $40K selling 20K units or less.
Then on top of that the media exposure for a sexy 2 seat sports car or a retro folding roof truck is factored in. The real issue is this vehicle would get a general road test and do very little media wise for the company so there would be little there to help the case.
Trust me I have a love for this kind of vehicle and would buy one if not price crazy. But to get it in the numbers you need and for the price it would require I have looked at it 6 ways to Sunday and it is a tough business case to make. I know it may appear simple but if you factor all the things GM has to look at there is not enough there.
Even if they did come out with it I see a 5 year or less run at best.
Also if it were a strong segment where others like Ford, VW, Subaru and Chrysler have tried and failed at in the past others would be in it now.
The best hope we may have is a CUV model could be transformed into a small truck but even then it is still not going to fill he desires of those who what a tradition RWD car based vehicle.
I will own another at some point again but I expect it will be an older one that is restored as I just can’t see it coming back anytime soon in the style we are wanting.
GMC showed a CUV based small FWD truck that was interesting. It had an expandable bed and all but again it is not the same.
Paul I hear you but I can not make that piece of the puzzle fit no matter how big of a mallet I use,