As much as it pains us to be losing the Holden Commodore as we know it, we hope it alleviates fellow Holden diehards’ stress levels to know Holden has gone back on the record stating they will always have a V8 sports car.
“It wouldn’t be a Holden portfolio without a V8 sports car,” said GM Executive Director of Sales, Peter Keley. This reiterates comments made by Stefan Jacoby, who promised Holden would receive a rear-wheel drive vehicle within the next few years to replace the Zeta-based Holden Commodore.
GM executives are refusing to confirm the 2016 Chevrolet Camaro will be the car heading down under, but we’d place our bets on it being so. Especially since the Ford Mustang has been received pretty well in Australia thus far.
“We’ve already made that announcement – there’s no new announcement on that and there’s been lots conjecture as to what it will be, but Holden will always have a V8 sports car – that’s what the Holden brand has had for many decades and will have into the future. It’s part of our heritage,” Keley told Motoring as they pressed for more details.
Holden did state the reaffirmed commitment does not stand as a preemptive strike to sway consumers away from a Ford Mustang, however.
“We’re not building our strategy based on what anybody else is doing,” said GM Holden Director of Communications Sean Poppitt. “We’re taking the long-term view. Of course we’ve got to react to the market and have tactical strategies, but we’re not doing what we’re doing based on what this guy or that guy is doing.”
The upcoming Holden rear-wheel drive V8 sports car will be just one of the 24 new model introductions the brand plans by 2020. As far as a time table goes, if Holden plans to have their new Monaro (we’re pretty sure it’s going to be a Monaro) ready by the time Commodore production ceases, the vehicle would have to debut within the next three years.
What’s your say? Do you think the 2016 Camaro should head to Australia?
Horsepower and grip take the win.
Amid a legal battle with a GM supplier.
With multiple model years recommended.
Generally following the market trend.
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Camaro, Corvette, and CTS. Those are the choices. You could offer all three in Australia as the Holden CCC Program (or CCCP for short).
CCCP. Hey that has a nice ring to it. It's the kind of economics that bean counters are familiar with.
For the kids out there, historical point of order: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/CCCP
Why all the piss and moan about getting a better lighter and more up to date Alpha? Even we appreciated the dated looking GTO when we had nothing here.
The Zeta was a great car but it's time has passed and time to move on and up in performance and down in weight.
In a few days you will find that new Camaro will out do anything the present car does and will only get better with each new model.
I do hope they make some changes to the Camaro and rename it a Monaro as a Holden Camaro just does not sound right. Give it some Holden Hallmarks to set it apart to make it their own.
Camaro is a global brand. Rebadging Monaro is ridiculous pandering that if anything will decrease sales.
Vehicles like Camaro, Mustang, & Challenger require little advertising as these icons represent what it means to be an auto.
In many ways even for US consumers, Camaro, Corvette and Tahoe ceased being Chevy long ago.
One of the appealing things about a SS Commodore is that it is a four door sedan (or sportswagon or ute). In the case of the sedan you could easily justify the purchase as the daily driver, the wife to go shopping in or pickup the kids from school. Up the coast for the weekend with the kids and all the stuff that travels with a family in the back (sportswagon) or boot (trunk).
A Camaro hardly fits into that category. It's more like buying a Monaro and pretending that it's the family car. Monaros and Falcon GT Copes didn't sell in huge quantities because not everyone can afford a sports car and a family car sitting in the garage. So nice as a Camaro might be, it can't replace a SS Commodore .
Dont waste your breath trying to explain it mate, all the american posters see in common sense posts like yours is "all i want is a Zeta and will accept nothing else".
How can you say that Holden will 'always' have a V8 sports car without qualifying it with something like 'foreseeable future' or 'as long as regulations/conditions allow'? It is just a dumb thing to say. Who hires these people?
Good for the brand to at least know that one is coming after the end of local production.
Unlike in the USA, where CAFE standards try left and right to destroy V8 engines, Australia doesn't have to worry about that.
It's much cheaper and easier to sell V8-engined cars over there. Hence why Falcon and Commodore have lasted for so long. Without that, G8 and SS sedans never would have existed.
As long as there's a V8 engined car in the GM family, Holden can easily captive import it. Camaro is likely to win, but my heart is always on Holden creating a luxury-delete CTS, and making sure the huge investment in Alpha isn't wasted on the slow-selling Cadillac sedans.
That maybe the case now Chris but probably won't always be the case in the future. We are generally a more left leaning country than what you are so I wouldn't rule out those type of standards being implemented here once local industry goes.
It is like if Holden said 100+ years ago that they would always have a horse saddle in their range (I'm assuming you are aware of their pre-GM history) because there will always be horses on our roads, and people want them to produce saddles.
Also take a look at our existing market. It has already been said that once local industry leaves that the price entry point into the V8 market is going to creep higher and higher. If you remove Commodore from the top 10 sales list you are looking at what is pretty much a very 4 cylinder heavy market.
All the ute manufacturers have nearly all dropped 6 cylinder petrol engines from their ranges. Toyota will likely be the last and drop this from the new Hilux later this year. So even 6 cylinder engines are going to become increasingly rare. Our top selling SUVs are all cross over's with 4 cylinder engines. No one could have seen this 15 years ago, maybe even 10 years ago.
Given all this, in 15 years time can you see the market able to support a V8 engined vehicle at a price point that is acceptable for a vehicle with the Holden badge? I hope so but I wouldn't hold my breath.
I suspect you will, but I agree that it will likely be a car like the Corvette 15 years from now.
My hope is that the 450 hp barrier becomes attainable through a mix of V6 engine enhancements and hybrid cost drops through cheaper batteries.
I don't think anyone here really cares about the number of cylinders, it's the effect of being forced to use turbochargers. I love my Sky Red Line, but it won't hit 300,000 miles like the natural V6 in my G6.
The jury is still out on twin-turbo V6 durability. With LNF, we had to swap out the small blocks with more aluminum to make it durable. Hence why LTG small blocks were bolt-on compatible with LNF... so they could be used for warranty replacements from the stresses endured.
450 hp is an important barrier, it's not just Commodore V8 territory, it nets you 0-60 in 4.5 seconds.
The moans and growns is the fact it isn't our V8 sports car.
Ok if you don't want the car tell GM to keep it and drive all the FWD cars you are now getting from everyone accept the most expensive cars.
Sorry you live in a country that sells less cars than many states do in America. You are part of the Global market now and no longer as isolated as you once were.
I wish things would not change for you as you always had an intersting market but that kind of market is going away fast. It is time to accept the fact you will have to adapt or just get what ever Asian car that Mazda and Toyota see fit to send you. You can be sure that it will not be a V8 and will not be RWD unless it is a MX5.
we here in the states would love to have many different things but the realities of the world are upon us and economically it can not even be sustained in our market anymore.
Sometimes Life Sucks and you can not do a dang thing about it. I sorry to deliver the new to some but that is the way it is. Customers have changed, regulations have changed and the value of currency has changed globally and not much we as car enthusiast can do about it but to support the automakers who still try to give us some models that are fun and interesting.
GM and others could easily just take the Honda and Toyota route and just make plain jane 4 door FWD cars and make as much or more profits but they chose to take the risk to make a lower volume car at even only 100,000 units and still try to give you what you like as much as they can.
It sucks you live where they sell so few cars but that is how it is and you can support a performance model that is offered or you can just get a slew of FWD cars and not have anything.
As for the name Camaro is not yet a global brand. I is a known name but not really one that is global accpet for the limited exports. Unless they sell it as a Chevy it will be hard to call it a Camaro per what one GM marketing director said a while back.
Also I would not discount that the car that may be sent down under may not even be a Camaro. There are things going on you have no clue of yet that will suprise you. It still could be the Buick/Opel/Holden sedan that we know Holden had a big part in or a varation of this model that could still be in the works. There are several options yet because the cards have not been laid down means you do not know what ones GM is holding.
It's disappointing Australia will be losing a piece of its heritage with the Holden brand to be replaced with vehicles that are at best a cheaply produced domestic vehicle for the states. Quality control and performance are ordinary at best within this product line. If they brand it with Holden they'll sell cars but consumers will lose faith in the Product quickly if it's anything like the product sold in North America
Yet your countries best selling cars are Toyota and Mazda?
Cut the drama and look around. Your own people are abandoning their own just as Americans abandoned their own in the 70's when they refused to change.
It is adapt or die and the fact the enthusiast is no longer the center focus of the market anymore. We learned to deal with it here and you will have to do the same.
As for Cheaply produced? You cars were no better built than outs. God knows we has enough suspension and tire issues with your OZ Built GTO. They are all the same and all have a nagging issue here and there. I remember they even had to improve the plastics on the GTO as they would not hold up here.
were not students in the scott3 classroom mate, your telling us how to think and behave is really starting to piss me off. We only had one true blue Aussie car brand and now its in its death throes to be no different to any other brand. As an American i don't ever expect you to understand what Holden meant to a lot of us Aussies and its our god given right to piss, moan and be as angry as we want about our national brand becoming an imported joke without having some bloke from another country telling us how we should behave on the issue.
Stop playing the victim the rest of the relevant world went though what you are years ago and we lost s hell of a lot more than you will.
You want to cry try to live with a corvette with less than 200 hp!
Sorry if If I have less sympathy than you like but the rest of us have been through as bad on a much larger scale.
Let them sort this out and you will find you will still have some fun cars that you would never had Holen do on their own.
Gee's Scott3, you are a patronising pr**k! I think we Aussie's know what we Aussie's would rather have and we don't need to be talked down to by the likes of you telling us that we're irrelevant!. I really think that if you are a car person and have worked in the industry, you would be protective of what you and your fellow work mates achieved. Obviously this is not the case with you. Ask Hanenberger what he thinks of the Monaro he took back to Germany with him, ask Mark Reuss what he thinks of the FJ he restored here with his son, ask Deveraux what he thinks of the restored FB Holden he took back to the US with him and then tell us how irrelevant we are. (I suggest you google them.) This place is like nothing you have ever experienced and if you grew up and worked here you would understand that. I feel sorry for you mate..
Thanks for saying that mate, I have been struggling to come up with a reply to Scott3 that didn't get me banned from here. I think ol Scott3 hasn't seen the news yet where GM/Holden are about to be overtaken by Hyundai in sales here and slip to 4th http://www.motoring.com.au/news/2015/hyundai/hyundai-may-roll-over-the-top-of-holden-in-2015-50921. He should also note that the only thing keeping Holden in front is the sales of the large body RWD Commodore, once thats gone hello plummeting GM sales, the only thing that is becoming irrelevant here in Australia is GM in a very quick fashion. I suppose he is arrogant enough to think that when we get supposedly better products (in his opinion) that GM sales will increase, shame he is not from here and does not understand that the sales damage is actually because a bunch of us have dropped GM/Holden like the fresh imported turd its "transitioning" into and any semblance of brand loyalty is gone. Why people like Scott3 cant grasp the concept of "If we don't want it we wont buy it no matter what you say" is beyond me, i sometimes wonder if he is a troll or a computer spam bot run by GM.