Today, General Motors’ Australian subsidiary, Holden, produced the final example of Chevrolet SS.
The car, a 2017 model finished in Phantom Black and equipped with a manual transmission, marks the final vehicle of Holden’s North American export program, which dates back to the 2004 Pontiac GTO and includes the Pontiac G8 and Chevrolet Caprice for police duty.
The final car is certainly special, too. Holden stated as the vehicle was exiting the production line at the GM-Holden Port Elizabeth factory, a special request was phoned in from the United States.
“Just as the vehicle was being produced, the Holden manufacturing team received a request from a US customer, asking the manufacturing employees to sign their Chevrolet SS,” a Holden spokesperson confirmed.
The manufacturing team placed their signatures under the hood and on the deck lid carpets.
Since the Chevrolet SS was announced, Holden built just 12,953 examples over three model years, running from 2014 to 2017. A successor has been deemed highly unlikely by GM executives. Holden has also backed away from offering a rear-wheel drive, V8-powered sedan in the future and will cease local manufacturing this October.
Stateside, the final batch of SS sedans has made their way to local dealerships across the country. In March, GM added a 20-percent off MSRP incentive for the sport sedan. The likelihood of another firesale-esque incentive will depend on how quickly remaining vehicles move from dealer to driveway. Last month, sales of the SS sedan dropped 57.8 percent.
High prices and lack of marketing kept the Chevrolet SS out of the limelight, but there’s no denying the car will go down as one of GM’s most underrated vehicles of modern times.
Comments
Is this the last V8 sedan in Chevy’s line or is there another?
That’s it for now, as the market trend of suvs and cuvs dominates over sedans, and as CAFE rules creep closer I fear we may not see another. Is it possible – I think it is. The alpha platform is an incredible piece of engineering and could use some additional volume to help amortize the cost. Is it realistic – probably not. Given the sluggish sales of Impala, Lacrosse and Malibu, and the low volume of Cadillac, GM is probably hesitant to potentially cannibalize Cadillac CTS or even Buick Regal sales with a bruising Chevy 🙁
Alot of truth in what you’re saying for sure. Which is still crazy to think cause you see so many freakin Chargers on the road.
I’m confused about the total production number. According to articles I’ve read on GM Authority, the production numbers per year are:
2014: 3,527
2015: 3,144
2016: 2,202
2017: capped at 3000 cars
Total: 11,873
But up above it says a total of 12,953 have been made. I’m not trying to sound like a jerk, but I own a 2017 SS and I’m very much interested in the exact number of cars made. Can anyone clarify? I’ve tried reaching out to Chevrolet but was told the numbers won’t be ready until later this year. Thanks!
The problem arose when an article was published saying the US made an additional 1,000 unit order on the SS due to demand. A lot of blogs took that to mean an extra 1,000 units over the 2016 number, which puts it right above 3,000 total for 2017, and many people ran with that number. The problem was that it never actually specified the initial number that the 1,000 was added onto. They probably meant 1,000 units more than what GM had planned for 2017, which is a number we didn’t actually know.
The 12,953 units total came from a more reliable source, Motor Magazine, who is actually located in Australia and was commenting on the final Chevy SS produced, putting the 2017 number at just over 4000 units. Unfortunately this also begs the question of whether that number is also speculation, or if true, if it even includes internal GM orders.
The real answer is that we won’t know until the official numbers are released by Chevrolet Customer Care on the SSforums. And they won’t release the info until all vehicles are in the US and the finalized data is compiled. It will be around July to August probably based on their previous releases, so sit tight.
Chevy does not compete with a Cadillac, If GM wanted to pull more folks into the Chevy sales funnel it would make sense to produce a sports sedan. Chevy and Cadillac cannibalization is at a minimum. The SS was basically an entry level sports sedan,. It really did not have a competitor and it didn’t really find a market. I wonder if they could make it more fuel efficient and maintain the awesome handling it would potentially find a market. Not sure, most folks want a SUV today. BMW is having the same struggles as well.
The BMW M5 does very well in the sport sedan RWD market (add luxury to that as well), although I see the 2018 model is going AWD.
When you consider the SS was not aligned to the luxury end of the market, it was, well and truely, in a market of its own.
Bye…… (sniff)
GM could or must Build a sport sedan for Chevrolet, this car had to be built on the coming Alpha 2. This car should be next Impala with a coupe version as the Monte Carlo.
The last one was produced on the 5th, not the 25th. This was first shown from the post on Facebook on May 5 about the last Chevy SS rolling off the line and confirmed from people at the plant. Everyone is running with the 25th since that is when Motoring released their article stating the last SS has been EXPORTED. It had already been built by then. Please fix the mistake.
As I see it, the problem with the SS was that it appealed to a very narrow segment. The Caprice of the 80s and 90s had broad appeal. It wasn’t just a performance car. It could be an old ladies car, or a single man’s car. It could be a business car, or a city worker’s car. It could be a police car. It could be a family car. Or, in SS trim, it could be a performance car. This SS was only a high performance car, and on top of that it was imported from Australia so common everyday parts were a nightmare to get. Why buy this when you could just as easily get a Camaro or a Dodge Charger?
I have a customer than has ordered a 2017 Chevy SS, holden keys. I program keys for cars in the US. How do I go about programming keys for that car in the United States?