Many General Motors fans hold a special place in their hearts for Holden. The Australian arm of General Motors has been responsible for some truly great vehicles, including the Pontiac GTO, Pontiac G8, Chevrolet SS, and the Chevrolet Caprice PPV, all of which were based on Holden models. This has occasionally led to the practice of U.S. owners re-badging their U.S.-spec Chevrolet or Pontiac cars with the Holden Lion logo. Other owners, meanwhile, have gone all out by importing the correct Australian-spec bumpers, wheels and trim. When done right, the practice looks pretty cool, and it’s certainly sure to make those cars stand out. But as one owner of a decommissioned Caprice PPV recently found out, it might make the ride stand out in a different sort of way.
And that brings us to today’s anecdote: a valet recently parked a decommissioned Caprice PPV belonging to New York resident, Scott Kubik. Kubik’s silver Caprice now wears Holden badges on the exterior as well as on the steering wheel. Seeing those lion badges seems to have put the valet attendant into somewhat of a stupor, so much so that when Scott got his Caprice back from the valet, the I.D. tag attached to the keys read:
- Silver
- Lion (?)
- Handi
“Silver” clearly refers to the color of the car and “Lion (?)” is an apparent nod to the aforementioned Holden Lion logo on the steering wheel. Clearly, the valet attendant didn’t know that the Lion is a Holden logo. Finally, “Handi” refers to the parked location of the car, as it would appear that the valet folks stashed the Caprice in a handicapped parking spot (right next to a McLaren, no less).
Although comical to GM and Holden enthusiasts, we probably should give the valet attendant a break. After all, it’s not often extremely seldom that one gets a car with Holden Lion badges here in the States.
Fortunately, unlike the occasional valet horror story, there was no crashed, totaled or joy-ridden Holden at the end of this encounter… only a very confused valet. But hey, at least they didn’t call the Caprice an Impala or Malibu, models for which common folk typically mistake the Chevrolet SS Sedan and Caprice.
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Comments
Great story! Yes, you are correct….I get asked pretty often if my SS is a Malibu.
Now that’s a good looking car, and wheels look very much like 2008-09 Cad. optional wheels!
those are also the Pontiac G8 GXP rims
They are 2014 CTSV sedan wheels
yes, the gen2 CTSV and G8 GXP shared the same wheels
Awesome vehicles rolled out of Holden design and production, only to be shutdown by bean counters and we are now fed crap soulless POS and the bean counters wonder why sales are down. facepalm GM. facepalm. Holden produced cars that gave you excitement just looking at them. what is wrong with GM?
Holden do not have a cafe rating mandate to dictate what can & can’t be built/sold, if it sells, do it.
Plus the sporty side of commodore was because the camaro was not available at the time.
How popular would a family friendly camaro be in the USA.
the Chevy SS is that very car on the same F body. chassis as the Camaro but quit making i the chevy ss in 2017
What’s in a name? I own a 2007 WM Holden Caprice, dark maroon with all factory / dealer options. I have completely rebadged it as ‘Chevrolet’ Caprice. This rebadging included replacing the front grille, rear boot (trunk) badge, small wheel centre badges, steering wheel (air bag) centre badge and both of the cars electronic keys.
You may ask, why did I not leave it badged a Holden? I my view the DNA of these long wheel base ‘Holdens’ owes much more to GMs Chevrolet brand than it does to GMs Holden brand.
The United States used ‘stripped plain Jain versions’ as police cars but they would have been ideal for badging as high end Cadillacs or Buicks. In fact they were sold in the Middle East, China and Germany as high end luxury Bitter, Chevrolet and Buick passenger cars.
The vast majority were sold as Chevrolets, only a small number were produced as Holdens and the Holden version of this long wheel base car would not have even existed had it not been for the export market.
In Australia, the Chevrolet brand has a long history of being sold as an upmarket ‘top of the range’ luxury car. Until the early 1970s the Chevrolet and Pontiac brands were the GM-H Flag ships while the Holden brand was the cheap entry level car. With this back ground the fact that many Australians re-badge their Holdens as Chevrolets should not come as a surprise.
That said, I can understand Americans seeing the novelty of driving a GM product badged as a Holden. Nevertheless, in long wheel base form these cars owe much more to the export market and the CHEVROLET brand.
HI THERE
ANY UPDATE FOR CAPRICE MODEL 2020 OR 2021 . IT MY FAVORITE CAR .
THANKS .REGARDS
FAWAZ
I get that with my Chevy SS I just tell them it’s the chevy that’s made in Australia and all these throwback cars why not bring back the original land yacht the 21st-century version of the 1976 caprice classic the longest car ever made.