Holden on to the American dream
The Commodore is set to return to the US wearing Chevy badge
BRUCE NEWTON
November 20, 2010
www.drive.com.au
The Commodore looks set to regain its drawl, with US exports of the iconic Australian large car imminent, writes Bruce Newton.
The Holden Commodore appears odds-on to return to the US with a Chevrolet badge and it should happen within the lifespan of the current model.
A senior engineer for General Motors, Al Oppenheiser, confirmed to Drive at the Los Angeles motor show this week that negotiations were under way to sell the Commodore in North America as a Chevrolet sports sedan.
"We are definitely looking at that, although we have made no official announcement as yet," Oppenheiser said. "We are definitely looking at doing something with Holden for the retail market."
Another GM source, who did not wish to be named, went further and said the export deal had been approved. "But you didn't hear me say that," the source said.
The VE Commodore was previously exported to the US as a Pontiac G8 with V6 and V8 engine options. That program ceased when GM crashed into bankruptcy last year and the struggling Pontiac brand was killed off.
The axing of the deal cost Holden millions of dollars in lost exports and placed the future of the Elizabeth plant and Holden itself in danger.
"What we are looking at is bridging a gap in the performance sedan market that was vacated by the Pontiac G8," Oppenheiser said. "With no Pontiac, our lone performance brand is Chevrolet.
"So the Commodore Zeta 1 architecture offers us so much with rear-wheel-drive performance. The synergy between motor compartment packaging of the Commodore and HSV products versus what we do here with Camaro and Corvette means the opportunities are endless."
A spokesman for Holden, Jonathan Rose, is circumspect when asked about a new Commodore-based export program.
"We have made no secret of the fact that we're pursuing new export opportunities for our local product," he says. "At this point in time our focus is on exporting the Caprice to North America as a law enforcement vehicle ... beyond that we don't have anything to add right now."
But
Holden's stocks in the global organisation have soared in recent years with the appointment of two former Holden managing directors to senior positions within the GM global empire.
Mark Reuss is president of GM North America, while his successor in Australia, Alan Batey, is head of sales and service for Chevrolet.
With homologation work on a left-hand-drive Commodore largely completed through the Pontiac G8 process, legalising the Commodore for North America would be relatively painless. Exchange rates, currently at parity, present a bigger stumbling block.
While Holden has developed a long-wheelbase performance model for the US police market, based on the Caprice, Oppenheiser said it is more likely that a car for the retail market will be based on the short-wheelbase Commodore.
"The police told us they wanted the long-wheelbase in the rear for the crooks but I have a hand in what we do with Holden and I don't think we would do long-wheelbase [for the private market]."
He also rejected US media reports that the rear-wheel-drive architecture would be pressed into service in GM's other passenger vehicle brands, Cadillac and Buick.
"No, we have other architectures coming for those brands," he said. "The Zeta platform is basically going to be Chevrolet and Holden only."
Oppenheiser, who is the vehicle chief engineer for Camaro, was at the LA show launching the convertible version of the iconic car. Like the hard-top coupe, it is based on the Commodore's Zeta architecture. As with the coupe, it won't be converted to right-hand-drive.
"That's one of the disappointments of my tenure here, that we didn't do a right-hand-drive version," Oppenheiser said.
"We had two goes at it and it got cancelled twice. It's a pity, because the UK wants it too."
