May 21 Weekly Open Thread: Pontiac Holden Is Coming BACK!
OK, I was kidding on April 1st when I said that Pontiac was coming back. But by a sheer coincidence I'm sure ( ;) ), GM is bringing the next generation Holden VF Commodore to America, just as was joked about in that article.
"Chevrolet SS" will replace the Commodore's badges, rather than using the "Pontiac G8" of yore. They're also calling it Chevy’s new NASCAR Sprint Cup car, and it will appear in the Daytona 500 next February.
Holden just announced their new export program, saying that the Commodore will return to North America in late 2013. And the best part of this news? This will be the first time in 17 years that Chevrolet has offered a rear wheel drive sedan in the US.
I suppose it could be said that Holden never really left us, witnessed by today's Camaro. But the Chevrolet SS seems more "Aussie" that the Camaro, at least to me.
So how do you feel about the upcoming return of Holden's Commodore? Do you think there are or should be more Holdens to come?
And of course, this is the place to yack about anything else that even remotely concerns the cars. The whole cars. And nothing but the cars.
--That Car Guy (Chuck)
Image Credits: The cleverly covered, camouflaged Chevrolet SS image is from Edmunds-Media.com.
Anthony Cagle on May 21, 2012 at 12:03 PM
I think there'll be a market for it, definitely, although admittedly I don't have any detailed sales and marketing analyses to back that up. But it seems to me there's always been at least a non-ignorable market in the US for a reasonably powerful RWD sedan. The Chrysler products (Charger and 300) seem to be holding up, so why not an SS?
Cookie the Dog's Owner on May 21, 2012 at 04:08 PM
I dare those Aussies to build a car called the "Holden Caulfield."
toronado455 on May 21, 2012 at 05:51 PM
I think this is great news.
When I first read about this (on another blog) I thought maybe the "Chevrolet SS" was just a race car, and not a car to be sold to the public. I guess this is really happening.
I find the name "Chevrolet SS" to be a bit odd, though it's kind of interesting in a generic way.
tigerstrypes on May 21, 2012 at 07:52 PM
From Top Gear season 11, episode 6:
Jeremy: "So what the Americans have done, is they've gone 'We need some sophistication here, we'll call the Australians.' That is like saying 'I want some style for my wedding I'll get seven crates of lager.'"
I never saw it in that particular way before. XD
Jay on May 22, 2012 at 08:19 AM
Should be a nice car. I guess I'll have to get used to having the window switches in the center console. Whenever I drive a car set up that way I instinctively use my left hand to try to find the window switch only to have to re-think where they are located.
Big Chris on May 22, 2012 at 01:15 PM
I think it is a good practice for GM to employ. Over the years there have been a few cars sold internationally by US based auto makers that we didn't get here and I would've loved to see available. I'd love to see them with the actual Holden badges as well, but I suspect they won't do that for name recognition purposes.
And what really would've been cool would've been a CTS-V Nascar.
Sigivald on May 24, 2012 at 03:08 PM
SS as a model name rather than a badge?
I've always not-given-a-damn about GM, but that offends even me.
jjd241 on May 24, 2012 at 03:54 PM
Looks like a nice ride. Here are the google image results for 2013 Holden Commodore... http://tinyurl.com/bmzfhfk