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Though its widely known that the Pontiac G8 is derived from its Australian subsidiary Holden’s VE Commodore and imported from Australia, its not such common knowledge that the G8 was supposed to account for almost half of Holden’s annual exports.
GM’s deal with Holden estimated that U.S. consumers would spring for about 30,000 G8 sedans each year, worth about $1 billion annually for Holden. But now that GM has announced that it will phase out Pontiac by 2010, Holden is out at least $1 billion annually.
Holden spent $77 million retooling its Elizabeth, South Australia plant to make the G8, and said the vehicle would save the future of the plant. Holden had already taken a hit earlier this year when GM cancelled plans to bring a G8-based sport truck to the U.S.
Source: News.com.au
Shame-shame-shame!,What is GM thinking?Pontiac has always held a special niche in the North American perforance and excitement line of vehicles that competed with the Chrysler-Mopar, Ford Racing.It is sad when a popular line ahas fallen down because of “pencil-pusher” thinking and not reality thinking.Harley Earl, John DeLorean, Why did you leave us and I wish you would be here to help the North American Industry.EddieV
Some sources are suggesting the Commodore could be offered as a Chevy here in the states as a police/fleet model. If (and that’s a big if) that happens, I’d hope GM would have the sense to offer it to consumers in such a manner as well.That said, the official line from the General is that nothing will be rebadged. Sad – this would be a much more successful badge-engineered transition than the Bravada/Rainier ever was.
The G8 (Holden Commodore SS in Australia) is already sold as a “Chevrolet Lumina SS” in the middle east. It was voted the Sports Saloon of the year by ‘Middle East CAR Magazine’so it would be simple to sell it as a Chevy in America. The irony is that many Aussie Muscle Car enthusiasts replace the Holden badges on their SS Commodores with the Chevy bow-tie emblem in reference to the American made V8 engine !!
I’m in agreement with the other posters here. The G8 could easily be adapted for both Chevy and Buick (isn’t there already a Buick Park Avenue version in the Chinese market?). Buick especially could use this model as it is supposed to be the “near-luxury” marque in the GM line-up (as opposed to Cadillac’s “luxury”). There, problem solved.
GM rebadges everything else, why not this. Make it a Chevy, Buick or Caddy (wait what divisions on GM are still going to be around?)
Um…hello, Impala replacement?