Holden is to stop production of its Monaro coupe for the Australian market, killing off the motoring icon – the basis of North America’s Pontiac GTO – for a second time.
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The Australian news agency AAP said that despite the car being the nation’s best selling sports coupe for the past three years, Holden had said the last run of about 1,200 cars will go on sale next month.
But the company reportedly has made no decision yet on the fate of versions of the Monaro exported to markets including the United States, the Middle East and Great Britain.
Holden has, however, confirmed that exports to New Zealand will end.
AAP said the GM unit has also foreshadowed introducing a new version of the car or a similar muscle car at some stage in the future.
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By GlobalDataHolden chairman and managing director Denny Mooney reportedly said the company continued to investigate options for a new generation coupe with other divisions of General Motors.
“Everyone at Holden is certainly committed to delivering a new generation Monaro in the future but there is still a lot of work to make that happen,” he told AAP, adding: “We’re looking at a number of options to ensure Holden continues to set the standard when it comes to performance coupes. Monaro means too much to Holden to not have another Monaro at some time in the future.”
AAP said the current Monaro is a reincarnation of the original coupe of the same name which was a big success for Holden in the late 1960s and 70s. It was introduced to the local market in October, 2001, after first being shown as a concept car at the 1998 Sydney Motor Show.
Since then Holden has sold more than 11,000 in Australia and about 30,000 overseas.
Mooney reportedly said the Monaro had been an iconic car for the Australian manufacturer. “The new generation Monaro has been an absolute winner in Australia – a hands-down winner in the sports car market,” he said. “It has been the flagship of our performance car range and the standard for others to match.
“Monaro has really strengthened Holden’s position in the global automotive business. It reinforced this company’s design, engineering and manufacturing reputation which was reflected in our record company exports of more than 52,000 last year.”
Mooney told AAP the coupe had worn four GM brands on four continents and sold almost six times as many cars as were first planned.
“But most of all, Monaro ignited something deep within the Australian car culture and made people think about locally-built performance cars as capable of competing with anything in the world from the value perspective,” he said.
AAP said Holden will mark the end of the Monaro in Australia with a special edition CV8-Z model which will feature a new colour and special badging. It will sell for $60,490 with deliveries to start in early August.
