General Motors in the U.S. is considering the Australian-made Holden Commodore as a way of expand its performance-oriented, rear-wheel-drive lineup, says The Car Connection (TCC), citing product czar Bob Lutz.
“We#;re studying, and I stress we#;re studying, us bringing (the Commodore) from Australia and federalizing it,” Lutz told TCC, referring to modifying the car to meet US safety and emissions standards.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
“But we#;re a long way from making a decision,” Lutz quickly added during his TCC interview. “We#;re looking at anything that would conceivably get us back into the rear-wheel-drive market and cut the lead time to do it.”
TCC wonders whether GM could turn a profit bringing vehicles up from Down Under, pointing to the failure of Ford’s Australian-made Mazda 323-derived convertible sold as the Mercury Capri in the early 1990s.
TCC rightly cites observers as saying that was more the result of poor product design than the Capri#;s country of origin – the car suffered from severe shuttle shake, never felt like a sportscar to drive (the seating position was too high) and tried to compete with Mazda’s then smash-hit original MX-5/Miata.
Pundits on both sides of the Pacific have long argued GM (and Ford) could do worse than bring rear-drive models up from Australia. The cars are developed for a country the same size as the US, yet sparsely populated outside the big cities, with a huge variety of roads and climate – just like the US.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataDurability and dust-sealing are usually well-proven and Holden’s engineers are proud of how quickly they can break early prototypes of the big Opels on which three generations of Commodore have been – loosely – based.
Despite the relatively small local market, both companies have managed to bring to market a large rear-drive range with six or eight cylinder engines for about the same retail price their European counterparts ask for a small 1.6-litre hatchback. Ford does not build left-hand drive Falcons but Holden does – shipping Chevrolet Lumina-badged Commodores to the Middle East and South America where they have displaced the American product.
Holden offers a full range of Commodores from base V6-engined fleet specials to fully-specified V8 sports models fettled by its Holden Special Vehicles division. Late last year, it rolled out a stunning two-door coupe that revived the famous Monaro name, for which it now has a full order book.
Should Lutz decide to import the Aussie cars, he may have to placate the powerful United Auto Workers union first, however.
Mid-1970s plans to import Holden component kits – even though they were to be assembled as Buicks in US factories by US workers – met with stony UAW opposition and a threat to call on other unions to prevent the kits being unloaded off ships.
