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.
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“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.
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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.
