"I will tell you, the business case isn't being helped by the continued strength of the Australian dollar versus the US dollar," he said.

"The pricing we would need to make it successful - the program is at the point where it might not be a sound business proposition.

"Or we would have to subsidise it, which we are basically not going to do. Or we would have to price it to the moon."

http://www.automochatter.com/forum/s...=3978#post3978

 

Close the book on that one...

 

I don't see why the high AUS $ affects the Ute and not the G8?

 

That is indeed a good question.

I personally do not think I would ever want or need a ute, but I can see how they might appeal to some people. Just don't know if "some people" is enough.

 

Volume?

I couldn't see demand for the Ute being near what the G8 could be, even if gas wasn't still in the upper $2/gal bracket. No loss to me, I was never interested to begin with.

 

Probably because being a Pontiac, they can charge close to $40k for the G8 and still make it profitable. Who is going to pay north of $35k for a Ute?

 

Not me thats for sure. Ive always been luke warm on the elcamino at best. I respect the people who are into them and have heard the whys but still cant see getting one.

 

It must affect the G8. But it's already an announced product. It'd be a little late to pull back now.

There may be more margin in the G8 also. A fully loaded sticker of $35K or so on a G8 GT would be easier to take than a similar sticker on a loaded "El Camino".

The G8 will be going up against luxury RWD cars.

 

Lutz said that GM won't subsidize the Ute, but I'm not aware of him ever saying anything similar about the G8

 

They probably bought currency futures to hedge the cost of the G8 several months ago, meaning that they've locked in a (lower) exchange rate already. The dollar has dropped a lot lately, and some of my smart Wall St friends think it's going to drop a lot more.

 

I'm not one of your Wall St friends, and I think it will drop more too.

As for the Ute, it is a totally unique vehicle unlike anything currently on our market here. I think it would sell pretty well just on uniqueness alone for a yearor two. Not 100k/year, but in good volumes. And with a good V8 would attract performance-minded people as well.

I guess as much as I love Lutz' demeanor and his success, it still pains me to hear him talking about a vehicle in purely business terms - dollars and cents - instead of passion, appeal, and heritage. It just reinforces what some of us have said many times - even regarding the new Camaro... it must make $$$ or it will not be here long. Every car has a business case, or it doesn't hag around. Sad but true.

 

Same discussions are happening over on the Mopar boards after Nardelli's comments last week... everything needs a business case, although he did explicitly say that Hemis and muscle cars are part of the company's DNA and will be continued. (And in the next breath said that the company nevertheless needs to get a lot greener, fast.)

But a lot of folks are wondering about the status of the next-gen Viper right now.

 

Outside of being a high-vis halo car for the company, I'd say the business case for a car like the Viper is a grim one - especially given the recent change in ownership of the company and their financial situation.

Does the word "hiatus" mean anything to anyone here? I would not be surprised.

 

Soooooo... What in the Hell happend to the G8 GT comming around $30-32K nicely equipped??? Now people are thinking 35+??? NO Way!!!

I want this car BAD but if it gets that high I might have to re-consider... I mean, at that point why not just get the CTS???

 

The US dollar and the Aus $ have a good chance of being at 1 to 1 in the next 2-5 years. Just look at how far the US$ has fallen against the Canadian dollar.

5 years ago the Aus$ was 55¢ today it is 83¢
5 years ago the Can$ was 64¢ today it is 97¢
5 years ago the Euro was 98¢ today it is $1.39