guionM

LT4, you are way off in your assumptions and operating off of false pretenses. Here's the deal.

1. The US dollar is horribly low. Has been dropping against all world currencies since 2001 (remember when Canadian currency was briefly well above the US dollar?). Meanwhile, the Aussie dollar has become extremely strong. That high Aussie dollar and low US dollar makes their products expensive to us while ours seems cheap to them. So the SS is already expensive to us.

2. The volumes sold in Australia's car market are extremely small compared to the US, so cars made there are already more expensive there than here. That GTO that cost $32,000 here cost the same as $45,000 US there as the Monaro, and up to $55,000.

3. Saying the Charger and 300 are already great selling cars makes no point in this whatsoever. If you want to use those 2 cars then I can bring up the fact that the Holden Commodore is a high production car (roughly as many as Charger and 300 when you include exports and knockdown kits to China). So the point of the Charger and 300 sales is moot.

The direct competitor to the Chevrolet SS is the Charger SRT8. It's a limited performance edition of a volume sedan made for those who want a specila high performance sedan with all the bells and whistles. Instead of spending the billions on what would be a losing proposition, GM is pulling a model it already makes and importing it here. Due to the fact that even the small amount being briught here is pretty large by Aussie standards, there is a price drop (and thinner margin) due to the fact that there will be more than enough sold here to balence out.

There is NO price markup that is any worse than anything else on the market. You want to see a price markup, you should dig into a Tahoe (let alone a Denali or Escalade).

BTW: GM had GOOD reason for killing Camaro and Firebird. I did an article on it some years ago. Tells you all about it:

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/fea...vrolet_camaro/

Hope it helps.

Also....

GTO wasn't a "flop". GM actually made decent money on it, and....well... go look up GTO sales and compare it to the Mustang Cobra's those same years, then get back to us.

Slappy3243

I am confused. Maybe I have it backwards, but wouldn't that make the US dollar strong? It is less dollars buying more compared to Australia currency.

92RS shearn

I believe what he was saying is that the volume of GTO's (Monaro's) was so high here compared to Australia that they could afford to sell them at a lower price and still make a profit. Plus back then the Australian dollar was not nearly as strong compared to the US dollar as it is today.

King Moose SS

The price, while a big issue, isn't the only issue with the car. The first issue at hand is the car has no name.

Second issue is if they were going to use "SS", GM should of made god damn sure it was the best of best and deserved the badge. The fact of the matter is the SS is one of the blandest cars Chevrolet will produce, about the same as the Malibu. I'm not saying it's needs to be absolutely striking like the Camaro, or beautiful like the Corvette. But it should at least be as good looking as the brand new Impala, which it isn't.

The lastly, if this car is made to order and is suppose to make the margins better for the Australia version, then why the hell is the manual transmission dropped from the Australia version? I can't understand not making it an option in the U.S. They could of stole some of the market from the SRT8 with just with that option alone!

AnthonyHSV

$AUD is at a 3 year low. Now 92c to the USD

Silverado27

God, had a serious brain-fart and did not read this clearly at first. I thought the article headline was for a CAMARO SS from 44,470 only available in an Automatic...Wow, I need to pay more attention, almost had a heart attack, lol.

99SilverSS

For $44,470 it should have a manual trans option.

ImportedRoomate

So there's a rumor that the manual will be available for 2015. Fingers crossed...

Z28x

Any word on using the new LT1? LT1 paired with the 7 speed manual would be a great combo for 2015.

ImportedRoomate

There's also rumors about moving to Alpha. If that happens I can't see GM putting that drivetrain in the VF. Or on the other hand, the delay could mean a different drivetrain. That would be awesome, and worth the wait. They did it with the GTO (LS1 to LS2).

If it does go to Alpha, might as well wait on that. I'm just wondering what would happen to the Caprice.

Z28x

Isn't this car (Commodore) too new for Alpha? I could see the 2017 model going that way.

ImportedRoomate

Yes, I meant going to Alpha in about 3 years which would be a pretty short time for the effort to implement the LT1.

Bob Cosby

Might be a great car for the price, but the looks.....blah. Charger R/T or SRT8 is WAY better, IMHO.