this guys story believable ? Vaux Monaro approved ?

Reply Subscribe

Thread Tools

Search this Thread

10-13-2003, 01:58 PM

#16

redzed

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2002

Posts: 1,954

Quote:

Originally posted by Oz Mickey T
The UK will take no more than 500 monaros a year in its current spec.
a couple of points:
- Vauxhall boss kevin wale is holden's former director of marketing.
- He's keen to establish the monaro name ahead of the next gen monaro, especially as he's also keen on RWD large cars off the same platform
- 500 cars is the maximum he can sell under the UK's low volume import regs
- more than 500 cars a year and the whole thing comes under the auspices of the EU, and Brussels won't like what it finds under the Monaro. It'd cost too much to get up to their preferred spec at volumes greater than 500, so 500 it will be.

That sounds more reasonable.

Still, 500 units will be a challenge in the UK. A big powerful car like the Monaro will probably rate an insurance group 20 - just like an Audi S8. Depreciation will also be a huge worry.

Of course, assuming that the Monaro takes off in the UK, Vauxhall will face big competition from the personal imports market. For years, Subaru's biggest competition for the WRX in the UK was from new and used Japanese spec. cars. In short, between the grey market trade, the ownership costs and poor showing in the "upmarket" Vauxhall will have an uphill battle.