Try this on for size. GM has bumped up GTO imports from 18,000 to 20,000 next year (2004 MY).

But.... Holden is scheduled to export 30,000 cars to the US in 2004!

I'll dig into this to find out for sure (I have a hunch ).

Till then, does anyone want to take any guesses?

 

Where are you getting the 20K and 30K numbers from. The GTO press release that was floating aroun said 18,000K still...i remember that stuck out to me.

It's interesting...however they are gonna have a hard time introducing a model in time for 04 at this point really.

 

Maybe their going to do a limited run of rebadges of the... uh, I forgot what it's called in Australia, but I would imagine it could be rebadged as an ElCamino?? Maybe that's the surprise for NAIAS?

 

you thinkin the ute.

 

Its gotta be the UTE! Either that or they'll import regular Monaros for some other purpose (cop cars?)

 

I would venture a guess at the UTE as well.... probably badges as El Camino.

Again, not a fan, but that'd be my guess...

Either that, or they are allowing more GTO production that announced.

 

The only two scenarios I can imagine at this point is either GM sees that there will be a great demand for the GTO and will bring 10,000 more of them over, or they really are going to bring in the Ute as a new El Camino. My first guess is more GTO's. Importing a paltry 10,000 cars doesn't seem to be worth it unless you're really gung-ho about testing public demand for a vehicle of that type....

 

I don't really see the UTE with the SSR going into production...

 

You watch -

They are going to sell every last one of those GTOs here in the States.

If GM really wants to recapture market share then they need to build the traditional American car. No more Chevy's trying to be Hondas or Toyotas.

 

I will throw my hat in on an El Camino. I think it is a better competitor to the lightning than the ext cab Silverado SS is.

 

Chevrolet Chevelle SS. They did say they want Chevy to have their "GTO."

I'd say more likely they're gonna be GTO's because they are seeing the demand for a V8 RWD musclecar again. Guess what GM, from the GTO you will see the F-Body can be a real high volume car again as I've been saying all along.

 

OK, I dug around a little, and some corrections are in order.

First, to produce GTO, Holden is expanding their manufacturing personnel and adding another shift, and will be operating at peak capacity. Exports from Holden are currently limited by capacity. Seems they had to get creative to convince GM/NA they could produce in the quanity needed to enter the US market. The upshot is they will now be getting alot of money to expand. Holden is currently GM's top exporter.

Currently almost 20% of their cars are exported. That figure will eventially climb to 40% of their cars exported by 2008.

Over the next 12 months (which covers the 1st few months of GTO production) Holden will spend $480 million to upgrade their plant, and to streamline their manufacturing process, which will increase capacity. By 2007, Holden plans to have invested a total of $4 Billion to expand & upgrade it's plants. In 2002, they produced a total of 143,000 cars, and by 2008 they plan on making at least 180,000 cars. 3/4 of that total increase is planned for the United States.


So, my digging has found:

1. That 30,000 figure is what Holden is currently exporting around the world .

2. Holden is in fact planning to export 20,000 cars to the US over the 2004 model year. The 18,000 figure represents what GM & Holden agreed to (GM/NA basically contracted out GTO to Holden). This is the number Holden felt it could initially produce, with a cushion. However, they now feel they can up production for the 2004 run, and are now planning to.

3. Exports to the US will increase to at least 30,000 vehicles by 2007.

4. Holden's export delivery schedule for GTO starts September 2003.

5. Finally, the UTE seems to be the next vehicle up that's hellbent to be exported to the US. Seems there had to be a priority as to what to bring to the US, and GTO for Pontiac had the highest priority & the best initial case. UTE was initially expected to come here 1st, but apparently there were more hoops to jump through with the UTE, and it would have taken longer to get to market (for starters, imported pickups have a 25% Tarrif here in the US). I'm getting that as soon as that issue is resolved, the UTE will be comming here as an El Camino.

New tidbit of trivia to add. When asked about a sports sedan, Kurt Ritter last year made a remark to the tune of he "would rather have it sooner than later". Seems there may have been more behind that remark than it appeared. Chevrolet apparently looked into importing a Commodore variant as a Chevy Sports Sedan, and also lost out to GTO. Motor Trend picked up this piece of information sometime ago, and mistakenly posted it as a story about an upcomming Impala SS.

No wonder Mr Ritter seem a bit resigned last year.

 

that is pretty sweet i like the ute
bring back the el camino

 

Impala SS huh?! IMO GM is gonna get alot more demand than they think for the GTO being what it is, and if the price was lower, forget about it.

 

I didn't think they would do the Ute because it was a truck and there is some kind of tarriff on trucks, not cars. I read that somewhere, probably here!