Holden looks to
the US to export
'Adventra' – and
import Monaro

By BRUCE NEWTON
THE future of a replacement for Holden’s
Adventra cross-over wagon could hinge
around a plan to export the vehicle to the
United States.
Although it is unclear which of GM’s
North American brands would receive
Adventra, GoAuto has learned the code
GMX283 has been given to the project.
An export deal is believed to be vital
to the development of a business case
for an Adventra replacement, which is
expected to become more separated from
the Commodore wagon in its second
generation guise.
But Holden has struggled to make the numbers add up for the vehicle that
will be based on the forthcoming Zeta architecture. Hence the need to nail
down exports with the USA looming as a signifi cant opportunity.
At the same time it appears any concerns expressed by US union workers
would be soothed by a plan to manufacture the Monaro coupe in the USA
and ship it to Australia.
That would be possible because Pontiac plans to
manufacture the next generation GTO in the USA, both
cars sharing the Zeta architecture.
An export program to Australia of the next generation
GMT361 truck as a Toyota LandCruiser rival would also
help smooth the way.
All this trans-shipping would be made possible by the
Australia-USA free trade agreement, due to be ratifi ed in
late October.
“Building the Monaro in the USA is possible,” conceded
Holden managing director Denny Mooney. “We are not yet
publicly ready to say where some of that stuff is going to be built
though.
“We have said before that Zeta will be built in North America, maybe one
plant, maybe two plants, maybe three plants.
“The reality of not being able to say where it’s going to be built … is
because when we decide to put a product in a plant it’s a pretty formal process
and we work with the UAW and there’s a lot of approvals and internal and
external communications.”
Mr Mooney said there would be some defi nite advantages for Holden if
the Monaro – a low volume car – was manufactured in the USA.
“As an example, if they built the coupe in the USA, they would do the
tooling … then we are not spending the money in Australia – on that we are
spending it on something else.
“Maybe we do sheetmetal on our wagon or cross-over, or Crewman.
Maybe we could do some things we couldn’t afford this time round.”
The future home of Monaro is part of a larger vision triggered by Zetabased
cars being built around the world.
It could be Holden’s Elizabeth plant fi nds itself building less bodystyles
in bigger numbers for domestic and international consumption
and effectively trading vehicles with other GM regions.
“At the end of the day if it’s a great product and
we are doing the engineering and development on it
then I would hope where it was built wouldn’t be as
emotional,” Mr Mooney said.
“We have four bodystyles and today they have a lot
of commonality. If I had my druthers I would get more
uniqueness in those products even if it meant I had to
build them in different locations with the understanding
the products would be better products and used in our
market and their market.
“Whatever we were building would be higher volume levels. I would
have fewer bodystyles in the plant and less complexity. I could improve
productivity and improve quality, get better product at the end of the day.”
�� Holden’s compact concept car, revealed in GoAuto e-news last week
and set to make its world debut in Sydney next month, appears to be based
only loosely on GM’s low volume rear-drive Kappa architecture.
The reborn ‘Torana’ is said to have underpinnings inspired by Kappa. The
core of the Kappa chassis design are hydroformed frame rails which run the
length of the vehicle.

GTO is go
Distribution and name questioned
– but future plans are underway

By BRUCE NEWTON
THE slow sales start of the Australian-built
Pontiac GTO in the USA has been blamed on
distribution issues and the car’s name, as well as
the long-running complaints over its styling.
However, with the look being
toughened up for 2005 and an all-new
car in the pipeline there appears no
doubt about the program continuing
long term, says General Motors North
America president Gary Cowger.
To the end of August 2004, 5551 of
the Holden Monaro-based GTOs had
been sold in the USA. There seems
no doubt the car will fi nish its fi rst 12
months on sale well short of the 18,000-20,000
sales target.
“The problem that we had with the GTO was
that we did not distribute it to the right markets
originally,” explained Mr Cowger.
“We distributed it on a sales-weighted basis
for Pontiac and therefore I think we got too much
product in the northern climes and not nearly
enough in the smile states, California, Texas, all
the way through Florida.”
Northern states means winter snow,
something that is not conducive to
the sales of rear-wheel drive sports
coupes.
“If we hadn’t done that we wouldn’t
have backed up the inventory at the
beginning. Now that we have got that
straightened out we are starting to see
it go,” Mr Cowger said.
That assertion is backed up by
August sales, which at 967 were the
best for the car since its US launch.
Mr Cowger said calling the car GTO had
proven to be an issue because fans of the original
musclecar contended the Aussie version didn’t
have enough retro cues to earn the revered
moniker.
“In retrospect if we were to call this car the G8
it wouldn’t have had that (negative response) …
I think it may have been different,” Mr Cowger
admitted.
“G8” is a reference to Pontiac’s new midsize
sedan, the G6, that debuts a new naming
convention for the brand.
However, Mr Cowger said that he was
confi dent 2005’s stronger visual cues including
bonnet scoops, as well as the 6.0-litre LS2 V8,
would boost the GTO’s sales performance to an
annualised rate above 15,000.
“I am very confi dent this is a great car, a great
performing car and as Pontiac gets more and
more new product and excitement going then I
expect GTO to be very successful,” he said.
GM’s plan long-term is to build the next
generation GTO in North America on the Holdendeveloped
Zeta architecture, although that is still
some years away.

HALL: WHAT WENT WRONG
GARY Cowger has given us the offi cial view on GTO. But for an
independent perspective, we also spoke to leading auto analyst Jim
Hall of AutoPacifi c. Mr Hall has a strong grasp on the Australian
car industry, not least because his brother Bob worked here as a
motoring writer.
Old versus new:
“If you look at the GTO as a toy, as a fun car to have, you can’t
beat the car, it’s a great car to have for the money. But I can buy
one of those and have it depreciate or buy a 1969 GTO coupe and
it won’t depreciate. I am not going to say it’s going to go up, but it
won’t depreciate ... If you are buying it as a car there’s no choice,
you will buy the new one. But if you are buying it as a reward car
then you have a problem.”
The look:
“It should have been a little bit snappier from a design sense. They
(Pontiac) wanted it fast and they arguably needed it fast so they
had a trade-off. With the time it took to re-engineer the fuel system
and everything, they had to make a call and they made that call ...
That’s a classic example, though, of saying ‘I would have done it
this way’ which is easy to say now that it has gone on-sale.”
Distribution:
“The USA, while it’s one country, isn’t one market. There’s an
argument it’s six or seven markets with very different buying
habits. I can accept that the distribution wasn’t right, but again they
had no way of knowing. It’s the fi rst time they have done this. They
haven’t sold a GTO since 1975.”
Will the car survive?
“Absolutely. I don’t see it as a threatened vehicle – I don’t. Because
when they have the next platform (Zeta) vehicle they will have a
car they will have architected from the start.”

An export program to Australia of the next generation
GMT361 truck as a Toyota LandCruiser rival would also
help smooth the way.

Holden’s compact concept car, revealed in GoAuto e-news last week
and set to make its world debut in Sydney next month, appears to be based
only loosely on GM’s low volume rear-drive Kappa architecture.
The reborn ‘Torana’ is said to have underpinnings inspired by Kappa. The
core of the Kappa chassis design are hydroformed frame rails which run the
length of the vehicle.