Where did that quote come from, Anthony?

 

Well, crap... wouldn't this (at least at one plant in the U.S.) put an end to all the "Zeta can't be built in the U.S." talk?!?!

 

Well, I'd doubt tooling for it would be shipped here. Korea is more likely.

 

That may be the case... my "alert" light went off in my head when the U.S. was mentioned....

This could be interesting... whatever happens....

 

Well, GM does have a long, illustrious history of killing cars just as they're gaining steam....

 

www.ls1.com.au I'm intrested to see if its just rumour or there is some substance to it..

 

Is this a possibility?

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosins...C02-259223.htm

 

It is true that Holden will be shipping alot of their tooling fot the current V series outside of Australia, but I can't get a pin on exactly what or where. If you want my gut feeling on this, I'd say China or Korea by 2008 or 2009 (when Zeta was to be fully on line both in Australia and here).

I know that certain people at Holden believe that the GTO will continue a year beyond the original 3 year agreement. But the next GTO won't be out at least until 2009 at the earliest, so I suspect there will be a gap (however small) in GTO production.

The way I see things playing out is that Holden will phase out VZ production as Zeta is phased in this winter through 2008 calender year (MY2009) almost model by model. I see the Commodore first on Zeta, then the luxury line (Statesman & Caprice). I then see the UTE and GTO (Monaro will be gone already) being transfered to Zeta at Holden or production moved here to the US on either Zeta or our RWD chassis.

I then see Holden shipping the tooling to either China or Korea (in that order).

One thing that's for sure, we WON'T be getting a UTE (El Camino) from Korea or China and it's unlikely the Monaro will be produced there. There's still high tarrifs on imported trucks to the US, and the coupe market in China & Korea is miniscule (even compared to Australia). At the same time, I don't see Holden spliting up tooling since most components from their entire line depend on the same tooling.

I don't believe we'll be getting the V car tooling since the car will be a decade old by then, and whatever chassis GM-NA is working on is made on the same principles as Holden is using. Holden is very involved in our RWD program and expect whatever GM-NA comes up with to be very VERY much like Holden's Zeta (different structure but STILL a modular chassis and assembly techniques)

More should come out during Australia's auto show season on this.

 

Just to throw another tidbit on the pile, while Holden Monaro production will stop HSV will continue if only until sometime next year. Which will mean that the Vauxhall will sell only what Vauxhall Monaros they have in stock, but the Vauxhall Monaro VXR (HSV Coupe) will continue to be sold until next year.

The other 'rumour' that has appeared is that HSV will do a limited run of ~100 HSV coupes with the LS7 as a 'goodbye' of sorts.

 

Is it time for a "told you so" from an '04 GTO owner?

 

that's the question I have in my mind because I don't have a full picture of what "tooling" constitutes...

so the tooling infrastructure on each Holden assembly line, as you say, is able to produce the various versions of the V-chasis (Commodore, monaro, ute, etc). Correct??? Then what is to stop a tooling infrastructure for V-chasis from ONE assembly line to come to NA shores, and use this to produce ute (to avoid tariffs) and GTO? afterall, both are going to be low volume vehicles.

The tooling for other assembly lines can go to China or Korea.

 

The entire Holden RWD line comes off of the same basic chassis-structure, and until recently, Holdens were made on the same assembly line in the same plant (the plant's now set up to make the new Zeta and the old "V" cars simultaneously).

The Holden Statesman, Caprice, & UTE come off the LWB chassis, while Commodore & Monaro/GTO comes off the SWB. The primary difference between the SWB & LWB chassis is a modular insert ahead of the rear wheels. The inner body structure of both the Commodore & Monaro are nearly identical (why the GTO is over 55" tall). The entire front structure is the same across the line, as is most suspension components. This includes Holden's odd variations like the Tonner, Avalanche, etc.

In order for, the US to produce Monaro while China or Korea gets the sedan, GM North America is going to have to order and make tooling to produce whatever stamping and tooling machines it didn't get, which would essentially be everything to make the entire inner structure of the car.

If GM-NA is going to invest that much on tooling (not cheap), it may as well engineer the entire car. This goes without saying the V chassis will be well over a decade old by the time GM-NA would be able to get the vehicle on the road (2009 at the earliest).

Since this is about the timeframe that we're looking at North America's version of the "Zeta" (more a assembly technique than a actual car), I wouldn't quite bet that six-pack on us getting Holden's old tooling. Especially if Holden's expanding to China & Korea.

 

Oh my... I stand corrected sir! Holden kept the best at home (and rightly so).