hmm...before arriving here today, I assumed G8 was one of GM's biggest success stories. sure incentives have propped up sales of the car, but give me one car under any make that isn't having the same situation [aside from brand new intros]. g8 sales are all or mostly all retail, g8 sales are heavily skewed towards the $30k pricepoint, g8 sales are stable and increasing at least in a two month trend....as we all know backdrop, poor sales environment, yada yada.

it seems i am mistaken, according to some people here. here's where i engage and hope i get a thorough retort. why is g8 considered a failure? $30k+ pontiac; impala is having trouble moving 5k retail units a month ; sting of gas prices.....all the factors seem heavily in play for g8.

coming from that viewpoint, the one where g8 is a success, we're yet again seeing an assinine GM if they just don't rebadge g8 a chevy. impala is tanking. they could keep it, i would favor renaming it and calling G8 impala, but this would only work if people suspended logic. nothing cheesy, no dumb marketing, keep it direct and simple, call chevy G8 something memorable that sounds good. choose something fresh......commodore.

having seen the taurus on public roads recently, i have to say the impala is an embarassment. there's also maxima, accord, avalon, and a slew of contemporary luxury cars vying for the family sedan's upscale dollars. they can make it with smaller engines, use the 3.0 DI from equinox.

 

GMNA and Holden use a different bill of process in the way that they assemble vehicles. In fact that was the primary reason that the Camaro was redone on the refreshed Zeta 2, so that it would conform with the NA bill of process.

Think of it like this. Assembling the G8/Commodore on the Camaro's assembly line would be like asking Oshawa to build Taurus's or Camry's on the same line.

 

That's the line of thought I remember seeing, which is more or less what I was getting at in the last post - GMNA just not being set up to do things the way Holden does. In fact, Commodore's upcoming refresh is /was supposed to move in the direction of the Zeta2/Camaro, correct, as a step to try and homogenize the two processes?

Now, that all may been before CAFE spoiled the party, since it now looks like Commodore is supposed to try and shed some bulk now as priority number 1. Is this moving in the same direction as migrating to Zeta2, or is it a wee bit more extreme - since Camaro really isn't much lighter than a Commodore anyway.

 

Yes, that was the plan, to standardize everything on Zeta 2. That was also one of the reasons that the original GMX284 "Chevy Coupe" got so delayed and was eventually cancelled. It ended up costing some bucks and time to get a refreshed version (Zeta 2), which could be built by GMNA. What Holden ends up doing right now exactly, I don't know. Personally, at this point in time, I see very little reason for Holden to invest in Zeta 2.

BTW, I wouldn't anticipate much of a weight loss on the next Commodore. Perhaps incremental at best.

 

I'd have agree, there's gotta be absolutely no upside for Holden to move to Zeta2 now. Looks like things will be, as they were before, with Holden exports going everywhere but here. Cross our fingers that Alpha delivers the goods.

Interesting how all of this make Camaro an orphan on an isolated, non-volume platform again - isn't this a reason why the F-body eventually sank last time through? Suddenly it's the late 90s all over again - talk about learning (or not) lessons from history, this isn't even (really) old news, yet here we are again repeating things all over again for a new generation to enjoy.

Truly though, I'm very disappointed to see the G8 go; no, I wasn't going to buy one in the foreseeable near future, but it was on my short, short, short list when it came time to replace the GP. There's always used I guess.

 

Come on. These are Pontiac dealers we're talking about here. You should know which one it's going to be.

(Hint: It's going to have markups that made the GTO's look reasonable.)

 

Aaaaaand you missed my point. Quotation marks are for quotations, not emphasis. Italics, bold, and underlines are for emphasis.

I'd love to buy a new G8 (and a new Camaro, and a Corvette, and a CTS...) -- I simply don't have the money.

 

Exactly. So have Holden build the buggers like they do now. Build a LHD Lumina instead of a LHD G8. The sales volume you'll see on such a car over the next few years will probably be where it is now and not much higher, which is still well within Holden's capacity. Call it a Lumina or a Caprice. The name is not important at this point - getting the vehicle here is.

Thats the part I've been wondering since the exchange rates between the US and Oz flipped. Does anyone make profits on every G8 sold including getting it over here and off the lots with rebates as they are? The rebates are helping sales - but are they moving to selling the vehicles at a loss?? Nobody seems to know.

 

Isn't the VE due for a refresh/reskin/redesign fairly soon (2010 or 2011)? It has been out since 2006 if I remember correctly. Maybe when this occurs, then North America can also get their new Chevy version of the G8?

 

News articles from here regarding Holden exports

http://business.theage.com.au/busine...0428-akva.html

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...59-661,00.html

Here comes the small car

 

I just talked to someone who works at a Pontiac dealership, and he said since the GM announcement their phone traffic doubled today with a lot of interest in cars like the Solstice and G8. Looks like a lot of people wanted them, but the economy and bankruptcy crap had them on the fence.

 

Yes, thank you! Every law enforcement agency and taxi company in the country would line up to have a Caprice again.

If GM loves the Wimpala so much, they can keep selling it to rental companies, but offer us a large rear wheel drive Chevy sedan again. The Impala name has left production several times. The Caprice has been gone from here since 1997.

Call it Bel Air (since that is where the Impala originated from), Biscayne, or Del Ray. All those names bring good memories to people these days.

 

Wasn't meant as emphasis of now as being immediate. It was meant to say the word now in a special sense, in which case italics or quotes serve that purpose...

Same sort of use as:

He won a "major" award which was a cheap trinket. An attempt at pointing out some irony. An esoteric moment on my part.

 

Can you explain further why it can't be done?

The Oshawa Flex plant should be able to support EpsillonII and even Theta platforms.

 

This was explained to me once or twice afew years ago, so I'm alittle foggy on the details. IIRC it has to do with the order in which components are assembled. As was explained to me, Holden has a completely different process than GMNA.