New Government didn't want to give the car industry any extra money. So GM have decided to pack up shop and go home.

We have a high cost of manufacture, alot of that due to the unions with labour costs.

 

Have 3 questions for you Anthony......

1) The Commodore is a large car......there's only 2 places on earth where a large car can be built and sold in the quanities to make it profitable......

....China is a big market, but there is one place that still sells more large cars than anyplace on the planet......where is that?


2) It's well known that GM is finishing work on the Omega platforn. This platform will be out about 2015. Yet, the large car market isn't a gaurantee beyond 2020 in the US, and infact, already the trend is away from large cars and towards smaller midsize cars.....Do you think that GM would spend the money and start with a clean sheet of paper and create an entirely new platform from scratch if it was only likely to sell in volume for 5 years or so??

3) The Zeta is GM's newest all new platform next to Alpha. Bob Lutz a couple years ago said Zeta still had a lot of life left in it. Mike Deverauex (sp) mentioned that they were going to take weight out of Zeta. Mark Reuss said that Zeta was going on a "Slim fast"diet. The Alpha platform isn't a structure made of miracle metals and angel dust. It's a platform of minimalist structure (using only what's needed for the smallest lightest version, and adding structure back in for larger and more powerful vehicles (and why the new V6 Cadillac CTS is about the same weight as the outgoing version as well as a V6 Commodore)......Being that Alpha's largest practical size (and point of diminished benefit) is the Cadillac CTS, wouldn't the low cost alternative be taking weight out of the Zeta?

3) Final question:The reason Zeta didn't make it to US manufacturing was because of the extensive Australian OEM systems and manufacturing that GM would have had to invest in to duplicate it here (most of the VE utilized local Australian vendors). The VF cut specialized vendor contribution to about 50%, so GM makes it so that GM's global vendors (especially North America) can supply 100% within GM's existing system and already manufactured parts bin?

I'd keep an eye on the Omega, if I were you.

 

Like I said China

Holden's Chinese Commodore firms - motoring.com.au

 

...wow......how disappointing.

So sad to see the Commodore being relegated to front drive and 4 cylinders.......

To all my good friends down under - buy your VFs now and take good care of them!! I know I'll be taking extra good care of my G8 in light of all this news.

.....ode to the "Last of the V8s!" I think this is rather fitting (albeit sad). One of my favorite movie series of all times.....yea, I know its a Falcon, but I think it hits home:

LiveLeak.com - The Last of the V8 Interceptors - Mad Max Mashup

 

This article though vague states that its possible that the Commodore/Chevy SS along with the Caprice PPV will be manufactured in North America on a Zeta II platform and exported to Australia.

Does Oshawa have the extra capacity to take on Holden? About that time the old W-Body Impala will finally be dead, and Camaro production will be moving out of Oshawa, so that will leave a production hole.

Holden Holding On: Will Possibly Be Imported from North America - GM High-Tech Performance

 

Bump

10 years of dumb decisions by GM, destroying their RHD market.... they're now pulling out.

Did lol at their excuse that it was because of the “highly fragmented right-hand-drive markets” not that the FWD slush box cars being imported were **** and nobody wanted them.