Why is the Ute not being called the Chevy El Camino? Consider this.....
 

:think: Let's say, there was a car company overseas that was making the type of cars we want, but we couldn't get it here.

We sent letters, we expressed our intrest and even our demands that we get these cars to anyone that would listen. Finally, someone finally crunches the numbers, gives it a serious look, and says it can easily be done, and would also even be beneficial in that it would provide vital lessons in the benefits and shortcomings of producing cars jointly. It would also be a golden opportunity to bring back a historic name for added kick. A huge morale booster for dealers and news generating publicity for a brand that needs it. The overseas entity gets a budget and a small bag of cash, and says make it happen.

The vehicle is created, achieves great new levels of quality & performance, is far above anything else the company here could produce. The cars are loaded into the boats & brought over. the press is called around. The cars are trained and trucked to showrooms, and then........ THUD!

What the hell happened?

The cars performed better than anything in it's own history. The cars were perhaps the best made cars the automaker here produced. The cars looked good. Everyone who actually got behind the wheel marveled at it. But yet, the car is ravaged by some of the very same enthusiasts who called for it's return. People say the name was simply slapped on the vehicle. People claim that there was zero effort made to make it even look like the car it was supposed to be, regardless as to the fact there was no "look" historic models had to begin with.

Of course, I'm talking about the last Pontiac GTO.

...... or am I talking about why the Holden Ute won't be the Chevrolet El Camino?


GM got raked over the fire with the GTO. The car was good. Even almost great. It was quicker than any GTO in history. It was faster than any GTO ever was. It was even priced on par with where the historic GTO was priced in the marketplace. It was a high level GT, just as the GTO was. And finally, it looked just like every other Pontiac model in the showroom, just like all GTOs before it...... yet the final point was the center of all complaints and venom directed at it.

The issue centered on the fact that there was a perception that a car with a historic name should look like a throwback to that historic time, regardless as to the actual facts. It should look like nothing else on the showroom floor. It should have it's own look. And, finally...... it should be made in America.


General Motors is nothing if it doesn't learn from mistakes. Even though Pontiac dealers did as much to destroy the prospect of sales as anything else, the one thing GM has control over is how a vehicle looks. But at the same time, the GTO actually sold well. It easily outstripped sales of another premium coupe, the Mustang Cobra. But bad controversy has a habit of eclipsing the good in things. Even though the GTO was actually a success, it's image is that it failed.


Now, there's a product that again enthusiasts have wanted. It's a very good vehicle, well made, raises the performance bar in ride, handling, and power, and will no doubt generate alot of publicity because no one else has anything like it. It's coming to the US, it looks like the El Camino, it should be named the El Camino, right?

Not so fast.

First, the car has obvious design elements of the Pontiac G8, not to mention (once again) a car already in production overseas. A car with a historic name like El Camino will evoke ideas of how it should look. More American... made in America. More overstyled, or at least styling that harkins back to a previous time. If designing a new nose on a vehicle that isn't sold in the US at all is called "slapping on a badge", what's going to happen when a new nose is grafted on a vehicle that being sold across the street as a Pontiac sedan.

Designing a new look over the same architecture is no problem. Making the vehicle on the same assembly line here in America is no problem either. The line is being set up to make numerous cars, even low production niche cars, with very little expense. But that line won't be up and running for another year and a half, and it won't be ready to make that El Camino till at least 2010 or 2011 when it begins producing the large cars this vehicle is based on. The vehicle has obvious sales potential, and needs to go on sale now! What to do??

Import it & put it on sale as soon as posible, alongside a sedan with which it bears similar design cues. In this case, it means B-P-G showrooms.

An El Camino can come later... designed here & made here. The architecture, construction, and engineering of the vehicle it's based on & it's assembly process is identical to what's over at Holden. All the work is done already, also by Holden. Identical to the Chevrolet RWD sedan that although based on the Commodore, could have strikingly different design and somewhat different proportions, an El Camino can be based on the large sedan. Best of all, it would have an American flavor instead of European as the Holden version does. It could even have a different front wheel to passenger compartment ratio than the Holden Ute. And best of all, there would be 2 different Utes available that wouldn't be badge engineered despite being built on the same structure.


GM can sell the Ute here in the US now, and it will be a great vehicle on it's own merits. But to have that piece of Chevrolet automotive history, and a piece of Americana, we'll need to wait till GM gets the car to base it on and the ability to do it here in North America.

Perhaps we should consider buying up every new Holden Ute not nailed down that hits the shores. :think:

GM just wants to empty my bank account twice in the next 3-5 years!:D

Great post.

Great post, without a doubt.

However.......I want the small, rear-wheel-drive vehicles that GM talked about so many times before. The B-P-G channel is well deserved of some product, which is why this is more than likely a GMC model vehicle as it should be.

I'd also stand firmly behind a Saturn model of this. A Saturn pick-up truck, tuned for the tuner market fits exactly above the Astra and right where Saturn should be, in my opinion.

Chevy already has the SSR trucklet, why would it need to import the VE?

Because SSR went out of production in 2006?

Just what I was thinking.

Am I correct in assuming that Holden can only export 20-30K cars at most anyway?

....And because the SSR has as much in common with the VE Ute as the Chevy Cobalt has with a Chevy Camaro. :p

I can't believe you compared the El Camino to the GTO Guy. :D Sure the stories are similar, however to say the El Camino's history and name are anything close to the GTO's is a stretch. Even the anemic Judge GTOs of the mid 70s were far closer to their historical brethren than the last El Caminos to roll out of Detroit. All GTOs were for the most part performance muscle cars, the El Camino was a utility vehicle before the word SUV was commonplace. Sure there was the El Camino SS-454, and other performance versions, but the majority were Spartan/utilitarian models. My grandfather drove a 1967 El Camino. It came with a 2-bbl 283 and PG. Not a performance car by any stretch of the word.

That said, folks will buy an American Ute regardless of whether it is called El Camino or Ute if it fits their needs. Quite frankly although a small group of enthusiasts will rush to buy one, I don't see them being as big of a hit here in the US as they are downunder. For the most part pickup trucks handle and perform much more car-like than they did when the El Camino was canceled. Those that want an enclosed back will continue to buy SUVs. Both are simply far more versatile vehicles from a utility perspective and most of the people in the market for a Ute-like vehicle have grown to accept and desire them as respectable replacements to the El Camino.

If the Holden Ute comes to these shores as a Chevrolet, why wouldn’t they call it El Camino and take advantage of those enthusiasts that have longed for its return for years?

Why not compare them? The old ones were both A bodies and the new ones both Holden Commodores.

While true, the El Camino came in several different trim levels (as does the Holden Ute and Commodore) whereas the GTO was essentially a GTO.

In other words, I think the market for a Ute is far broader that the market for a GTO. Hense, more reasons why the GTO was less successful than initially anticipated. I disagree with Guy and feel that it would be a different case for a Ute rebadged as an El Camino. However I don't think they'll roll off the showroom floors like candy.

OK, so look at the comparison from a different angle. Maybe people would complain just because they can't get a spartan utility model, or maybe they complain the new one is too slick and nice, not tough looking enough?

The Ute is way more car than any past el camino, i think guy's point is valid. For as many people as might love a slick modern performance bred car with a bed, there are sure to be more people who will hate the car for one reason or another just because it doesn't meet their exact definition of what an el camino should be. That's exactly the fate that befell the GTO.

OK. I can give most of that. But I also think that the timing is very right for them to come here. And, I believe, that being badged as an El Camino would be the best way to bring them here, even if a GMNA El Camino is to follow.

But that's not what GM is going to do, so I'll have to live with it.

And maybe drive one for a few years.:cool:

If they don't bring it to the US as an El Camino, the opposite of what happened to the GTO will happen. Everyone will be asking, "why isn't this being sold as an El Camino?"

You can bring it as an El Camino for 2-3 model years. Afterwards, when the US built version is ready, it can be released as its replacement.

However, I think I see a pattern to what GM is doing now. Bring out new vehicles at lower volumes at Saturn, Buick, Olds, GMC, and Pontiac first. After the kinks have been worked out, then the Chevy versions can be brought online.

Randy

Wasn't there talk of GM producing the G8 in North America after a few years? Could this be the same with the Ute?

I don't see why Chevy even needs an El Camino... I think that Chevy should stick with more conventional vehicles and leave the unorthodox ones to brands like Pontiac and Saturn.