Quote:
Originally Posted by WildBillyT
Al, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the GTO rushed as hell too? Like 9 months to convert the Holden over for US duty?
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I don't know if you would call it rushed, but it wasn't very long from when Bob Lutz said go to when the first Monaros started rolling into Long Beach. It was never planned on coming to the US. It wasn't until Lutz wanted to bring something over from Australia did people start to wonder if it could happen.
Lutz wanted to see how fast GM could get a car from one side of the planet, certified for US emissions and crash standards, and on the market.
Remember that while the GTO only sold 13k a year here, they only sold about 1.3k in Australia and maybe another 5k elsewhere around the world. By American standards, it was a "flop" because it didn't sell in high five or six digit numbers.
G8 was designed and spec'ed to come to the US. The crash standards, the different guide lines, all that was baked into the VE chassis because of the "success" of the GTO. Holden was given a billion dollar budget to build its own chassis predicated on the fact that it would be sold here in the US. It felt like it took less time because when development started in 2005, so when the last GTO rolled in in 06, the first G8 was only two years behind.
GM now wanted to wait till VF came so that they didn't have any issues and could once again build up the car to appeal to American markets. Face it, if the G8 was brought out today, it wouldn't stack up to the likes of Charger much less anything sporty from Europe.
Just look at the advances made with Camaro and all the changes they have done since 2010.
The market for large V8 powered sedans isn't exactly booming, so to see GM even bothering with this vehicle can be viewed as them being up to their old tricks. You could even get upset with the fact that the Australian people are subsidizing the cost of the SS here so that they can preserve a few jobs back home. The equivalent SS in Australia will sell over 60k while we will get one near 40k.
Either way, it will sell in the 5-10k units they want it to, it will be a desirable vehicle once GM stops producing it, and then people will praise it for how GM used to offer affordable rear-drive V8 sedans while screaming at them for only offering turbo 4 econoboxes.
Same ****, different year.