Holden Commodore tipped as Chevelle

Car News
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The Commodore could reappear in the US under a new name.
Photo of Neil Dowling
Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

2 min read

It wasn't the temperature - it was the rumour mill grinding out reports that Chevrolet will take the Holden Commodore into the US and rebadge it as Chevelle.

It may represent a revival of a stars and stripes Commodore after the car last year ended a 20-month stint as the Pontiac G8.

The G8 - which sold 38,159 in its three-model guise - was pulled from showrooms in July 2009 as General Motors imploded and Pontiac dissolved. Now that GM is almost back on its financial feet, it has called on Holden to supply stripped versions of its long wheelbase Caprice to become police cars.

The Chevrolet Caprice police cruisers - under consideration by the police - will revive Holden's export program to the US. It has led to speculation that Commodores for public duty will follow.

Word of an export deal for V8 Commodores was triggered by upbeat GM chiefs at the recent Los Angeles motor show. In Australia, Holden spokesman Jonathon Rose says: "We have made no secrets of the fact that we're pursuing new export opportunities for our local product."

"At this point in time our focus is on exporting the Caprice to North America as a law enforcement vehicle and that program has a lot of potential. Beyond that we don't have anything to add right now."

The man pushing the police deal and who is fostering the restart of Commodore shipments to the US is former Holden boss Mark Reuss, now the president of GM North America.

Reuss was Holden's chief in 2008 and 2009 when the G8 program was running. He is completely aware of the program's potential and recognises that all the hard work has been done on Commodore to meet US vehicle design regulations.

If successful, it could lead to export programs for the ute and wagon - both of which were poised in 2009 to make the ocean voyage as left-drive Pontiacs but made stillborn by GM's bankruptcy.

Photo of Neil Dowling
Neil Dowling

Contributing Journalist

GoAutoMedia Cars have been the corner stone to Neil’s passion, beginning at pre-school age, through school but then pushed sideways while he studied accounting. It was rekindled when he started contributing to magazines including Bushdriver and then when he started a motoring section in Perth’s The Western Mail. He was then appointed as a finance writer for the evening Daily News, supplemented by writing its motoring column. He moved to The Sunday Times as finance editor and after a nine-year term, finally drove back into motoring when in 1998 he was asked to rebrand and restyle the newspaper’s motoring section, expanding it over 12 years from a two-page section to a 36-page lift-out. In 2010 he was selected to join News Ltd’s national motoring group Carsguide and covered national and international events, launches, news conferences and Car of the Year awards until November 2014 when he moved into freelancing, working for GoAuto, The West Australian, Western 4WDriver magazine, Bauer Media and as an online content writer for one of Australia’s biggest car groups. He has involved himself in all aspects including motorsport where he has competed in everything from motocross to motorkhanas and rallies including Targa West and the ARC Forest Rally. He loves all facets of the car industry, from design, manufacture, testing, marketing and even business structures and believes cars are one of the few high-volume consumables to combine a very high degree of engineering enlivened with an even higher degree of emotion from its consumers.
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