Holden Commodore News

Plans are being hatched for the SS V8 to live on beyond the lifespan of the upcoming VF Commodore, which now is just around the corner, provided that performance-car fans in the USA and Australia are still prepared to pay.Holden admits it could continue with a low-volume VF SS on its production line in Adelaide after the cut-off date for the current Commodore, which is set to be replaced by an international model with local tweaking.That would mean three models in the same factory, with the compact Cruze running alongside the SS and the new car. "We are considering all options going forward but won't discuss specifics at this stage," the chairman of Holden, Mike Devereux, admits to Carsguide this week.But one of his predecessors as Holden boss, Mark Reuss, believes a long-term SS is possible if export demand for the car is as strong as expected in the USA. Reuss led the push to take the SS to America as a Chevrolet - as well as Chevy's NASCAR racing spearhead - and also knows what is possible at the Holden factory in Elizabeth."We can sell this for as long as we can make it and sell it," Reuss, who know heads General Motors in the USA, says of the rear-wheel drive muscle car. He is a long-term fan of the Commodore SS and knows the pulling power it has in Australia, as well as its potential to bring buyers to Chevrolet dealerships in the USA."What if we have a really cool, loyal buyer base? What if we had that? What if it becomes the reason to go into a Chevrolet dealership?", Reuss says."What if we say we're not going to do it any more and there is an uproar saying that we want these? What if that happens, what would you do?"The decision for an ongoing SS does not have to be made for some time, probaby not until 2015, but Reuss is already keen to find a way to keep the Commodore going. "I think that is a pretty good idea," he says."You need another body shop to keep it going, so what? There are two body shops in a place people said we could only have one, they said we couldn't do it but we did do it."It is paid for, it's all there."This reporter is on Twitter @paulwardgover  

Holden has announced it will offer voluntary redundancies for 500 factory and engineering workers -- its biggest round of job cuts since the Global Financial Crisis. The car maker will lose 400 workers from its car assembly line at Elizabeth near Adelaide and a further 100 engineers based in Melbourne. It is the first time in memory Holden has publicly announced a redundancy program for engineers. The move comes as most of the work done on the new Commodore has been completed before it goes on sale in June. The announcement comes just one week after Holden released figures that showed it had received $2.17 billion in government funding over the past 12 years, roughly twice as much as what Ford ($1.1 billion) and Toyota ($1.2 billion) received over the same period. The engineering losses are also confirmation that Holden is no longer the engineering “home room” for any particular General Motors vehicle, and its future locally-made cars will instead be adaptations of global models. The 500 job losses announced this afternoon follow 180 job cuts at Elizabeth in November 2012, and a further 40 at the Port Melbourne engine plant in March 2012. It is the biggest single redundancy program since Holden axed 500 positions in July 2009 in the wake of the GFC, after exports of the Commodore to the USA ended when the Pontiac brand was shut down. The latest cutbacks take the Holden factory workforce down to 1750 jobs, while engineering will shrink from 675 positions to 575. By comparison, Ford Australia employs about 1100 engineers, most of whom work on overseas vehicle programs even though they are based locally. The latest job cuts are yet another grim reality facing the Australian car industry as it struggles to compete with cheap imported cars aided by the strong Australian dollar. Last year Ford axed 340 jobs (to take its workforce at Broadmeadows and Geelong to 1500) while Toyota axed 350 manufacturing positions, to take its head-count to 2500 at its Altona facility. Holden said the job cuts were due primarily to a reduction in demand for its locally-made Cruze small car “led by the high Australian dollar, combined with one of the most open and competitive car markets in the world”. The restructure will see Holden build 350 cars per day from August, instead of the 400 cars a day it currently builds during each daily eight-hour shift. A statement from Holden boss Mike Devereux said: “A workforce reduction is always the last resort and Holden has taken every possible step to address our challenges over the past 12 months. This is a very difficult decision because people and their families are involved. These are hard working Australian men and women and we will be doing everything in our power to help them make informed decisions about their future.” Holden says it has committed to local car manufacturing until 2022, while Toyota is negotiating for the next generation Camry it plans to build to 2024. Ford is yet to apply for government assistance for a locally-made car beyond the 2016 deadline set for the Falcon sedan and Territory SUV. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling  

Computer geeks put the brakes on Holden sales in February. An experimental computer system said “no” to the struggling car-maker last month, restricting how many vehicles its dealers could report as sold. The computer gremlins prompted Holden to report its lowest monthly result in almost seven years, about 7500 sales according to preliminary figures revealed to News Limited. The last time Holden sales dropped this low was in April 2006, just three months before a new Commodore arrived. Coincidentally another new Commodore is now three months away. But as an added dampener Holden was forced to unveil the new model early to match the timing of US counterpart Chevrolet, which plans to sell the Commodore in North America. On top of this setback, the massive computer meltdown left about 1500 cars -- about one-in-five of Holden’s normal delivery rate -- unaccounted for and its national network of 238 dealers in disarray. In some cases the computer system told dealers a car was still on the production line when in fact it was in their showroom. In other examples vehicles were in transit but couldn’t be released because the computer system wouldn’t allow it. Holden says most customers were able to take delivery of their new cars and the system will be fixed by the end of March. But the computer crash came at a sensitive time for Holden; it is trying to clear runout models of the locally made Cruze small car and Commodore sedan to make way for new versions. It also came just one month after the Commodore recorded its lowest month of sales in the 35-year history of the nameplate -- when the computer system was still operating as normal. Holden insists the computer system is not an excuse to disguise weak sales and that the numbers reported in the coming months will reflect this. “The computer system is not the sole reason behind all of the decline in February, it’s clearly a very tough market, but it does represent the majority of our missing numbers,” Holden executive director of sales and marketing, Philip Brook, told News Limited. “We’ve submitted preliminary numbers for February but they could change when the official results come out. They could go up or down slightly once we go through the figures forensically.” Dealer sources said Holden is the first test market for a new global computer network to be rolled out across every General Motors division around the world. Meanwhile, the drama has shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the flaws in the reporting of new-car sales figures. All sales numbers are supplied voluntarily by car makers and dealers -- they do not necessarily correlate with new vehicle registrations in the same month. For example in some cases a car can be reported as “sold” in one month so that a dealer can take advantage of a rebate from the manufacturer -- but the car may not be sold to a customer for another couple of months. However a car can only be reported as sold once, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries says. In Holden’s case, once it finds the missing cars it will report those as sold in the next month or two -- even though they may have been delivered in February. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling  

The Holden-built hero will begin shipping soon from Adelaide and goes on sale as the home-grown Commodore in April across Australia. We've already revealed the SS-V that is closest to the new American muscle car, as well as the news that buyers in the USA will pay a fair amount less for their car than people at home. The first official pictures of the export SS Performance confirm the car has a number of different body bits, as well as signature 'bowtie' Chevy badges, which will appeal to Commodore owners who want to make their car just a little bit different. I've lost count of the number of Commodores I've seen over the years, mostly utes and dual-cab Crewman pick-ups, with their Holden badges ripped off and replaced by Chevrolet items. This time around, Chevrolet has already delivered even-better bragging rights through a first-up NASCAR win and pole position at the Daytona 500 with its SS - a spot taken by Danica Patrick in a landmark success for women drivers everywhere. It's all adding up to an irresistible bait for buyers who can get their hands on the Chevy badges and bits. I've already seen the enthusiasm for the Chevrolet connection with a number of tasty offers for a Chevrolet SS tee shirt that I got at the early press review of the NASCAR racer. Not that I intend to part with a piece of history ... It might take a while before the latest SS badges are available, but I have a friend who has tapped into the demand for wide-angle VE Commodore door mirrors, bringing the bits back during business trips to the USA. Mark Reuss, the former head of Holden who now leads General Motors in the USA, also sees the potential for a bit of back-trading on the badges and body bits once the VF is ready for the road and a bit of customisation. "Why didn't I think of that? It could be a good business," he laughs when I mention the potential for a bit of reverse exporting. This reporter is on Twitter @paulwardgover  

The SS (Super Sport) name for the Holden Commodore rebadged as a Chevrolet has been condemned by a Hebrew newspaper as having a Nazi reference -- and threatened with being banned from entry. A report in The Times of Israel quotes Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth slamming the badging because of association with the

Holden has released pictures of the cargo-carrying versions of the VF Commodore range – and we can now see why Holden hid them for a week or so after the much-hyped sedan launch. They don’t get as much of a makeover as the sedan.Contrary to widespread misguided speculation, the VF Commodore wagon and ute do not get a new rear-end appearance; they’re the same as before. In fact, from behind, it will be almost impossible to distinguish the new models from the old ones.Even the badges are the same as before, with Holden electing not to adopt the new, sleeker “SS” logo fitted to the Chevrolet export models.The tail-lights and rear bumpers on the VF Commodore wagon and ute are the same as the previous model because Holden couldn’t justify the significant investment in new ones.Wagon and ute sales have dropped by more than half in the past 10 years (from 17,000 ute sales in 2003 to 7900 in 2012).An insider has revealed that new tail-lights for each model would cost up to $1 million per set to redesign, retool and retest for Australian regulations, bringing the bill to $2 million dollars before adding the cost of new rear bumper moulds.Another contributing factor: Holden’s decision to design unique rear lights for the wagon and the ute for the first time ever on the VE Commodore – since the VN Commodore of 1990, all Commodore wagons and utes had shared the same rear lamps.Had the wagon and ute shared the exact same part at VE, perhaps Holden could have justified the investment in one new set. But the VE Commodore range was designed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, during the Commodore’s sales peaks and when the car could do no wrong.But there is some good news. Although only the eagle-eyed might notice, the photos show the SS-V ute gets factory-fit rear parking sensors for the first time. And the appearance of Brembo front brakes indicates there will be an SS-V Redline edition in the VF Commodore range.Other information that’s come to light:- a rear view camera is likely to be standard on most ute models for the first time (it wasn’t even an option on VE);- the ute will miss out on the Bose sound system, even on the high grade models;- all VF Commodore models will come with seven airbags (now that a driver’s knee airbag has been added);- all SS Commodore models get the same 6.0-litre V8 as before (not the 6.2 LS3 V8 fitted to export models, the same distinction was made between the Pontiac G8 GXP and the SS in 2009).Holden used the release of ute and wagon pictures to talk about some of the testing it has done with the VF Commodore range.The media statement said Holden engineers will conduct more than 1.4 million kilometres of local and overseas validation testing – including Sweden, North America and the Middle East – before the first VF Commodore reaches Holden showrooms, including 350,000km of “customer verification” testing of early production models by Holden employees in the coming months.Translated: if you live in Melbourne you might see dozens of VF Commodores on the road before they’re in showrooms in June.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

I stumbled across a case this week at Daytona Beach in the United States of all places where GM was launching the brand new Chevy SS sports sedan. Nothing ironic about that, apart from the fact it's a Holden through and through and the first Chevrolet in two decades to have rear-wheel drive, something of an asset in the world of motor sport. The launch comes at a time when the future of Holden's homegrown product, the rear-wheel drive Commodore hangs in the balance. Sales continue to fall, it has been outsold by the smaller Cruze for more than a year and will most likely be replaced sooner than later by a front-wheel drive Chevrolet, built on the same production line that currently produces Commodores and badged as a Commodore. Now that's what I call ironic. We were in Daytona for the famous Daytona 500 stock car race where the new Chevy SS, the soon to be launched Commodore VF in Chevy clothing was getting ready to make its race debut. Described by GM heavyweight Mark Reuss as a four-door Corvette, the V8 powered SS represents yet another opportunity for Holden to prop up declining sales of Commodore which have plunged more than 60 per cent over the past few years. It follows in the footsteps of other Holden hopefuls, exported to the US under the defunct Pontiac badge, as well as the long wheelbase Caprice that has scored limited success, supplied in dribs and drabs as a patrol car to police forces across the country. Holden is hoping to export at least 5000 Chevrolet SSs a year, designed and built right here in Australia but powered by a 6.2-litre V8 instead of the standard Holden 6.0-litre unit. It's the same engine that powers the current Corvette hero car, which is likely to be a big drawcard for Americans. In Australia, the 6.2-litre LS3 engine is reserved for Holden's high performance, HSV line of vehicles. Where previous efforts have faltered, Reuss, who once ran the Holden franchise in Australia, believes this time they've got it right, with an SS that is a premium product based on the top of the range Calais V and priced accordingly although that price is yet to be revealed. What's all this mean for Australia? Perhaps a stay of execution for the Commodore as we know it. Holden has confirmed the name will live on, but not necessarily on the back of a car designed and built in Australia. In 2015, it is planning to introduce a new Cruze based on a new platform. Two years later, a second new "global" platform will be added but it is not saying at this stage what vehicle that will support. In the meantime, Holden has expanded its body production facilities. Some punters are suggesting that it has the capacity to continue building a rear-drive car, perhaps even a range of performance-focused vehicles alongside the new ones much the same as Nissan has been doing for some time with some of its models of late. As long as there is a demand for the car, Holden will continue to build the Commodore, Reuss says. The extra demand generated by sales of the Chevrolet SS can only help. Reuss concedes the project is a bit of an experiment, but one about which they are passionate. Almost as soon as they started work on the VF Commodore, he says they started planning the Chevrolet. Resources from both GM and Holden were poured into the project, resulting in a better car all round -- in the case of Commodore the best yet if you believe the spin doctors. A prerequisite of the plan was that the car had to have the ability to compete on the race track as a stock car, in a field dominated these days by a swarm of front-wheel drive vehicles. Reuss says it is crucial to have a car racing in front of the public that is as close to stock as possible, that Americans can go out and actually buy. The success of one could well be the saviour of the other, particularly in Australia where Holden sold just 30,000 Commodores last year 40,000 if you count exports. "I'd love to tell you this is going to run until 2020 in Australia. I'd love say that but we haven't sold one car yet," Reuss said. Chevrolet on the other hand was America's best-selling performance brand last year, with Camaro and Corvette accounting for one in three sports cars sold in the United States. The man in the street is pretty excited about the cool new Chevy -- perhaps we should be too? (Check even the cleaner at our hotel owns a bloody Camaro).  

Due for launch in June, the new VF Commodore will get seven, instead of the current six airbags, with the addition of an extra knee airbag to protect the driver's knees and lower legs in the unfortunate event of an accident.Holden sources have revealed the seventh bag is an integral part of the car's underlying architecture and as such so it will also be included in the Commodore when it arrives. In the past, other manufacturers including Holden pulled airbags out of their cars before bringing them to Australia to save costs.The Holden Barina springs to mind sold as the Sonic is in the States where it is equipped with 10 airbags - despite this it still gets five stars from ANCAP here. The extra knee bag is in addition to the usual front, side and curtain airbags, which along with electronic traction and stability control.It will give Commodore's a leg up over main competitor Falcon which is equipped with only six airbags. Other safety features listed in the sales brochure for the 2014 Chevrolet SS include forward collision alert, lane departure warning, blind spot alert and a reversing camera that warns the driver of traffic approaching from behind on either side of the car.However, it's not clear at this stage whether all or any of these features will be included in the Australian car - or at least not in the entry level Commodore. It should be borne in mind that the Chevrolet SS which is a Commodore in Chevy clothing is based on the top of the range Calais V model.GM's North America boss Mark Reuss, who once ran the Holden franchise in Australia, describes the Chevrolet as a cross between an HSV and a Commodore - more like the long wheelbase HSV Grange which he drove in Australia than any other model.Designed and marketed as a premium V8 performance sedan, it comes with the larger 6.2-litre V8 from HSV - not the standard 6.0-litre unit that powers V8 Commodores. It's also fitted with sports suspension and rides on big, 19 inch alloys and chunky 245/40 and 275/35 series rubber front and back, along with high performance Brembo brakes up front.Automatic parking is also standard on the Chevy, along with an large 8 inch touch screen computer and premium 9-speaker Bose audio. All of these features will probably be available in Australia, apart from XM Radio and GM's OnStar satellite communications system which are listed in the brochure - just don't expect them in the standard Commodore.This journalist is on Twitter: @IamChrisRiley 

Chevrolet drivers Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart were on track to score a one-two-finish after dominating the last 20 laps of a 75-lap, 300km race – until Stewart slipped to fourth place on the final lap. Instead, Harvick held off two hard-charging Ford drivers Greg Biffle and Joey Logano to take out the preliminary, non-championship warm-up race to the 2013 series. Harvick’s narrow win will come as a relief to the 16 Chevrolet teams who hadn’t raced the Commodore Nascar until tonight – and bodes well for the season opener and biggest Nascar round of the year, next weekend’s Daytona 500. Harvick won the Daytona 500 in 2007 but finished eighth in last year’s championship. Stewart is a three-times Nascar champion but has never won the Daytona 500. Chevrolet is the most successful car maker in Nascar, with 702 race victories to its credit, more than any other manufacturer. It will line up against teams from Ford and Toyota for this year’s series after Dodge withdrew from the sport. Meanwhile, the new Holden Commodore V8 Supercar was fastest in the category’s pre-season test sessions at Sydney’s Eastern Creek yesterday. Jason Bright, driving for Brad Jones Racing, upset the big budget teams by outpacing former champions Jamie Whincup, Craig Lowndes and the Holden Racing Team pairing of Garth Tander and James Courtney. Rick Kelly was the fastest Nissan Altima driver, with the fifth best time, David Reynolds was the fastest Ford driver in eighth and the highest placed Mercedes driver Maro Engel was 14th quickest. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling  

Move over Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, the homegrown Holden Commodore has hit the big time in the USA. Australia’s favourite sedan was unveiled as a Chevrolet at Daytona Speedway overnight, and is due to make its first Nascar appearance this weekend in the hands of superstars Jeff Gordon and Danica Patrick and 14 other top-level drivers.The Commodore is also guaranteed to lead the Nascar field in its first ever outing – as the pace car for the Daytona 500, the season opener and the biggest Nascar race of the year, with crowds of up to 250,000 people on race day.The former boss of Holden Mark Reuss – who hatched the plan to revive the Commodore’s export program and put it in front of one of the world’s biggest sport TV audiences – unveiled the car in an airport hangar behind the famous motor speedway. “I’ve been working on this deal since my first month back here in 2009,” Reuss, now the boss of General Motors in North America, told News Limited. “It might not be the biggest export deal for Holden, but it is the most significant to date. It’s the best example yet of Holden’s capability, and gives Chevrolet a type of car it has never had.”The Commodore is Chevrolet’s first V8 performance sedan in 17 years, and is loaded with technology never seen before on its other models. Reuss revealed that the reason the new Commodore has so much technology – including several firsts for Chevrolet such as self parking, a heads-up display and a crash alert system – is because North America pushed for it. “We needed it on our car, so the Holden had to have it. It’s a win for both of us,” Reuss said.Chevrolet has modest sales expectations for the new Commodore, which goes on sale in the US in November after its Australian showroom debut in June. But Reuss is quietly confident it will become Chevrolet’s “hero car”.“This is a hero car for the whole Chevrolet brand,” Reuss said. “We’ve said before that we expect to sell about 5000 a year, but we have 3000 dealers across the country. So it shouldn’t be too hard to top that.”The Chevrolet SS looks the same as the Commodore SS but has a different badge and a bigger, more powerful V8 engine. It has the same high-performance 6.2-litre LS3 V8 engine found in the Corvette and local Holden Special Vehicles models.In US trim, the Chevrolet SS has a power output of 309kW and 563Nm (compared to the maximum output of 325kW and 550Nm from the HSV GTS), the same as when it was sold as the Pontiac G8 GXP in 2009.Shipments of the Commodore to North America as a Chevrolet are due to begin in November. It marks the brand’s fourth attempt at an export program to the world’s second-biggest car market.In 2004 and 2005 Holden shipped 31,500 Monaros as a Pontiac GTO – more than twice the number of Monaros sold locally over four years.About 41,000 Commodores were shipped as Pontiacs between November 2007 and February 2009, almost equivalent to Holden’s annual sales of Commodore at the time. But the deal ended when the Pontiac brand was axed after the restructure of General Motors in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.Holden began to export the Caprice limousine to North America as a police car in early 2011. It has shipped about 6000 to date – more than double the number of Caprices sold locally over the same period.Reuss indicated Holden could keep building the new VF Commodore beyond the 2016 deadline – if US demand takes off. “That’s a champagne problem to have. I’m sure the guys at Holden can find a way to keep building it if they had to. General Motors and the guys at Holden can be very resourceful.”This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling