February 15, 2005

Horse 297 - Holden Monaro... Game Over?

Listening to ABC Radio (Australian Broadcasting Corporation - Australia's "Aunty") they interviewed a chap from Holden who was of the opinion that the next GTO/Monaro would be built in the USA as there was resistance by Americans against having "their GTO" come from overseas.

This would effectively spell the end of the Australian built Monaro because the factory in Australia producing these mainly does so for export and there simply isn't the demand here to warrant the factory existing to supply Australia and Britain only.

If the car is produced in the USA, higher wages and then import costs would actually render the vehicle too expensive to import back into Australia and thus there would be no need to develop an RHD variant. This means that Holden gets screwed out of the car that it developed in the first place and Vauxhall would no longer would have the big coupe for their VXR range.

I've said this before, The Monaro shouldn't have been rebadged the GTO in America. All I've heard is complaints about the styling from the americans. It is a great car but it was never built to be a GTO. It was built in Australia, for Australians. Then Bob Lutz came over and said yep I like that, I'll take that and that (the Monaro and the SS ute). Then he expects to sell a refined European styled car as the GTO. Get real. Remember, who is Holden a subsidiary of? That's right, GM. Not surprising, really, as these mental midgets couldn't come up with an original concept for the GTO. So they co-opt the Holden Monaro and decided to "americanize" it.

All of this looks set to be decided within the year with the LS2 Monaro being the last. Thank you Mr Howard, this is what signing a free trade agreement does. It is an Aussie built and designed car and if the U.S wants it they should jolly keep shipping it over from here.

Enjoy the Monaro while you can... game over.

No comments: