Brawn in the USA
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 by admin
Australia’s best-selling sedan is now on sale in the world’s biggest car market. JOSHUA DOWLING drove from Los Angeles to New York to see whether Americans would take to the Holden Commodore.
Pontiac GT G8 in the Nevada desert during Drive’s exclusive across America trip. Picture: Joshua Dowling.
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It seems like a good idea. Drive from coast to coast across the US in Australia’s biggest-selling car. Start the journey where the shipment of Holden Commodores ends: on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, in California. After all, if I can drive across Australia in a tiny Smart car (as shown in last week’s Drive), surely a long drive in a large sedan would be a snack.
The Commodore is following in the tyre tracks of the Monaro, which was sold in the US between 2003 and 2006 as a Pontiac GTO coupe. The Monaro’s export deal might have been more symbolic but the Commodore’s sale to the US is more important. More than 40,000 Monaros were sold as Pontiacs over four years but Holden wants to export up to 40,000 Commodores to the US annually.
If Americans take to the Commodore, it will help secure the future of Australia’s favourite sedan. Sales of large cars in Australia are at a 14-year low as new-car buyers embrace imported vehicles in record numbers.
The Commodore may still be our biggest-selling car but it holds that lead by a diminishing margin. It has been overtaken by the Toyota Corolla in the sales race in seven individual months over the past three years. Last year’s annual tally for the Commodore was about 55,000; at its peak nine years ago, Holden sold almost 95,000 Commodores annually.
So, without trying to put too fine a point on it, for the Commodore to survive in Australia, it needs to hit a home run in the home of baseball.
The Monaro was in demand in car-crazy California but for the Commodore to be successful it must have appeal throughout the country. It has just gone on sale in the US as a Pontiac G8, so this bright red example with a V8 under the bonnet will be among the first on American roads.
Holden has found a friend in the General Motors empire with Pontiac, a brand under renovation. Pontiacs are slowly being transformed from old-man cars to sporty vehicles. In the US, sports sedans have made a comeback thanks to the Chrysler 300C and Dodge Challenger, against which Pontiac will compete.
Pontiac is marketing the G8 as the most powerful car for less than $US30,000 ($32,380). It doesn’t take long to do the sums and realise that’s a heck of a deal; it equates to about $10,000 less than a similarly equipped Commodore. Either Americans are getting a cheap car or Australians are paying over the odds.
source:smh