Holden-based LAPD police cruiser gains momentum
September 17, 2009 by George Skentzos
While Holden’s North American exports may have ground to a halt with the closure of Pontiac spelling the demise of the Commodore-derived G8 Sedan, it seems a proposal to enter the car into law enforcement has gained momentum.
General Motors CEO, Fritz Henderson, made mention at the Frankfurt Motor Show that the carmaker has been working on a package for police applications and that he was quite optimistic it would be sourced from Australia.
Melbourne’s National Safety Agency has already put together a Chevrolet-badged Commodore for the 2009 APCO Australasia Conference & Exhibition in Sydney.
Holden is certainly not the only carmaker vying for this position, although senior GM executive, Bob Lutz, has indicated importing cars from Australia was by no means out of the question.
“While the large RWD cars may be made in Australia, they are an integral part of GM, contain US-built engines and transmissions and numerous other components, and are so ‘American’ in character that I don’t believe the law enforcement agencies would have any problems with the assembly origin of the vehicle. Plus, they’ll love it,” Mr Lutz said.
The expectation is for the Holden Commodore to become the vehicle of choice for the LAPD, which is seeking to replace its aging fleet of Ford Crown Victoria sedans which will be discontinued next year.
This could prove to be quite lucrative for Holden with more exports potentially going to Canada, the UK and the Middle East.
With any hope of migrating the Pontiac G8 to another brand dashed, this may be Holden’s last chance to revive its North American exports which represented about two-thirds of its total exports for the year.
Source: News.com.au
Print it: 
Being an import would surely have go go against Holdens bid.
Ummm….the Crown Vics – the current ’standard’ for police cars- are built in Canada.
There’s a huge difference in import costs and methods between the two however. The Commodore would require transportation by ship over a much greater distance requiring huge amounts of fuel, followed by interstate methods. The Crown Vics however would be transported by Semi from a neighbouring country.
Just wait for the UAW to get into the ear of the Police Association and the whole thing will die a quick death.
the car may still be assembled in Australia, but they will be V8 models so the engines and gearbox’s will still be american made, a fair amount of the components as well, and ofcourse we are still talking a GM product, therefore still an american product. GM ofcourse is also massively in bed having relations with the US government at the moment as well don’t forget…
But it will still take jobs off shore.
Being in bed with the US government puts them under more scrutiny too dont forget
if holden can add 40 000 – 60 000 exports a year it will add jobs
But it will add Australian jobs – not US jobs – this may cause a backlash in the US considering the state their auto industry (and US economy) is in.
But yes it would be great for Australia!
Guys stop being so negative. If the coppers in the US of A get these then they might actually be able to get to crime scenes before the crim gets away. And besides the commodores look much better in those colours than our bland blue and white stripe package. I’ve read that the only stumbling blocks are that Holden has to make the LCD sreen touch and alot larger and they need to design a rear cage to restrain criminals.
Please Fritz dont forget about your little powerhouse downunder
You bet mate – you watch the crime rate soar just to get a ride in one of these classy numbers!
Hahaha OzProud,thats the joke of the century. You should do stand up your so funny LOL
Thanks jon – and I’m sure there are plenty of other companies that can supply their taxi needs also!
still the cars would be made here so it would take jobs to do that so it would be for the economy
Whether or not GM import Holden Commodores from Australia to become US Highway Patrol Cars depends on whether or not there is an existing American built RWD car which can perform just as well as the Commodore
The only other RWD Sedan from GM that I can think of as a likely “contender” against the Commodore is the Cadillac CTS – but when compared to the Commodore I don’t think it performs as well [ nor do the journos on a particular US website similar to CA which I am not allowed to mention..]
Wheelnut I don’t think GM would like to see the Caddy used as police cars seeing its their premium brand. Some people see cop cars as a positive some see them as a negative for a brand i could be wrong. So for the Commodore to be used it would be a good alternative GM still get to sell cars and Caddy gets to keep it’s image.
Dont forget the Dodge Charger/Chrysler 300C twins – RWD V8 and V6. Although I would imagine the Holdens would probably handle better, go faster and be a bit more durable.
In the short term (2-3years) GM have no vehicles to compete with the G8, so they might as well put the G8 to tender. Problem is nobody wants to really supply a new model as there is more money made from selling cars to the public and non-government fleet.
Look at Carbon Motors, awesome car, but for $70,000USD forget it. Law enforcement agencies have been spoilled for so long with the Crown Victoria that they expect to pickup a modern vehicle for the same or near same price.
Frenchie:
Where did you come up with that figure?!? The company has not released any pricing details!
A bit of guess work. Actually it will probably cost more as Carbon Motors say when a car is bought from the big three it cost around $21,000-$24,000USD. Then they have to add on the bits a pieces to make it law enforcement viable, and CM say that can cost up to $55,000USD. Carbon Motors say on their own website that the top of the range E7 will cost alittle more than these two figures added together.
Are you sure? I was very much under the impression the vehicle would be built totally in-house in their own facility with the specs strictly for law enforcement duties.
http://www.autoblog.com/2009/0.....ice-car-p/
“Carbon Motors’ E7 was developed from the ground-up for police duty”
I hope they badge it as a chev, I hate the ponitic front
I expect it will most likely become the new Chevy Impala
Many fail to recognize just how loved the VE/G8 is over here. It nearly won Car & Driver Magazine’s Car of The Year award, only to have our “Auto Task Force” kill off the Pontiac division.
There is little question over here that this would make for the best Crown Victoria replacement… and Americans want Holden to win the deal. After all, we want Pontiac back, so keeping that supply line alive increases those chances significantly down the road.
Well hopefully the fact that someone who actually lives in the USA has made such a positive comment about how much the Americans love the VE range .. will stop the handful of Un-Australians on here making their uninformed narrow-minded comments about it
Pontiac is dead, the americans loved the G8, but how many paid full sticker price?
Fact is, it lost big time.
It lost money, wrong car at the wrong time, but there is history with OZ Imports failing in the USA.
Here we go again btw, GM wanting to continue a niche vehicle but sell it at fleet price, sound familiar? There is a reason Ford is letting this market go..think about it.
Wheelnut, unless they buy it their opinions do not matter, talk is easy its profits that matter, the G8 sure did encourage talk, it was a fine car, it lost Holden a small fortune however, as sales and the price of same were crap.
Jeese this sounds like the old GM, yes/no/yes/no/maybe, nothing has changed, why even bother chasing a fleet seller.
I notice Lutz has organised an all comer race against the Caddy CT-S, sedan form only in the US. Typical Lutz, they need to increase sales on their core sellers, you know the appliance models they produce in huge volumes, and here he is racing a niche vehicle which loses money every time one is made…
Nothing has changed at this company, all the loser are still there, same crap, same thinking that got them into this crap…maybe heads will roll finally when the Sept sales are published.
If GM are going import the VE Commodore and sell it as a Chevy I wonder it GM will allow Holden to sell RHD Camaros?
I mean the Camaro uses the same architecture as the VE and they’re going to build [a limited number of] RHD Camaros for the UK so why not build them for Australia as well?
Wheelnut, i dunno where you got that info, Buts your namesake Wheels magazine has just reported that GM cannot afford the tooling for RHD which would cost $50 million. But if your info is true please send me the source as im clinging to any hope of the camaro comin to Oz.
Well if that’s true – they could let Holden build RHD Camaros
I mean GM have said they are going to focus on building cars with more “international appeal” which means cars that can be built in either RHD or LHD.
The Camaro uses the same platform as the VE Commodore and the Holden Factory is already set up with the tooling to build both LHD and RHD Cars – Bob Lutz has said that its one of the most flexible factories in the GM world.
I didnt mean just tooling. GM said they cant afford the funding to do all the testing and etc. if they could we’d see GM’s best downunder.
With plant closures and mega lay-offs why wouldnt Gov Motors build a police car in the USA? Surely the unions wouldnt be happy at Gov Motors importing a car when they could use the work there. Do the police realise that they might be driving a car with poor build quality and poor reliability? Well maybe the criminals will be happy! If I was an American GM auto worker I would be asking why the hell shouldnt we build the car here as we are a US Gov owned company.
It would cost GM too much to install a “gernie” production line similar to that in the Holden Factory to build the VE – Almost half of the $1bn dollar budget Holden had to build the VE was spent on tooling.
What do you mean by poor build Quality? – If you have read reviews of the Pontiac G8 on a number of US Auto Websites [similar to CA]; you will see that there are a number of Jounos who are impressed with the Build Quality f the Ausse Built RWD Sedan – not to mention features and performance
Maybe because Australians just know how to make better cars?? Maybe they could take the technology over there, but we have the know-how, ability, and capacity to make them locally. The rest of GM is going under anyway, at least it would keep their one profitable subsidiary afloat.
Holden Merchandise says:”eep their one profitable subsidiary afloat”.
Too bad, the profitable subsidiary isn’t holden!!
what all the holden bogans want is a chev badge thrown on the car so all the bogans can pretend they have a chev.
Yeh ai dont get why they do that. Chev has no badge cred downunder, and peope generally associate bad quality with Chevrolet.
Yea,WTF,in the middle east,people take the chev Badgers off and put Holden ones on.
I hate chev badges on commodores, it is the most stupid thing.
If you are thinknig of doing this, don’t , it just looks rediculous.
I fully agree, a Vauxhall badge looks so much better.
Just kidding. Chev is GM’s budget brand. Putting a Chev badge on a Holden (mid range brand) is like putting a Skoda badge on an Audi.
Commonsense dictates that the G8 will not serve with any US law enforcement agencies, not because the Commodore lacks merit, but because of logistical and practicality reasons.
For one, crash parts (body panels, bumpers e.t.c.) are going to be an ever-going logistical and financial nightmare for any overseas law enforcement agency which chooses to adopt the G8, since these crash parts are manufactured in Australia. If those “wildest police chases” tv shows are anything to go by, US cops love giving “love nudges” when pursuits drag out for too long. Unless tooling for the G8 is introduced to the US, it may not be financially viable for any police department to run a fleet of G8s.
Damian the logistics of spare parts is sooooo not-an-issue. The supply chain and inventories are already in place as the G8 is already sold in the states – remember Commodore-based cars are already sold all around the world. Granted Police work will probably result in an increased demand for panels, but this will quickly be calculated and an increased “float” of these parts might be located in the US.
And remember, engine and transmissions are made in the US, other parts are common to the Camaro etc etc.
If you are looking for a reason for the Commodoree to not be sold there as a cop car, spare parts logistics is not one of them.
Yawn…American cars are the worst in the world so anything is obviously better…
Yeah and Australian cars are the 2nd worst in the world
Here is an idea for Holden – GM. Keep the Pontiac G8 alive as a police pursuit car, Pontiac could become a one model brand. Market it internationally. Make it available in left and right hand drive with the equiptment, suspention and tuning pursuit cars require.
The G8 in the future need only be a refaced SS Comodore with the nessasary tuning and equiptment for police work. Make the Pontiac the car offered to Australian and NZ police forces as well (instead of comodores) to foster the image of an international policing brand of GM.
If the Americans do consider using an Australian built car in their police fleets, in the way they currently use Canadian built police cars, GM would have to be managed by fools not to consider the advantages of having a Brand that requires no advertising to sell (just direct marketing / tendering), has very large established fleet operators as its only customer, and all manufacturing and the R&D is done by the maker of the civilian equivelent (Holden). Limited number civilian releases could be done if demand gets too high among the public.
just an alcohol inspired thought, cheers.
Alcohol or not that would be a brilliant idea. If GM could only get their heads out of their coffers and actually start making cars that people like and not just cutting costs on all programs. GM get up and smell the daisies.