Pontiac wants VE Ute and Sportwagon
November 20, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
General Motors has announced plans to expand its family of rear-wheel-drive vehicles for its subsidiary brand Pontiac. The Pontiac G8 range, better known as the VE Commodore, will go on sale beginning with the sedan (Commodore) and expand to include the VE Ute and Sportwagon.
American sources are saying the VE Sportwagon will be a performance vehicle similar to the Audi A3 wagon! Huh? We somewhat disagree, given the different size, drivetrain and overall look of the car.
According to the Americans, the G8 sport truck (better known here as the mighty Ute) is supposedly similar to the old Chevrolet El Camino (1959 – 1987). WEll, they’re both rear-wheel drive but clearly GM’s marketing department has been hard at work.
GM executives had debated over marketing the Sportwagon and Ute as part of its GMC light truck brand. But they eventually decided to keep the Pontiac label to emphasise them as part of a rear-wheel-drive performance family accompanying the G8 saloon.
GM plans to market all three flavours of our beloved Commodore as a high-performance family cars, suggesting that only the high-spec variants will be sent over.
While these plans are already in motion, there is one underlying factor that may put a spanner in the works - the strong Australian economy.
We have all been bombarded by Howard and Costello going on about the strong Australian economy, true enough but if the Aussie dollar goes any higher against the greenback, exports of the VE Ute and Sportwagon risk being cancelled.
Print it: 
that fntasy colour is so easy to match! im amazed!!!
Really ? Its not cheap to buy though is it?
its a wartered down colour of sorts…. it uses other colours to tone down the flip…. the actual tinter costs about $1000 per litre
ahhhhhhh….right ! I thought it was $1000 a litre !
So is work picking up yet? Christmas in a little over 4 weeks
better start putting up the Christmas trees I guess…..although I think I will have to be careful M doesn’t de-decorate it ! I leave all the decorations on my tree put a couple of big garbage bags over it and put in the back garage, then dada..take the bags off and shes done!
no its dead… im starting to panic!!!
I have my christmas tree up already!!
Its dear, Dad had a BA xr8 done in it, harlequin red to purple with red candy over it was in performance ford mag, looked the goods!! but its dear to fix!!!
So are most retailers at the moment ! I hope this week people will get back in the spending mode!
Looks like I had better take a walk out the back to get the tree then !
Performance Ford? Which issue?
it was an early one, its a PPG car, was used in the early PBR performance brake upgrade adverts!
What year was it can you remember?
Dont forget to send me those pics when you get home!
I hope Holden selling heaps of commiedoors to the yanks doesn’t lead down the path of our cars becoming ‘americanised’, because yank tanks SUCK arse!!! Keep your grubby mitts of our cool Aussie cars, america!
HSV still make the VE Senator Signature Sedan.. It’s the Opel Senator which was dis-continued back in ‘92 along with the Rekord which was the basis for the Commodore from VB to VN. After that Holden basically made the look more modern as well as bigger longer wider etc up until the VE
Holden made slight changes/improvements to it to make it more suitable to Australian conditions.. mainly to the driveline and suspension [Peter Hanenbergers RTS system]
The reason Holden used the Rekord wasn’t because they didn’t have the skills to design and build a car from scratch [they did] it was because back in the 80s Holdens position in the GM Hierarchy wasnt as high as it is now
well you took your time to answer whether the senator had been discontinued like someone suggested.
its ok i knew it hadnt been discontinued. just seeing if you knew something i didnt
I think it was Darren.. who said they don’t make the senator. He probably thought that because you don’t see that many of them around.. So I guess it would be easy to think that they don’t make the senator anymore – Mind you you don’t see many Smart Cars or Ssanggyong utes around either but they still make them.
Not only that.. but there isn’t that much [visual] difference between the VE Clubbie-GTS-Senator as compared to previous HSV models.
The 20th Anniversary HSV is a Clubbie with a mixture of GTS and Senator features/options
Hey wheelnut did you know that in the 12 hour BATHURST next year Holden are entering the wagon?
They didn’t enter the VE this year from memory so why a wagon you think
why a wagon? easy…….holden marketing.
they will put a 427 in it, make it fully race prepared, enter it in a production car series, it will whoop arse, then they will brag how it won.
wheelnut,
i know where a new senator lives and i pass it nearly every day.
i think there is just as noticable difference as the earlier models.
I have no idea why ,marketing to show how good the chassis is?But this race is more about reliability than grunt,although both helps.
The reason Holden are entering a wagon could be because apart from having an overall winner the 12 hour also has category or class winners – depending upon engine size; body style etc and unless another marque enters a wagon Holden are guarenteed to be a class winner.. that is of the “Australian Rear Wheel Drive V8 Sports Wagon” class
But what did Holden enter this year??????
I know my beloved BMW won outright and a lot of other classes,but where did it come,I cant recall seeing a VE!Lets Hope the M3 is out there next year!!!!
Do you know the E30M3 has won more races in the world than another Touring car……….hehehehe
Holden entered a couple of Astras one being a Hot Pink diesel driven by Leanne Tander and a group of other talented [but not so well known] Ozi/NZ female racers Sponsored by Bendon.
which lasted approx 3/4 of the race until it developed an intermittent power problem believed to be caused by a faulty EMS
The other was a Fluoro Green SRI driven by Nathean Pretty and a group of youngsters which I believe didn’t last as long as the girls it retired due to an apparent misfire
AHHHHH,yep I remember that…..girls were doing well too!
Why no VE though? Gee you do well on this site for all these Ford lovers chanting at Holden all the time!Well done for being so fare!
I’d say the reason there were no VEs at this years 12 Hour was due to the cars were prepared by Garry Rogers Motorsport who at the time was flat out building his own Valvoline VE V8 Supercars and therefore didn’t have enought time to build another race ready VE so Holden Motorsport decided to go for something smaller which would need less work done to it.
The other reason could be that the Diesel Astra had just been released and you couldn’t get a better test than 12 hours round the best street circuit in the world
Now that GRM have their VE Supercars they’re able to start work on the VE Wagon
So aren’t the cars factory?????I thought they were! Thought it was funny when one of the Rexs did a wheel bearing and they took a spare off the display car !!!!!! How many cars can a manufacturer enter you think?
I didn’t like the way there were so many rally cars there at the Bathurst 12 hour.
The XR8 Bowe was driving did well because he’s the most experienced there…. Shame he wasn’t driving the Class A F6 Phoon!!!
The cars that compete in the 12 hour are regarded as being Factory in the same way the HRT cars are Factory.
The cars are supplied by the car companies..but the prep work is done by specialist engineers who design and install the roll cage etc.
Very few car companies have the facilities required to build a Race car in their Factory.. Porsche is possibly the only exception with the Carrera Cup Cars
However; The cars don’t necessarily have to be Factory cars they only have to be current spec production cars.
I don’t think there is a limit on how many cars a manufacturer can enter in the 12hr. It all depends on their budget.. are they prepared to risk 12 cars with the likelihood of only 2 finishing.. and can they find enough drivers to race them – you’d need at least 4 per car
Next year there will be a Mini series.. as these cars will be stock standard JCW Cooper S’s.. If they wanted to; Mini could enter all 30 odd cars.
Ahhhhhh.ok!
Minis are great little cars……..I don’t think anything but a Mini can get away with having a white roof on a red car,weird,but it works! Not fond of the carbon fiber roof on the new M3 ……..prefer more weight and have it steel, plus I am sort of use to a moon roof now!
Yes, red Mini in white roof is tasteful and classy, unpainted carbon fiber roof on BMW is vulgar and rice.
The other good thing with Mini is that; they used to paint the national flag of your choice on the roof – as an optional.. extra I’m not sure if they do it now.
No one tell me who has wont the Championship cause race 3 hasn’t started yet………not looking good so far though!
Shes been pretty well staged by HRT I think….BOOOOOOO!
General Skaffie has struck again!
BM, by now you know what happend!
Holden in V8 Supercar are great planners!!!! LOL
No I dont ME……….shhhhhhh.My anti spam word was HOLDEN.gulp! I have no finger nails and need a Valium!!!!!!
I know what you mean… I’m not watching the news – insted I might go to Brisbane tonight to forget.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO,I cant believe it !2 points!!
Yep ME great planners!!!
It’s not just the Australians that love the commodore it’s also the americans and soon holden will be selling cars all over thje world. Will ford……………………………….nah too lazy and noby likes us is there answer!
Duck,
you are fast becoming a tool of this site.
you obviously have no idea in life and never search for both sides of an argument or situation.
for 1 the holden badge wil NOT be sold over the world. they re badge them to suit the area.
and secondly have you stopped and evaluated the economics of such an export program when the aussie dollar is so high? it is hurting the auto giant in toyota at the moment so if i were ford i wouldnt see it as economically visable either.
ford aus will make it up in other areas im sure
I know that thats why there is companies like Vauxhall, Opel, Pontiac, Chevyb & even Daewoo
And Andrew M i dont call people tools all right or anything like that on the website so dont call me it then!
The Holden Wagon and Ute is what the americans whant deffinitely! (pontiac).
I recently visited http://www.autoblog.com where I was reading an article about the Pontiac G8 and what the Americans think of it.
What I found was a number of them would like to see Pontiac be replaced by Holden.. They no longer believe that Pontiac as the performance car company it once was. Whereas it seems; they are impressed with the look and quality of the Commodore/G8.. and they can’t wait for the new Pontiac G8 Sports Truck [Note: not a Ute]
Which could possibly mean that at GMs board meeting in January; as well as discussing the closure of some US plants which are operating at less than 75%.. they may also decide to expand Holdens Elizabeth plant; build the new Torana here as well and exported to the US as the new G6 in 2010 – we’ll have to wait and see
Yes…………….I hope so Wheelnut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gee Wheelnut where did you find that article……..hahaha
Funny how we diss each other in Australia regarding Fords against Holdens all the time,but when another country does it we rally around national pride…..regardless what make it is!!
Hey Duck don’t take it personally…….AndrewM has a low tolerance to idiots! !
BM
Go To http://www.autoblog.com/2007/1.....-underway/
I agree with you about “national pride” I’m proud that Bob Lutz and GM has noticed that we build top quality cars and is allowing Holden to export the VE Commodore.
Unfortuanately Ford Jr doesn’t think the same way in relation to the Orion Falcon..
He must feel threatened that it will take sales away from their US built cars – or is too dumb to realise that just as Holden is part of GM; Ford Australia is part of Ford and the money eventually makes its way back to Detroit.
DUCK…mate read your comments and I back what ANDREW M said. How about you change the D to an F if you dish up your bizarro comments!
What AndrewM no reply too Duck……..I thought you would have cooked him by now……
sorry BM, i only just realised this post was kicking again.
duck, just read what you have posted in the past. i have found most of your stuff to be biased, silly one liners with no substance to any sort of argument.
i posted the tool comment at the time where you burst on to the site, went through all the ford articles in the archive and posted utter rubbish attacking ford.
sorry if i offended you with the tool reference but i could have also been a lot worse with how i branded you in relation to your silly comments.
so just read your posts again and then try and type with a straight face that you see nothing wrong with them
I thought you must have missed my previous email reminder on it!