Comments on: Holden announces Sportwagon line-up

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 05:59:20 +0000

wow this would make a great driftmachine, for D1 or something like that, to show an aussie brand for drifting. just imagine a station wagon drifting!!! time to buy one and preping it as a race machine!

By: Andrew M

Andrew M — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:34:45 +0000

yep the R5 was a great concept. i thought at one point they were taking orders on it but after the thought it might be too expensive they canned the idea of producing it.

it was one hell of a practical 2 door ute. ford put lots of thought into it and some of the ideas in it has only just surfaced again in the form of the toyota A-BAT concept

By: Watto_Cobra

Watto_Cobra — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:53:17 +0000

Yep, I’ve seen a few articles on the R5. Shame it didn’t go into production like the Crewman.

By: Duck

Duck — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:43:05 +0000

Wheelnut,
You know how holden made the crewman (VY). Well do you that ford came up with the idea first with the R5 Concept!

By: Duck

Duck — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:36:51 +0000

People thought that the crewman will be dead! Ha! Yes i hope they do continue to build the crewman, and i’ve seen the GMC Crewman on the website (thanks wheelnut) but i hope that they don’t make the crewman to look exactly like that. And the Torana Coupe that was pictured on the MOTOR mag, issue January with orange looked teriffic!

By: Wheelnut

Wheelnut — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:27:57 +0000

Just found an article on http://www.autoblog.com/category/holden

Apparently GM Car Czar Bob Lutz has confirmed that a four-door ute concept based on Holden’s rear-wheel-drive Zeta platform [same as the VE] but wearing a GMC badge will debut at the New York Auto Show in late March. From Bob’s description, the vehicle is much like the Holden Crewman, which was a version of the Holden Ute with its wheelbase stretched to accommodate a second row of seats and two more doors (all-wheel-drive was also eventually an option).

The concept debuting in Detroit will be wearing very masculine GMC styling cues, however, and sounds as if it will be billed as a unibody pickup. This gives the GMC four-door ute a good shot at production since GM knows that demand for trucks in the future has to be satisfied with vehicles that are more fuel efficient than body-on-frame trucks.
A recent spate of unibody truck concepts like the Toyota A-BAT Concept and Ford Explorer America Concept show that automakers are very interested in switching to lighter unibody platforms for vehicles that have traditionally been truck-based.

Lutz also points out the obvious upside that if the GMC four-door ute is popular with the public, it can be sold in Australia as Holden’s replacement for the Crewman, which wasn’t updated along with the rest of the Ute lineup last year.

So Maybe the Crewamn isn’t dead afterall

By: Wheelnut

Wheelnut — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:18:57 +0000

The TT-36 Torana Concept car was designed and built before the VE project had been finalised/completed – infact teh Concept Car has a number of features which are on the VE

As for what it will look like.. I expect it will look very similar to the Concept Car [Lutzy likes it] Yet on the front cover of a recent issue of Motor there is a CGI of a Torana A9-X Coupe which is based more on the Vectra [Insignia] which shares the Alpha platform of the TT-36

I hope that they make it here.. There’s enough room for another line at the rear of the Elizabeth facility.. It’s possible considering the Monaro is No More the plant in Canada will be making Camaros and GM are planning to close up to 4 other plants in the US.. Wait and see

By: Duck

Duck — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:56:31 +0000

It’s dissapointing that there not making the monaro but i guess it’s always an open option if holden does want to make it. I hope they build the torana in Australia, but if they do will the torana look the exactly the same as the pics on CarAdvice, because a few people say it looks to similar to the VE. And thats because the torana was designed before the VE Commy(i think) and holden got ideas and designs from the torana.

By: Wheelnut

Wheelnut — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 03:45:07 +0000

Bob Lutz announced at the Detroit Motorshow that the Monaro has been “put on ice” for the time being – whilst the factory in Canada builds enough Camaros to meet the expected demand. So for no at least the Monaro is a No-Go

As for the Torana that is more of a certainty as Rick Waggoner has finally realised the world is leaning towards smaller mor compact cars. He also realised that its better for a company to build a range of cars based on one or two platforms [Alpha and Zeta] which also share various parts

So The Torana is more likely to get the Go Ahead particularly with the New G6 due in a couple of years.. Id expect Holden are doing R&D on it at the moment. As for where it will be built as yet that hasn’t been decided

By: Duck

Duck — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 02:55:32 +0000

Hey Wheelnut,
Have GM decided if they are going to build the monaro and/or torana and where?