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As a result, GM considers the G8 ST to be a low-volume niche product which doesn’t meet the requirements of the restructured Pontiac brand - with no plans to introduce the vehicle for another GM brand.

“With Pontiac being more focused on sporty, fun-to-drive cars, we took a long look at the ST and it didn’t fit with what our future vision of Pontiac would be,” said Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson. “At that point, we decided to not proceed with this vehicle.”

Based on the Holden VE Ute, the new G8 ST was to debut early this year alongside its Australian sibling - the G8 sedan, which was launched in March 2008.

“The way the business is today, we want the dealers to focus on the great products we do have: the G6 sedan and the Vibe,” Russ Clark, executive director of product marketing for Pontiac, Buick and GMC, said.

This sentiment certainly does not bode well for Holden, reaffirming the idea that the viability of the G8 sedan in the US market is also in question.

“We’ll be bringing the entries down in Pontiac,” Clark said. “It’s six right now. It’ll be less than six but more than one, so what it’ll be ultimately? We’re working on that now.”

Previous trends indicate this number is likely to be less rather than more, with GM previously having restructured Buick from having seven nameplates in 2005 to three now.

Holden spokesman Jonathan Rose said the cancellation of the G8 ST export would not impact on production schedules or jobs at the Elizabeth plant.

“The decision doesn’t alter the foundations of our export program,” he said. “It would have been an extension of the export program. That now won’t occur.”

Holden will continue production of the G8 Sedan, G8 GT and newly introduced G8 GXP for the U.S. market where around 15,000 have been sold so far.

Rose has said the decision is as a result of Pontiac becoming a niche sports car brand, with GM deciding the G8 ST did not fit that image.

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Despite the general downturn in the market, GM dealers managed to sell 10,848 new cars in December last year, this included 5413 Commodore and 1629 VE Ute models, the best monthly sales record for both vehicles in 2008.

The increase in sales numbers is partially due to heavy discounting by dealers. We have heard reports buyers around the country getting thousands of dollars off the sticker price. One buyer in Brisbane managed to buy a brand new HSV R8 for under $48,000!

Summing up the year GM Holden sold 130,338 vehicles in Australia commanding a market share of 12.9 per cent. This is in shadow of Toyota’s monumental with 238,983 sales or 23.6 per cent market share. Ford came in third with 104,715 sales or 10.3 per cent.

Another model which boosted sales for Holden was the new Sportwagon which went on sale in July. Holden says 8200 were purchased in just five months. Making the Sportwagon more successful than any SUV in the market during the same period.

The Holden Statesmen, no longer challenged by the Fairlane, led the Upper Large category for vehicles under $100,000 with a 38.8 per cent market share. The VE Ute also beat the Ford Falcon Ute.

GM Holden Executive Director of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, Mr Alan Batey says the figures show that family-sized vehicles continued to be attractive to Australians. Holden believes the Commodore continues to remain as a smart buy.

It just shows that during tough times, people are attracted to products that represent outstanding quality and value for money. Commodore has become a symbol of local design and engineering expertise and Australia’s ability to compete on the world stage. “Holden is committed to a program of ongoing development to ensure Commodore maintains its reputation as a smart buy for Australian motorists.” Mr Batey said.

It’s worth noting that the figures include sales to government and private fleets.

Will the Commodore remain as the best selling car once again in 2009?

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GM-Holden developed the Chevrolet Camaro from scratch following overwhelming response to what was initially a concept-only show car, displayed initially at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show.

“We’re a little bit surprised at the model mix. We thought we’d have a lot of V8 orders, SS orders, that type of thing, which we do.

“But we are getting a considerable amount of V6 orders,” said Mark LaNeve, GM’s head of North American marketing and sales. He said the orders are coming from “people who are just interested in a very stylish car that gets pretty good fuel economy. It’s kind of a sign of the times.”

Although there may be a delay in its release, with GM suing Cadence Innovation, a bankrupt interior parts supplier that is in liquidation, to get back parts and equipment it needs for the Camaro.

As is standard industry practice, GM supplied Cadence with the parts it needed to produce components for the new Camaro.

However after the firm entered liquidation it refused to return any of the production equipment, which GM says must be returned by January 12 or the start of Camaro production will be delayed.

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A check of the GM Holden Media Site proved our suspicions and the AFM V8 is a full 10 kilowatts down on the engine, which is now fitted to the six-speed manual gearbox car, which has the 270kW and 530Nm that I previously referred to.

The six-speed automatic SSV8 AFM makes 260kW of power and produces a reduced 517Nm of torque, so you would expect those reductions alone to lead to some reasonable increase in fuel efficiency!

Not so it seems as we are still struggling, despite all manner of careful driving to achieve anything like a real reduction in fuel consumption.

Another week of driving has seen the odometer rise to a total of 3625 kilometres, which means I managed to slip 406.61km under the wheels of ‘Big Blue’ and it managed to gurgle 61.33 litres of 91RON petrol down its intakes.
The nett result was an average of 15.08 litres per 100 kilometres, which is certainly nothing to crow about.

Now I must admit a lot of that was city driving, what with it being Christmas and all there was all that shopping to do for the CarAdvice Christmas tree!

Thinking I may have developed an overactive ‘lead foot’ I gave the car to Paul Maric for a few days while I had a play with the Lancer Ralliart sedan he’d also been testing for a review on CarAdvice.

Now Paul’s not the slowest driver around but he was very, very good and spent quite a bit of time on the freeway with the cruise control locked on and he managed to get the onboard trip computer to produce a readout of 12.3L/100km – better but it’s going to take a lot of work to make any significant fuel savings with this engine, it would seem.

During this time Paul also ran the car on 98RON fuel as we planned to do some acceleration tests on it and wanted it to have the best possible chance.

Trouble is if you need to run the car on the most expensive petrol available to get even a small saving on fuel consumption then that doesn’t seem like a real saving to me.

The acceleration times for the car aren’t all that great a tale either as the car is a full second slower than the official figures for the manual SS V8 with the best of three runs being a 6.43 seconds to 100km/h.

Tests conducted by Paul Maric. Graph shows Speed | Time | Distance.

It will be interesting to see how Holden goes with this engine, which it will fit as standard to all automatic transmission, V8 powered models in its range from January.

On the plus side the Commodore is a pleasant enough car to drive, easy to live with and you can certainly see the seduction in such a large car at this time of year when you’ve got friends and relatives who need transporting.

There’s oodles of room inside for five adults, a boot that will swallow all the excesses of Christmas shopping and it still makes that lovely V8 engine growl when you give it a bit of the right foot.

We can only hope that as ‘Big Blue’ totes up the kilometres things improve in the fuel consumption stakes, because after all that’s what this car and the technology in it are all about.

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The vehicle, which will be built on the GM global platform know as Delta will be built in the Elizabeth, South Australia, manufacturing plant, alongside the current Commodore.

The plant currently builds the Commodore, including export versions which are sold as Chevrolets in the Middle East predominantly, and in the United States where they are marked as Pontiacs. It previously also built an earlier version of the Vectra.

It would appear that the project will not add jobs to the South Australian workforce as Mr Reuss said the program would require 500 to 600 existing employees at Elizabeth and is estimated to provide 500 to 600 local supplier positions.

The vehicle, based on General Motors’ global Delta small car platform and feature new technologies to increase fuel efficiency and reduce greenhouse emissions.

The new front-wheel-drive vehicle will be built as a sedan and hatch and design and engineering work will take place at the company’s headquarters in Port Melbourne, Victoria.

Mr Reuss said start-stop hybrid technology and capacity to run on alternative fuels such as E85, diesel, LPG and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) are all being considered for the vehicle’s development.

It will be GM Holden’s first locally produced car beyond its current range of larger vehicles since the Asian economic crisis ended Vectra production in 1998.

The vehicle will be built in the south bodyshop of the Elizabeth facility, which was previously used for the Vectra assembly in the late 1990s.

Mr Reuss said the announcement provided an opportunity to take a leading role in developing alternative fuel and fuel saving technologies in Australia for Australians.

Mr Reuss said the program would be a major contributor to the economy, generating an estimated $70 million to $80 million in wages and $30 million in research and development.

“Together with Government, we are extending the scope and consumer appeal of our local manufacturing efforts,” Mr Reuss said.

“We have been building Holden cars to suit the needs of Australian motorists for 60 years and these plans build on that tradition.

“We recognise the needs and desires of motorists are evolving with growing concern around environmental factors and shifting consumer sentiment.

“Such evolution calls for an innovative approach to complement our current offering.

“Just as our leading Commodore range will continue to undergo technological development, this new vehicle will cater for growing demand for smaller cars focused on economy.

“We are planning for the future to produce a wider range of cars in Australia to cater for a variety of driving needs.”

He added that flexible manufacturing infrastructure would be introduced to the Elizabeth plant to make it capable of producing a series of GM global vehicles in years to come.

It also provides opportunity to develop an export program for the vehicle, particularly to other right hand drive markets around the world.

Mr Reuss paid tribute to the Federal and South Australian Governments for their ongoing commitment to the Australian automotive industry.

“The Rudd Government’s Green Car Innovation Fund has provided opportunity to turn our plans into reality,” Mr Reuss said.

“This announcement complements the vision we share with the Government of reducing Australia’s dependence on foreign oil and making motoring better for the environment.

“It demonstrates commitment to an Australian automotive industry which extends beyond manufacturing at GM Holden to thousands of suppliers and dealers across the country.

“That demonstration was clearly seen by our parent company in its decision to support this program.

“The support of the Federal and South Australian Governments in securing this program recognises the fundamental role which automotive manufacturing makes to national and state economies.”

GM Group Vice President and Asia Pacific President, Nick Reilly, today added his support to the program as proof of GM’s capacity to innovate across the region.

“This announcement recognises the ability of GM, GM Holden and the Australian automotive industry to see the future and move in the right direction,” Mr Reilly said.

Holden isn’t giving a lot away about the exact detail of the new vehicle, unlike Ford, which is well advanced with planning to build the next generation Ford Focus in Melbourne from 2011.

The new small, front-wheel-drive, four-cylinder vehicle to be built by GM Holden at Elizabeth will be based on General Motors’ global Delta small car architecture.

Other examples of the architecture will include the next generation Chevrolet Cruze and Opel, Vauxhall and Saturn Astra.

The architecture was primarily developed by GM Europe in Russelsheim, Germany for GM markets around the world.

Local design and engineering work on the Australian vehicle will take place at GM Holden’s Port Melbourne headquarters in Victoria.

Direct injected petrol and diesel variants of the vehicle will be produced with GM Holden considering a range of alternative fuel or fuel saving technologies including E85, LPG, CNG and start-stop hybrid capability.

Further details about the vehicle including its nameplate, design specifications and pricing will be determined closer to the time of production.

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As if that wasn’t enough he made it clear that on the question of diesel power HSV was evaluating two different engines, one from General Motors and the second from an unnamed European car maker.

Mr Harding believes that if HSV is to become a serious exporter then it needs a diesel engine option to sell cars, particularly in Europe, in viable numbers.

The first engine is no secret and the company has been evaluating the 2.9-litre, VM Motori-sourced, V6 diesel that GM will offer in European versions of the Cadillac CTS.

Mr Harding was much more coy about the source of the other engine, preferring to leave it as ‘a European brand’ but it is widely known that HSV has been running a VE Commodore mule with a BMW turbo-diesel inline six cinder engine for some time.

He told CarAdvice that the project had the full support of parent GM-Holden and added that Fishermans Bend had no problem with him choosing a non-GM engine if that was the best solution.

Mr Harding said; “There are reasons why we’re investigating different alternative fuel strategies.

“Diesel started because when we launched VXR8 in the UK, I got a lot of questions about where was the diesel version. Certainly the cars that you’re ‘battling’ with on the roads are diesels.”

“Diesel in Europe is a little more advanced than here. You don’t fill the car up round the corner at the truck pump. You don’t end up smelling of diesel when you get back in the car.

“You look around at what Mercedes and BMW do and they come out with some great product at the top-end of the diesel market.

“So if HSV is going to do a diesel it will do a decent diesel that can replicate the expectation of what a performance car would be like.

“With that in mind we’ve had a look at two diesel engines. The business case is not approved yet, it’s still ongoing, but we think that it is crucial if we’re ever going to export in larger numbers.”

Mr Harding said that while a decision on the diesel engine could be made in the not too distant future it would take some time to engineer into the Commodore based vehicles.

However, he said the option of using LPG fuel was also seriously under consideration and this could come on stream as soon as late 2009.

Joel Stoddart, HSV engineering guru, explained that with LPG the company y was looking at a liquid port injection system.

“It’s a dual fuel system that we feel replicates the performance of petrol in the 6.2-litre V8 engine,” he said.
Mr Stoddart said that the system was duel fuel because at full throttle the engine management system would switch the engine to straight petrol operation, before cutting back to LPG as the engine load reduced.

Mr Harding said there was no approval yet for the business case on LPG and he was watching to see where the general automotive market was going with LPG.

He said HSV would be very careful to avoid the ‘taxi’ stigma attached to LPG and would probably not market LPG as a distinct model but would rather offer the option on its range of vehicles.

He said that the company had done ‘payback’ analysis on the cost of the LPG option when petrol was at $1.50 a litre and LPG was about $0.60 and on this basis the cost was returned in 12 months.

Mr Harding emphasised that a major reason driving HSV to examine all alternative fuel options, and he said E85 was also under consideration but this currently suffered from supply issues, was to ensure that its customers were not looked on in a negative way.

“We as a company should be responsible in ensuring that fuel supplies are used in a responsible way,” he said.

“We also want to ensure that our customers are not looked on in a negative way, we want them to be looked on well by their peer group.”

He added that HSV did not want its customers to be considered socially irresponsible by their purchase of the company’s products.

“I also don’t think anyone will turn away from the chance to run their car at a cheaper price,” he added.

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There’s a nice hunkered down look to the R8 Tourer that’s been helped by the good looks of the donor vehicle, we can see this car appealing to both genders in many families.

Besides the body shape there’s nothing to pick between the Tourer and the Clubsport R8 sedan as they share mechanics and trim specifications, although the Tourer does benefit from some mid-year upgrades that will be passed on to its sibling, including new white on black gauges that replace the previous red effect instruments.

Standard trim in the R8 Tourer is suede and cloth but HSV expects that many owners will fork out the extra $2490 for the full leather trim that was fitted to the cars we drove at today’s media launch.

Giving an engineering overview of the new vehicle HSV’s product guru Joel Stoddart said the Tourer delivered HSV luxury and performance in a wagon.

The R8 Tourer uses the same 6.2-litre, LS3 engine, producing 317kW of power and 550Nm of torque, as the R8 sedan, which HSV says makes it one of the most powerful wagons produced anywhere in the world.

“We’ve built on our knowledge gained since the launch of the E-Series range in August 2006 particularly in chassis development and tuning coupled with the all new LS3 engine, to produce one of our best ever products,” Mr Stoddart said.

According to Mr Stoddart the Clubsport Tourer R8 is a versatile and extremely responsive package.

HSV has produced a handful of wagon variants over its 20-year history and prior to the all-wheel-drive Avalanche, of which 333 were built between 2003 and 2005, the company built 27 VT Senator Signature Estates in 1997.

Mr Stoddart said that 163 Tourers would be built for Australian and New Zealand only this year and the six-speed manual is priced from $65,990 – a $1000 premium over the R8 sedan. The six-speed automatic is an additional $2500.

HSV styling on the vehicle is really confined to the front, where it gets the standard Clubsport R8 treatment, at the rear the only real change is the adding of high-spec Holden taillights. The Tourer comes standard with a reversing camera.

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This price includes a six-speed automatic transmission as standard, with an optional six-speed manual gearbox attracting a US$695 premium.

At this price it also outshines the standard Corvette in bang-for-buck value, offering the performance of an identical 6.2-litre V8 engine with the practicality of five seats.

With fuel prices plummeting in the US and around the world as a result of the global financial crisis, the idea of an affordable performance family sedan has become slightly more justifiable for many new car buyers.

Source: Jalopnik

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“I can assure you that the Volt, when we start selling it in 2012, will have a lion badge on it,” Mr Reuss said.

He said little else could be said about the plans to sell the Volt in Australia at the moment as the development of the electric car was moving at a considerable pace, but the car would becoming here as a Holden Volt.

He said that at the same time the company would be taking up the E85 fuel supply cause with government, producers and the fuel supply companies to ensure there was widespread availability of the ethanol fuel.

He admitted that GM-Holden subsidiary, GM Premium Brand, had been a test bed for the E85 Commodore when it introduced Saab 9-3 vehicles with E85 capability.

Buyers of those cars have had little chance to use them on the ‘green’ fuel because supply is currently restricted to about four service stations Australia-wide.

Mr Reuss says that will change with the introduction of the E85 Commodore and GM-Holden would be working closely with ethanol producer CSR, and fuel suppliers, such as Caltex and BP, to ensure that the ethanol-based fuel was widely available.

Ethanol powered cars general produce more power than those on straight petrol, and consume more fuel, but that fuel is usual 30-40 percent cheaper than petrol, which would mean E85 should currently sell for about $0.65 a litre.
Mr Reuss said Holden already had substantial experience in building ethanol powered engines, as it was producing the current V6 engine for export in configurations up to E85.

The Holden Commodores will be flex-fuel vehicles, which means they can run on any combination of fuel from straight 91RON petrol through to an 85 percent ethanol blend.

Mr Reuss said GM-Holden was particularly keen to promote the use of E85 in Australia as the fuel was produced here from waste products, which put it outside the “food-or-fuel” argument.

He said there was currently the potential to replace 10 percent of Australia’s oil imports with ethanol fuel “ and that has to be very good for the country.”

He would not be drawn on the possibility of tax breaks for E85 buyers, as has been the case in Europe, where the fuel has been extensively introduced in the past two years, but said he thought the move was consistent with the Federal Government’s recently announced $6-billion green car initiative.

Mr Reuss spoke at some length about the Australian government’s initiatives to keep the car industry alive and praised the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and the Industry Minister, Senator Kim Carr, for their efforts.
He said the government plans were fair and reasonable as they required the car companies to put in as well as the government.

On the question of ethanol fuel supply Mr Reuss said Gm-Holden would be working closely with local ethanol producers and was also taking a close interest in the development work being done in the US, which is support by parent company General Motors, into the development of cellulose ethanol, which he thought could eventually also be produced in Australia.

Mr Reuss admitted that ethanol was not an answer to the fuel problems for cars but he said it was a way for Australia to leverage its reliance on oil.

He said GM-Holden would be showing the lead in the use of alternative fuels and as well as E85 would be looking at the use of LPG and possibly CNG fuels.

In an apparent swipe at some other manufacturers reliance on hybrid technology he said this was also an alternative but one which didn’t seem to provide sound economic arguments.

He said hybrid techno logy was usually quite expensive for the fuel reductions that it delivered.

He said Holden would not be looking to charge a premium for its E85 engined Commodore.

“You cannot charge a lot of money for people to use ethanol in their cars, so we won’t be opting to do that,” he said.
Asked if GM-Holden had the capacity to produce a small car in Australia with its current infrastructure Mr Reuss emphatically replied “yes”.

He said he would not confirm or deny any such plans but said the com pany would have the capacity in Australia to build a car smaller than the Commodore.

He added that if such a plan was adopted then the vehicle would be drawn from the ‘world car’ pool of Gm products and it would also have to have export potential.

He said that the car would have to meet the Federal Government’s Green Car requirements and that he believed such a car could be made in Australia and meet a sub-$20,000 price point.

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These improvements add to Omega’s already impressive safety equipment list of ABS, EBA, EBD, ESP and Traction Control - all of which are included as standard.

GM Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Mark Reuss welcomed the result and said it was encouraging to receive this third party endorsement.

“We have always been very confident of this vehicle’s real world safety capabilities. Before we launched VE, we conducted almost 80 real world prototype crash tests and more than 5000 crashtest simulations using leading edge virtual technology. When it comes to safety we are committed to continually improving the passive and active safety features we offer. We are also pleased to see that ANCAP now acknowledges Electronic Stability Control in determining its ratings.”

Holden will adopt the passenger seat belt reminder feature as standard fit across the VE Commodore range from mid 2009 production.

CarAdvice are currently testing the new 2009 Holden Commodore Omega against Ford’s Falcon XT - stay tuned.

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