GM realizes they actually do have a good car in the Holden Commodore and will almost assuredly be offering them to police departments nationwide– because of course it is a full size rear-wheel-drive, V-8 equipped sedan– but it’s far less certain that the Commodore will get a regular place somewhere in the GM lineup despite this?

GM would need to sell the civilian version anyway no matter what engine is in it, just to keep the car available, but honestly I’d hate to see a police car available in the form of a performance sedan that people actually like that isn’t available to the buying public.

That would be a cute way for GM to tell us to go suck it:

Dealer: “Hey there customer! Buy our new automatic-only, front wheel drive, four-cylinder Impala!”
You: “Heh– uh, no thanks. How about a civilian version of one of those rear wheel drive, V8 police sedans I see the highway patrol using?”
Dealer: “Oh, we don’t sell those. High gas prices and changing times, you know– but the new Impala gets great gas mileage!”
You: “I’m sure it does. Good luck on the turnaround…”

Usually I never say anything when I read ignorant comments, but I really cannot let this one slide. GM wold not ‘screw’ over Holden by getting rid of the slow selling G8, properly called the Commodore. Further, Holden does not need ‘saving’ for it is still the number two dealer out here. NB: Toyota has been #1 for ages with Ford stuck in Three. Additionally, the only two vehicles Holden has from other brands is the Astra and Vectra… so I reckon we will be all right over here w/o you folks in the colonies importing this car.

We are a small country, population wise, and one that does not buy new cars for the sake of buying new cars the way yanks do, especially when you consider taxes. So companies know not to build more than they can ship.

and i hope chevy comes through and makes a production model, its a great car and is selling pretty well and would sell even better if it were to be advertised

Then when the next Commodore/Caprice/etc arrives in 2011-2012 as scheduled, Americans can buy the thing as the 2011-2012 Chevy Impala.

For the record, the G8 failed for the little stuff. It didn’t have catchy styling, which has helped make the Charger, Maxima, or other large sedans reasonably popular. Hood scoops and quad tips didn’t catch the eye enough, the public has seen too many Grand Ams to buy that. Secondly, the 27K starting price was steep next to the other cars the public looked at, like the Taurus or Impala. Certainly enthusiasts understand its greatness compared to those cars, but the publice didn’t, and certainly the G8 nameplate did it no favors.

The platform needs a Malibu-esque amount of styling inside and out and a name people can recognize. Have the 3.0DI standard for 23K, have a 3.6L for as much as 26K, and pile the V-8s for similar pricing to the G8.

Alpha-numerics add a little zap to the CORVETTE, “C6″ for “CORVETTE SIX” or “Sixth generation CORVETTE”, and even make LINCOLNs seem cool, (Face it LINCOLN, you got to get some serious going on and fast), but the majority of AMERICAN cars need names not numbers.

I agree with sprockkets and gta89mike, to a point.

But what really killed PONTIAC was the lack of mission focus, NO FIREBIRD (No one would give CHEVY a look without the CORVETTE or CAMARO, and crappy @$$ marketing.

Of course, there was nothing to market.

The G6 (Grand Am) had a rowdy fast and winning GXP racer, RWD and all, but do they bring that to the customer? No. Not even a Alpha replacement, No Alpha platform (Killed) and no PONTIAC now.

Killed the FIERO and nearly 20 years on gives us the SOLSTICE… (WHAT?) How about calling it “FIERO” or “FIREBLADE”, or something more exciting and less like the car your girlfriend would drive. The SATURN SKY got the wussy suspension but the butch styling. The SOLSTICE got the more hardcore suspension and engine but the wussy body. Needed more pronounced Aero. And now no PONTIAC or SATURN reads like “No more kappa cars and hot small sports coupe from GM”. Maybe CHEVY will carry it as an actual “Baby” CORVETTE, the rumored V6 STINGRAY.

The GTO? Stands for “Geez That’s Old”. A 3-4 year old Manaro coupe slated for replacement already and it was shipped over as a $40,000 mid-lifers joyride with less than stellar styling and worse handling. The final Fox-MUSTANGs ran rings around that car. A new one was promised and would have been a major hit. Basically a coupe version of the G8 (GRAN PRIX)

The Bonneville (G10?) could have been a budget STS to recoup revenue and just be cool. A production version of the CHEVROLET SS Concept from a number of years back would have been killer. But nope.

Everything else was a waste of time.

Without the Flag-bearer, The FIREBIRD, PONTIAC was a body without soul. Just another GM “Zombie division”. By the way, the FIREBIRD, FIERO, and CORVAIR are my favorite “not CORVETTE” GMs.

GM Is likely going to die of no vision, no guts, and not strategy.

Thank goodness I’m a FORD Man.

RSX, TSX, OOooo I have a C Class or TL, or a 3,5,7. GM just tried to follow the stupid trend.

I also think GM need to transfer the Kappa II platform over to chevy and let the Solstice/Sky live on… maybe as a reborn Stingray, offer it just below the base Vette coupe

bigs, I never said no one wanted them (muscle cars), they do. What I said was the government will not let them be built. Well at least not be SOLD in this country. We can build them here.

Now, market this thing as an Impala, right next to Camaros and Corvettes, I think it would sell A LOT better. So much in the car business has to do with the right marketing. GM is no good at that.

Buick may be descent now, but it will take a long time for their image to reverse into what it used to be in the good old days. If Hyundai can do it, GM can too.

VR, what was the last Buick you were in? Sadly more misinformation.

But GTA a GN would be great! Unfortunately our elected officials will not let that happen.

NOT commodore, go back to the Impala and its muscle roots

NOT commodore, go back to the Impala muscle roots

If this vehicle does become an Impala they will build it in Oshawa with the Camaro. In fact if they can get 40,000 police units annually it would make financial sense to build it there anyway. But I think they will have to put in a turbo 4 to make it meet future MPG requirements. I guess I wonder if government entities can take vehicles that do not meet the new MPG standards? Perhaps the 2.8Turbo would give high enough MPG.