Bringing this in from another thread in the news ticker. I will bold some VERY interesting quotes.
Commodore could have life beyond 2016
Toby Hagon
15 January2013
www.drive.com.au
Holden has left the door ajar to continue producing Commodore-based vehicles after the locally-engineered model ends its stint in dealerships in 2016.
While no decisions have been made, Holden says it can respond to US demand for the car: a version of the Commodore is currently sold as a police car (police patrol vehicle, or PPV) and, soon, as a Chevrolet SS performance model.
After a slow start, sales of the police car are picking up and General Motors North American president Mark Reuss says one option it to continue production of the PPV in Australia beyond the 2016 local life of the Commodore.
“That’s a champagne problem that we’ll deal with as this goes,” says Reuss. “We have a lot of time to see how it goes.”
Reuss emphasised it was only one option but that it would be a relatively affordable one that would be easy to implement.
“It’s all paid for, it’s all there. The plant has space. We’ll deal with it at a later time. We want to be flexible.”
Holden chairman and managing director Mike Devereux – who will begin selling the heavily updated new VF Commodore in May – says the company has the luxury of time on what would be a significant decision for the company’s troubled local manufacturing operations.
“We don’t have to make that decision right now - we can gauge what happens with PPV sales,” he says. “We have some time on the export potential on VF [Commodore] to figure out what we want to do post its Australian life cycle.
Devereux says a decision to continue producing vehicles on ageing “legacy” architecture that is almost exclusive to Australia could also give longer life to the Commodore-based Holden Ute.
Ute sales last year grew 15 per cent to almost 175,000, representing 17 per cent of the market. And while Holden Ute sales have been sliding the 7925 sales still represents respectable volume.
Keeping the South Australian Holden plant producing Commodore-based utes after the end of regular Commodore production could bring incremental sales for minimal investment.
“It’s a conundrum,” says Devereux. “Those are decisions we’d have to make because if you did a Caprice PPV to the States theoretically could you [continue to] build a ute [for Australia]?
“If the market screamed for it it is something we would have to analyse.”
There are plenty of ifs and buts, though, many of which will be influenced by outside forces.
“That decision really will be based on the currency and what the general acceptance of that cop car is,” Devereux said of the US police car sales.
Any longer term production of Commodore-based vehicles would be on top of the two models Holden has guaranteed to produce until at least 2022 as part of a billion-dollar-plus investment guarantee in exchange for $275 million in taxpayer funding.
However, Devereux says Holden may also need to re-evaluate one of the two models it has promised to produce due to the rapidly changing new-car market that last year set a sales record of 1.11 million.
..... (referring to the second bolded quote) ..... and theoretically build the Ute for America as well. Because as Ruess said "its paid for".
I don't see what the holdup is. Its beyond me.