HSV Gives Astra VXR Turbo The Green Light

[JoeT]

HSV Announce Four Cylinder Program Gets Green Light

Holden Special Vehicles
03 March 2006
www.hsv.com.au

HSV’s Managing Director Mr Phil Harding announced at the Brisbane International Motor Show today one of the most eagerly awaited releases to come from the Australian performance car leader in recent times.

“HSV are going to have a model in the “hot” four cylinder market.”

“HSV will be importing the VXR from Opel Performance Centre in Germany in extremely limited numbers in 2006” announced Mr Harding.

The HSV VXR Turbo, as it will be called here, is based off the successful AH Astra platform and is built by Opel’s performance car partner OPC in Germany.

The 2.0l turbo OPC sports version of the Astra was released in Europe late last year and has taken the market by storm.

“This car has been on our radar for some time” continued Mr Harding, “we’ve kept to our commitment of class leading brand pillars at all times, and, quite frankly the VXR delivers if not exceeds in every aspect.
Like every HSV the VXR delivers class leading chassis dynamics, performance, and safety.
We’ve worked closely with our partners Holden, Opel and Vauxhall to make this happen, and we’ve managed to secure a car that combines both OPC’s engineering characteristics with the spec points we felt the vehicle needed, thus the HSV VXR Turbo is a unique build for Australia.”

Final pricing is yet to be released, however, Harding was keen to point out that the VXR Turbo would be available in one model only and “under $43,000”.

HSV Dealers have already reported orders taken as far back as October last year, when the VXR Turbo first appeared as a concept at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney.

Finally Mr Harding added “Entering the hot hatch market with one of Europe’s stand out performance cars of the year is only the start of some extremely exciting announcements HSV has in store in 2006.”

[eb110americana]

How much is $43,000 in US dollars?

[JoeT]

$32,022 US

[jbernie]

Around US$32,000. give or take depending on the exact exchange rate.

Although HSV is a premium brand they have to meet some price points to make sure they keep in line with other similar cars sold in Aus but not in the USA.

The WRX STi starts at just over US$32k and the EVO at US$29k. So if the performance is similar it would be a good price point for the USA.

Although, I could see the journo's saying it is over priced etc etc simply because it would be a GM car.

[caprice 511]

Why is Holden having all the fun stuff ?

[asim]

We don't even get the chance to be spoiled even with the basic Astra...

[jzEllis]

Originally Posted by jbernie

Around US$32,000. give or take depending on the exact exchange rate.

Although HSV is a premium brand they have to meet some price points to make sure they keep in line with other similar cars sold in Aus but not in the USA.

The WRX STi starts at just over US$32k and the EVO at US$29k. So if the performance is similar it would be a good price point for the USA.

Although, I could see the journo's saying it is over priced etc etc simply because it would be a GM car.

they'd say it's over priced because its a turbo FWD hot hatch! and rightly so! $19-24000 and we're talking, $30 thousand and i buy a 'real' performance car!

[powervette]

Subaru,Evo and Astra aren't comparable
Astra has surely better perceived quality,looks better
but first of all it's a hatch
secondly it lags behind in performance and doesn't have AWD.If it is going to be priced close to Subaru and Evo,this kind of price will be ridiculous.

[VGT]

On the bright side, it's not any uglier than the Focus.

[Martino_z]

I think that the STi is incomparable but its still like 12 or 15 grand cheeper than a wrex and nearly 20 grand less than an evo. Plus you get the added bonus of not being labelled as a ricer. I think this better compares with a golf gti, ford XR5, civic two door hatch (which we wont get ever) and the sporty corrolla (just kidding there isnt one).

[01cavalier]

Wow, that would sure be expensive. Love the car though...

[MBHockey13]

The Astra makes the Cobalt look like a Cavalier. Wait - it already does look pretty much like a Cavalier.

[jbernie]

For US costing, it is best to take the UK pricing and do a conversion as opposed to converting from AUS $.

It looks like base price is 28,000 euros. Oh well that says its US$33,000....

Will still take 1 thankyou!

[BBDOS CV8]

There's no point trying to compare US-Australian prices. Goods here are dear. Tyranny of distance, small captive market. Cars, guitars, whitegoods, Levi jeans. Why the average Oz family doesn't own more than one car per adult.

Especially anything made in the US. Our prices all include GST, which pretty much replaced states sales taxes.

Where Oz wins, is cost of living. My house, 14 miles and 30 minutes drive from the centre of the second largest city in peak hour, cost $US250K. To insure it per annum is $US350. My car, in the most expensive category, is $US 600 per annum for comprehensive agreed-value.

It's like the 300C is $US45K and sold as a premium car competitor, not a family car. A $US49K BMW M3 is $US100K here. Why? Just is.

So the HSV VXR would cost maybe $25K in the US. And believe me, as a HSV it will have enormously more cachet and resale value than a lowly WRX.

It's like the Monaro - $33k there as the GTO, $45K here admittedly with some extra goodies.

[mikmak]

Nice one Martino_z
SportyCorolla

PS Phat Z