Chevy hums and haws over the business case while Ford continues to clean up.
At the New York Auto Show two weeks ago Camaro chief Al Oppenheiser said "If we think the volume is such that we should do the right-hand drive, it's an investment to do that for us. If the volume wouldn't sustain it, you know, and there's nobody in Japan anymore, so it would be Australia and the UK,"
"Is that enough to sustain it? We're studying that," he continued
"I'll tell you we're studying our competitors over in Dearborn and what they're doing: is it a success for them? Is it not?
"We know what it takes to do it, but obviously we have right-hand-drive Cadillacs, so it's not impossible. But we have not made that decision yet," he said. "We share the major components with the CTS and the ATS.
"We could tell you that we're going to do a right-hand-drive version… But we're not doing a right-hand-drive in the foreseeable future."
Oppenheiser went on to question the true demand down under:
"Well this is what you have to understand: is it a demand because everybody that wanted one bought one in the first year? And are they going to sell them in year two? You don't want to do that, right?
"It's like your V8 - everybody's going to buy your V8 first, so you want to have all your suppliers ready to pump out as many V8s as you can, because they're going to buy them first. Then it levels off - V6 and our 2.0-litre turbo will take over as the volume leader.
"The same thing with that right-hand-drive decision is, is it something that will sustain a certain volume every year? If it is, we'll do it."
"If it's something that's a one-year wonder, and then it's gone… we've experienced that with the left-hand-drive in certain countries. Especially in the fifth-gen, after Transformers came out, some countries bought 1000 and sold 1000 in a week. We sent another 1000 over and they stay for three years.
"You've got to make sure, we are in the business to make money and if it's going to be a good business case, we would do it," he said.
![FordGeneva2015_Mustang_06.jpg]()
Now while Al O is busy rationalizing a reason why GM doesn't have a RHD rival for the Mustang; Ford is busy not-so-quietly enjoying success after success in RHD markets.
First last month it was announced that Ford Australia had taken over 6,000 orders for the Mustang pushing the wait list well into 2017.
Then, last week word came from Great Britain that UK shoppers had lined for the next six months in order to get their hands on Ford's first RHD pony car.
Now this week, reports have Ford sending a further 2,000 Mustangs to Australia in the face of growing demand; some 25 percent higher than initially expected.
Already the Mustang is Australia's best-selling sports car in 2016, how long is Chevy going to let Ford own this clearly crazed market?
At the New York Auto Show two weeks ago Camaro chief Al Oppenheiser said "If we think the volume is such that we should do the right-hand drive, it's an investment to do that for us. If the volume wouldn't sustain it, you know, and there's nobody in Japan anymore, so it would be Australia and the UK,"
"Is that enough to sustain it? We're studying that," he continued
"I'll tell you we're studying our competitors over in Dearborn and what they're doing: is it a success for them? Is it not?
"We know what it takes to do it, but obviously we have right-hand-drive Cadillacs, so it's not impossible. But we have not made that decision yet," he said. "We share the major components with the CTS and the ATS.
"We could tell you that we're going to do a right-hand-drive version… But we're not doing a right-hand-drive in the foreseeable future."
Oppenheiser went on to question the true demand down under:
"Well this is what you have to understand: is it a demand because everybody that wanted one bought one in the first year? And are they going to sell them in year two? You don't want to do that, right?
"It's like your V8 - everybody's going to buy your V8 first, so you want to have all your suppliers ready to pump out as many V8s as you can, because they're going to buy them first. Then it levels off - V6 and our 2.0-litre turbo will take over as the volume leader.
"The same thing with that right-hand-drive decision is, is it something that will sustain a certain volume every year? If it is, we'll do it."
"If it's something that's a one-year wonder, and then it's gone… we've experienced that with the left-hand-drive in certain countries. Especially in the fifth-gen, after Transformers came out, some countries bought 1000 and sold 1000 in a week. We sent another 1000 over and they stay for three years.
"You've got to make sure, we are in the business to make money and if it's going to be a good business case, we would do it," he said.
Now while Al O is busy rationalizing a reason why GM doesn't have a RHD rival for the Mustang; Ford is busy not-so-quietly enjoying success after success in RHD markets.
First last month it was announced that Ford Australia had taken over 6,000 orders for the Mustang pushing the wait list well into 2017.
Then, last week word came from Great Britain that UK shoppers had lined for the next six months in order to get their hands on Ford's first RHD pony car.
Now this week, reports have Ford sending a further 2,000 Mustangs to Australia in the face of growing demand; some 25 percent higher than initially expected.
Already the Mustang is Australia's best-selling sports car in 2016, how long is Chevy going to let Ford own this clearly crazed market?
