VE wagon due in 2008

HOLDEN has hinted that the VE wagon may be as far as two years away, even though it refuses to publicly confirm the existence of one.

GM Holden executive director of engineering Tony Hyde told GoAuto this week that the short- and long-wheelbase sedans were the two most important cars "from a revenue and profitability point-of-view". "The others come in sequence now afterward," he said.

When asked if it would take a similar two-year timeframe as the 1997 VT Commodore took to the 1999 WH Statesman, he said: "Yes, pretty close to it. We only have an engineering department that is so big, with a budget that is so big, and the third thing is that the company can only generate a certain amount of capital, and they’re all multi-million dollar programs, so we have to space it out."