VE Commodore to revive Pontiac

AUSTRALIAN Holden engineering could underpin a future generation of large rear-wheel drive Pontiac performance cars – including a new-generation GTO coupe – if a proposal by General Motors to revive its sports-oriented US brand comes to fruition.

US industry publication Automotive News this week reported that parent company GM has hatched a plan to revive its troubled Pontiac brand by developing a new range of large and exclusively rear-wheel drive performance-oriented models to replace the current line-up.

Holden is GM's global engineering centre for large rear-drive vehicle architectures and the Lion brand and Pontiac share many synergies at the value end of the market place.

The first production model to emerge from the global GM large/rear-drive component set formerly known as Zeta will be August's all-new VE Commodore sedan, but the basis of the replacement for Australia's most popular car will also underpin a range of new models in the US.

According to Automotive News, these could include a replacement for the Holden Monaro-based Pontiac GTO based on the Chevrolet Camaro concept revealed at the Detroit motor show in January – a model that could also be built on Australian foundations if approved for production.

"We haven't made any bones about the fact that Pontiac needs a rear-wheel-drive performance vehicle," said Pontiac spokesman Jim Hopson.

While Holden previously admitted that up to 500,000 vehicles could be based on Zeta globally, this week the company refused to confirm whether discussions had taken place regarding future Pontiac models based on Holden-developed architecture, but indicated a VE Commodore-based born-again GTO could be just one possibility.

"At the top level Holden is the base for the development of global rear-wheel drive architectures for future GM programs," spokesman Jason Laird told GoAuto. "That's in place and the first vehicle off that architecture will be VE, but the architecture group will work on programs for other GM projects.

"As for what those cars or programs are, we're not in a position to discuss ... we have the expertise, we have a very global team working with the Holden team.

"We are working on the architecture, but as far as what products the architecture might be applied to I’m not in a position to comment.

"You would need to draw your own conclusions."Mr Laird stressed Holden's role within the GM world was "more about intellectual export rather than physical export", indicating that it was unlikely there would be a repeat of the situation that saw Holden's discontinued Monaro coupe exported to the US as the Pontiac GTO for three model years.

Indeed, having reduced production to two shifts at its Elizabeth factory in South Australia, resulting in annual capacity of about 140,000, Holden is not in a position to supply the massive US market – even with a relatively low-volume sports coupe like the new-generation GTO, which would be expected to attract sales of around 70,000.

Given that producing a two-door Monaro version of the forthcoming VE for low-volume Australian consumption is not viable, any future-generation Holden Monaro would be based on the new GTO and imported from the US.

Pontiac, which sold just 437,806 vehicles in US last year compared with 599,123 a decade earlier in 1995, is understood to be investigating repositioning itself as a rear-drive-only performance brand by developing a next-generation GTO based on Camaro architecture, a more expensive sedan to replace the Grand Prix and a Firebird muscle car.

GM is expected to unveil a rear-drive sedan concept at the 2007 Detroit motor show, in a repeat of the strategy that saw the 1999 Evoq concept herald a new corporate styling language for its flagship Cadillac brand.

AN said sources indicated the exclusive rear-drive Pontiac model portfolio would take five years to put in place, requiring a further generation of front-drive small cars and all-wheel drive pick-up trucks in the interim.

Once described by GM product boss Bob Lutz as "a damaged brand", Pontiac will be sold alongside fellow GM marques Buick and GMC in three-brand dealerships, with the Pontiac Torrent crossover, a rebadged Chevrolet Equinox, likely to be become a GMC model.

AN sources said Pontiac's front-drive Grand Prix would be discontinued after the 2008 model year as GM truncates the brand's line-up in preparation for an exclusive RWD strategy.

While some US pundits have said that making Pontiac a dedicated rear-drive performance division of GM would limit sales - especially in northern climates where front-drive vehicles are considered safer - others are insisting GM needs an image-leading, BMW-style brand offering rear-drive models exclusively.

With GM's only other current large rear-drive architecture, Cadillac's Sigma, deemed too expensive to underpin models for a nameplate such as Pontiac, it seems Holden is in the box seat to produce them.

Camaro concept revealed