(first posted 3/18/2018) The story of the new generation Holden Monaro has two distinct parts: first there was an after-hours concept car built by a group of designers wondering how a coupe version of the Commodore sedan might go; followed by a pretty complete re-work when one Bob Lutz tapped the project for a larger purpose. So it makes for an interesting story…
Some of this story is widely known. Yes, the Monaro’s big brother the 1997 VT Commodore was based on the 1994 Opel Omega B, so the GM-generic styling ended up being somewhat dated by the time it debuted as a concept car in 1998 – but especially so by the time the Pontiac GTO debuted in 2004!
The original Coupe concept car nicknamed “Monica” started as an after-hours project – would there be any sedan where the design team has not at least sketched a coupe version? The design was led by future head of GM Design, Mike Simcoe, and ended up being shown at the October 1998 Sydney Motor Show in a masterstroke by GM-H to steal the thunder from Ford’s important new AU model Falcon launch.
The wheelbase of the Coupe was unchanged from the sedan, but the rear overhang was reduced by 100mm, doors extended 150mm and the windscreen was laid back at a steeper angle to lower the roof by 45mm. Both front and rear seats were repositioned to suit. The concept Coupe kept the VT Commodore front and rear fascia aesthetics.
There was a very strong reaction to the car and the Monaro name was immediately applied by the press and public alike. There were a good number of people wanting to place orders straight away, but of course it is not so simple to just build the car! Australia does not have a history of buying many large coupes, or small for that matter. The original Monaro models ran from 1968 until 1976 and were easily the most popular coupe of the era, but only 41,500 sold in total.
The Monaro was given the go-ahead by CEO Peter Hanenberger in late 1999 based on a conservative production schedule of only 4,500 units, which necessitated using some out of the ordinary procedures (such as low-cost, short-life pressing tools) to make the business case. But once Bob Lutz saw the car and decided to send it to the USA as the Pontiac GTO things had to change, as volumes were now going to be much higher!
This is where the “tale of two cars” comes in, because the car had to be re-engineered to some degree and the planned production processes changed. I spoke to one of the engineers involved at a social bbq a couple of years after the fact, but that was a decade ago now and I can’t remember the exact details now – and I don’t think it is something that anyone would go on the record just yet!
The cost ended up being a remarkably low $20m for design & engineering, and $40m for plant tooling to cover some 84 new panels, in a remarkably brisk 22-month program. You might compare some of this to the 2005 Ford GT where various development processes were fast-tracked, and speaking to the engineer who worked on the car, certain design decisions were “played safe” to shortcut the optimisation process as experience gives the ability to get quite close the first time. The Monaro’s design and validation were both carried out digitally (Simultaneous Math Based Process), without extensive use of prototypes.
For the 1999 Sydney motor show there was another concept, code-named Marilyn, a convertible version of the Commodore Coupe. This was never a realistic prospect for production, due to the need for vastly more complex engineering changes to accommodate the folding roof on a platform never intended for one.
Monaro CV6 with 17″ wheels
The Monaro was launched in December 2001 in two forms. The $47,990 CV6 (above) featured the supercharged 3.8 V6 with 171 kW (229 hp) and came only with automatic transmission (as per all supercharged V6 Holdens) and 17” wheels. Most people were interested in the $56,990 CV8 that 225 kW (301 hp) 5.7 V8 and 18” wheels with the 6-speed T56 manual transmission or optional 4L60E auto.
Australian market Mustang Cobra, note the extra driving lights in the bumper (aftermarket wheels)
Its closest competitor was perhaps the Ford Mustang Cobra, with 240 kW (321 hp) from its 4.6L DOHC V8 which came only with a 5-speed manual with a whopping $85,000 price tag, however I expect a lot more Monaros were cross-shopped against the more practical Commodore SS sedan which was $6-7,000 cheaper to boot (which was 105L or 3.7 cu. ft. larger). I know of one case where an SS was replaced by a Monaro at least.
As well as new styling front and rear, there was unique tuning for the suspension and steering, and the Monaro was very well received. It was fitting that there were some bold colour choices to echo the late 60s heyday, including yellow, red, green and blue, as well as black and silver. The yellow was used to produce an echo of the original Monaro advertising image. At a dealer launch for the HSV Coupe evolution the cat suit was even brought back to complete the picture!
The Monaro also returned to the race track, with a special version developed for the Nation’s Cup GT class by V8 Supercar team Garry Rogers Racing. The Monaro CV8R featured a 7-litre engine, 6-speed Holinger sequential gearbox and unique double wishbone suspension at front and rear, and there were larger wheel arches to allow the use of 11” wide wheels.
The car was allowed to race on the basis that there would be a similar specification road car produced, but with a speculated cost in the order of $210,000 perhaps not surprisingly it did not go ahead. The whole exercise was to say the least controversial, and while it won the Bathurst 24 Hour race twice it no doubt was a major reason the race failed through other teams not wanting to race an unfair opponent – but that is a story for another day. The 427 engine would eventually arrive in the 2008 HSV W427, or at least the standard LS7, not the racing version.
Likewise another story to be told is the return of the Monaro’s arch-nemesis, the 2002 FPV Falcon GT, marking the renaissance of another muscle car era. The Chrysler 300 SRT8 returned Mopar to the party in 2006.
In December 2002 the Series II update was launched, which largely involved slotting in the dashboard from the VY Commodore sedan, a few extra neddies (235 kW/315 hp) and some other minor tweaks including new colours such as Purple Haze. Fans of interior colour schemes will be happy to know that purple interior trim was also available!
June 2003 saw a CV8-R special edition launched to keep interest on the boil, with a special Turbine Mica grey colour. At the same time the CV6 variant was dropped, because it had accounted for only about 10% of sales. Coincidentally, 12-13 years later the 4-cylinder Ecoboost takes a similar share of Mustang sales.
The Series III update of August 2003 had a further tiny tweak to 245 kW (328 hp), and later another limited-edition CV8-R (350 cars this time) in Pulse Red. In the original plan for the car this might have been the end, but a man named Bob Lutz had another idea.
The Pontiac GTO required some pretty significant changes, in particular to meet rear crash safety requirements. The fuel tank was moved from under the boot floor to above the rear axle, which severely reduced boot space from 370 to 245 L (13.1 to 8.6 cu ft) (Original boot/trunk here). On the plus side, this did make room for a dual exhaust with some meaty 3” outlet tips!
It is interesting to compare the reaction to the GTO with the reception of the Monaro in Australia. The somewhat bland coupe styling was not much of an issue when there were so few large coupes on the Australian market, where the styling was regarded as clean and smooth rather than bland. Notably the HSV versions (GTO pictured above) were judged to be overstyled or uglier to the point where I expect some buyers would have bought the lesser car because of it. Personally I wouldn’t call it an improvement! One aspect I did like was the wheels of the HSV GTO were a great echo of the earlier Monaro GTS styled hubcap.
For production efficiency, the GTO revisions were applied to the September 2004 VZ Monaro facelift. In addition to slightly more aggressive styling, power was up to 260 kW (348 hp) and there were larger brakes with ventilated discs on the rear and an upgraded sound system with two subwoofers.
In 2005 a final run of 1,200 CV8-Z special editions in a striking “Fusion” gold hue were created to send the car out with a bang. The very last Monaro was built on 13 December 2005 and auctioned on Ebay, raising $187,355.55 for the Leukemia Foundation that has long been supported by Holden. About 12,000 of the new generation Monaros were built in total.
The HSV range continued on for a few more months, with final LE (pictured above) and Signature special editions being built in 2006. Again there is too much detail with the HSV range to go into here, particularly with the all-wheel drive Coupe4 variant.
Aside from the GTO, there were also exports to the UK badged as a Vauxhall Monaro, with 800 cars sent over. Presumably the one Top Gear did donuts on the beach with is no longer with us, but hopefully the 15 500 hp supercharged VXR 500s are. The car was also exported to South Africa and the Middle East wearing Chevrolet Lumina badges.
Leaving aside the “ringer” 7-litre racers, the Monaro had a respectable competition record in tarmac rallying particularly in the Targa Tasmania, with a few cars built with his son James. In the hands of Peter Brock the car was able to take on Porsche 911 GT3s on level terms, with some limited modifications that were also open to the Porsches. The main thing was larger brakes, which still fit under the OEM wheels.
The Monaro came at a time when Holden was trying to diversify its model range with an awd crossover (Adventra) and double-cab ute (Crewman) as the most important variants; ironically neither of these were exported while the Monaro was. And while the 52,000 units (approximately) of all types built over 5 years probably added more to the image of both Holden and Pontiac than the bottom line, I don’t think you could deny that we are better off for that group of designers exercising their creativity unofficially 20 years ago.
Further Reading:
CC Outtake: 2006 Pontiac GTO – Subtle Muscle
2003-07 Holden Adventra: Territory Enemy
Australian Auto Family Trees: The Holden Commodore From A-Z VB-VF (History)
Wow,85K for a new Mustang,i thought foreign Cars are over priced in my neck of woods only.
We’re so far away from the rest of the world that transport costs are astronomical. A level playing field it ain’t.
The Mustang cost is also the RHD conversion – Tickford spent $4m on that, for very few cars. Through the grey import companies I’d doubt anybody bought a new Mustang for under $100k; that has all changed now the Mustang is about $60k for the GT which is not bad actually when you adjust for equipment and currency.
I also recall reading that the QC on these when they came in was abysmal, and the whole car had to be almost rebuilt. Considering the selling price, that would’ve been a wise move. Today’s Mustang makes me wonder how they do it so cheap!
Easy – build it once in the factory, rather than build, strip and rebuild! Note the rumoured price for the HSV-converted Camaro is around the AUD$90k mark.
you go on believing that …….
So many people in the USA, including the enthusiast magazines, harped about the Pontiac GTO’s supposedly bland styling. I found it to be quite good-looking without drawing too much attention to itself. Who needs cop bait? Besides, everybody seemed to have forgotten that the original 1964 GTO was nothing more than a hotted-up version of the plain, workaday Tempest two-door – not bad looking but hardly the most exciting design of its day.
One of the most apt, derisive comments I read about the Holden GTO was that it looked like a Cavalier with a thyroid problem.
To me, though, one of the biggest issues with the styling of the last GTO was the rear spoiler, and the shots of the non-bespoilered Monaros seems to bear this out. I understand how it’s become a requirement for any performance car to have a rear spoiler (and, evidently, the wilder the better) despite the fact that they offer just about zero performance advantage. Still, personally, I think it would have helped immensely if Pontiac (like Ford with the some models of the Mustang) had offered a delete option for the GTO’s rear spoiler.
Exactly, the 64 Tempest may not have been the most exciting design but it was handsome and most importantly current. This body on the other hand was new to the US in 2004 with styling from 1997, and it looks it. Not only did it somewhat resemble a Cavalier or Sunfire, but actually has similar lines to the previous generation Mustang (94-98).
That doesn’t mean it’s bad, these have been high performance bargains since they went out of production, but they depreciated hard to make that possible, and the out of date styling is a major contributing factor. Especially after the 2005 Mustang rubbed its retro styling in their faces(which wasn’t as good as the GTO in any other measure.)
Also bear in mind that when the Monaro based GTO was first announced, nobody knew if it was going to be based on its underpinnings or merely rebadged as it was. Much of the speculation at the time pointed to the 1999 GTO Concept car, which couldn’t be more different from reality.
I’m not saying I myself prefer this, but something hard to ignore about it is a lot of styling traits actually preview the 5th gen Camaro, a genuine hit. The GTO could have potentially been much more successful.
This looks so close to the new ‘Mero it makes more sense as a Firebird Formula.
Ironically enough, the “genuine hit” 5th gen Camaro was designed by…the person who designed the failed GTO, Mike Simcoe!
As Dr Porsche said “don’t spoil it with a spoiler”
All true. However if the 64 GTO had been styled like the 54 Pontiac Chieftain the result would not have been so rosy.
The unfortunate fact is that the car was styled for the Aussie market where anything with 2 doors was a novelty. Here the 2004 GTO was not terribly unlike the appearance of the 1994 Mustang or the 1995 Pontiac Sunfire.
The car was not unattractive. But in the US by 2004 it was also nothing special.
We could wonder if the Monaro/GTO had arrived a decade earlier, if things could had been different?
Excellent point, and excellent article.
Australian market Mustang Cobra, note the extra driving lights in the bumper
They are actually high beam headlamps.
https://web.archive.org/web/20100113121843/http://www.fastlane.com.au/News_Ford/Australianising_Mustang.htm
Thanks Oliver, that makes sense. I knew there was plenty of work to convert them to RHD (they should have asked anyone involved in doing the 65-66 cars!).
Payam, the Mustang had to be expensive in Australia with the conversion costing $4m! I am not sure exactly how many cars they brought in, it may be 100 although I’ve seen up to 250. The latter number appears to be their target for annual sales. Oops…
There is no substance to “those aren’t driving lamps, they’re high beams”. Although informal usage differs, “Driving lamp”, “Driving light”, “Driving beam”, “Upper beam”, “Main beam”, and “High beam” all formally refer to the same thing. Which term is used depends on which regulation is being quoted. The Australian Design Rules are closely aligned with the UN Regulations, which mostly use “Driving Beam”.
The extra driving lamps were added to the Australian-spec Mustang because the headlamps, which like the Japan units were left-traffic versions of the US-spec lamp, produced a high (driving) beam which although compliant with the ADRs was judged inadequate for Australian drivers’ expectations—correctly; those headlamps were no damn fun to drive with at night on either low or high beam.
Digging deeper: if the Australian Mustang got Japan-spec headlamps, then why were the Japan-spec units and the Australia-spec units given different labels and different part numbers by Ford? The world may never know for sure. By all visible appearance, they are identical, though the pics at the linked auctions aren’t complete. It could be something as minor as a US-style amber parking lamp function in one (allowed in Japan at that time) and a white parking lamp function separate from the turn signal (required in Australia).
I could swear there was more (and better-illustrated) discussion of those Australian Mustang grafted-in driving lamps here on CC recently, with a metallic red car, but I can’t find it at the moment.
Great read John, and nice work on the backgrounding. For my money, this was a nice-looking coupe, but only in bog-standard trim with roundel logo in the grille.
You make a point that has never occurred to me – 1994 styling hitting the US market in 2004. Small wonder it was not cared for. Add that the 1997 VT starting point was never a particularly interesting example of mid-1990’s styling, and that the Monaro (to me) always looked like a an even frumpier two-door post version of that. Somehow, using 84 new panels! Whereas the original HK Monaro transformed a somewhat saggy sedan into a beautiful car. By chance, I read in (I think) Wheels quite recently that Mike Simcoe doesn’t think the HK Monaro looks great. Hmmm.
The sales number, just 12,000, confirm the pretty limited demographic available for this car; let’s just say none were parked in the posh suburbs. I drove a manual V8 when it was about 4 y.o. in 2008, and unsuprisingly, it just felt like a squishy Commodore. Everyone else not taken by nostalgia or the looks bought the sedan and wagon, probably about 300,000 of ’em across the time the Munro was on sale.
Most interesting article, thanks William.
*cough* John.
Have to disagree with you on the HK Justy; that range was winner all round style-wise – munro, the two sedans, the wagon, ute and panel van. Ermmm… mebbe not the Brougham.
The HK model was a massive improvement over the previous HR model, we had a wagon of both as family cars new, the old man finally fely justified in swithching brands from Vauxhall though the Holdens were down on performance compared to the PC Cresta they were finally the right size and you could get a V8 motor if you wanted,
The new Monaro didnt appeal to me, Where I worked the owner raced TAS sedans at speedway and someone hired a new Monaro for the week and took moulds from it we had fibreglass Monaro panels all over the net shop and the next season car was a two door Monaro though powered by a modified Tickford headed Falcon six.
,
Oh, poop, see, this site has become so tech dodgy that when I type “john” it prints “William”. Apologies, John.
Hey, it was a great article, I’m happy to take the credit. Hahaha.
I’d disagree slightly, I think there would have been quite a few Monaros bought as a nostalgic toy to people who otherwise wouldn’t have bought a Holden – many to instantly reverse the detuning done to get them down to 225kW too, the LS1 aftermarket was going in leaps and bounds. I mentioned knowing a guy who ran a plumbing business who bought a GTS, that was close to $100k!
Since I moved to the North Wales coast I’ve seen one (or more?) of these Monaros locally, along with VXR8s (Commodore) and Cascadas. It turns out we’re only a few miles down the coast from one of just nine VXR dealers in the country.
Simcoe is simply plain wrong in his opinion of the original Monaro. I don’t trust trust the opinions of a man with sideburns like his. Probably the best looking Australian car ever.
On the other hand he does have own a great Lancia Aurelia GT, and has worked on recreations on some amazing pre-war Alfa Romeos, so it is not all bad.
It looks very much like the mid to late 1990s Dodge Avenger. With the Avenger perhaps having more distinctive styling details.
The Monaro was one of those cars, like the early New Beetle and Smart, which popped up quite regularly as a personal import in the UK before GM decided to sell them officially, so there must still be a few Holdens over there in addition to the Vauxhall badged variety. Never saw any Commodores, presumably because it looked like an Omega with a bodykit.
I always feel sorry for the folk who bought those Beetles and Smarts in LHD only for VW and Daimler Benz to do a 180 and sell them in RHD through main dealers.
There were a few people who bought the new gen Mustang before Ford Australia started selling them – probably paid twice as much thanks to the RHD conversion.
Even for 2004, heck even in 2019, I find these very appealing. In both appearance and spec. As some who finds the new Camaros’ styling appalling ( no “e”), sometimes simple is good. I rode in a colleague’s silver 6 speed GTO and it was very pleasant in the passenger seat too, though he pretended to ignore my hints that I wanted to drive it.
I would not go anywhere near this car in America due to its ancestry. I had an Omega/Catera, bought new and it was an awful car. It was very poor quality and something broke on it at least every three months, usually multiple things. The GM extended warranty paid for itself. Added to that, it was a dull car to drive. Competent, but didn’t live up to its sports sedan reputation.
An Omega assembled in Australia has got to be much worse quality, and I bet the parts would be even more expensive and the dealer would be even more befuddled than the Cadillac dealers. The GTO strikes me as one of those cars everyone says they want, and then when it comes down to it, Pontiac was competing against much more luxurious marques like BMW and Infiniti price wise, but Pontiac has the Grand Am-Sunfire image of a Chevrolet with sporty styling, and doesn’t have the brand cachet to really pull this off. The styling of the GTO was bloated Cavalier/Sunfire and not very interesting. Additionally, the GTO was heading into an increasingly SUV heavy market and a lot of their intended base was probably more interested in an SUV.
Bob Lutz gets a lot of credit for being a brilliant executive, but I’m not sure that he’s produced a great string of successes.
He worked at GM Europe in the ’60’s and the only thing I know about that is there’s the famous picture of him having flipped an Opel on its head.
He was executive vice president at BMW from 1971 to 1974, so I suppose you could argue that he was key in establishing BMW in North America. On the other hand, you could say that the time was ripe for a BMW in North America as boomers were looking for a premium car that wasn’t an Ike and Mamie plushmobile.
He was responsible for the Merkur experiment at Ford, which proved that Americans will buy BMWs at BMW prices or Fords at Ford prices but not Fords at BMW prices, and especially not fragile and different European Fords.
He was at Chrysler from 1986-1998 and I guess you can argue that he dragged Chrysler out of Lee’s K car era, but it happened way too late, and he’s really known at Chrysler for the Viper, which was a neat halo car, but what did it accomplish?
At GM he was known for the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice, which proved that the Miata market is more than adequately satisfied with the Miata; the Pontiac G8, see GTO, the Chevrolet Malibu, which proved that at GM mediocrity runs deep, the Cadillac CTS which proved that even with distinctive styling, Americans won’t buy a BMW from Cadillac, the Buick Enclave, which – – – ok, that’s been something of a hit; the Chevrolet Camaro, which proved that GM can make astonishingly ugly cars, the Chevrolet Equinox, which again proved that mediocrity at GM runs deep, and the Cadillac SRX, which should have been a hit and mysteriously has not been.
In the meantime, Chrysler brought out the 300/Charger/Challenger which have really redefined the American full size sports sedan in a uniquely American way, and GM continues to lose market share.
Have I missed anything important? What do y’all think?
The Commodore wasn’t just an Omega assembled in Australia, it was a different car with Omega roots and American power train. Why would being Australian built would result in lower quality? See comments above about the Mustang.
Lastly – you’re obviously a member of the CC European Car Breakers Club. Every 3 months! What do y’all do to them? I’ve never had such disastrous car ownership and I’ve owned honest to God Fiats! Renaults Even! And they were old!
I have to echo tonito’s response, SavageATL. If anything, the VT-VZ Commodore was actually more reliable – different electrical components, different engines including the stout Buick-derived 3.8 V6 and Chevy V8s.
Build quality? Ehhh. You’re right, Aussie cars haven’t always had the best build quality. But I wouldn’t say the VT-VZ had bad build quality, they just weren’t at the same level as the Japanese.
And there are plenty of fair criticisms to level at Lutz (e.g. an obsession with halo vehicles) but most of the examples you cited aren’t great ones.
The Commodore may well have been more reliable; it’s hard to see what would be worse than the Omega/Catera. My two cents was that my personal perception, and perhaps that of others, was that an Australian built car would be worse than the German one, based on admittedly few data points. Nevertheless, it’s a perception, valid or not, and may have something to do with why the GTO didn’t do well.
I didn’t know the Solstice and Sky sold better than the Miata; that’s one of the things I love about this site is people come with facts. Wikipedia gives total production at 65,724 from 2006-2010 and there were 34,415 Saturn (plural of Sky) produced but only 32,495 sold. Where did the rest go?
I thought the conventional wisdom was that the Solstice and the Sky were expensive failures, so, that is incorrect.
I don’t think that the Malibu, even the 2008 version, was a breakout, game changing product like the 2009 Sonata. GM didn’t need a bunch of halo cars and niche products, GM needed to strongly redefine their bread and butter products like the Malibu. The 2009 Sonata was striking and made people look at Hyundai completely differently; the Malibu was better than its predecessors but hasn’t changed the perceptions of GM. The average customer is still going to go for a Toyota or Honda, because of the perception, valid or not, that the Toyota or Honda will go 15 years and 300,000 miles with maintenance and wear items, and still be worth money at the end of it, while the Malibu won’t. (aside to this story, I have a friend who has a 2014 Cruze; he leased the Cruze, then bought it after the lease expired, and then at 45,000 miles, the transmission went.) I’d recommend a Hyundai/Kia to a friend looking for a car, but not a GM product, and that’s after years of GM loyalty.
I guess the global question though regarding Lutz is that was he able to significantly alter the path GM was on? it could be argued that the recession plus GM’s systemic problems would have doomed GM anyway, but when I think of really successful auto executives, I’m thinking Henry Ford II, Iacocca, Caldwell, Peterson, Carlos Ghosn, and whoever is running Hyundai/Kia, who have a vision for the future, and build vehicles which support that vision which change the perception of their company.
I think the demographic interested in a GTO gave more of a crap about it not being made and designed in ‘Murica than it not being built in Germany, but Australia. Many of them would have been would-be Firebird/Camaro buyers too, who weren’t exactly used to quality products in the F-bodys.
But really, the GTO isn’t quite as much of a flop as it’s made out to be. How many Trans Am WS6, Camaro SS, and Mustang Cobras were sold in a given year around that time? These were the GTO equals, and unlike the Mustang/Firebird/Camaro there wasn’t a regular V6 base to pad the vast majority of the sales like those others. The original GTOs had a Tempest/Lemans that made the Pontiac A-body profitable
If they only made 65-odd thousand cars then I dare say they lost money on the Solstice/Sky program.
I remember Lutz talking a lot about improving the appeal of the GM cars and I think that they did improve, but I wonder how much effect he had.
Henry Ford II almost ran the company right back into the ground in the 70s, so I’m not so sure I’d list him as any better than Lutz, the problem with both of them(and most executives) is that they overstay their welcomes. If Lutz weren’t at GM at its worse(I am one of those people who believes bankruptcy was inevitable, totally regardless of leadership) and could keep his post-retirement yapper shut on media outlets there’d be few black marks in his legacy. GM was a sinking ship that wasn’t fixable solely with product.
The first gen CTS was very successful considering Cadillac’s state at the time of release. It was the first Cadillac model I had seen in my life with younger owners(or leases) cross shopping with a 3 series or Infiniti G35. Cadillac almost nailed it with those cars, but they just never had that quality or attention to detail to hook curious customers after that generation.
The Viper was absolutely vital to the Dodge division’s current image and probably even it’s very existence today. That was one of the big halo car success stories that Lutz can actually make a case for, considering it gave Dodge a brand identity it had been lacking since the mid 1970s and styling cues trickled down into all product lines for two decades. Now keeping it in continuous production with multiple generations until recently is another matter, but that first generation car was iconic and gave the whole division a new lease on life. The Prowler is the car at Chrysler that Lutz can’t boast about, it did nothing to keep Plymouth afloat since there was nothing any mainstream product to mimick from it (until the PT Cruiser under the Chrysler division umbrella).
I don’t like them either but the 5th gen Camaro was the best selling ponycar through most of its run. People seem to like astonishingly ugly cars, that fact is confirmed to me every time I look in a parking lot.
I was really thinking of the Henry Ford II right after the war, who resurrected Ford from being run smack into the wall, developed new product ideas, hired the best and the brightest, etc. By the 1970s his personal problems and other issues had really hurt him, but even Iacocca points out that prior to Iacocca’s firing, Ford was making record profits. I guess The Deuce’s biggest problem were failure to prepare for the ’80s after the 1973 oil crisis.
The ’92 Seville/Eldorado were attractive to foreign buyers and made me, in high school at the time, rethink Cadillac as something other than a grandpa barge (although I would have been delighted with a grandpa barge.) But the CTS didn’t really give Cadillac a new path. That convertible roadster thing didn’t either. I agree, GM probably/possibly would have gone bankrupt anyway, but Lutz still didn’t really chart a new direction for GM from my perspective. He came up with some cool convertible cars, but nothing really that changed the perception of GM.
I honestly have never, to this day, seen a Viper driving. I’ve seen Grand Nationals, and Reattas, and Skylines, and of course Vettes and Porsches and those Audi supercars, but never a Viper. I’m betting that when people think Dodge, they think Caravan, or a truck, or even now the Hellcat/challenger, but i would disagree that Dodge needed the viper or benefited from it. What they needed was a competitive sedan, which they didn’t get until 1993.
The Prowler was silly.
Does the Challenger outsell the Camaro? I’ve read somewhere it does, at least now. The Camaro needed to be brought back, but that shape is awful.
That competitive 1993 sedan was a near copy/paste styling job from the Viper, it brought in customers and customers saw that family resemblance in a Intrepid they’ll actually buy. The ideal halo car. I don’t know where you’re at but I’ve seen dozens of first gen Vipers in my life, I also remember how proliphic they were in media and publications as a kid, there were toys and posters of them everywhere, even in my elementary school library. Hellcats? Please. No Hellcat had a network TV show about it(not that Viper was good, basically a knight rider ripoff), and I feel any current Hellcat buyer probably was probably quite enamored by the Viper 25 years ago.
The Viper, nor any halo car, is going to be a financial success by itself, but if it shifts the brand perception successfully, which it definitely did, as Dodge went from being the punchline of jokes on Married with Children to being known as a sporty brand from it, it’s a success. Hellcats in particular benefitted directly from it, Dodges whole current performance image is built on the goodwill of the Viper, it’s power output may seem quaint in comparison to them now, but in 93 it was the Hellcat of the day.
The Challenger outsells the 6th gen Camaro currently, yes, but the 5th gen Camaro outsold both the Challenger and Mustang, at least for a few years.
Australia hasn’t got a stellar reputation for building cars; the Mercury Capri sold here in the early ’90’s was pretty craptastic even though it was based on the Mazda 323. My mistake, I had meant to say that the Monaro was based on the Omega and not just an Omega assembled in Australia, they are closely related but not the same car. My grandfather’s second wife came to us from Poland by way of Australia and wouldn’t buy an australian made car here (not that there were many to choose from.)
The Omega/Catera was an absolutely awful nightmare of a car. I just drove it. I didn’t have problems with the car that replaced it in 2006, a 1987 Buick Grand National which went just fine with a few minor things, and I racked up 232000 miles on a 2006 Caravan trouble free until it got smashed flat in 2016, so I don’t think it’s me, it’s just the Omega was awful.
So the Capri is your one example for Australia not having a “stellar” reputation for building cars? That and the GTO’s styling and late arrival are enough to damn an entire industry? Ouch.
I agree with you on the Omega/Catera’s reliability, though. Opel reliability took a dive in the 1990s and that’s been well-recorded.
Well the Aussie Capri was rubbish, it was a mistake to export something that wasnt reliable or water tight even in Australia,
Look what it did to a reasonably well made Holden just by reputation.
I still think the modern GTO would have done better here, if they just called it a “Pontiac Monaro”. I came >< this close to buying a steel blue 6-speed one in 2005, (multiple test drives, getting my car fixed enough to trade it in, getting my loan sorted out) but then found out I was gonna be a dad, and ended up getting a minivan instead. So I get a little misty-eyed when I see one of these.
Oh yeah, what did actual Aussies think of the GTO’s? Interesting cousin, or obnoxious relative? 🙂
I don’t think the GTO exports were too widely known. While we are happy to slap Chevy badges on our Commodores, I’ve never seen a Monaro done up like a GTO. I guess that’s also because the Monaro quickly became a collector’s item, or at least a used car with inflated prices.
Our Monaros eventually got the hood scoops tacked onto the GTO to make it look more Pontiac-like. I recall some people not being a fan so maybe obnoxious relative is closer to the mark…
Chevy badges on real Holdens? Grass is always greener I guess, I couldn’t imagine anyone deriving pride in the brassy bowtie from my vantage, the Holden badge looks so much better on SS’s here (And GTOs)
Didn’t the Monaros get the relocated fuel tank like the GTO? The significantly reduced trunkspace on domestic Holdens from that concession to make it legal in the US would certainly make me hold a grudge against the American counterpart.
Yep lots of bowties. Back in the day it used to be a thing to put a bowtie on your Holden if you’d swapped in a SBC instead of the Holden 308. This revived when they started with the Gen3/LS1 in 2000, plus there were factory ones available due to the exports to the Middle East.
Yes the trunk space was cut by a third which might have sent some buyers back to a SS or HSV sedan, otherwise it was still decent by coupe standards.
I’m rather amused that the general American reaction seemed to be “the GTO shouldn’t have had ’90s styling in the ’00s. It should have had ’60s styling”….
The CC effect is alive and well, as the day before this re-ran I saw a GTO version of this car pulling into a parking place at the grocery store.
The topic of the failure of the GTO in the US has been done to death, and I am by no means bowled over by its styling. But I must say that the sound of that lightly-muffled V8 was musical. If the car had looked as good as it sounds, the story might have been different.
CC effect in full swing! There’s a car lot I drive past every day, and a bright red GTO showed up yesterday. Of course I had to check it out. Man that thing is THRASHED! I’d like to get one someday, but I bet most of them have been “rode hard and put away wet”. Especially in my price range…
The HSV GTO would fit perfectly as a Pontiac GTO without any changes on its style, the American treated on its style left the Pontiac GTO even more bland than the original Opel Omega B! Looking from today, it seems that any foreign car from GM was carefully treated to be a bad choice in the American market. Opels should be Chevrolet, never Cadillac, Buick or Pontiac. But for unknown reasons GM rather choose to call for Toyota or Daewoo help instead of Opel for its entry level products. I wonder what was the main problem for the Corsa to be a Chevy Metro or the Vectra B to be the Chevy Prisma or that Holden Monaro to be a smart Chevy coupe just putting the blue bow tie, it looks like there was a rift between GM divisions.
Spotted a Vauxhall Monaro today; first time in two or three years. Made a nice deep, slightly rasping burble as it headed off towards Rhuddlan.