thegriffon

For midsize crossovers the lwb TE architecture is fine, but wagon variants for at least Holden and Cadillac would be feasible.

No, not a Torana Calais, but since this is a market where the Torana is not sold, you don't need to make a completely new body, simply new lights, a brand-appropriate grille, premium trim and equipment and localised powertrain options. Plant A in North America produces the Pontiac (high volume for this platform). Plant B in another market produces the Torana for export to Australia and New Zealand (relatively low volume), a Cadillac BLS for the local market and export (broader market so potentially higher volume), and a reworked premium Torana under a certain other brand for the local market, where neither Pontiac nor Holden has a presence. I'm sure someone can fill in the blanks.

Honda should ask for the blueprints back.

The short answer is yes, it would. Us regulations are far tougher than even planned future Eruoprean regulations, let alone EuroIV, and the technology to meet it is apparenntly too expensive for smaller cheaper vehicles. A relatively expensive HD pickup or a $60,000 Mercedes sedan are much more able to pass on the cost thn an Astra, Malibu, Colorado or even an H3. Perhaps when there is more spare cash they can expand capacity for the 6.6 L Duramax, and further down the line add Cadillac's future V8 diesel to the more expensive SUVs. In the meantime the focus will be on bringing diesel injection and induction technology to gasoline engines that don't have the same after-treatment problems. Will we one day soon see a 3.9 L OHV engine with direct injection? Who knows. If it beats a standard 3.6 L perhaps we will.

It's not. The G35 is much bigger and as you'll note is a G35, not a G25. Infiniti's smaller crossover may use it however.

The moderately larger Commodore with 3.6 L V6 (with 4-speed auto) retails locally from around the same price, so you can see why North America was initially not impressed with the Zeta program costs. Of course a lot of that is increased expense for transporting V6 blocks and transmissions etc across the Pacific, and part is just local market expectations and lower volumes. For it's size the CTS is also way underpriced—after all it's probably bigger inside than a G6, and not really much more expensive until you start adding options not available on the Pontiac. Aiming too low has long been GM NA's undoing. Technical details are similar, but the way they are put together (materials and structural design) is different. GM NA has done a lot to cut costs, some of which is possible because of potentially higher volumes (twice what Holden produces).

The LaCrosse-sized Zeta Buick is long gone if it was ever considered. What you are looking at is, as Hudson says, a replacement for the Lucerne, a very much larger and potentially more expensive vehicle. With more integrated BPG dealerships develop there is less temptation to whore out Buicks to appease dealers looking for an "entry-level" model. Given the big discounts on the Grand Prix GM will want to divorce the new larger Pontiac from it as much as possible. Only when people forget how cheap they were will GM even think of bringing back the name.

Yes. A standard V8 Statesman will set you back around US$47K. The Caprice increases that by another US$5K, and the HSV version will add another US$10-15K.

I think you're talking at cross-purposes here. The Gladiator was much bigger and the production version would have been a re-bodied Dakota, requiring a much higher investment than a Wrangler pickup, whose only direct competitor would have been the Land Rover Defender. BTW contrary to what the Wards artice says, the top midsize pickup is not the Ranger, but the Tacoma, followed by the Colorado or Ranger (depending on the month). Personally I think that if Chrysler built both a Wrangler pickup and a Dodge M80 on the same platform, they could sell millions of them worldwide (ok, not all in one year). Aside from the Defender 110 the only other pickups this size at present are fwd B-segment car-based pickups such as the Chevy Montana, Fiat Strada and Ford Courier.

tarock

Because these are very expensive tuner cars, costing more than twice as much as a base Commodore V6 (around A$72K or US$54K). One of thse will set you back more than a CTS-V with the same engine and transmission. Of course in Australia this is exacty the same price as a 300C SRT8, and less than a V6 Saab 9-3, 325i or C 230.

You do know it's shorter than a LaCrosse by a big margin (and consequently has a smaller trunk)? BTW, those 307 kW and 550 Nm are DIN figures—expect this to be exactly the same tune as the Corvette or the CTS-V.

chet

Coupes in this market depend on convertible versions for necessary volume. You can't economically do a coupe by itself. That isn't to say Pontiac couldn't do a sporty rwd lower-midsize coupe and cabrio, and Buick a luxury upper-midsize (or large) coupe and cabrio like the Velite.

http://eogld.ecomm.gm.com/NASApp/domestic/...&vehicleID=3358Check Color and Trim and click on Print Book for a table of all the option combinations for the Aura.

I would add one other model, the Holden with a different grille and premium trim, to boost production further. I would look at two plants, one in the US (Oshawa?) to produce the G6, and an overseas plant to produce the BLS and Holden for export, and the fourth model for the domestic market.

To put this into context, although smaller than the VE Commodore, the Torana concept has a longer wheelbase than the Camaro, so there is no reason it could not use the revised Zeta architecture. Even the extended Kappa of the Nomad concept was much smaller, and more suitable to a compact than the lower-midsize vehicle Mooney is talking about (think BLS, Mazda6, G35 and TSX, as compared to the upper-midsize Commodore [Aura, Milan, Azera]). Why dump the LaCrosse to make room for a smaller rwd sedan? Why not do both? For the US market though I'd question whether you need both Pontiac and Buick rwd sedans the same size, at the same dealer.

fetid

Since I was thinking purely North Amrica I didn't mention "diesel". There is another 2.0 L Turbo in GM's catalog.

Renault Master (the rwd version is dubbed Propulsion in France).

It has been suggested before, by a number of people including myself. In addition it would be a good idea to directly replace the Rendezvous with a 7-seat crossover similar in size to the Chevrolet Captiva—larger than the Vue, but smaller than the probable Torrent replacement from GMC. With the 3.6 L V6 or the turbo 2.0 L it would round out the BPG lineup with something smaller and more economical than the enormous Enclave and Acadia.

… meat pies, kangaroos and Holden cars.

I'm sure Holden will be lookking at a number of options, but this is all just air at the moment. We are far from seeing any firm commitment, and it will require a better business case than has so far been presented. Taking into consideration previous dicussions I will work something up for AutoReport sometime tomorrow if nothing else comes up (aside from Oshawa). I can see possbilities with an architecture this size that could add up to reasonable volume without too much effort.

Holden acknowledges that volume would be too restricted to work as a GP replacement. If it comes it will be as a very low-volume halo model. If one is produced the G8 would have to be a unique North American model (because of changes to the architecture since the VE). The same goes for the so-called Statesman, especially since the Chinese did not take to the re-badged Holden.

For the segment however the sales are quite impressive, partly due to discount pricing. How muich is GM prepared to sacrifice for higher margins? LaCrosse can piggyback off volume produced in China, and there will be a high level of commonality with the next Aura, G6 and eventually Malibu. It's the upper-level Pontiac that faces an uncertain future, with no international sales and a "cheaper" sibling that is just as big, and often more expensive.