Australian media is reporting that Toyota is next in line for some government cash, following Holden’s deal with the government to keep production of the Commodore and other models in Australia.

Toyota currently builds the Camry and Aurion (a V6 powered sedan based on the Camry, pictured above) at a factory near Melbourne, and a deal with the government is said to bring about a third model, likely the RAV4. Toyota’s Australian division head didn’t hesitate to re-affirm the company’s commitment to Australia, stating that they would remain in the country “indefinitely” and were taking a “long-term” view of things, even as rival firms panic about unfavorable exchange rates.

Local car production has been a money-loser for Toyota, with Australian outlet Go-Auto reporting a $160 million loss over the last three years. If Toyota’s deal is similar to Holden’s, Toyota will have to pony up a lot more cash on its own – with GM contributing $1 billion to keep production running until 2022.

In my rant about the Holden Ute, I qualified my cynicism with a caveat; my tastes are not representative of the broader market, or what makes good business sense for an auto maker. Some of you suggested that I should start injecting more of my own opinions/enthusiasm into these sorts of articles. I am reluctant to mix business with my own automotive fantasyland (after all, everyone with access to a keyboard does just that that), but this post isn’t supposed to be informative or insightful, just pure fun. I am limiting myself to new cars on sale outside the United States and Canada, as there are far too many used cars out there that I’d love to own.

Daily Driver – Holden Calais V:

Why the lesser known Calais V over the more popular, sporting Commodore SS or HSV models, both of which are available with a 6-speed manual? Simple. I don’t want to drive a car that looks like it’s been painted with Freezies and black magic markers. Since this is my fantasy garage, I have plenty of other opportunities for belligerently loud sports cars with bowel-jarring ride quality and performance envelopes far beyond my capabilities.

The Calais still has a 6.0L small block V8, but it’s not embarrassing to pull up to a valet stand in one (unlike a new HSV Commodore. Glossy black wheels are for drug dealers and pimps). I imagine it’s totally isolating from the road but still has reasonable handling dynamics – what a Panther should be – and the 6.0L V8, even in neutered automatic trim, can probably lay waste to whatever crappy 500-treadwear all-season tires it comes on. GM, please, this should be the new Buick Park Avenue. Unlike the Ute, it will sell.

Euro Hot Hatch – Renaultsport Megane 265:

Ok, I lied. The Holden would be my daily driver for any trip that involved the highway, or taking an impromptu blast to Montreal to go get a smoked meat sandwich for lunch. But this is what I’d drive around town to do my errands. I was always captivated by photos in Evo magazine of the diminutive Clio 182 cup lifting its inside wheel somewhere in Wales, coming dangerously close to the rear bumper of whatever supercar they decided was worthy of their hilariously hyperbolic prose. Most of what you read in British magazines is complete fantasy, whether it’s declaring the Jaguar X-Type a “genuine 3-Series rival” or talking about their driving heroics. But I’ve been assured by none other than Jack Baruth that this latest Megane 265 is one of the best cars - in the wuuurrrlld.  Make mine GT3 RS green (yes, I know that’s a Clio).

Authentic Off-Roader – Toyota Land Cruiser 70:

The Land Rover Defender might get the lion’s share of attention when it comes to grey market SUVs, but I am much more intrigued by the idea of buying a brand new version of a decades old Land Cruiser. Toyota Australia will still sell you one of these, in three-door, five-door and pickup truck configurations. I really have no use for a body-on-frame work truck like this, but neither does anybody who buys a Ford SVT Raptor. The Troop Carrier GXL is my pick, since it looks like it’s just one Ma Deuce away from being put into service by bloodthristy janjaweed.

Wagon of Choice – Mercedes C63 AMG:

This was a tough choice. The Audi RS4 and RS6 have all-wheel drive, which means four-season shenanigans for this Canadian. But the C63 won out in the end. I prefer the purity of the naturally aspirated V8, even if it is a little slower on paper. Since I have a thing for Q-Cars, mine would be painted in the most banal shade of tan and fully debadged. Of course, I’d fit the Performance Pack and a Tubi exhaust, just to scare the hell out of the yappy little bichon frises tied up outside my local espresso bar when I stopped in for my morning cup.

Death Warrant – Caterham Seven CSR260: 

Jack had a bad experience with his Caterham, but I’m undeterred. If the 260 horsepower Duratec doesn’t kill me, then I’m bound to be maimed by a distracted parent in a Sequoia trying to silence their insolent children while reaching for their third Ativan. Better go draft my will…

Every so often, the same tired rumor will pop up again, like a particularly resilient pimple that habitually reappears in the same conspicuous spot. Thanks to the incessant hunger for clicks among auto websites, these rumors refuse to die, no matter how asinine they are. How many times have you seen a “BREAKING” or “EXCLUSIVE” story on the next Toyota Supra or some absurd BS fabrication regarding a diesel Mazda MX-5?

The latest round of bollocks concerns the Holden Ute, another car that tickles the fancy of enthusiasts on all sides of the globe, but would be a commercial nightmare if they ever tried to export it to America. One Australian publication is now claiming that a guerilla marketing campaign showing Mark Reuss lapping the Nurburgring in a brand new Ute is part of a ploy to export the Ute to America. Of course, other car blogs have been lathering themselves up into a frenzy over the prospect of a very expensive quasi-pickup that they will not purchase once it gets here.

Holden claims that there will be some kind of major announcement regarding the Ute next month. I’m going to be the first to say it will not be related to any Ute exports. There are two simple reasons here: the US-Australian dollar exchange rate is abominable as far as exports are concerned, and there is likely little to no demand for a very pricey product that is neither fish nor fowl. Who is going to pay $50k for Corvette powered pseudo-pickup wearing a Chevrolet badge. Did we discuss the UAW’s reaction to an Australian built pickup, or the whole “cannibalizing GM’s new ‘lifestyle pickup’ thing “either? Both of those matter, but would require their own articles to really get into.

One thing that is not a factor is the chicken tax. Not long ago, Holden used the chicken tax as an excuse for why it’s been unable to export Utes to America. TTAC commenters soon produced plenty of evidence showing that Australian cars and ”light commercial vehicles” (i.e. pickups and Utes) can be brought to America duty free. So that excuse is out. I feel for Holden though. The Australian domestic car industry is going down the tubes, their signature product is about to become just another boring front-drive appliance and all they want to do is send some good product to world markets.

The problem is nobody wants it. No matter how loud the internet cries out for it.

The most famous Holden product to ever wear a Buick badge is the Chinese-market Park Avenue, a car that Buick dealers inexplicably rejected. But back in the mid-1990s, GM apparently planned to use the VT Commodore architecture as the basis for a new Buick sedan, previewed in the XP2000 concept above.

Squint really hard and you can see a resemblance in the basic shapes of the two cars. Since the XP2000 was a concept, it’s likely that the Buick production version would have stuck closer to the Holden design, hardpoints and all. The concept used a 5.0L small-block V8 and GM’s 4-speed transmission, but a smaller displacement V8 was rumored at the time.

The XP2000 had a lot of features that were considering cutting edge for its 1995 debut but are relatively mundane today; a crude version of a lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control  as well as a vehicle key that could automatically adjust things like seat position, mirrors and climate control based on driver preferences. None of these would be earth-shattering today but they were pie-in-the-sky ideas nearly 20 years ago.

The biggest payoff may have been the readiness of the VT chassis to adapt left-hand drive. Without it, we would never have gotten the Pontiac GTO, and other export markets would have missed out on the Chevrolet Lumina.  If anything, the XP2000 is another footnote in the stilted story of GM’s attempts to bring the Holden Commodore to North America.

With the launch of the all-new VF Commodore just around the corner, Holden’s Mike Deveraux doesn’t Ford’s bad news to steal the limelight away from his very important product introduction.

Amid a backdrop of constant squabbling between the governing party and the opposition, Deveraux urged both sides to find common ground over the fate of Australia’s auto industry

“…both sides of the equation understand how critical the auto industry is to the economy and how plugged-in in terms of its viability. We have a pretty solid plan. We will need to work closely with the opposition and government to make sure that Australia’s policy setting are competitive globally.”

As of April, the Commodore was ranked #10 in Australia’s sales chart and in danger of slipping. With the tide turning against large rear-drive sedans, Deveraux and Holden have to figure out how they’ll build cars for the Australian market without turning Holden into just another outpost for rebadged GM global products. Rumors of the Commodore becoming front-drive would be a blow for enthusiasts, and bring an end to Australia’s muscle car era, but may end up aligning better with market tastes. Ironically, Chrysler could end up being the lone auto maker to offer a rear-drive sedan in Australia should that scenario take place.

Ford has long been at the forefront of the currency debate, claiming currency manipulation when the yen went to levels that nearly killed the Japanese auto industry, and shouting “currency manipulation” now that the yen is back to normal levels. Now, Ford itself experiences the devastating effects of changing exchange rates:  Ford is shutting down all its manufacturing operations in Australia. The reason: A strong Australian dollar.  Says Reuters:

“Ford Motor Co  will shut its two Australian auto plants in October 2016, blaming a strong currency and costs that are hitting manufacturers just as the country looks for other sectors of its economy to cushion the end of a mining boom.”

According to the report, the closure of Ford’s  engine plant in Geelong and its vehicle assembly plant in Broadmeadows will cost 1,200 jobs. Ford  built 37,000 vehicles in Australia last year, and has been in the country since 1925.

“Our costs are double that of Europe and nearly four times Ford in Asia,” Ford Australia CEO Bob Graziano told Reuters. “The business case simply did not stack up. Manufacturing is not viable for Ford in Australia.”

The Aussie has climbed from just over 60 cents in 2009 to above parity with the U.S. dollar, where it has been for more than two years. Currently, one AUD costs 97 cents.

A few weeks ago, Jac Nasser, the former head of Ford, warned that Australia’s car industry has passed the point of no return, and said it would die within the next few years.

I am sure that in this case, Ford would have been grateful for a little currency manipulation – or shall we call in central bank intervention – and would not have complained.  GM’s Holden said it will cut 500 jobs, citing damage from the high Australian dollar.

Jac Nasser, the former head of Ford, is warning that Australia’s car industry has passed the point of no return, and expects to see it die within the next few years.

Nasser placed the blame at the politicians doorstep, citing a dearth of state subsidies for the auto industry and a lack of clear vision on the part of politicians for the decline of Australia’s domestic car industry, which employs some 224,000 people. While Holden, Ford and Toyota are the big name vehicle assemblers, the vast majority of jobs come from parts suppliers rather than the manufacturers themselves. The Australian quotes Nasser as outlining the challenges ahead for Australia

“The signs aren’t good,” he said yesterday. “You’ve got an exchange rate at a 30-year high, you’ve got higher costs in Australia, you’ve got excess capacity in the motor industry worldwide, you’ve got a very weak currency in Japan and you’ve got a weak euro. When you put that mix together, it’s very difficult to expect a relatively small but talented Australian auto industry to work its way.

As soon as you have a reduction in the scale of domestic manufacturing – let’s assume one of the three decide to exit Australia in terms of manufacturing – then you end up potentially with sub-scale supplier infrastructure…Once that happens, I think it’s a domino effect. It would be a very sad day for Australia but unfortunately it looks like it could be inevitable.”

One of the major issues cited by many observers (as well as the B&B) is that of tariffs. A report in the Australian business publication BRW states

Australian tariffs on imported motor vehicles fell to 5 per cent by 2010 from 10 per cent in 2005. Where Australia has a free trade agreement, there is a zero tariff. Industry bodies such as the Federation of Automotive Products Manufacturers (FAPM) say the hurdles on entry of foreign vehicles are much lower than those imposed by other car manufacturing jurisdictions and the country should demand reciprocity on tariffs with other producing countries.

The reduction in tariffs is often cited as a reason for the freefall of traditional Australian-made vehicles like the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore. The big Australian iron has been replaced at the top of the sales charts by vehicles like the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla and Hyundai i30, as well as the Toyota Hilux and Nissan Navarre pickups, all of which are made offshore. At the end of the quarter, the Commodore was just barely hanging on in 9th place, while its perennial rival the Falcon ranked a dismal 37th in the sales standings.

After having received  more than $2 billion in subsidies from, the Australian government in the past 12 years, GM’s down-under Holden unit announced that it will lay off another 500 workers in response to falling demand and the high Australian dollar, Australia’s ABC News reports.

Cheaper imports draw customers away from Holden’s locally made Cruze and Commodore models, the company says.

Holden’s managing director, Mike Devereux, lays the blame for much of the Australian dollar’s appreciation at the feet of nations, such as the US and Japan, that have been deliberately devaluing their currencies. “Importantly, the currency plays being made by other countries mean that were are not competing on a level playing field, not even in our own backyard,” Devereux said.

A high Australian dollar makes imports cheaper and exports unattractive. When quizzed about the future survival of Holden’s Australian production and design operations, Devereux said the company was committed to staying in Australia but could offer no guarantees.

Here’s our first look at the Chevrolet SS. Silly moniker aside, it looks like a home run.

My biggest fear with the car – that GM would add too much crap and excess detailing, ala the Corvette C7 – has been alleviated. The design looks clean and businesslike. I might be inclined to swap out the Monte Carlo SS-looking rims for something else, but I wouldn’t be embarassed to valet park an SS anywhere.

The one misstep is that Chevrolet didn’t offer a 6-speed manual with the 415 horsepower LS3. I’m sure it would have been easy to find a transmission, though cost issues relating to model mix may play a part here. I’m sure the take rate would be higher than it would be for a traditional sedan, but the 94-96 Impala SS didn’t offer a stick and it scarcely bothered the thousands of buyers who snapped up the entire run. The SRT 300C and Charger, the chief rivals of the SS, don’t offer a stick either.

Now all that’s left is a Jack Baruth track test.

Good news, Aussie car fans. The Commodore lives. But the evidence keeps piling up that the next one will be a front-drive car bearing little to no resemblance to the current RWD muscle car.

The Australian, reporting on the VF Commodore launch event, says that we’ve got about three more years to enjoy the current rear-drive car.

After the speech, Devereux told the frazzled media scrum: “This [Commodore] will run through to the end of 2016. After that time we are going to be putting two global architectures into the [Adelaide] plant, one of them will underpin the next Commodore.”

To make sure he wasn’t misunderstood, Devereux repeated: “There is another Commodore coming after this one. We’re going to build it in Adelaide on a [global] architecture.”

The Australian reports that the next Commodore will be a Toyota Camry sized vehicle that will be sold as a Buick in other markets. That jibes with previous reports of a global, front-drive architecture coming to replace the rear-drive one. At best, we may see some kind of Alpha platform vehicle utilized in the future, but the front-drive Commodore is going to happen. Australia’s automotive tastes have turned upside down over the past five years, and the Commodore’s popularity with the buying public isn’t nearly what it used to be.

Holden took the wraps off of the latest VF-Series Calais, the luxury version of the Commodoe. Expect some, but not all of the styling cues to carry over to the upcoming Chevrolet SS sports sedan. This is also likely the last hurrah for the big, rear-drive Holden. Slow sales have sealed the fate of the Commodore, with a 2016 death date scheduled.

The big, rear-drive Aussie sedans beloved by enthusiasts overseas aren’t gaining traction in the Australian marketplace, and the smart money is betting on the death of the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon.

The reports come as Holden officials confirmed that  Australian production the next generation VF Commodore would run through 2016, with new product lines keeping Australian Holden factories online through 2022. One potential savoir for the Commodore could be production in America, under a common rear-drive platform shared with other GM brands, but that situation is a long shot at best. The two new products set to be built locally are a compact SUV and an unnamed front-drive sedan.

Meanwhile, the fate of the Ford Falcon appears to be all but sealed, with the “One Ford” strategy, the high Australian dollar and slumping sales conspiring to kill off the Falcon and its sister vehicle the Ford Territory SUV. While the Falcon was outsold by the Commodore by a 2:1 margin, the Mazda 3, Australia’s top-seller, outsold it by a 3:1 margin. Not even an Ecoboost 4-cylinder could help save the Falcon from irrelevance.

The irony is that Chrysler may be the only one left selling a big, powerful rear-drive sedan. The 300C SRT8 has become quite popular Down Under, and at this rate, it could be the last bloke standing in the segment.

A struggling domestic auto industry long past its glory days of big rear-drive sedans is at an existential cross-roads. An upcoming election may decide the fate of thousands of jobs and decades of motoring history. Sound familiar? The madness of America’s election is over, but the same scenario is playing out in Australia.

Australia’s auto industry has had a rough year of government bailouts, plant layoffs, declining sales of domestic cars and supplier implosions. And it’s not going to get any easier. Holden boss Mike Deveraux bluntly said

“I believe 2013 will be a year that Australia decides whether it wants to have an auto industry or not,”

Cars like the Mazda3 and Toyota Hilux and at the top of Australia’s sales charts, with traditional favorites like the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon slipping down the ladder. Even vehicles like the Volkswagen Golf are gaining in popularity, and domestic alternatives like the Ford Ranger and Holden Cruze are having a hard time catching up.

Australian cars, despite being coveted by enthusiasts around the world for the V8 engines are rear-drive platforms, were built to appeal to Australian tastes in an era where the market was protected and fuel was cheap.  The combination of increased competition and the lack of scale for Holden and Ford’s big sedans (which are only exported to the Middle East and a couple assorted countries) also puts a damper on their financial success. Now that the landscape has changed, consumers are downsizing – and despite Ford’s efforts with the 2.0L Ecoboost Falcon, the big sedans don’t seem to be doing it.

Ford and Holden are laying off hundreds of workers at their Australian plants as sales of domestic brands continue to take a beating.

Ford will cut 330 jobs at plants in Geelong and Broadmeadows in Victoria state, while Holden is cutting 170 jobs in Adelaide. Ford and Holden have committed to keeping their domestic production facilities going until 2016 and 2022 respectively, but the strength of the Australian dollar, high export tariffs and demand for smaller, more fuel efficient cars (rather than the large sedans traditionally built by Ford and Holden) have led to declining fortunes for the two automakers.

Holden is facing its worst sales numbers in nearly two decades, with demand for the Commodore sedan at an all-time low and the Cruze compact facing a tough field including the Mazda3 and Toyota Corolla, which top Australias sales charts. Both Ford and Holden have received hundreds of millions of dollars in government grants over the past year, with many pundits questioning their wisdom as the auto industry’s fortunes continue to sink.

General Motors is so desperate to find new customers for Opel cars that they’re introducing the brand to Australia, where it’s set to butt heads against Holden – Australia’s long-time favorite car brand.

To be fair, the Commodore is no longer the king of Australian car sales. Imported cars like the Mazda 3, Toyota Corolla and even the HiLux have knocked the big rear-drive sedan off of its perch, but according to Car and Driver, 1 in 8 cars sold Down Under are Holdens.

In recent years, Holden’s smaller passenger cars have come from Korea derived models rather than European products; Holden once sold the Astra and Corsa, but today it’s the Cruze and Barina (aka Spark on our shores). And that is what GM is counting on to bring customers into Opel showrooms.

Opel’s Bill Mott told Car and Driver

“We think—and when I say ‘we’ I speak for both myself and Holden management—that our [customers are] looking for a European and, in particular, German brand experience. And [Holden], by definition, can’t cover [those customers]. Either we walk away from that market as General Motors, or we attack it. We’re bringing Opel to attack it, and we’re doing it in concert with Holden.”

Mott cites the explosive sales of German brands in Australia – which have grown 30 percent over the last decade – as evidence of the necessity of Opel. But aside from the Volkswagen Golf and Mercedes-Benz C-Class, German cars don’t rank too highly in Australian sales charts. Consumers already know the Astra as a Holden from previous years, and it’s hard to imagine that its sales as an Opel will convince them that it’s really a premium product on par with German competitors. More importantly, Opel doesn’t have anywhere near the cachet that other German nameplates do. Who does GM think they’re fooling anyways?

As dismissive as I tend to be of the internet product-planning brigade, their constant cries of “Bring rear-drive, V8 full-size Aussie sedans to America” may have some credibility – the market for these cars in Australia seems to be going teats up, with SUVs and small cars taking their place.

The Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon are clearly suffering; while they once vied for either of the top two spots, the Commodore is the 5th best selling vehicle in 2012 so far, trailing the Mazda3 by about 6,000 units, while the Falcon doesn’t even merit a spot in the top 10.

Some observers have cited SUVs as a possibly culprit for the demise of the Australian family sedan, but a look at the sales table for both 2011 and 2012 shows that smaller, fuel-efficient cars are eating the lunch of the “Aussie Rules” cars. The Mazda3 bumped the Commodore off a 15-year winning streak in 2011, and the market hasn’t looked back since.

Nameplates like Corolla, Cruze, i30 and Yaris have crept up on the big sedans, and dominated the first half of 2012, along with the venerable Toyota Hilux pickup. The Falcon and its stablemate, the Ford Territory, are nowhere to be found in the Top 10, a bad sign for Ford’s Australian operations.

Australia’s auto industry has been having subsidies pumped into it for a number of years, but things only seem to be getting worse. A journal published by leading Australian industries astutely noted that the Australian market is “…too small for manufacturing; too prosperous to ignore.” The short-term future seems to hold a continued injection of government money into the auto industry – and quite possibly, the demise of the rear-drive Australian sedan.

Holden is expected to make an announcement regarding the export of its Commodore vehicles to North America – essentially confirming the existence of the forthcoming 2013 Chevrolet SS Performance – and apparently it may not be limited to sedans. Utes and wagons could be arriving at some point as well.

Australia’s Drive, an auto publication affiliated with the Sydney Morning Herald, said that Holden is coming “very soon”, possibly on Friday. And it gets even better

The export deal is expected to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars and form the basis for a crucial new V8-powered performance model for Chevrolet. It could also expand to involve ute and sportwagon variants.

Drive suggests that the recent $1 billion investment in Holden by GM and the Australian government not only re-affirms the Commodore’s place in Holden’s lineup (despite a growing shift to small cars, and the Commodore becoming more of a fleet car for companies), and that the next generation Commodore lineup – including the sedan, wagon, Ute and long-wheelbase versions, could be built in North America.

The low volume nature of the SS suggests that the car may be a test program for another large, rear-drive sedan as well as a halo vehicle for Chevrolet. A perfect storm of unfortunate events helped torpedo the Pontiac G8, but a new Caprice, with a more mainstream Chevrolet badge and a more defined focus could gain more traction in the marketplace. The lack of a small pickup to replace the Colorado could help pave the way for a Chevrolet Ute. And how about those LPG versions that are readily available in Australia. Maybe a CNG version, in line with GM’s full-size trucks? The possibilities are endless. Holden’s focus, on the other hand, seems to be shifting as well. Lots more rebadged Daewoo cars, and a focus on helping engineer cars for China. Today, the big, rear-drive sedan Commodore plays a role akin to the Chevrolet SS – a halo player that’s not the star of the show, but important for reasons beyond mere volume.

After getting a $1 billion “investment” from both GM and the Australian government, Holden will be starting their first post-funding project; designing two new cars for the Chinese market.

While production will take place in China, design and development work will take place at Holden’s technical center in Port Melbourne, Australia. Those models will be developed for Shanghai General Motor, but no technical details were announced. Presumably, they will be smaller and more economical than the Holden Caprice-based Buick Park Avenue (above). Australia’s car industry is in a precarious position, with sales of large, Australia-derived V8 sedans (like the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon) declining, while small cars, like the Holden Cruze and Mazda3 are gaining ground. Holden’s area of expertise will have to shift if this trend continues, and what better use for one of GM’s best subsidiaries than to focus on its biggest market.

General Motors announced a $1 billion investment in their Australian operations, along with a contribution of $285 million by the Australian government at the state and federal levels.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that they are committed to keeping Holden’s plants running until 2022. Ford and Holden’s Australian divisions are all cutting jobs amid a declining auto industry in Australia. GM cut 140 jobs from its Adelaide plant, while Toyota plans on cutting 350 jobs in Australia. The funding is expected to secure roughly 12,000 jobs at two GM plants while also securing thousands of supplier jobs.

Australia produced 400,000 cars in 2004, but in 2010 it produced just 250,000. The Australian government has been eager to help the auto industry since Mitsubishi shut down their Australian operations in 2008. Analysts have pegged Australia’s government funding to the industry at about $500 million per year since 2001, and the government is slated to continue the subsidies until 2020.  Opposition parties have accused the industry of being totally reliant on government assistance, and some feel that a perpetual appetite for taxpayer funds, especially for an industry that produces increasingly irrelevant vehicles (anecdotal evidence suggests that most Commodores, Falcons etc are bought by government and private fleets) and exports little is becoming unsustainable. The Mazda3 replaced the venerable Holden Commodore as Australia’s best selling car in 2011, with the Holden Cruze nipping at its heels in 2012.

Ford’s Australia branch is getting $34 million AUD (roughly $35 million U.S. dollars) plus an unspecified contribution from the government of Victoria (an Australian state), to sustain a Ford plant in Melbourne.  Total investment is said to be roughly $105 million USD. Holden, GM’s Australian division, is looking for some government funds too, and its raising questions about the viability of Australia’s domestic car industry.

Holden has been negotiating for their own package, would help develop a new Commodore. More significantly is the fact that some money would be earmarked to help develop a next-generation Holden Cruze (nearly identical to our Chevrolet version), currently the sole small, fuel-efficient car produced in Australia. While Australian cars are generally thought of as being large, V8 powered brutes, consumer tastes have been shifting towards cars like the Cruze, which was Australia’s 5th best-selling car. The Mazda3 also unseated the Commodore as Australia’s best-selling car for the first time in 15 years.

In 2008, Mitsubishi closed up shop after getting government assistance to produce the 380 (similar to our Galant) . Production lasted a mere three years, even though the 380 was supposed to be the begging of a turnaround for Mitsubishi’s Australian operations. The 380′s failure has cast a shadow on Australian vehicle production ever since, and more importantly, advanced a notion among some that continued bailout money merely prolongs the natural death of a financially unsustainable plant or vehicle.

Of course, the deal has strings attached – some of the money must go towards making the Falcon, and the Ford Territory SUV, safer and more fuel efficient. While the Australian government hasn’t exactly told Ford that it needs to “build a 40 mpg car“, we’ve seen shades of this before at home. The Falcon and Territory are under specific threat due to Alan Mulally’s  ”One Ford” doctrine which demands global variants of vehicles rather than market-specific product.

One analyst pegs the amount of government money pumped into the local industry at about $500 million per year since 2001, in a program that is supposed to run until 2020. One opposition politician even suggested that the car industry in Australia couldn’t survive without government assistance. Compared to America, the culture of government assistance seems much more deeply entrenched, and opinion is starting to shift towards the view that a perpetual appetite for taxpayer funds, especially for an industry that produces increasingly irrelevant vehicles (anecdotal evidence suggests that most Commodores, Falcons etc are bought by government and private fleets) and exports little is becoming unsustainable.

GM’s troubled Australian division Holden has maintained its place in the GM empire for years now as the development center for GM’s global rear-drive architecture. The Holden-developed Zeta platform began as the basis for Holden’s Commodore full-size sedan, and has been put into use on a global basis by cars as diverse as the Chevy Camaro, the Chinese-market Buick Park Avenue and the Pontiac G8. But now GoAuto reports that the next-gen Commodore could be moved to Holden’s plus-sized version of the Epsilon II midsized front-drive chassis known as “Super Epsilon II,” the platform that will underpin the next Chevy Impala and the Cadillac XTS. The era of the Aussie RWD sedan may well be coming to a close…

With Ford’s Falcon likely moving to a front-drive chassis, GM is looking at making the Commodore lighter and more efficient, and moving the car to an FWD platform could be the only way of making those changes on a cost-effective basis. Holden’s bosses say the decision will be made in the next “two to three months.” Luckily this does not mean the end of rear-drive GM cars though. A four-door Chevy Zeta sedan is coming to the US, and the forthcoming Cadillac ATS is reportedly based on a new “Alpha” RWD platform that reportedly uses components from Zeta and the Kappa (Solstice/Sky) platform. If Holden doesn’t develop a new Zeta iteration for the next Commodore, GM’s RWD options could be limited to the new 3 Series-sized Alpha platform.

Motor Trend gets three GM sources to confirm the return of the Pontiac G8 (Holden Commodore) to the North American market… only this time it’s coming as a Chevy. One exec even brags

We have a good name for it…

…and no, it’s not “Impala.” Nor is this simply a civilian version of the Caprice police model, which is based on the long-wheelbase version of the Zeta platform. This will be a limited-numbers affair and V8-only, reports MT, because currency fluctuations have made shipping cars from Australia more expensive. Should GM even be messing around importing the the Antipodean Driving Machine? The numbers might say no, but the fanboys are already screaming “hell yes” (or, more accurately “what about an El Camino ute version?”). Check out Michael Karesh’s reviews of all three versions of the Pontiac G8 (you can even read Liebermann’s Take Two on the GT if you must), and let us know what you think of the return of the G8.

GM’s Australian Holden division has been developing the kind of big-bore RWD vehicles we tend to think of as being quintessentially American for quite some time. But every time GM hints at repatriating one of these old-school machines to its spiritual homeland in the states, something goes terribly wrong. One classic example of this disfunction was the offshoot of GM’s last effort to bring Holdens stateside as the Pontiac G8, the G8 Sport Truck, a rebadge of Holden’s Ute. The travails of the G8 have been well documented, but the Sport Truck was killed before it even had the chance to lose GM money and be cut along with the Pontiac brand. Now, just as the memory of that savage tease was fading, GM’s Mark Reuss reveals that the El Camino could be back after all.

GM’s new North America honcho, former Holden boss Mark Reuss tells pickuptrucks.com

I thought we’d have a hard time putting Ute into Pontiac, but I know it was part of the broader strategy of doing that because they were both VE, there are reasons why you do that, but I think another brand with the Ute would be pretty attractive,

Huh? Reuss says Chevrolet would be a better fit for the Ute, especially because it would clear the way for a return of the El Camino name. Plus, freed from the performance pretensions of the Pontiac brand, GM could bring new versions with a direct-injection V6 that allow better fuel economy.

You have to look at this strategically and say, VE has got to be able to stand on its own on the world stage and I think now it is getting to be able to do that, from a fuel economy (perspective) and you will see mass come out of the car… It only gets more attractive on an export basis.

More practicality sounds like a good thing, given the distinct lack of comparable utility-oriented trucklets on the market. Not to mention the fact that GM still has no plans to replace its aging Canyon/Colorado pickups. But then, good luck building a utilitarian Ute, shipping it from Australia to America, charging a reasonable price and making a profit in the process. If GM is for real about bringing Utes to America, it should seriously consider producing them alongside the Caprice police vehicles instead of importing, as Reuss suggests. Whether the American market can soak up enough volume to justify such a move is still a huge open question.