Holden Commodore Could Go FWD
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.
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This is hardly the death of RWD. Even freakin' Hyundai will sell a brand new RWD Genesis Coupe for well under $30k. And it's not like GM is going to kill the Camaro (which is a sales success) because of this event.
The only GM car I would consider buying is a civilian version of the Chevrolet Caprice Police Patrol Vehicle. I was close to buying a Pontiac G8 but backed off over concern for parts and service.
'...cars as diverse as the Chevy Camaro, the Chinese-market Buick Park Avenue and the Pontiac G8.' Diverse! This is surely sarcasm? The Camaro is the only one there that isn't essentially a re-badge.
GM's wrong again... It seems that I won't buy newer GM cars soon...