Holden responds to Camaro clamour

The Chevrolet Camaro won't be coming to Australia. Not through Holden's efforts at least.

The Carsales Network canvassed readers' responses from our earlier article and passed them to Holden's PR Manager, Scott Whiffin for his reaction.

"No argument from me," he replied, "the Camaro is awesome! So's the enthusiasm from your readers -- it's great. And I don't want to sound like a tease but I've been lucky enough to see a couple of the development cars in the flesh, I even drove one at the PG [Proving Ground], and I can confirm this car is the real thing.

"But here's the hard bit -- we don't have any plans to introduce a RHD Camaro here. Why? Because the numbers just don't stack up. I've read all of the comments from your readers and I know there are going to be some disappointed people out there but, as awesome as this car is, it's just not a viable business opportunity for us right now."

Whiffin didn't outline the rationale, but we know from previous discussions that the Camaro presents an unusual set of challenges for Holden to sell here.

While it is based on much the same Zeta platform that supports the locally-built VE Commodore (with some modification), the Camaro has a shorter nose. That means unique steering calibration and front suspension geometry for the coupe. It's not merely a matter of swapping the steering and suspension components from a Commodore into the Camaro on the production line.

The two right-hand drive markets that might bolster Australian consumers' demands for the Camaro -- the UK and Japan -- both permit left-hand drive cars to be imported, registered and driven on local roads. So the Camaro in left-hand drive guise can be sold in both countries legally.

In the case of Britain, it's all about harmonisation with the predominantly left-hand drive European Union, of which the UK is a member. Japanese consumers prefer to buy left-hand drive cars, if that alternative is available, because there's more cachet in unconverted cars than the run-of-the-mill right-hook machines that are commonplace there.

So Holden won't have other, larger-volume right-hand drive markets to support the business case for engineering an RHD Camaro. Furthermore, Holden, to sell the Camaro in any sort of numbers would need to have the vehicle approved for ADR compliance, which is a costly process in itself. Then there's the cost of maintaining a parts inventory and servicing program for the car.

Finally, there are considerations such as marketing. Do you sell a Chev-branded car through Holden dealerships? With GM Premium Brands looking unsafe, you wouldn't bring in the Camaro and sell it through that dealer network -- not if you wanted to continue selling the car into the future...

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