New US hope for Holden ute

Plans to export the Holden ute to North America could be revived if the vehicle attracts enough support on the social network website, Twitter. That’s the promise from a high-ranking General Motors executive during a Twitter conversation started by the offbeat but well-read automotive website, Jalopnik.

Under the headline “GM will bring back the El Camino if 100,000 people comment on this post”, Jalopnik editor Ray Wert explained how he got the GM suit to make the pledge.

He started by welcoming GM’s new chief marketing officer Joel Ewanick to his new Twitter account and then asked Jalopnik followers to bombard him with pleas for the El Camino to be revived.

The Twitterati wasted no time and, soon after, Ewanick responded: “Well, we need you and 100,000 more of your best friends”.

Soon after that, the boss of General Motors in North America (and former boss of Holden) Mark Ruess also Tweeted: “Well, I vote yes”.

Jalopnik saw the request to find 100,000 supporters as an easy challenge; the website had already attracted 80,000 posts years ago for the same cause.

The website said: “How hard can it be, right? We've already got some practice in trying to bring back the El Camino. Although the Carpocalypse – and a Pontiac marketing twerp – killed that one, what's the harm in once more heading unto the breach? That time we had 80,000 fans interested. This is just that plus another 20,000.”

Holden has already done most of the engineering work to get the ute stateside; it was approved to be sold as a Pontiac G8 pick-up alongside the Commodore-based Pontiac sedan.

The vehicle was so close to becoming a showroom reality, it was unveiled by rapper 50 Cent at the 2008 New York motor show – but the car was dropped at the 11th hour when it was announced that the Pontiac brand would fold in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis.

Holden exported approximately 41,000 Commodores as Pontiac G8 sedans between November 2007 and February 2009 -- almost equivalent to Holden's annual sales of Commodore -- but the deal ended when Pontiac was shut down.

Holden has been trying to revive the deal under the Chevrolet nameplate ever since.

When asked how the Commodore’s export plans were progressing, Reuss told the Carsales Network at this year’s Detroit motor show: “Somewhere along the way you'll get a pretty big Commodore change and if we did [revive the Commodore export program] we would integrate it with those changes.”

An updated Commodore is said to be due in 2013, but Reuss would not elaborate.

“It was a big loss when we lost the Pontiac G8,” he said.

“It's hard to get it back in the right place at the right time. There are no plans to do it right now... But we all love the car, so let's just leave it at that.”

Read the latest Carsales Network news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...