Rear-drive V8 Commodore may live on

General Motors has provided the best indication yet that its beloved rear-wheel drive V8-powered Commodore SS could continue to be available alongside an all-new front-wheel drive four-cylinder Commodore due in 2017.

However, it warns that such a scenario is dependent on the sales success of both the North American export version of its upcoming VF Commodore and the SS in Australia.

Holden last week moved to allay fears the 35-year-old Commodore nameplate would be killed off in 2016, when the VF was to have been retired, by confirming it has already begun development of a fifth-generation model due in 2017 and based on a new global platform instead of the VE/VF Commodore’s Australian-developed Zeta platform.

That led to widespread speculation the Commodore after next will be based on a front-drive architecture – perhaps that of the upcoming four-cylinder Malibu’s Epsilon platform.

Now, speaking at the reveal of the VF Commodore SS-based Chevrolet SS in Daytona overnight, GM North America President and the mastermind behind the Chevy SS, former GM Holden chief Mark Reuss, has indicated that no ‘end date’ had been set for the VF Commodore and that healthy SS sales in the US and Australia could see both V8 models continue to be built alongside both the next-generation 2015 Cruze and the new 2017 Commodore.

“It’s a champagne problem,” he said when asked if GM had a succession plan for the Chevy SS in light of the VF Commodore donor vehicle’s apparent demise in 2016.

“I’ll tell you in three years. It will be based on the car’s success. We’re going to find out in 10 months how well this car goes. It’s a platform decision – I can’t predict the future. We don’t have to worry about that now – we haven’t even launched the car yet.

“This is a cool experiment. What if we have a cool, loyal buyer base? What if it becomes the reason to come into a Chevrolet dealership? What if we say we’re not going to do it anymore and there’s an uproar...? What if that happens? What would you do?”

When Australian journalists replied ‘keep selling them’, Mr Reuss responded sarcastically: “Do you think I should? That’s probably a pretty good idea, but I don’t know all that stuff.”

Responding to a suggestion GM could produce a Chevy SS replacement in the US based on the global rear-drive Alpha platform that forms the basis of the Cadillac ATS and will also underpin the next-generation Camaro, Mr Reuss it would make more business sense simply to continue Australian production of the VF SS twins - if demand warrants it.

“I don’t know, because this is all done - it continues to be done,” he said, adding that all the investment in the VF Commodore has already been paid for. Once you've got something tooled up in a plant you don't have to make those calls.

“You need another body shop to keep it going. So what? There’s two body shops in a place everybody said we could only have one. It’s paid for and it’s all there.

"I'd love to say this will run to 2020, but we haven't sold one yet. The customer will tell us.”

Holden has already begun the installation of a second body shop adjacent to the existing Cruze/Commodore body shop to produce the next Cruze, as part of a $275 million deal with the federal and state governments to built at least two new models in South Australia until 2022.

Instead of the current model’s Delta II platform, the next Cruze will be based on a new platform dubbed D2XX – a flexible architecture that will also replace the current Captiva’s Theta II platform, giving it the potential to produce a whole family of Cruze models, including an SUV.

Although large car sales continue to plummet to historically low levels in Australia, V8-powered vehicles still account for a large slice of the Commodore’s sports model split (20 per cent), annual Chevy SS sales are expected to easily eclipse the 5000 figure its business case was based on and exports to the Middle East, South Africa and potentially some Asian markets are yet to take place.

While the future of Holden’s Port Melbourne V6 engine plant looks grim after 2016 in any case, motoring.com.au understands that if the decision is made to extend the life of the VF Commodore/Chevy SS beyond then, it could be differentiated from mainstream versions of the next Commodore simply by the name ‘Holden SS’.

Such a nameplate would bring the ‘Zeta legacy’ model into line with both the Chevrolet SS and the Holden Ute, production of which could also continue in that scenario.

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