'Zeta' sedan still on the agenda?

Pontiac was already on death row, unofficially, when GM applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy status earlier this year. The Commodore-based Pontiac G8 model, built in Holden's Elizabeth plant was generally written off as the right model for precisely the wrong economic climate -- and that car was one of Pontiac's better offerings.

So it was a fair assumption that there would be no great outcry from enthusiasts that the G8 should be revived. But something happened right in the midst of the worst global financial meltdown since the Great Depression. G8 sales began to climb.

Even before the official announcement that Pontiac was dead, dealers were offering retail incentives on the Australian-built rear-drive sedan and sales were picking up.

There's a school of thought that the sales improvement resulted from rumours that Pontiac would be canned, so buyers were getting their hands on the 'collectible' G8 while they could -- and the discounted pricing just cemented the car's appeal in the minds of the American buying public.

It's still possible to buy a G8 from a Pontiac dealer, but obtaining specific colours and specifications is a matter of 'pot luck'. As for the high-performance GXP model, American consumers have the proverbial snowball's chance in hell at this stage.

So it's not altogether a surprise that US enthusiasts are demanding the G8 be revived in some form or another -- one idea floated the car being a Chevrolet Impala SS. This indeed was the very prospect put forward by industry commentator John McElroy, of online media outlet Autoline Detroit, in an interesting Q&A session with Tom Stephens a couple of days ago.

Stephens, the man who effectively replaced Bob Lutz in the product development chair at GM, is officially the Vice Chairman of Global Product Development. For the interview, Stephens and McElroy were joined by Wall Street Journalist John Stoll and former Car & Driver Editor, Csaba Csere.

Stephens' response to McElroy's questioning on the subject of the G8 commences from 38:45 in the video file -- see link below. He is careful in his choice of words -- probably having taken heed of the swift but sure response from Fritz Henderson to Bob Lutz pushing the Commodore barrow a bit too hard -- but it does appear that the Commodore may yet return to the US market, although McElroy's suggestion that it be built at the same plant in Oshawa, Canada, where the Camaro is built won't be welcomed by Holden management.

In the interview, Stephens also discussed the Camaro -- which has been largely developed by Holden engineers for the North American markets -- as well as other subjects including the 1.4-litre turbo engine rumoured for Cruze and Natural Gas as an alternative fuel.

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