No RHD Camaro

[brendan88]

No Right-Hand Drive Camaro
Volume exports to Britain, Australia and Japan on hold
March, 2010 / By Joshua Dowling

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In what could go down in history as the shortest automotive stillbirth, the right-hand drive version of the Chevrolet Camaro has been canned just six weeks after it got the go-ahead. This version of the Camaro was supposed to be exported the UK, Japan and Australia (where it was largely developed), but has been pushed down the priority list as General Motors focuses on hybrid and electric cars.
At the 2010 Detroit auto show, GM's vice chairman, product development, Bob Lutz, told a room of international media, including a group from Australia: "I think you can pretty much count on a right-hand drive Camaro. The Camaro at some point will be factory right-hand drive...built in the plant in Canada and shipped to right-hand drive markets from Canada."
But at the Geneva motor show last week, when asked by an Australian journalist how the right-hand-drive Camaro was tracking, Lutz said: "Not good. It's been pushed back, perhaps indefinitely." Lutz confirmed a right-hand drive Camaro was not that high on GM's priority list.

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"No matter which car company you work for, there's never enough engineering money, talent and capital to do everything you want to do," said Lutz. "So when we looked at the hybrids that we have to do, and the plug-ins that we have to do, we just had to priority rank it and I couldn't argue with the priorities."
Weak projected sales numbers from the key right-hand drive countries were the problem, Lutz said. "Unfortunately all of the markets came in with relatively low volume estimates. "The UK was low, and...frankly I think Australia could have stepped up to the plate with some more. But when we finally looked at it there weren't enough units to justify after all what is a fairly large investment.
"I am always personally sad when we create an exciting car and there's demand for it in an interesting country like Australia, and we can't afford it. It seems particularly ironic since all of the chassis development and the engineering was done there.

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"If there is a country in the world that deserves to have the Camaro, it's Australia."
The Camaro may still make it to the UK and Japan in limited numbers because left-hand drive cars are allowed to be driven on public roads in those countries, but Australians who want a Camaro can only buy one through private importers who convert the cars locally to right-hand drive and sell them for as much as $140,000.


Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/features/a...#ixzz0jp1TW4YbLink

[BJ]

And how many do you think they will sell here. I mean be realistic.

[auxr]

Queensland is the area a party may place an order for a $140k + RH Camaro on a VE platform.

Really, how many will actually be sold when other far cheaper performance vehicles will do the same job with a lot more features on offer.

A nice looking retro themed muscle car for sure - but at the end of the day $140K+ is a huge outlay.

[Franco Cozzo]

If it was reasonably priced, then heaps, but if its like $75,000... 0 of them.

We always get the crappy end of the stick when it comes to everything, its always expensive because we live in Australia, thats what I've put it down to.

[rancidpunx]

Theres a company near Gympie that imports them and then does a RH conversion thats fully compliant and can be registered anywhere in Oz. Very commodore to drive apparently.

[TUF_302]

What a suprise, but what did they expect, its just really a commo with a reto body on it

[Chilliman]

GM will probably re-look at the whole RHD thing after Camaro moves onto the smaller Alpha platform (sometime after 2014?)

[SVD]

Originally Posted by Big Damo

If it was reasonably priced, then heaps, but if its like $75,000... 0 of them.

We always get the crappy end of the stick when it comes to everything, its always expensive because we live in Australia, thats what I've put it down to.

im sure alot of you guys thought that about the monaro too...but hey, look they managed to sell even overpriced HSV models...

[Walt Kowalski]

Originally Posted by brendan88

No Right-Hand Drive Camaro
This version of the Camaro was supposed to be exported the UK, Japan and Australia (where it was largely developed), but has been pushed down the priority list as General Motors focuses on hybrid and electric cars.

At first I thought the heading/subject was another April Fools Joke but looks like the earth worshippers have had another win.

[Ghiadude]

Holden should build it here instead... how hard would it be ?

[jpd80]

Unfortunately it's another GM pipe dream, they are beauts at building up customer hopes
and then canceling because figures don't work, anyone remember the recent Cadillac CTS debacle
when Holden dealers started taking deposits from fans only to be dashed due to lack of numbers...