Could the Falcon be reaching US shores?

[Rockefella]

The Monaro never reached 18K in the US either, which had many people thinking they shouldve also brought over the Commodore ute as a new El Camino.

I think the problem w/ the Monaro over here may have been the pricetag. Sure, it's an awesome car for the $30k'ish pricetag, but people looking to spend that kind of money are more inclined to buy a 3-series, A4, or C-class.

[fpv_gtho]

They got screwed around a bit with the price with how the US dollar dropped between Lutz's first impressions, and the car hitting the US as a GTO. I guess GM were confident that, along with the stigma of not being a real GTO, the pricetag wouldnt stop them selling all 18K per year.

[Prius]

Ford's already promised the St Catherines plant there'll be an update to the CV in a few years. Even if Ford are only selling to fleets, thats still solid numbers that theyre making alot of profit on.

The Five Hundred too will be getting styling revisions soon, so probably not really under threat of replacement.

Well, yeah, they are still going to make fleet models for well into the future, but the civilian models have been under the threat of extinction for quite some time. Because again, it is extremely dated, especially compared to the new Chrysler 300C, and the Five Hundred in Ford's own line. I think how Ford is gonna do it is, that they are gonna discontinue the civilian Crown Vic, and make it fleet only, and keep the Grand Marquis as teh civilian model, since the Grand Marquis is more popular among the civilian market, and replace the civilian Crown Vic with a new large car, like the Falcon, a stretched Five Hundred, or a new model.

[nota]

The Monaro never reached 18K in the US either, which had many people thinking they shouldve also brought over the Commodore ute as a new El Camino.

FPV, I absolutely agree the Commodore ute should have been our most 'natural' export to this market, but alas this was never possible due to a little known US-protectionism obscurity known as the Chicken Tax. Perhaps you haven't heard of it?

The Chicken Tax was instituted back in 1963, and was aimed at European (read VW) truckmakers. The long and the short of it is that there was a trade war going back then between the USA and Europe. The Europeans tripled the tax of chickens being imported into Europe, and the US retaliated by putting a 25% tax on any truck imported into the USA. That's how it came about, and we've lived with it ever since.

So now there is an effort afoot by the Bush administration for a free-trade agreement with Thailand that would substantially reduce this tariff, if not eliminate it. The UAW and Detroit automakers are fighting this tooth-and-nail not to let this happen. They fear that if the Chicken Tax is reduced or repealed, the US will be flooded with cheap pickups made in Thailand, and that their "truck cash cow" will disappear.

My feeling is that I would like to see a lot more diversity in the types of trucks offered for sale here, like small compact diesel trucks, and many of the other types of trucks we see sold in other markets, but can't be sold here at a profit, because of the 25% tariff. Eliminating the Chicken tax would allow that to happen. Imported cars have a 2.5% tax.

(^quoted from this)
http://blogs.edmunds.com/.ee8f829

[henk4]

FPV, I absolutely agree the Commodore ute should have been our most 'natural' export to this market, but alas this was never possible due to a little known US-protectionism obscurity known as the Chicken Tax. Perhaps you haven't heard of it?

where the Americans feeding chicken with genetically manipulated fodder way down in 1963?

[Cyco]

It was revealed today that the SS and sportier versions of the VE will be heading to the US as Pontiacs

[adrenaline]

Well 18K is the limit for imports into America set by the UAW

Lutz just said he intends to import 50k SS Commodores

[fpv_gtho]

Somethings not adding up with that then, perhaps he's going to do a deal with the UAW to allow more units coming in, but as CKD.

[STREETFIRE]

This was taken last month:

I'm in on the news. I have another pic of that car, from the rear angle. What I can tell you is that it's similar, but not VE. Tail-lights are different, and so are the side guards, as well as the interior, which looks similar to the Commodore Omega/Berlina's design, but not the same. People who read Wheels Magazine know already The picture was snapped in the far north of Australia. It's likely to be badged G8.

[2ndclasscitizen]

That just looks like one of the VE test mules, so differences in details such as lights and interior looking close, but not quite like the Omega/Berlina are easily explained as not quite being the production version, or even if it's a US-version, the lights would be a different version to meet any US production regs the normal Aus. versions don't meet and a different interior spec to match the intended pricing and specs of the US version.

[SlickHolden]

50,000 units sounds like alot too send.

[Cyco]

The story in today's Sydney Morning Herald gave the number of 30,000

[SlickHolden]

Thats more the mark, They let go the workers i was thinking who would build these extra cars.

[STREETFIRE]

That just looks like one of the VE test mules, so differences in details such as lights and interior looking close, but not quite like the Omega/Berlina are easily explained as not quite being the production version, or even if it's a US-version, the lights would be a different version to meet any US production regs the normal Aus. versions don't meet and a different interior spec to match the intended pricing and specs of the US version.

I have another picture of the rear end of the proto, and I scanned it in to the computer, but it's really slow and it froze while I was scaling it for posting on UCP.com. The tail-lights resemble the WM Statesman/Caprice (in shape) and the bumper and boot lid are different. So are the headlights (you need train-spotting abilities to pick out the different headlight units) and the side guard/wheelarch design.

[adrenaline]