Right Hand Camaro on hold

[Tran]

Unfortunately for right-hand car markets (i.e. UK & Australia) plans for a right-hand drive version of the Camaro have been put on hold due to a change of priorities within GM, Bob Lutz, GM's vice chairman, said in an interview with journalists at the 2010 Geneva Auto Show. Basically, the US-based manufacturer intends to focus more on hybrids and electric vehicles and less on alternative version of existing models that would be only addressed to a limited number of buyers.

In other words, countries such as Japan, UK and Australia won't get the Camaro. At least, not now as Lutz only said that plans have been delayed "indefinitely".

"It's been pushed back, perhaps indefinitely," Lutz said, according to motortrend.com. "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."

Although GM's intentions to concentrate on a different range of products represented the main reason for the company's change of plans, Lutz also explained that all these countries would only buy low volumes which, in the current context, do not make sense, especially for a company like GM that tries anything to boost sales.

"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," he said.

Per http://www.autoevolution.com/news/ri...old-17853.html

[PQ]

Australia is a bit of a surprise.

So I would assume they had a good way to gauge support and demand for it in Australia? Or I wonder if there was a preliminary order that wasn't bi enough?

Either way, sucks for the Ausies. AND the rest. But GM can't afford to make a losing mistake righ now.

Edit: Oh, and, thanks for the R&D guys. Now you can't have it. :(

[v6sonoma]

Makes sense good move.

[monstertodd]

Now that is a damn shame. Gonna be a lot o pissed off people across the pond and 'down under.

[RSPARKS5]

I wonder what else is goinging to get cut??

[iBK3000]

oh well.

[Firebird67]

I have to say, that is piss poor. Aussie V8's sell very well here (Australia), and the Camaro would have given us something better to look at than the Falcon GT and HSV GTS, which are essentially big V8 four doors.

There are people paying $140k AUD (approx $125k USD) for Gen 5 Camaros being converted to RHD by small import shops. We had expectations of having to pay $75k+ for a GM delivered RHD Camaro SS, which fits right into the typical V8 pricing segment.

I'll have to put my money where it was going to go originally (before Lutz said the Camaro was coming out here), i.e. into a BMW M3 or a C63 AMG. At least the Germans are willing to invest in exporting RHD models to foreign markets... it's a shame though, the Camaro gives a bit of classic styling and a very obvious muscle look! Bugger!

[Hess RS]

anyone else notice the pic on the front page is just a flipped standard LHD car. Camaro is backwards on the steering wheel and the pedals are in the wrong order. But it is a shame there wont be any RHD cars, for now at least. Everybody should be able to drive one of these great cars, LHD or RHD!!

[Revo1]

That's cool. We're priority number 1

Maybe they oughtta drive on the right side of the road

[Revo1]

Originally Posted by ltlaudio

anyone else notice the pic on the front page is just a flipped standard LHD car. Camaro is backwards on the steering wheel and the pedals are in the wrong order. But it is a shame there wont be any RHD cars, for now at least. Everybody should be able to drive one of these great cars, LHD or RHD!!

I did actually

[Firebird67]

I'd drive the other side of the road if that's what it took

[BRITCAM5]

Well there are still plenty of people that will ship a left hand drive Camaro across the pond and drive it! In the UK they have dealer in Manchester that sells Camaro's and Corvettes and is an authorised GM dealership. I drove a left hand drive Trans Am in the UK with no problem at all. You just get use to it after a short period of time!

[Firebird67]

We have to have ours converted, unless they are 25+ years old. So in 2035, I can get a 2010 Camaro over here and leave it LHD ;-)

The alternative of paying $125k US for a converted, import is not appealing. They're a nice car, but that's a different league of car, and I couldn't handle paying 3x the real price!

[Punk_rider]

It's time to make changes.

Come on, japan, GB, australia, india I guess ... maybe it's now time for them to realize that the whole world drives on the other side. Maybe it's time for them to change the law, people aren't that stupid, within a year or two english peole would drive LH without even remembering they drove RH before.

Just the same with the metric system. USA is the only country (I guess) using the two systems, just go to the metric like the whole world and "basta"!