ProDance 2006 Rocked the Desert
Holden’s Australian market share grew from 16.7% in 1991 to 21.4% in 2001, according to Ward’s Automotive Yearbook, and so far this year the auto maker is trending at 22% for 2002.
So it wasn’t a surprise - or an original idea - when Lutz announced at the New York Auto Show media breakfast in late March that Holden’s Monaro sport coupe would come to the U.S. as a modern-day interpretation of the heralded Pontiac GTO muscle car. With 5.7L V-8 power, rear drive and a 6-speed manual gearbox, Lutz is convinced the Monaro will do the GTO heritage proud.
Peter Hanenberger, chairman and managing director of Holden, tells Ward’s there are no plans or requests for U.S. production. “But you can never say no in this truly global age,” he says. Hanenberger was appointed chairman of Holden in June 1999 and before that was executive director of Opel’s Technical Development Center in Russelsheim, Germany.
It was late February when the jetlagged vice chairman and a team of top executives from the No.1 auto maker arrived in Australia to sample the works of Holden Ltd., its auto making subsidiary.
Initial plans call for importing fewer than 20,000 Monaros. What about localizing Monaro production in the U.S.? “That’s a possibility,” GM-North America President Gary Cowger tells Ward’s. “But let’s first get that one over here and see how it does.”