Car lovers know that General Motors has made some questionable choices regarding their cars in recent years, with most fans probably recalling brands like Saturn and Saab and quality control mistakes like Pontiac's Fiero and Aztec or Chevy's Volt. Now the automaker has made another poor choice, but this time it's about a car that they will not be making.
Towards the end of last year, news broke that GM officials had renewed the trademark on both the El Camino and Nomad names. This lead many to believe that once the new Chevrolet SS, a derivative of the Holden Commodore, made it's way to the states from Australia that a sport pickup and wagon based on the same platform would not be far behind.
Well, that brief glimmer of home was extinguished recently when GM's President of International Operations and VP of Global Manufacturing Tim Lee said that, due to the value of the Australian dollar, Chevy would not be bringing the Holden Ute stateside anytime soon. The SS would demand a much higher asking price than an El Camino, meaning that it would be harder for the Bowtie Brigade to turn a profit on the truck. Meanwhile the Volt lives on despite falling extremely far short of production goals, but, you know, whatever.
Lee also said that GM doesn't plan on retooling any of it's North American plants to accommodate the now outdated Zeta rear-wheel-drive platform, the basis for cars like the SS, Camaro and the newly released Caprice PPV police cruiser. GM also plan of phasing out the Zeta-based Comodore family by the year 2016, so that they can be replaced with a small, four-wheel-drive crossover plant at their Adelaide plant located in South Australia.
The good news is that GM will be introducing a new Alpha rear-wheel-drive platform, which will be a global platform and should make it easier for the automaker to bring back legendary names like El Camino and Nomad in the future. Nascar analyst, Barrett-Jackson commentator for Speed channel and expert on all things muscle car Mike Joy said on Twitter recently that we can look forward to GM releasing a new El Camino for the 2016 or 2017 model year marking a return for first hybrid car after a 26-year hiatus. We can only hope that this time GM will stop teasing us and bring back such iconic brands as the El Camino and Nomad for a new generation to enjoy.
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