Jalopnik
We love the idea of the 2010 Pontiac G8 El Camino, this much goes without saying, but there's been a lot of hemming and hawing about the long term viability of the product from a business perspective. Motor City Blog Man Todd Lassa has a theory on the General's strategy and it kind of makes sense to us. Remember when we all went a little batty at the prospect of a G8 Wagon and then it got canned — kind of? Well Todd got to thinking about the wagon and the El Camino, and mixed in a little marketing strategy from GM's cross town rivals at Ford and came up with an idea:
What if the G8 El Camino was simply a Pontiac G8 variant, like Mustangs Bullitt and the California Special? Albeit on a more complex, but still platform produced scale. GM let everybody who wants one get a copy during a couple years of production, then phase it out when demand falls only to introduce a new variant — the G8 wagon. We see this as a brilliant theory, but we have some ideas to add here.
We can see the market for truck-cars going one of two ways, the direction Lassa points at — a complete niche for enthusiast buyers, or, breaking out like gangbusters. Why would we say that? Because of the economy. It's no secret the housing market is taking a dirt nap, some markets have seen a decline in home values as high as 20% in the last year. GM knows housing sales are the biggest indicator of light truck sales trends, and the sharp decline in that segment across the board in the last two quarters backs that up. The midsize trucks currently in place are as large as full size trucks two decades ago, and their fuel economy credentials are slipping badly. With gas prices on the rise, and environmental consciousness coming into vogue, there's a possibility, though admittedly small, that GM may actually be first to market with a hot new segment, efficient trucks.
Certainly the current iteration with it's 361 HP V8 is not fuel sipper, but we're betting the V6 already for sale in Australia would be an easy option to incorporate if demand was there. Heck, the Solstice sourced Ecotec 4 cylinder would probably fit nicely in that car. So say what you will about GM's Pontiac G8 sport truck, you may feel that it's folly, but people have to haul stuff regardless of the price of gas, and GM knows this too. So in the end, GM can show it's enthusiasts the love as well as take the option to capitalize on a market should the opportunity arise. [Trends of the Motor Variety]
Comments
it needs to be jacked up in the rear,glass packs and a pony keg in the bed.
that would make sense if a normal g8 didn't weight 4150 lbs.
4150lbs / (v6 power) != efficiency
That's an interesting theory, but belied by the fact that the vast majority of people who buy trucks don't actually haul anything anywhere. The only reason to buy an El Camino is to full the bed with ice and PBR.
Needs to become the official vehicle of Kentucky to become popular. Move over Vette, the Camino is punchin yer wife and drinkin yer shine!
Honestly, the biggest problem I see with a new El Camino is that it only seats two. Trying to add more seats will screw up the proportions (Baja anyone?). But really, how many 2 seat pickups do you see anymore? Most of them are owned by businesses.
Does the fact that it's badass count for anything?
It's the wrong car for the wrong time, it will find some buyers, but very few.
Does Ford of Australia have any coolio Utes that can be brought over as a neo-Ranchero?
2 seat performance car or 2 seat performance truck?
I think I'll take something my clubs will rattle around in the back of!! Sometimes you need to hall more than a...
I did a Photochop of a Scion xB-chero about three years ago, just as something to keep me occupied during an especially long shift working the desk at the library. It struck about how much sense a 4-cyl, front-drive compact pickup would make at that time (and this was when you could still get gas for less than $2.00/gallon). Even more sense now...
I really think that there is room for the G8 ST in the current market...
Ford has the Falcon Ute up to the FPV Ute and all only 2 seaters. Also the Fiesta based Courier/Bantam FWD hauler.
Come on, Jalops, "El Camino" is a punch line and you know it. The setup involves kegs of beer and a mullet-headed driver. Stop the charade.
@Goety: [www.ford.com.au]
@VonPinto: [www.ford.com]
@VonPinto: It struck about how much sense a 4-cyl, front-drive compact pickup would make at that time
Can you say Dodge Rampage
I think this will sell in approximately the same numbers as that Lincoln pickup truck.
@Bo Darville:
4 doors are just a crash test away.
I agree. GM already has the product. Why not set it on the lot and see if it sells.
@VonPinto: in the Scion booklet i picked up at the auto show, they have a picture of a new xB-amino that someone actually built... Ford and Chevy also have compact FWD car-trucks for the Mexican market...
i prefer my car-trucks to be RWD, though (i think i could actually get better milage in a G8 El Camino than i can in my Cherokee...).
As much as I like the idea of the G8 El Camino, for some reason I keep thinking of the Chevy SSR and what a pillar of automotive success that was.
put some retreaded 50s on the back,some primer,side pipes and a surfer foot gas pedal and it would be puuurrrfffeeecccttt
the Mustang-esque front of the Falcon XR6 Turbo Ute would make a neo-Ranchero worthy of competing with the Pontiac el Camino. Bring 'em on, let the market decide.
I'm certain I saw a 4-door version of the UTE somewhere. If that exists, then that's the direction they should take. The Falcon UTE (if i can call it an UTE) has four doors and a shortened box. Even extended cab pick-up trucks are too small for all crap/people we seem to have to haul around.
@Ben Wojdyla: there it is
the only people who will be able to afford it in any varations while be baby boomers with some real disposible income left, while the rest of us hunger for tata's and other sub 10k cars that meet our real needs and sigh, income levels
Word.
The Problem With The Pontiac G8 El Camino...
It's a GM product?
About to purchase a "fixer-upper" of a house & I know that neither the Passat nor the Escape will meet my needs for Home Despot runs.
I need a fuel effecient vehicle that can carry sheets of drywall.
It really only needs to seat two.
I don't need 4WD.
When I was a boy, my dad had a string of Datsun / Nissan trucks. He built a false floor at the top of the wheel wells so that he could have 4 x 8 sheets in the bed.
The closest thing on the market today is a minivan w/ the seats removed (My sister-in-laws solution) but I really would prefer a trucklet.
@Ben Wojdyla: It's not that I don't think it can be done, it's just that those 2 extra doors completely wreck the proportions. I think that macho swagger is a huge part of the appeal, and it is just lost on the 4-door.
My point is not that it would be better as a 4-door, just that 2-seaters don't sell well in the U.S..
I think that's a sound strategy. Unfortunately GM and others feel they can only build sure things with big, permanent market chunks. There's no such thing. But this approach--hey, guys, how about some special editions--some built in test marketing?--might appeal to their wizened little hamster hearts.
@sos10: Dude, you like anything?
@weatherman: An El Camino with ice and a bunch of PBR in the bed sounds really fun right about now.
And I hate to say it, but the El Camino is more of a Jalopnik thing than a real world thing. Just because readers here claim that they'd buy one isn't indicative of success in the actual market. Hell, even I'll admit while I think the idea is really cool, I just wouldn't be in the market for one as a daily driver.
@Mad_Science: it's not about liking it or not, but if it makes sense... if I like this car? not really, it doesn't live up, design wise, to the original.. power wise, it is fine, but that's the easy part.
@ nick2ny: that would make sense if a normal g8 didn't weight 4150 lbs.
4150lbs / (v6 power) != efficiency
Too bad the G8 is not 4150 lb, its 3946 lb with the 6.2 L
@RoyLFuchs:
I'm well aware of the unibody front-drive pickups that were introduced in the early-mid 1980's, but I meant to say that I can see how revisiting this concept now would probably yield higher sales than what was seen the first time around. The people building the majority of pickups these days (Are you listening GM, Ford, and even you Toyota) seem to have all but given up on the compact pickup market, and it's too bad. Not everyone needs a 4-door truck with leather, a DVD-player, and 11 cupholders...
Speculation on the success of the G8 GT "call it anything but just dont call it late for dinner" is like all the discussion on the Camaro and the Challenger. Since none of them are in showrooms yet, Id call it:
"Premature Automotive Ejaculation Syndrome"
To be successful, the El Camino needs a two-prong marketing approach. The first is as a halo vehicle; a mid-life-crisis sport truck with a big engine and speed. The second is as a light truck with good gas mileage and a low loading height for contractors and business buyers. If GM fails in marketing either the Ute will be back to being aussie-only faster than you can say 'kangaroo bars'.
With a V6 (or diesel four banger), this would be perfect for lawn maintenance guys, people who bought Ridgelines (wait, I take that back, that is too much of a blow to the Ute), auto parts delivery (or any other delivery service, for that matter) and the like. Who needs a 3/4 ton to haul around a lawn mower or a couple of bags of mulch?
@htrodblder: my local Pontiac dealer actually emailed me just this morning to tell me they have a G8 in the showroom...
Todd is making identical points I made in a comment here a couple Saturdays ago. (I didn't think of the "sell Camino first, then wagon," part, but we were talking mostly about the name at that time anyway.)
If a tiny market like OZ (less than 1/10 size of the US) can make these things pay off not only for Holden, but Ford as well, why the hell would they NOT be successful here, other than the vagaries of the US$/AU$ exchange rate? True, Aussies are used to paying more for vehicles than Yanks, but c'mon, they're bringing the G8 into a much more crowded (albeit larger) field: performance sedans. They brought the GTO over, and although mostly unsuccessful, most observers will blame the car's appearance, rather than performance or price; which pretty much everyone agrees were excellent.
The only way this could possibly fail is if they do something inexplicably and mind-bogglingly stupid, like making it a Pontiac instead of a Chevy.
I think the term "sales success" needs to be viewed on a global scale. I don't think GM is expecting this truck to set sales records or even match the demand of the El Camino back in the day. That ship has sailed and took with it cars like the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme and Chevy Monte Carlo, two best selling cars that were supported by solid business cases in their day.
GM has to look at this from four perspectives, all global:
1) Amortize development and production costs on a more compressed timeline compared to their typical cars and trucks.
2) Generate floor traffic and mindshare for the Pontiac brand, which has been mostly forgotten by 21 century car buyers, esp in key markets like California.
3) Increase and maintain factory production numbers for the Holden plant in Oz. The Holden brand has been dropping in sales consistently for years, as has Ford Oz. Imports comprise 75% of Oz new car sales. Exporting the truck and the G8 helps keep the Holden factory running and cash coming in the door.
4) Validate GM's business strategy of developing and producing cars for a world market instead of their traditional "local cars for local markets" view. Leverage the platform engineering concepts to drive down costs and improve market share and profit margins. VW does this well with Audi, Skoda, SEAT and Porsche.
GM simply does not need to sell a lot of G8 trucks to consider their strategy a success. And if they can quickly move out the Ute and move in the Wagon if that's their plan, even better. The age old metrics for automotive sales success need to be redefined. It's 2008, not 1978.
@KaiserM715: As a matter of fact, I worked as a delivery driver for NAPA for a couple of years and my vehicle was an 84 ElCo, complete with stupid hat. It was perfect for that job, even with a 229ci v6. With some smart truck-oriented advertising and a value package (I'm thinking the return of window cranks here,) every paint contractor and landscaper would be all over this.
And someone up there ^ mentioned the SSR. I don't think it's a fair comparison. The SSR didn't have a real bed, was initially under powered for the affluent buyers it went after, and was ugly as crap.
Plus, what are the additional costs to GM to sell this car here? Crash testing and emblems? Everything else is already taken care of with the G8.
@nick2ny: Yes, because the V6 in the Mazda CX-9 has such enormous trouble pulling its 4312 lbs around.
Wait. No, it doesn't. My mother owns one--the 20-less-horsepower 2007 model--and it's surprisingly quick. The engine never has to put forth much effort to get it moving. The fact that el G8 Camino weighs probably 4-500 pounds less says a V6 should be absolutely fine.
For those interested, the 4 door pictured by Ben Wojdyla is the previous VZ model, Holden hasn't released a 4 door VE ute yet.
Yeah, I checked the Holden site a while back, and spotted a base V6 ute with a manual six-speed and steel wheels. Trucktacular!
I love that the reason they canned the "G8 sport wagon" was a result of sales forecast's not being strong enough for wagons. So what do they do? they decide to create a vehicle that has no current American forecast at all! a car pickup/el camino thingy. I guess we will see how it sells, seeing as we 'actually' have no clue.
On a personal car biased side, I think its a pretty cool idea, especially if it can be flexible with a 4, 6 and 8 cylinder engine.
I also have a good feeling that this car is going to cost more than GM anticipates, seeing as the U.S. dollar is becoming less and less valuable each day, intern costing more to import from an Australian source.