We were burned before. The Pontiac Sport Truck was set to come to the US in 2009 only to have Pontiac die, killing the El Camino project as well. Now a local Australian newspaper claims ‘the pickup with an ego' is coming back. Oh please give us that sweet El Camino dope again.
Yes we're junkies ad we are fiending for the thinnest hint of an El Camino coming back to the US. And this news report is pretty thin.
The article "Holden ute finally bound for US" appeared in Adelaide Now today with no hard evidence that the RWD Holden is indeed coming stateside.
In fact, the paper got clear denials from Holden spokesmen. "We haven't made a decision on the next generation ute or its presence in export markets outside Australia." When the paper pointed out that GM renewed the Chevrolet El Camino trademark in August, the spokesperson replied, "any speculation on the trademarking of the El Camino name is just that - speculation. However we are keeping our options open."
There is nothing here that says the Ute is "finally bound for the US." We are still hitting that pipe, though.
The article points out that the US and Australia have a free trade agreement that lets GM skip out on paying the typical 25% import tariff for light commercial vehicles like utes. We would also point out that Holden (and the whole domestic Aussie car industry) is on the brink of death and could use all the sales volume it can get. Moreover, the G8 is coming back as the Chevy SS, so another stretch to the ute isn't out of the question.
We don't care how GM makes it happen. Just bring back the practical mulletmobile we know and love. We'll do anything, please!