I’m a big fan of re-badging cars to something weird or unexpected or unfamiliar. It helps keep the population on their toes, exercises their curiosity glands and their brains. It’s like putting cat treats in puzzling boxes for your cat, only instead of cat treats it’s cars, and instead of cats it’s gearheads. Same idea. Anyway, Chevy seems to have had the same idea as well, for the now-discontinued Chevy SS.
What’s strange about this is not the use of Holden badges as such—after all, the Chevy SS started life Down Under as a Holden Commodore. And while people have enjoyed swapping American for Australian badges on the car, it almost always had to happen via non-official channels.
Sure, thanks to GM’s strict policy of not giving too much of a shit about things, you could always get some official GM-sourced accessories like mudflaps that had the Holden logos, but as far as a full-car rebadge, right from the factory, that I admit I had no idea you could do.
I mean, this is strange, right? Has there ever been another car sold by a mainstream manufacturer that allowed you to select the brand and badging? It’s like the most efficient method of badge engineering possible—you spec a car you want, then get to pick what brand it is at the last minute?
I mean, they should take this one step further, and make Pontiac and Oldsmobile and Saturn badges available all across the spectrum of cars that they sell. I’d be much more excited to drive a Pontiac Bolt or a Saturn Camaro! Oh god, a Saturn Camaro! That’d get so many people angry.
Also, I have no idea why Chevy still has any of this available online. I’m pretty sure you can’t order a Chevy SS anymore, no matter what badges you slap on it.