One of our favorite cars that no one bought, the Chevrolet SS, is no more after 2017, General Motors North America President Alan Batey told WardsAuto today at the Detroit Auto Show. This coincides with GM ceasing its manufacturing efforts in Australia, where the SS is made, at the end of this year.
Enthusiasts who’ve clamored for a rear-wheel-drive, LS-powered V8 Supercar to hit the States were glad to see the SS come here, however, not many bought them. Its sales have been disappointing.
Then again, Chevrolet themselves didn’t know how to sell the SS, as they offered the Aussie hoon sedan with only an automatic to start with—which made burnouts hard, for one.
So, if you want to own a real, live rebadged Holden of your own, you’re going to have to act fast. This is the last year you’ll have the chance to buy one new.
As WardsAuto notes in their tweet on the matter, the SS also serves as the branding for Chevrolet’s entry in NASCAR. While their tweet from the Detroit Auto Show floor is confusingly worded about this, we believe that it’s the SS part—not Chevrolet as a whole—that will be missing from NASCAR in 2018 and beyond.
We’ve reached out to NASCAR to see if they know which car is getting the NAS-treatment after the SS goes the way of the dodo and will update this post as soon as they respond.
UPDATE: Chevrolet US Vice President of Performance Vehicles and Motorsports Jim Campbell told us that the replacement for the Chevy SS in NASCAR’s Cup series isn’t public yet:
It was already known that the Chevrolet SS was going to be discontinued in 2017. That information was originally announced last summer. As you know, we don’t talk about future projects. We’ll make any announcement regarding our next Cup entry at the appropriate time.
We’ll have to wait and see what comes out next, then.