Holden Volt: Hard to Say, Easy to Charge

Sorry to harp on about the Chevy Volt again but today Autoblog Green confirmed that the Chevy Volt will be coming to the land of Oz around 2012 under the sneaky name of the "Holden Volt". While the guts of the car will remain the same it has yet to be confirmed if it'll have a face lift or not. I guess in this current economic climate they'll try to keep the costs down meaning they'll just whack a giant Holden logo on the front.

One good thing about the Volt here in Australia is our 230-240 volt AC power will be able to charge the car's battery pack in half the time the poor 110-120 volt North Americans can.

Looks like I'll be trading my old Nissan in for a Holden come 2012.

Volt Visits Down Under

Seeing as I didn't make it to the Australian International Motor Show (AIMS) in Sydney this year I have to settle for news coverage from CarAdvice.com.au, the only useful Australia-oriented motoring news site.

I was pleased to see amongst their thorough coverage of AIMS that the Chevy Volt has made the trip down to the Southern Hemisphere to give us a wave and a nod before heading back to the US. G'day Volt! *waves*

As mentioned previously we'll most likely be seeing the Volt in one way, shape or form here in the land of Oz by 2011 or thereabouts. It may be branded as a Holden, it may not even look like the Volt or GM might just give up and just move the steering column over to the right side and sell it on city corners.

Regardless of how it'll get here I still want one. More pics and plenty of coverage of the Volt (and AIMS in general) over at CarAdvice.com.au.

Chevy VY Commodore SS

Chevy? WTF? Yes, as previously mentioned in another post Aussie hoons are buying Holdens and rebadging them (or buying them prebadged) with Chevy markings.

I was driving home yesterday when I pulled up at the lights behind this VY Commodore ute with a big fat Chevy logo stuck on its back. I'm not sure about the logic behind this strange phenomenon because this guy has gone to the extent of getting a personalised license plate to tell everyone how proud he is of his purchase then he goes and ditches the Holden lion frisbee.

The obvious link is GM owns Holden and Chevrolet but why change the branding on a car that is only sold as a Holden? Does ANYONE know what's going on here!?

Yanks Love Aussie V8s

While I think a 6.2 litre V8 isn’t exactly the thing we should be driving these days it is still heartwarming to see the local (Aussie) car manufacturers getting some love from the USA.

Autoblog often waxes eloquent about the local grown produce and comes across as having a warm fuzzy place in their car-loving hearts for the Pontiac G8 (AKA Holden VE Commodore) not too suprising through after considering it will eat up the road using all 415 horses (309 kw).

Reading up on the G8 on Wikipedia I found this interesting tidbit. "...Some G8 buyers are removing all traces of the Pontiac brand from their vehicles by installing Commodore front bumpers and other parts.". I've noticed the opposite here with Aussie hoons choosing to replace their Holden markings with Chevy logos and whatnot. Weird.

For comparison here's a photo of a similar Holden, the VE SS V-Series.

"Chooka" is Clucking Mad

After last week's announcement of the hefty price you'll have to pay to pick up one of the 427 HSV W427s that will be manufactured comes this story of the mysterious "Chooka" who apparently likes to pay big bucks for his Holdens.

Cars Guide writes that "Chooka" is best known for paying $920,000 for one of only two HRT 427 Monaro coupes however the W427 is the most expensive production car Holden has ever manufactured.

“I’ve been offered build No. 1 or the last to be built (427) and I’ve opted for the last,” Chooka said.

I don't think if I had the money to spend I'd be buying a Holden.