We vote with our dollars.
Sometimes car enthusiasts like to dream of cars they’d buy if only certain automakers would make them available.
We all have that friend who has said, “Oh I’d totally buy an 800-hp 3-wheeled nuclear-powered Honda, but they just don’t make it.”
Well, if enough people say they’d buy one, Honda could very well appease its audience and make one. But would it sell? Of course not, because it’s a dumb idea and Honda would be left with a bunch of cars it can’t sell and millions of dollars wasted on development.
Sometimes, though, automakers do comply with our wishes even if doing so is a huge gamble. The Chevy SS is a prime example.
The Holden Commodore is an Australian beast. It’s perfect for the land down under because it’s big, fast, scary, and loud. Americans had a fascination with the GM-built Australian sports sedan because, well, Americans love big powerful things they can’t have.
GM heard the roar and brought the Chevy-badged SS to our shores. The SS looks like a standard family sedan, but has a 415-hp 6.2-liter V8 hiding beneath the disguise. Did people buy it, as promised? Sort of.
Chevy sells about 3,000 SS cars per year, which isn’t many, but it’s enough to justify its existence.
The bad news here is that the Holden, to which the SS owes its existence, will be discontinued after the 2017 model year. Everyone assumed that spelled the end for the SS too.
But there may be hope.
Motor Trend published this quote from GM Chief Engineer Al Oppenheiser,
[The SS] sells what it’s supposed to … And we haven’t announced an end date to it, so we’re just … we know that there are some decisions made on the Zeta [platform], that are imminent, and right now we’re just focused on the new ’17 model, which is great. It has the LS3 with the manual and the active exhausts, and it’s a great car.
While it’s not the most eloquent quote ever muttered, it does give hope that the SS will continue past the 2017 model year. Why not base a new SS on the Alfa platform? A Chevy-badged Cadillac CTS-V would make one heckuva great SS, don’t you think?
I’d totally buy one.
Will you buy a Chevy SS if it makes it into the 2018 model year?
-tgriffith
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