As General Motors’ sole brand in Australia, Holden’s lineup gets most of GM’s better products, like the Cruze, Captiva (a re-badged Saturn Vue) and 6 varieties of the Holden Commodore, formerly known as the Pontiac G8. While GM claims that Cadillac is ready to go head to head with the Germans, in truth, the G8 was the closest GM has come to making a car as good as a BMW.

Our G8 was essentially a Holden Commodore SS, a fairly standard model in its home market, despite having a 6.0L, 361 horsepower V8, but in Australia, customers can opt for a Commodore that’s been breathed on by Holden Special Vehicles, a division similar to Mercedes-Benz’s AMG outfit, or BMW’s M division. The “base” model HSV Clubsport, has been selected for a special edition to commemorate the groups 20th anniversary. Only 100 cars will be produced, featuring a unique leather interior, sport suspension package, 20″ wheels and special decals echoing the original Clubsport’s graphics package.

Power remains the same, but that’s ok – with a 425 horsepower 6.2L LS3 V8 engine, straight line acceleration will be so rapid that bystanders won’t be able to tell that your car is any different from a standard car.

Gallery: HSV Clubsport 20th Anniversary Edition

[Source: Motor Trend]

Cara-what? The Carabinieri, Italy’s paramilitary police, are famous for their sharp liveried Alfa Romeo sedans, which can be seen driving around the streets of Rome, Genoa, Milan and other glamorous locales we know about only through movies and stereotypical depections of la dolce vita.

The Carabinieri have traditionally chosen the Alfas for their driving prowess, but a Sydney, Australia-area police force has chosen the cute-as-a-button Alfa Romeo MiTo for “community outreach” work. The MiTo joins a Hummer H3 and a Holden Commodore, but we think that younger children in particular will respond will to the Alfa’s diminutive size and toy-car-like styling.

[Source: Autoblog]

Several months ago GM’s Australian Holden division announced that it would offer a special edition of the Commodore, dressed up to look like the Pontiac G8. Called the Holden VE Commodore SS V-Series Special Edition, the new model looks mostly identical to the Pontiac model (itself based on the Commodore), except for the absence of any Pontiac badging.

The model has been such a huge success, that Holden has now said it will continue to offer the package indefinitely. Retailing for $1,000 Australian premium ($923 U.S.), dealerships are even ordering stockiles of Pontiac badges so Aussie gearheads can more accurately replicate the G8.

Sadly, the Aussie’s enthuaism for the car isn’t shared by American consumers, or at least not by the execs at General Motors, who killed off the Pontiac brand shortly after it began to offer the G8 – arguably the best product from the company in 30 years.

[Source: CarPoint]

There is hope, be it ever so slight, that the Pontiac G8 may live on even though the brand it’s attached to is most certainly slated for elimination.

“I know there’s still discussions on it,” GM’s product boss Tom Stephens told Automotive News, giving some hope to the legions of G8 fans that haven’t had anything to get excited about since the fourth generation Firebird came out in 1993.

Stephens did add, however, that as Chevrolet already has several sedans, another one wasn’t really necessary.

The G8 could work as a high-performance SS version of the Impala, or even as the basis of a Buick vehicle – although that seems highly unlikely. And unfortunately for G8 fans, GM already has an excellent rear wheel drive platform that underpins the Cadillac CTS.

Still, the sun hasn’t quite set on the G8 and there’s plenty that can happen between now and the end of 2010 when Pontiac is scheduled to be scuttled.

GM has continued to insist that the Pontiac brand isn’t for sale and that it will be eliminated as a part of its Viability Plan. While the brand as a whole has struggled significantly in recent years, the G8 has been a success, with high sales and rave reviews from journalists. This has prompted some to speculate that the closing of Pontiac (a brand known for performance) may be more of a political decision than an economic one.

[Source: AutoWeek]

Current Commodore-based Lumina SS as sold in the Middle East and Africa

Even if General Motors survives its current financial woes, it has a serious problem on its hands regarding future products. Take the Chevy Impala for instance. Sure it’s not very exciting, nor is it much to look at, but its a top seller for GM and not something they would want to mess up – or do without.

GMinsideNews (GMI) is reporting that their sources inside General Motors are indicating a switch to a rear-wheel drive platform for the next Impala. The only problem is, this new version of the car wouldn’t be until 2015. Even worse, the current Impala is slated to stay in production until 2013, leaving a two year gap.

Worse still, just think how outdated the already long-in-the-tooth Impala will be four more years from now. Yikes!

According to GMI, this is how it will play out. The next generation Impala was supposed to be built on the RWD Zeta platform bu that was recently axed in a bid to cut costs. In Australia the Holden Commodore, which rides on the Zeta platform, will use a version of the Camaro’s platform starting in 2011. Once that Commodore is ready to be retired, both it and the next generation Impala will arrive (in 2015) sharing GM’s upcoming Alpha platform – much like how the current G8 shares most everything with the current Holden Commodore.

It sounds like a stretch to us, but as “world cars” are becoming more popular as automakers search for ways to save cash, there is certainly an economic argument for the report.

GMI says the use of the Alpha platform for both the Commodore and Impala in 2015 is under “serious consideration” by GM execs, but these days nothing is certain.

Case in point, just last week GMI reported that the Impala would get a long wheel base of the front-wheel drive Epsilon II platform (which is planned for the next generation Malibu).

[Source: GMInsideNews]