WATCH OUT CARBON E7, GM HOPS BACK INTO POLICE ARENA WITH CHEVROLET CAPRICE

From Holden, GM's Australian outpost, comes this re-worked Pontiac G8 Police Package. No, wait a second.... It seems a little longer than the G8, that's not a twin-port grille; and that's a bow-tie badge; not an upside-down arrowhead.

Indeed, the police package General Motors will be offering fleets come 2011 isn't a Pontiac G8 but a Chevrolet Caprice, nee Holden Statesman/Caprice. Although very similar to the defunct Pontiac G8, the Caprice police car is actually based on a larger version of GM's rear-wheel drive Zeta platform.

Holden makes use of large variations of the Zeta platform in the Land Down Under. The Commodore (like our G8) is just the start: Calais, Ute, Caprice, Statesman, and Sportwagon form half of Holden's showroom. As in the Middle East, the larger sedan version of this Holden Zeta platform will be called the Chevrolet Caprice for North America. Ah, but only for fleets; not for private customers. At least not until police auctions show '11s with 180,000 miles and a severely dented rear bumper.

Read The Good Car Guy's call for a Pontiac G8 Police Package

Sadly, not only is the Pontiac G8 dead but its spiritual successor won't be available in Chevrolet showrooms. Take solace in a few simple facts. The Caprice is gigantic. (The G8 wasn't "small", after all.) Its wheelbase is stretched almost four inches and its overall length is about a half-foot beyond that of the Pontiac G8. This brings about a couple hundred more pounds in luxurious Holden formation and should do so anyway with all the extra riot gear. So if you don't like your cars 17-feet long there's no need to complain about the Caprice's absence in Chevy dealers.

Even with all that weight, 355 horsepower and 384 lb-ft of torque from a 6.0L V8 should give the Caprice Police Patrol Vehicle some scoot. Cops should be comfortable with more interior capacity than the Ford Crown Victoria offers in addition to specially contoured seats to allow space for a typical cop's belt.

Check out the full GoodCarBadCar.net POLICE section

Strangely, a "street-appearance" package code-named 9C3 will be available. One would assume that a supposedly "undercover" car ain't gonna appear to undercover when NOBODY ELSE IS ALLOWED TO DRIVE THAT MODEL OF CAR. That being said, the same accusation could be applied to the upcoming Carbon Motors police car, a vehicle which, in basic garb, will still be identifiable by its core.

Nevertheless, it is the diesel-powered Carbon Motors E7 that'll provide the stiffest fleet competition to the Chevrolet Caprice, not the antiquated Ford police package. As sales to consumers drop, will anybody else want to step in and play this game?

HOLDEN DEBUTS THREE SPECIAL HSV EDITIONS

Special-edition Holdens are like special-edition Ford Mustangs: all-too frequent but oh-so-very good.

Holden is an Australian subsidiary of General Motors. Down under, they enjoy a big rear-wheel drive car with a big engine about as much as is deemed possible. HSV is Holden Special Vehicles, the Holden equivalent of Mercedes-Benz AMG or BMW's M cars. 

With that being understood, you can look at this HSV Clubsport R8 Tourer and not be surprised by its horsepower total (425) or its torque figure (406 lb-ft). There'll be just 125 of these wagons. A manual transmission is standard equipment.

20" wheels are standard on the sedan in the rear of the photo below. Holden calls it the HSV Senator Signature SV08. It's close to $15,000 more than the previously-mentioned Clubsport R8 Tourer. Only 20 can be had with a manual transmission. Another 30 will be available for those who wish the car to shift for itself.

Finally, in the foreground, you have the HSV GTS 40 Years Edition. Anniversary models are all around us. There'll be 100 of these at a slightly lower cost than the Senator Signature.

How does this pertain to you? These cars, underneath all the extra badging and two-tone paint jobs, are Pontiac G8s.  

THE GENERAL'S NEWS

Conventional thinking and official General Motors releases would lead you to believe the upcoming Corvette ZR1 will be priced like an inexpensive supercar (or a very expensive Chevy sports car), but conventional thinking is wrong this time. The first ZR1 sold for 10x the MSRP. The Barrett-Jackson produces big numbers every time this year, and a Corvette ZR1 for a cool million bucks is one of those big numbers, indeed.

Overt, startling, and distracting to the point of appreciation - the Cadillac CTS coupe concept will become a production car in 2010. Expect Cadillac to build 15,000 at the Lansing Grand River facility every year.

The port at Benicia, California is about to accept four ships full of Pontiac G8's from Down Under, mate. By launch time, Pontiac hopes to have 7,000 G8's in America. This first batch is near equally split between V6 and V8 models.

Speaking of Oz, a blue police-liveried Hummer H3 is on active duty at community events in Australia. Police hope to 'foster relationships between police and local youths.' The Australian Conservation Foundation's Phil Freeman sounds disappointed in Victoria's police. "We would much prefer to see Victoria Police encouraging kids to ride bikes both for their environment and their health."

Forget the Volt - Saturn wants to sell you a full-on plug-in hybrid in SUV form in 2010. (December 31st of 2010 is 35 months away.) The Vue plug-in would recharge at your home's electrical outlet in less than five hours and would achieve twice the fuel economy of any SUV on the road today. Well, well, well; we shall see.

As described here on GoodCarBadCar, the previously mentioned Pontiac G8 sportwagon will not be sold in North America, but the genuine Australian article, Holden's Commodore wagon, will be offered in seven versions.