Money-Back Guarantee For New Holden Epica

I found this article interesting. A creative way to break the "default vehicle choice" lock the Toyota Camry apparently has on some folks living in Australia.

Photo credit to member Mikmak on GMInsidenews.com

Toby Hagon

27 April 2007

www.drive.com.au

Holden is offering your money back if you don't like its new Epica mid-sized car, the cheapest six-cylinder car on the market.

Holden is offering a radical money-back guarantee - believed to be an Australian first - on its new mid-sized car, the Epica.

During 2007, private buyers who purchase the Korean-made replacement for the Vectra will be able to hand it back within 30 days and fewer than 1500 kilometres on the odomoter if they are dissatisfied with the vehicle.

There are, of course, various terms and conditions, including ensuring the car is undamaged. Plus, you have to provide proof you have purchased (or will purchase) a new vehicle of equal or greater value than the Epica you're handing back.

But for the most part, the money-back offer is a way of potentially "sealing the deal" against more established competitors, the most obvious of which is the Epica's prime target, the Toyota Camry.

http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=38258&vf=2

The GM Daewoo Enthusiast ... in English?

What to do if you're a fan of GM Daewoo and you live outside of Korea and can't read Korean? Hey, hey, no jokes about "What Daewoo Fans?" and Bobby Lee's "Tank" character from Mad TV, please... (hehe)

Anyway, since Daewoo as a brand left the global stage for the most part several years ago and became GM Daewoo, it might not be as easy as it once was to find small start-up enthusiast sites in English.

Since it is still possible to buy Daewoo-built cars even in the U.S. today, or if you have an older model, where can you go to read what fellow enthusiasts have to say?

Internationally, GM Daewoo product is now sold under the Chevrolet, Holden, Buick and Suzuki brands. Grilles and emblems are swapped out along with some minor equipment changes or different displacement engines, but they remain GM Daewoo cars underneath the thin disguises. The Taiwanese Buick Excelle is one of the rare examples of taking it further than a "rebadge" and re-doing the entire front end. The mainland China Excelle (for now at least) looks like any of the other Lacetti rebadges.

True fans of automobiles still know what cars in their favorite brands are manufactured by GM Daewoo, even if they wear the badge of another auto maker. Interestingly, even Korean fans of Daewoo have some idea of this as it is proudly stated on the GM Daewoo website with Chevrolet, Buick and Suzuki logos.

Daewoo Tech is a site that has sporadic updates to its main page and some severely outdated posts mixed in with new ones, but appears to be one of the top sites for Daewoo enthusiasts outside of Korea. The emphasis is heavy on the Chevrolet Lacetti and WTCC Lacetti Racing Program: http://www.daewootech.com/cms/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

The Suzuki Forenza & Reno Forum is currently the most popular part of www.Suzuki-Forums.com . Of course, "Forenza" is Suzuki's name for the Lacetti, and "Reno" is the 5-door hatchback. The members of suzuki-forums are not unaware of this, and you'll find general Lacetti-related posts mixed in with the Suzuki-specific ones. A member there " Kinkyllama " has taken a Forenza sedan and seriously tuned it for performance, and has some videos of himself racing at the track along with many photos and how-to type posts. I think he also runs a small business obtaining and custom making parts that should be compatible with Canadian Chevrolet Optras and other Lacetti-based cars powered with the 2.0L 4-cylinder engine.

There may be more sites, and if you know of one or more I encourage you to post them in the "comments" here!

Restyle the Holden VE Commodore? What is Pontiac (GM) Thinking?

Photo: Will Pontiac's Ugly Styling Beast Rear its Head Again?

News has leaked that Pontiac's upcoming "G8" RWD sedan will not keep the Commodore VE front end, but will instead have the styling of a Solstice from the A-pillar forward.

The Holden VE Commodore has a very techy/sharp look. The Solstice is more of a rounded homage to a 1950's Porsche.

Personally I hate the idea. GM Execs are no doubt worried about people who said that they didn't do enough in Detroit to change the former imported GTO from the Monaro. What they just don't seem to get is that the Monaro's bubbly 1990's styling was one of the reasons many people hated the look, NOT the fact that it was little changed from the Monaro itself.

For GM's sake, it had better blend well, and "Solstice Inspired" should not be an excuse for 1990's bubble styling. Personally I would have preferred the Commodore as-is, with a twin port grille. I hope GM can pull it off, but their restyling efforts of the past have been mixed at best (no Aztek comments, please), and the G6 GXP show car with the huge elongated nostrils that GM went ahead with despite lots of negative feedback (at least from sites like GMInsideNews when the concept sketches were shown) does not give me much hope.

I would buy a Commodore with a Pontiac grille. I would not buy a Frankenstein-styled G8 that looks like a hybrid of a current Grand Prix and a Solstice up front. Something tells me to expect the latter. See the photo of the G6 GXP above for an idea of what I'm talking about. Blech.

Hence, GM pushes me ever farther away from Pontiac and its products, and into the arms of "import" styling that I seem to like so much.

The Definintive GM Performance Car List Part II: 1973-1985

This is a copy of a list compiled a few months back. See the original list with photos here: http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41165

The Definintive GM Performance Car List Part II: 1973-1985
Composed by Ming - with help from 87aero, MCGARRETT, EGG, T-Type, & More!
www.GMinsidenews.com
11-27-06

1973-1985 The Forgotten Years of GM Performance

With the 1973 Oil Crisis, Disco Vans, dramatic downsizing of cars and horsepower, and the generally accepted "End of the Muscle Car Era", the casual (or younger) GM fan might ask if there was anything worth noting from GM's performance stables during this time aside from the obvious pop-icons like "The Bandit" Trans Am. We decided to tackle this question, and hope you enjoy this flashback as much as we did!

This is the second in a series of lists that cover performance cars of note from GM within a certain timeframe. Initially the list grew out of a concern of mine that Japanese and European cars seemed to dominate video games such as Gran Turismo with an array of choices in several car classes for cars produced in the last two to three decades. GM's offerings in such games were (and still are) often limited to muscle cars from the 1960's and mostly Camaros and Corvettes since, with a smattering of concept cars that never made it to production. Most conspicuous is the dead gap of virtually no other performance-trim cars from GM from the 1970's until 2000. This has only recently begun to change in respect to newer cars like the Cobalt, GTO and some Cadillacs getting in to games, but the 1970-2000 GM cars (aside from 'Vettes and Camaros) remain mostly lost to the past.

This list is also an attempt to expand the conciousness of what was "GM Performance", and I'd like to include your suggestions, including GM's close-to-stock racing efforts, and "tuner house" developed models during these model years.

It's also a challenge to the gaming industry, Hollywood, and GM's own Marketing & PR people to not forget these cars to the mists of time. Even the not-so-famous and not-so-powerful models. After all, if such "beasts" as the 1972 Honda Life Step Van, or 1985 Honda TODAY can make it into the mega-selling game Gran Turismo 4, surely the capable and sporty (if not rip-snorting) Chevrolet Spirit of America Vega Coupe, or the Buick Nighthawk deserve to pop up as obscure vehicle choices in some game somewhere, someday? When presented with 10 or more in-game cars from Toyota from the 1980's and virtually nothing from GM, what will young minds conclude? My guess? That GM had nothing to offer back then, and has always been a one-trick 1960's muscle car pony, thus the hype about the return of the Camaro. Last but not least, one must not forget that Japan Domestic Market cars like the Nissan Skyline and the 1980's Corolla Trueno Sprinter AE86 only became household names for GenY largely because of exposure from video games and anime.

Well, I think this list and the FIRST LIST prove that GM has had far more than Camarovette going for it from the early 70's to 2000. And I hope you'll agree!

Note:While "definitive" it is by no means "complete". Please feel free to suggest more, but keep in mind I am not trying to "fill out" the list with every possible variation and model year of a particular car. It's more of a short and sweet list of the hot stuff from GM. The original idea of this list was to not have much redundancy among model years (little change between years) and between brands (rebadges), and no concept cars or trucks (to be covered in other lists). If you have something very different from what's listed here, though, by all means let us know! There are a few brands below that could use some more models to flesh them out. I'll update it over time with your suggestions as they fit. See the original discussion that built this list HERE.

Enough talk, on to the Cars!

Chevrolet

1973 Monte Carlo 454
1973 Scuncio Chevrolet Vega +
1973 Yenko Stinger Vega
1973 Chevelle SS
1974 Vega Coupe w/ Spirit of America Package
1974 Nova Hatchback Coupe w/ Spirit of America Package
1974 454 Baldwin Motion Super Vega +
1974 Impala 454 V8 w/ Spirit of America Package
1974 Cosworth Vega +
1974 Chevelle Laguna S3
1974 Camaro Z/28 w/ D88 stripes
1975 Corvette Convertible
1976 Cosworth Vega 5 speed +
1976 Allan Moffat Monza IMSA GT-Class *
1976 Camaro LT Rally Sport
1976 Chevette Rally 1.6
1977 Nova Rally Coupe LM1 350
1977 Camaro Z/28
1977 Vega GT
1977 Monza Mirage
1978 El Camino SS LM1 350/4-speed
1979 Monte Carlo V8
1979 Monza Spyder
1979 Malibu M80 +
1980 Monte Carlo Turbo
1980 Camaro Z/28
1980 Monte Carlo Sport Coupe w/Turbo
1981 X11
1982 Z/28 Indy 500 Pace Car
1981 Citation 660 Turbo +
1983 Malibu 9C1
1983 Monte Carlo SS
1984 Camaro Z/28 L69 H.O.
1985 Cavalier Z24 Hatchback
1985 Corvette TPI 350
1985 Camaro IROC-Z28
1985 X11 2.8 MPFI
1985 Monte Carlo SS Turbo

Buick:

1973 Century GS
1977 Nighthawk
1978 Regal Sport Coupe
1979 LeSabre Sport Coupe
1979 Century Turbo Coupe
1979 Riviera S-Type
1982 Grand National w/Turbo option
1983 T-Type
1984 Grand National T-Type
1984 Regal T-Type
1985 Riviera T-Type


Oldsmobile:

1973 Cutlass 4-4-2
1979 Cutlass Hurst/Olds 350 W-30 +
1980 Ken Snyder Racing Starfire GT Solo II "G" Stock *
1980 Cutlass Calais 4-4-2 W-30
1983 Cutlass Calais Hurst/Olds 15th Anniversary +

Pontiac:

1973 Trans Am SD
1973 Grand Am 455
1973 GTO
1974 Firebird Formula SD
1974 Ventura GTO
1975 Grandville 455
1977 Trans Am W72
1977 Cam Am W72 400
1977 Special Edition Trans Am L78 400
1979 Phoenix LJ Coupe
1980 Trans Am Turbo
1980 Grand Am Coupe
1981 Trans Am H.O. 5.0 litre
1981 Trans Am "Bandit" 462 V8
1983 Trans Am Daytona 500 Pace Car 5-SPD
1983 6000 STE
1984 Fiero
1984 Trans Am 15th Anniversary Edition
1984 Sunbird GT Turbo
1985 Fiero 2.8L V6 GT Notchback
1985 Trans Am TPI LB9 V8

Cadillac

1985 Eldorado Touring Coupe

Holden

1973 HQ Monaro GTS 308ci/350ci Coupe
1974 HJ Monaro GTS 308ci Sedan
1973 LJ Torana GTR-XU1 "Bathurst Edition"
1973 HQ GTS Monaro 350 Chevy V8 Coupe
1974 LH Torana SLR-5000 'L34' 308ci
1975 LJ Torana GTR-XU1 202ci
1976 HZ GTS Sedan 308ci
1976 HX Monaro GTS 4-door
1977 HX Monaro Limited Edition Coupe
1977 LX Torana SS 'A9X' 308ci
1979 Peter Brock A9X Torana (Bathurst Winner) *
1980 HDT VC Commodore SL/E 308ci + +
1982 HDT VH Commodore Group 3 308ci +
1983 Gemini TG S/LX
1984 VK Commodore 5.0L
1985 VK Commodore HDT Brock SS group A +


Opel

1973 GT
1973 Bitter CD +
1974 Gianni Mussato GT Gruppe 4 *
1977 Manta Irmscher 2800
1982 Manta GT/E
1984 Manta I 240
1984 Manta GSI Exklusiv
1985 Manta i300
1985 Bitter SC Coupe +

Vauxhall

1973 HP Firenza
1974 Gerry Marshall DTV Firenza *
1975 Heikki Haaksiala Magnum Rally Coupé *
1976 Magnum Sportshatch
1978 Risto Virtanen Chevette Rally 2300 HS *
1980 Chevette HSR