Dario Bonazza wrote: > Adam Maas wrote: > > >>>>Car design these days seems to mostly be german, japanese or aussie. >>>>Everybody else mostly seems to just restyle the stuff coming out of >>>>associated german, japanese or aussie design houses. >>> >>>Aussie? I'm missing that for sure! What car is coming is any shape from >>>downunder? >> >>Pontiac GTO, the new Camaro, at least 1 other. Bunch of stuff coming to >>GM from Holden because the US design teams flubbed their RWD platform. >>Holden is the new Opel for GM. > > > So 3 models? Possibly 4-5 and parts? Can that place Australia among the top > 3 car-manufacturing countries? I don't want to offend Australian friends > here, but when I think of cars I think Germany, Japan, USA, France, Italy, > Korea... sometimes even UK, Sweden and India. Australia didn't come to mind > (it will happen next). Sure that must be since I've never seen an Aussie car > live, > while I know that some old Italian rust has shown up on the other side of > the globe. >
GM's new rear drive platform is from Holden. That's currently 3 models (1 discontinued) from the US nameplates but will be expanded across GM's entire group of brands (except GMC, they only do trucks). So you're going to be seeing Holden-derived cars everywhere over the next few years. French and Italian cars (aside from the boutique supercar makers) are essentially Europe-only (Along with the middle east and africa, but those are small markets), a very restricted market, British and Swedish cars seriously outnumber French and Italian cars over here. Korea's gotten a lot more important though, just by replacing Japan as the budget choice. I don't consider them a major player yet, but they will be soon. > >>>And the Fiat Group (Fiat+Alfa+Lancia+Maserati+Ferrari) saw something >>>around >>>+26% growth last year, so maybe the worst is behind them. >>> >>>Dario >> >>Maybe I'll even see one on the road. We only get Ferrari's and the >>occasional Maserati over here, at least for anything built in the last >>20 years (I do see older Alfa's on occasion. All the Fiat's rusted out >>10 years ago). > > > Fiat has promised to land on US market again in the near future, shipping > some Alfa Romeos just to start. > The Alfa 159 and the Brera could probably be the first models you'll see > over there. > Please choose Alfa 159 and/or Brera in the search field of the following > website. > http://www.alfaromeo.com > > Ciao, > > Dario > > Alfa makes some nice cars (the 159 is rather nice looking, and well-spec'd). But I don't expect success for them over here in North America. FIAT's got a real bad name over here from the last try and there's too much competition in the segment that they'd be competing in (compact sedans). -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
