Have we talked about the chevy ss?

I drove one and liked it, but didn't love it. For my fat ass, the seats were too narrow and uncomfortable. The interior is just OK. I mean, it's more than passable, don't get me wrong, but there are nicer ones about. But it was certainly fast, and from the limited exposure to the handling (mostly straight roads, very nervous salesman riding with me), it seemed very good. And it looks like a Malibu. I understand that's good from some perspectives, but I was about to spend $37k on it (this was a new leftover '14), so I needed to really feel it, and I didn't with this car. Also, and this is a small nitpick, but it only gets 21 mpg highway, which is not great in this day and age. V8 Chargers get 25, Mustangs get 26.

Having said that, I do think they will hold their value. NASCAR aside (and I don't really count it, they aren't referred to as "Fusions" or "Camrys", they are "Fords", "Toyotas", etc), GM does NOTHING to promote the car. The general public has no idea what it is or that it even exists. So, as some of you have found, they are thin on the ground at dealerships. And forget trying to search for one used, due to that idiotic name, you get every Camaro, Cobalt, and HHR on the planet when you search for "Chevrolet SS".

Also, the kit to "Holden-ize" it is only like $200 direct from Chevy. It would be the only mod I would do if I had one.

If anyone is really interested in picking one up, CarMax has 13 across the US, all automatics, starting at $35k.

(and 17 SRT-8 Chargers starting at $30k and 10 CTS-V's starting at $30k).

So, they're out there. And compared to the competition, about the same number and price.

-Rob

I got a '16 BMW M3 Euro delivery last October. At one point it seemed like the BMW deal wasn't going to happen so I cross shopped an SS. I liked it very,very much. One of the best sounding exhausts I've heard in some time. Had it been optioned just right, or if another one optioned just right had been within a couple of hundred miles, I'd have bought it.

I asked the dealer about the possibility of ordering one. It had taken him 6 months from placing the order to having the car on the lot. I guess the boat from OZ & transport to the east coast were slow.

I like the M3 a bit more than the SS, however I wish it had the airconditioned seats like the SS has, but if I'd found the right SS I'd have a hella nice car & more money in the bank.

calteg wrote:

NickD wrote: Don't forget the original V's rear differential that was made of glass and broke if you looked at it wrong, the ludicrous amounts of wheelhop, weak engine/trans/diff mounts, cheesy rubber driveshaft couplers that were failure prone and weirdo 6-lug hubs.

Cheap forgives a lot of sins

It doesn't forgive the car chipping your teeth with wheelhop and then half the driveline exploding anytime you felt like standing on the loud pedal.

Personally I can't wait til the cop versions start getting taken out of duty. 6 speed swap and good to go.

The sheriffs in my area have them, bad ass hearing ls power from a cop car.

I get the mundane styling. I mean I really do. I dig fast cars But I've reached an age where I don't want to feel like I'm begging for attention. And it can be fast while still able to do all the regular car stuff, like hauling groceries and my offspring, I think that's awesome. But yes gm is doing a horrible job of letting the world know this exists. Hats off to Chrysler for their dodge bros commercials. Gm needs that.

M2Pilot wrote: I got a '16 BMW M3 Euro delivery last October. At one point it seemed like the BMW deal wasn't going to happen so I cross shopped an SS. I liked it very,very much. One of the best sounding exhausts I've heard in some time. Had it been optioned just right, or if another one optioned just right had been within a couple of hundred miles, I'd have bought it. I asked the dealer about the possibility of ordering one. It had taken him 6 months from placing the order to having the car on the lot. I guess the boat from OZ & transport to the east coast were slow. I like the M3 a bit more than the SS, however I wish it had the airconditioned seats like the SS has, but if I'd found the right SS I'd have a hella nice car & more money in the bank.

$45k car vs $70k car? Not sure I get the comparison.

http://www.bergstromauto.com/VehicleDetails/certified-2015-Chevrolet-SS-4dr_Sdn-Green_Bay-WI/2685534863

6sp for $42k

Probably hold there value really well like the g8s.

Buddy just sold his g8, he bought it when pontiac went under and they had a fire sale, sold it a month or so ago. Its amazing how little he lost afyer driving a car 100k miles

I thought I read somewhere that GM had a contract to fulfill with Holden to use X amount of Commodore chassises. Might explain why the SS exists and why GM is not promoting them.

ptmeyer84 wrote: I thought I read somewhere that GM had a contract to fulfill with Holden to use X amount of Commodore chassises. Might explain why the SS exists and why GM is not promoting them.

GM is Holden, so any contract would be pretty self serving for both parties. The SS is manufactured in Australia, where it costs quite a bit to make cars, and then shipped across the ocean. That's not cheap. On top of that GM is ending all Australian production soon (due to the high costs), so they're probably just clearing out inventory, and are happy to sell whatever trickles out of the factory down under while it's still operational. They certainly don't seem interested in doing much to ramp up excitement or generate sales over here, and I'm guessing that's kind of the goal. Putting you in a Camaro, Malibu, or Silverado probably has a much higher profit margin for them.

Wish Ford had something similar a la the Falcon over here to compete. It seems like the SS (and CTS-V) are the only RWD V-8 sedans that are semi-affordable and come with some level of reliability. Unless there is something else I'm missing?

CobraSpdRH wrote: Wish Ford had something similar a la the Falcon over here to compete. It seems like the SS (and CTS-V) are the only RWD V-8 sedans that are semi-affordable and come with some level of reliability. Unless there is something else I'm missing?

Chargers I suppose, I don't know of too many reliability issues with those. At least by Chrysler standards.

gearheadmb wrote:

CobraSpdRH wrote: Wish Ford had something similar a la the Falcon over here to compete. It seems like the SS (and CTS-V) are the only RWD V-8 sedans that are semi-affordable and come with some level of reliability. Unless there is something else I'm missing?

Chargers I suppose, I don't know of too many reliability issues with those. At least by Chrysler standards.

Ah, that's true, I always write those off due to the high door sills and claustrophobic feeling

z31maniac wrote:

M2Pilot wrote: I got a '16 BMW M3 Euro delivery last October. At one point it seemed like the BMW deal wasn't going to happen so I cross shopped an SS. I liked it very,very much. One of the best sounding exhausts I've heard in some time. Had it been optioned just right, or if another one optioned just right had been within a couple of hundred miles, I'd have bought it. I asked the dealer about the possibility of ordering one. It had taken him 6 months from placing the order to having the car on the lot. I guess the boat from OZ & transport to the east coast were slow. I like the M3 a bit more than the SS, however I wish it had the airconditioned seats like the SS has, but if I'd found the right SS I'd have a hella nice car & more money in the bank.

$45k car vs $70k car? Not sure I get the comparison.

The comparison I was making is that for $25K less, the SS is a good buy. Performance numbers, size, interior room, etc aren't much different than that of an e39 M5.

If I was in the market for a nice expensive car it would be on my short list. Wish there was a Ford/Lincoln equivalent.

Let's have some big loud GM/Ford/Chrysler RWD V8 Sedan wars here in the USA to go along with the pony car arms race, please.

These were sitting on the lots new forever. I kept checking and seeing the same cars over and over again. Nobody was paying $45k for these.

CobraSpdRH wrote: Wish Ford had something similar a la the Falcon over here to compete. It seems like the SS (and CTS-V) are the only RWD V-8 sedans that are semi-affordable and come with some level of reliability. Unless there is something else I'm missing?

Ford will have stopped Australian made cars in October 2016. There will be no more new Falcons after this year.

ptmeyer84 wrote: I thought I read somewhere that GM had a contract to fulfill with Holden to use X amount of Commodore chassises. Might explain why the SS exists and why GM is not promoting them.

GM is only selling them so they can use the nameplate in NASCAR, it's a good old fashioned homologation thing. it was also the only reason that the Monte Carlo was built for the last 5 years or so of it's production run: they wanted to have their NASCAR racers be kind of like the actual 2 doors that you could buy at a dealer. the Monte only got killed when NASCAR changed the racecars to look like a 4 door sedan. the SS means that they can actually say that they sell a V8 powered rwd car that is somewhat similar to the one on the track.

CLNSC3 wrote: Personally I can't wait til the cop versions start getting taken out of duty. 6 speed swap and good to go. The sheriffs in my area have them, bad ass hearing ls power from a cop car.

the Caprices aren't quite the same car: they have a longer wheelbase... but they are out there. the Chevy dealer in the next town over had a slightly used one (20,000 miles) that checked off all the right boxes : big V8, rubber floor mat instead of carpet, boring gray paint, looked almost identical to the Impalas that it was parked with. the only negative that i could see was the auto trans.. and it looked like a brand new car top to bottom.. for $23k.. it sat on that lot for almost 2 years before it disappeared about a year ago..

I've never seen one in person to be a good judge of the interior, refinement, etc. but I have to wonder if this would be more popular if they sold a lower trim level as well?

Does it really have "BMW or Caddilac" interior and refinement?

Would a $35,000 or $38,000 version that was more inline with an Impala or Malibu interior and lacking the Magnetic Suspension (if they could engineer it out or use something else from the Holden Parts Bin) sell better as it fell more in line with an Average Joe Enthusiast's budget?

Personally I think in that price range with a RWD V8 and a 6 speed it would be a great deal. It's still a bargain compared to the ATS-V ($60,000) or the CTS-V ($84,000!) but an "Everyman" car would be welcomed I think.

Of course if they never advertise it and you can't find one on a dealership lot it doesn't matter what it's priced at or how good it is.

I'd also agree with the other's who are saying that there won't be a supply of affordable used ones later on if nobody buys them now. It will be a low production sought after car later on too.

In order for there to be cheap ones to scoop up later used they have to sell in the first place. Do other enthusiasts a favor and buy the damn things to encourage manufacturers to build enthusiast orientated cars like this in the first place otherwise they will go extinct.

Contradiction wrote: I've never seen one in person to be a good judge of the interior, refinement, etc. but I have to wonder if this would be more popular if they sold a lower trim level as well? Does it really have "BMW or Caddilac" interior and refinement? Would a $35,000 or $38,000 version that was more inline with an Impala or Malibu interior and lacking the Magnetic Suspension (if they could engineer it out or use something else from the Holden Parts Bin) sell better as it fell more in line with an Average Joe Enthusiast's budget? Personally I think in that price range with a RWD V8 and a 6 speed it would be a great deal. It's still a bargain compared to the ATS-V ($60,000) or the CTS-V ($84,000!) but an "Everyman" car would be welcomed I think. Of course if they never advertise it and you can't find one on a dealership lot it doesn't matter what it's priced at or how good it is.

But they already sell a full size "everyman car." It's called the Impala. I see the SS as lost in the shuffle because it's the fast V8 sedan that would occupy the "top of the line version of the full size sedan" space but that sedan already existed in FWD V6 form. So the SS is an anomaly.

Somebody else already said it. The Charger works because there are base V6 models lots of people can buy and the cool V8 version make people want the base V6 versions.

BlueInGreen44 wrote:

Contradiction wrote: I've never seen one in person to be a good judge of the interior, refinement, etc. but I have to wonder if this would be more popular if they sold a lower trim level as well? Does it really have "BMW or Caddilac" interior and refinement? Would a $35,000 or $38,000 version that was more inline with an Impala or Malibu interior and lacking the Magnetic Suspension (if they could engineer it out or use something else from the Holden Parts Bin) sell better as it fell more in line with an Average Joe Enthusiast's budget? Personally I think in that price range with a RWD V8 and a 6 speed it would be a great deal. It's still a bargain compared to the ATS-V ($60,000) or the CTS-V ($84,000!) but an "Everyman" car would be welcomed I think. Of course if they never advertise it and you can't find one on a dealership lot it doesn't matter what it's priced at or how good it is.

But they already sell a full size "everyman car." It's called the Impala. I see the SS as lost in the shuffle because it's the fast V8 sedan that would occupy the "top of the line version of the full size sedan" space but that sedan already existed in FWD V6 form. So the SS is an anomaly. Somebody else already said it. The Charger works because there are base V6 models lots of people can buy and the cool V8 version make people want the base V6 versions.

I see what you're saying as far as the Impala but this is also a RWD V8 6spd with 115 more HP. If it were $8,000 - $10,000 cheaper it might appeal to a broader enthusiast crowd that is the kind of weirdo that want's a RWD V8 full size sedan.

To your point though it is an anomaly and it can't compete as easily with a 2 engine and 9 trim level competitor in the Charger. There's always somebody that wants a flagship car but can't afford the sticker price or insurance cost difference of the V8 vs. the V6.

novaderrik wrote:

ptmeyer84 wrote: I thought I read somewhere that GM had a contract to fulfill with Holden to use X amount of Commodore chassises. Might explain why the SS exists and why GM is not promoting them.

GM is only selling them so they can use the nameplate in NASCAR, it's a good old fashioned homologation thing. it was also the only reason that the Monte Carlo was built for the last 5 years or so of it's production run: they wanted to have their NASCAR racers be kind of like the actual 2 doors that you could buy at a dealer. the Monte only got killed when NASCAR changed the racecars to look like a 4 door sedan. the SS means that they can actually say that they sell a V8 powered rwd car that is somewhat similar to the one on the track.

It's a union issue in Australia. Basically, GM has to keep that plant open through this year to satisfy an existing agreement with the union. Homologation has nothing to do with it, they'll just as easily slap "Malibu" or "Impala" on those cars once the SS is gone.

The car is overpriced at ~$47k new, IMO. But it's overpriced because it's expensive to build, expensive to ship over from Oz, and they only come one way (loaded), which is probably a deliberate choice to reduce manufacturing variability and try to extract as much profit (or reduce losses) as much as possible from each car. But it's no big money-maker for GM. That's why they don't promote it.

Regarding the police version (Caprice PPV), they are already out there on eBay and such. In addition to the longer wheelbase, they also have a detuned engine with 355 hp. They are, if anything, even plainer looking than the SS:

Edit: Better article about the costs of building the SS and why GM doesn't promote it: http://dailykanban.com/2013/11/why-gm-isnt-trying-to-sell-the-chevy-ss-and-why-it-matters/