Monaro to roar into the sunset<br />By Paul Gover<br />July 26, 2005<br />From:<br /> <br />Holden Monaro<br />Monster ... the death-knell has sounded for the Holden Monaro<br /><br />THE mighty Monaro, the most charismatic car in Holden showrooms, is doomed.<br />It is the victim of a tumultuous shake-up of Holden's whole Commodore family to make way for new-age models including all-wheel drives.<br /><br />Holden's production plant in Adelaide is being restructured, building up to the arrival of the all-new VE model midway through next year.<br /><br />Monaro sales have been slowing, which points to a coming plateau in demand in Australia and also for the export model of the car, the Pontiac GTO, which was developed at Fishermans Bend for sales in the US.<br /><br />As yet there is no successor to the Monaro in the VE line-up, although Holden is working on several plans, including a heavyweight sports car similar to the Chevrolet Corvette.<br /><br />Holden is painting the decision to end production of the Monaro later this year as a win for the company, even though it will be a big loss for fans.<br /><br />Advertisement:<br />"This is still the best-selling sports car in the country," spokesman Jason Laird said. "We wanted to go out with a bang while it was still on top.<br /><br />"It was a question of us choosing the timing. Champions retire on top."<br /><br />The Monaro was a 1960s marque, born again in the late 1990s. There was a deafening roar from customers when Holden displayed a Monaro Coupe at the Sydney Motor Show in 1990, and the car was fast-tracked into showrooms.<br /><br />Only 11,000 have been sold since then in Australia, with overseas sales to Britain and the US taking the total beyond 40,000.<br /><br />The numbers do not make long-term sense when Holden is struggling with back orders on more popular models, including its all-wheel-drive Adventra and V8-powered Commodore SS.<br /><br />Holden plans to farewell the Monaro with a limited edition car called the CV8-Z due on sale next month. But it may not be the end for Monaro.<br /><br />"Everyone at Holden is certainly committed to delivering a new-generation Monaro in the future, but there is still a lot of work to make that happen," said Denny Mooney, chairman of GM Holden.