"We're seriously looking to import a lot of Commodore SSs in the guise of the Pontiac G8. Let's see how that goes," he said at the Detroit Motor Show yesterday.

"It's such a logical thing to do. The volume range is 30,000 to 50,000. It depends a little bit on how we price it."

"We haven't fully announced it. We have yet to make an official announcement," Mr Lutz said. "Much more will be revealed at the Chicago show."

"While the GTO program might not have fulfilled all our hopes and dreams in terms of profitability, it did break the ice on global programs," Mr Lutz said.

"With the GTO we made a bit of a mistake.

"The deterioration in profitability through the appreciation of the Australian dollar, we passed on to the customer.

"It gets to be an oxygen-deprived environment. This time we're going to try very hard to keep the vehicle in the mid-$20,000s."

Australia's favourite car will be exported across the Pacific from 2008 to join the Pontiac line-up with General Motors in a $1.5 billion deal.

As many as 50,000 cars a year will be shipped.

The SS Commodore will be called the Pontiac G8, and will be priced in the mid-$25,000 range.

It will get some minor cosmetic and safety changes for US motorists.

GM's vice-chairman of production development Bob Lutz said the move was logical.

"We're seriously looking to import a lot of Commodore SSs in the guise of the Pontiac G8. Let's see how that goes," he said at the Detroit Motor Show yesterday.

"It's such a logical thing to do. The volume range is 30,000 to 50,000. It depends a little bit on how we price it."

Mr Lutz, who helped put the Holden Monaro into the Pontiac family as the GTO coupe, stopped just short of full confirmation of the significant export deal.

But he said full details would be revealed next month at the Chicago Auto Show.

"We haven't fully announced it. We have yet to make an official announcement," Mr Lutz said. "Much more will be revealed at the Chicago show."

Mr Lutz and GM Holden's chairman, Denny Mooney, outlined a plan that has been brewing since the early days of development of the VE Commodore.

It was designed with left-hand drive and export potential in the Middle East and China.

But the big objective was always to get the car into the US and to learn from the lessons of the Monaro deal, which never worked as well as hoped.

"While the GTO program might not have fulfilled all our hopes and dreams in terms of profitability, it did break the ice on global programs," Mr Lutz said.

"With the GTO we made a bit of a mistake.

"The deterioration in profitability through the appreciation of the Australian dollar, we passed on to the customer.

"It gets to be an oxygen-deprived environment. This time we're going to try very hard to keep the vehicle in the mid-$20,000s."

The VE Commodore will be the third major Australian export program to the US, following the Monaro and the Ford Capri convertible in the early 1990s.

The Capri failed partly because of quality problems and partly because of its price, but mostly because it ran head-on into the very successful Mazda MX-5.

It will allow GM Holden to challenge Toyota for export leadership in Australia, as its rival ships about 70,000 Camrys each year, mostly to the Middle East. Mitsubishi has much smaller export deals with the 380, and Ford also sends a limited number of Falcons and Territories overseas.

But Ford Australia has high hopes for the next all-new Falcon, timed for 2008, and will be engineering it with left-hand drive for the first time.

Pontiac isn't letting its Australian connection go that easy with the demise of the GTO. Instead, it's bringing back a 4-door relative based on the Holden Commodore SS, but rather than use the GTO badge, it calls this sedan the G8. The base model is equipped with a 261-bhp 3.6-liter V-6, which also boasts 250 lb ft of torque, which it delivers to the rear wheels through a five-speed automatic with sequential shift mode. The big dog G8 GT is powered by a 362 bhp 6.0-liter V-8, which produces 391 lb ft of torque. GT buyers will be able to select from either a six-speed manual or six-speed automatic transmission, although the manual option will be added after the car is launched.