The Final "Four Door Corvette" is Built in Australia

The Chevrolet SS high performance sedan was introduced for the US market in 2014 and prior to the brawny sport sedan hitting US shores, GM boss Mark Reuss had great things to say about it. In fact, Reuss called the Chevy SS a four door Corvette and in the world of GM automobiles, there is no comparison which is more flattering for a new vehicle than being favorably compared to the all-American sports car.

Unfortunately, the Chevy SS never saw big sales numbers and with the end of Holden Commodore production in Australia – marking the end of this generation of the rear wheel drive performance sedan – the Chevy SS died with the Commodore. It was announced earlier this year that production of the Chevy SS (and the Chevrolet Caprice police car) would end this spring and the final orders were placed back in February.

Earlier this week, the final Chevrolet SS was built in Australia and shipped to the US. There are no plans for a new generation Commodore in similar RWD form, so it appears as though the Chevrolet SS high performance sedan is officially dead.

No Love for the SS
Although the Chevrolet SS was the most powerful 4-door model offered by the bowtie brand, it fell far short of offering Corvette performance, especially when the Stingray shifted to the new LT1 while the Chevy SS continued on with the 415hp LS3. Worse yet, the introduction of the 2015 Dodge Charger with a 485hp and 707hp package overshadowed the SS in a big way, so when combined with the lack of promotion of the high performance Chevy sedan – sales numbers were never very good.

Although there were strong months with numbers in the high-500 range along with a big spike in March to 1,217 units, there were also months where Chevy sold less than 100 units. In August 2016, only 14 SS sedans were sold followed by just 5 units sold in September. In total, only 12,953 Chevy SS sedans were built for the US market, but in all fairness, this was never a car meant to sell in big numbers. General Motors really didn’t run any marketing for the car, so outside of the performance car community, the SS went relatively unknown for the past few years. It did give Chevy fans who needed the extra space a great chance to drive a big, fast sedan from their favorite automaker, but that obviously wasn’t enough to keep the car alive past the end of the Commodore.

The Final Chevy SS
The last Chevrolet SS, shown above with the build crew from the Elizabeth factory, was painted black and fitted with a manual transmission. The unknown buyer requested that the folks from the plant sign the car under the hood and they were happy to oblige.