German Expects Big Bucks For A Bitter Holden

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday March 15, 2008

Joshua Dowling

A GERMAN entrepreneur wants to charge customers in Europe the equivalent of $170,000 for a $65,000 Holden Statesman.

Erich Bitter unveiled his version of the Holden Statesman at last week's Geneva Motor Show. It is, in effect, the same car but with a redesigned bonnet and bumper, larger tailpipes, bigger wheels and more expensive leather in the cabin.

He calls it the Bitter Vero and he believes the car can compete with premium German brands on their home soil.

"Not everybody wants the same car," he told Drive. "This is different to a Mercedes, an Audi or a BMW. This is for people who want to be more exclusive."

Just how exclusive remains to be seen. Bitter did not provide any sales forecasts for the Vero and admitted his previous experiment with Holden, based on the Monaro, wasn't as popular as he expected. He declined to nominate exactly how many Bitter-enhanced Monaros he had sold.

Bitter had two versions of the new Statesman on display in Geneva and he said his company has invested $1 million designing, engineering and manufacturing the new bonnet and bumper, among other changes such as fitting rear fog lights to comply with European regulations.

The interior is more lavish, too, with better quality leather and more luxury features such as a television for rear passengers.

The Vero is powered by the same 6.0-litre V8 used in the Statesman but has a little more power (up from 270kW to 278kW) since it has been retuned to meet more stringent emissions standards in Europe.

Wider rear tyres are fitted and the suspension is improved so the car can better handle high-speed driving on Germany's limit-free autobahns.

Bitter does not need to convert the cars to left-hand-drive because he buys the export versions of the Statesman that are usually destined for the Middle East.