Cool Sighting, But Why Is It Still Around?

I was travelling to the outskirts of Washington D.C. on June 28th, and came across this odd-looking sedan. Luckily I had my girlfriend and a camera handy to take these photos.

Yes, what you see here is a white Holden Commadore test vehicle.

First off, this is the first time I have seen a test vehicle of any type in about 12 years. So naturally, I was thrilled to witness such a auspicious thing in real life as compared to a magazine or computer screen. My girlfriend, though, not so much. (She was shocked to see the driver on the “wrong” side of the car, however.)

Second, and more importantly, is why is this vehicle still on the road running tests? As you all know, or should at least, the Holden Monaro sedan has recently gone on sale as the Pontiac G8. Shouldn’t all the testing that they do on new cars be done BEFORE they start stocking dealers?

If anyone can shed some light on this, please enlighten me. I am very curious to know.

Methinks it’s a Camaro under the commodore skin.

What makes you say that LJS?

Also, I should probably mention that a few miles back was another one of these vehicles. It was bright blue with 20-inch wheels and had the Chevrolet Lumina badging.

Someone brought it to my attention that the rear door is significantly shorter than the front. And you can see how that accentuates the shorten chassis a lot.

LJS might be onto something……

Looks like suicide doors to me…not sure what to make of it.

Yup, the short rear doors scream shorter wheelbase than normal.

That car is the test mule for the upcoming Camaro. It is made to look like a 4 door when in reality they are fake doors in the back. There are other photos of this car floating around the internet, just google “camaro test mule”.

I did a little searching, and all the pictures that come up of the test mules are of cars badged as Chevys and have real wheels compared to black steelies.

Looks like I made a rare find!!