Last Update on : March 5, 2008
$170,000 Holden Caprice on show at Geneva
 The Holden Caprice luxury sedan is on display at the 2008 Geneva motor show as the Bitter Vero.
Two versions of the restyled Caprice were on the Bitter stand and are soon set to go on sale, according to company boss and designer Erich Bitter.
Bitter claims to have spent $1 million investing in the mild redesign of the Caprice. The most notable changes are with the sleeker bonnet, redesigned front bumper and additional rear bumper insert to house rear foglights required in Europe.
The interior of the Caprice has also been reworked with more leather and other luxury appointments for the Vero.
While the Vero runs the same 6.0-litre V8 as in the Caprice, Bitter claims it has been tuned to comply to stricter Euro IV emissions standards (the Holden V8 currently meets only Euro III standards). As part of the software upgrades he claims peak power has risen from 270kW to 278kW.
The suspension on the Caprice has also been stiffened “to account for the higher top speeds in Europe”.
The Bitter Vero has just gone on sale in most European countries for 103,530 Euros, or around $170,000.
The $100,000 price premium accounts for the modifications – carried out in Germany – and to ensure the Vero’s exclusivity.
“We wish to be exclusive,” says Erich Bitter, suggesting the Vero could tempt a buyer of a premium luxury brand into the Vero so as to drive something out of the ordinary. “We have already built three cars [two of which were on display in Geneva and the third of which is registered and being driven by Bitter].”
Each Vero takes about one week to modify.
It’s not the first time the Bitter brand – which has long modified General Motors vehicles – has revealed plans to sell a modified Holden in Europe. A few years ago the company did a similar development program with the Monaro, but when production stopped so did the project.
Some question whether the Bitter Vero project will be as successful as the company claims. But Bitter has plans to appoint some 10 German dealers and a handful across Europe.
|
