The top comment in the post is, surprise, about the SS. Here's what one guy had to say:
The SS was a rebadged Pontiac G8, a great car with a strong cult following. After Pontiac got axed in GM's restructuring, they brought it back as the SS. But here is why it didn't sell.
Ok we've established that the G8 looked like a Holden VE and the SS looks like a Holden VF. The VF is better than the VE in every way except, perhaps, aggressive styling. But people need to stop saying "rebadged G8." G8 was on VE...
(1) The G8 had sexy Pontiac styling, people often mistook it for a BMW with its side profile and twin grille, the SS looks like a Malibu. If GM has spent a bit on money on a front end panel and hood to give it more of a Camaro look, things could have been different. Even a nickel for Camaro taillights would have helped.
Mistook for a BMW is weak and simply because of the Pontiac kidney grill aesthetic. The SS looking like the Malibu is not incorrect logically but perhaps the Malibu also needs more aggressive styling (and is getting it in 2016 or so).
(2) GM didn't keep the car updated, a 6 year old game plan won't cut it. The LS2 engine had only 415 hp and terrible gas mileage. The LT1 engine paired with a 8 speed would provide much better gas mileage (no guzzler tax) and 460 hp, which is needed to be competitive with the Charger SRT8's 485 hp.
Ok, the LS3 was fairly old, but was also keeping the price down. It shipped with a sharp exhaust note. The performance of the SS, I think, was acceptable, since it was lighter and had a better chassis than the competition. However, gas mileage was never a strong suit, no matter how you slice it. That may have been a detractor for folks looking for a family car.
(3) The SS cost too much. The G8GT was a $33K car fully loaded, the G8GXP, which is virtually identical to the SS, cost $37K. For the $47K this car cost, you were competing against the Charger SRT8, which has its own distinctive grille and a 485 hp V8, and starting this year, and 8 speed automatic.
This part is BS. Just pure BS. A "fully loaded" G8 GT means nothing. That car was not competitive with features and accommodations.
An SS fully loaded is fully competitive. If you load up an RT like an SS, you end up with a similarly priced vehicle that cannot match its performance. If you get a stripper SRT8, you may out-accelerate the SS but you'll be lacking many of the options. The only real issue with the SS was that there was no starter model in the mid to high $30k range.
So GM was asking people to pay top dollar for a musclecar that was light on horsepower but thirsty, and anonymous on the road when buyers want a car that gets noticed. While the SS had vastly better handing than the Charger, that was not enough. GM has turbocharged V8 versions of the Commodore it sells in Australia, why didn't they send one of those 550-600 hp engines with the SS?
Sure, the SS could have used a higher performing version but it is incredibly rare to bring out the very special, high performance version of a model on the first year. CTS-V, G8 GXP, 300C SRT-8, BMW M5 and the list goes on and on.
I would wager that
1) GM had to sell the SS loaded due to the lousy exchange rate in Australia (so they wouldn't have made money on a $35k base V8 - probably would have lost money), which means traditionally high margin options simply added up to an overall margin that was probably minimally acceptable to justify the car in the first place,
2) Given that price was already an issue, they couldn't afford to certify a bespoke drivetrain in an already expensive-to-import vehicle (there is no LT1 + 8L90 Holden VF currently) and the SS was NEVER intended to do 30k sales a year,
3) They also couldn't afford to do more with the styling than what came inherently with the platform
So does this mean we should not have gotten the car? Some would argue, yes. I would argue no, because the car has too much good engineering to waste, and, UNLIKE any G8, the interior quality and luxury features are totally competitive with the rest of the industry. It is a better car than any G8 ever was, and yet...