It's a shame it didn't really work, most people see it as a Holden Statesman. I tried once to say what your saying to someone and the look they gave me was of sheer bewilderment.
Like WTF are you talking about.
Agree, they don't, but it's because one is called a Chev Camaro and the other is a Pontiac Firebird.
That's the difference, different manufacturer. Chev and Pontiac.
But because the Statesman, Monaro, Kingwood, Brougham, Torana etc are made by Holden in the eyes of the general public that's all they ever will be.
I'm not saying your wrong by any means, but I don't say what your saying to many people as I get that WTF look all the time.
I've often wondered if it was tied up in the whole process of GM giving the HQ design to GMH to finish it. Perhaps associated with GMH's decision wanting the sedan to be a SWB (like the coupe) rather than LWB like the rest of the HQ models. GM may have forced them to sell it as Statesman by GM rather than as a Holden? Who knows, it is an indisputable fact that Statesman was never meant to be seen or regarded as Holden. Whether it worked or not 50 years later is really irrelevant, facts are what they are and get lost over time. I get those same looks too, normally from ignorant (often know it all) Ford people.
The Camaro and Firebird thing is really not that much different to Holden Monaro vs HSV coupe vs Pontiac GTO or Commodore/Lexcen, Apollo/Camry etc. It is shared architecture, just in Australia we never had the local market for larger variation on shared platforms. HD to HX/Z were sent overseas and assembled using foreign drivelines as various things such as Chevrolet, Isuzu, Mazda etc. None of them are Holden or Statesman.
From memory the first time GMH changed the Holden name from a car line to a Company based thing was with Sunbird and Commodore. Both of these get referred to as Holden Sunbird and Holden Commodore in various literature whereas prior to that it was very clear that a Holden was the full size GMH car, Torana was the intermediate size GMH car and Gemini was the small GMH car with Statesman off to the side as a different product just like the previous luxury offering (Chevrolet with Pontiac above it again). As Dr Terry often says, the arrival of Torana on the scene (or at least its name change from Vauxhall Viva to GMH Torana) started to muddy the waters. Then Statesman made it more confusing. And badges started to appear on things like Bedford that said "Powered by Holden". Today's generation have enough trouble understanding yesterday let alone why a Holden ute isn't a Commodore!