The car industry may be in a sales slump, but Holden it still selling plenty of Commo

[Reaper]

The car industry may be in a sales slump, but Holden it still selling plenty of Commodores to government.

Government buyers are propping up sales of the Holden Commodore, figures obtained by DRIVE have confirmed.


Car sales have slumped by almost 20 per cent in the first quarter of this year but government purchases of the Commodore have increased by 8 per cent, keeping the home-grown hero on top of the sales ladder.


By contrast, state and federal government purchases of Australia's only locally-built four-cylinder car, the Toyota Camry, are down by 16 per cent.


The trend has drawn sharp criticism from the Greens, with the party's deputy leader, Christine Milne, accusing the Federal Government of hypocrisy.


Government boosts Commodore sales - www.drive.com.au

[paulsautoelec]

of cours the greens would do that . they have been silent since the bushfires in feb

[greenfoam]

Are you blaming the greenies for a heatwave and arsonists ? little odd

[tommo82]

Maybe because until recently, the FG falcon failed the braking tests for some state police forces.

[kuzman89]

Are you blaming the greenies for a heatwave and arsonists ? little odd

I would say fining people for clearing property of fallen trees and large amounts of potential fire fuel to be partly contributed to severity of the fire.

Many people couldn't touch the special "endangered" plants and trees on their property in fear of a big fine. Now all the endangered plants and trees are dead anyway, not to mention the terrible human toll with it.

Everyone out in the bush knows clearing the forests and land of fuel saves lives and stock. The aborigines were doing this before white man ever came to Australia.

So yes the greenflies are partially to blame.

As far as the car sales go, good on them. I don't see why police would drive around in a 4 cylinder car to start with? How is that hypocritical? How are you meant to catch hoons and other crims in a 4 cylinder NA car?

[1991_Vn2nV]

I would say fining people for clearing property of fallen trees and large amounts of potential fire fuel to be partly contributed to severity of the fire.

Many people couldn't touch the special "endangered" plants and trees on their property in fear of a big fine. Now all the endangered plants and trees are dead anyway, not to mention the terrible human toll with it.

Everyone out in the bush knows clearing the forests and land of fuel saves lives and stock. The aborigines were doing this before white man ever came to Australia.

So yes the greenflies are partially to blame.

As far as the car sales go, good on them. I don't see why police would drive around in a 4 cylinder car to start with? How is that hypocritical? How are you meant to catch hoons and other crims in a 4 cylinder NA car?

lol Nobody ever suggested police drive around in 4 cylinder NA vehicles. But where is the issue with other government fleets driving 4 cylinder vehicles? As in non emergency services.

[kuzman89]

Well in that case fair enough. Nothing wrong with other gov officials driving around 4cyl cars. Except maybe its not as attractive as the 6. Might be bad for image.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

It's not just about fuel economy, they also consider whole of life costs. Some large engined cars are cheaper to run when everything is taken into account. The Mitsubishi 380 was one of the cheapest cars to run out of everything, even beating the Prius. Just because a car has 4 cylinders doesn't automatically make it more fuel efficient and better for the environment.

[1991_Vn2nV]

It's not just about fuel economy, they also consider whole of life costs. Some large engined cars are cheaper to run when everything is taken into account. The Mitsubishi 380 was one of the cheapest cars to run out of everything, even beating the Prius. Just because a car has 4 cylinders doesn't automatically make it more fuel efficient and better for the environment.

The commodore is one of the worst offenders though, whether it be fuel economy or environmental factors. Aurion/Camry are ahead of the Commodore but the government will back the Commodore until Holden start building their own 4 cylinder car for the future of Holden and the Australian Economy.

Commodore Omega:
CO2 Emissions 252
Green House Rating 5.0
Air Pollution Rating 8.5
Overall Green Star Rating 3.5
Fuel Combined (l/100km) 10.6

Toyota Camry:
CO2 Emissions 212
Green House Rating 6.0
Air Pollution Rating 8.5
Overall Green Star Rating 4
Fuel Combined (l/100km) 8.9

Plus the Camry is considerably cheaper than the Omega to purchase.

Not sure about the 380 though?? Cheaper to run perhaps (and being 10k cheaper from the get go would help that), certainly not better for the environment though..

380:
CO2 Emissions 274
Green House Rating 4.5
Air Pollution Rating 5.0
Overall Green Star Rating 3
Fuel Combined (l/100km) 11.4

Prius:
CO2 Emissions 106
Green House Rating 8.5
Air Pollution Rating 8.5
Overall Green Star Rating 5
Fuel Combined (l/100km) 4.4

[1991_Vn2nV]

Well in that case fair enough. Nothing wrong with other gov officials driving around 4cyl cars. Except maybe its not as attractive as the 6. Might be bad for image.

Government 'officials'? Do you realise how large government fleets are and who the people are that actually drive these cars?

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Not saying the Commodore is better than the Camry, just saying that the number of cylinders or the "carbon footprint" aren't the only factors the Government takes into consideration when choosing a car.

[kuzman89]

Government 'officials'? Do you realise how large government fleets are and who the people are that actually drive these cars?

Well what do you suggest I call them? Government wanks?
Public service officials? Dudes?

[1991_Vn2nV]

Technically public servants lol Just when people say officials they tend to mean MP's etc.

The point is in South Australia alone there are over 8,400 cars in the State Government fleet. There would be over 50,000 government vehicles across the nation.

These aren't just MP's etc, most of these vehicles are for people working in areas like Family SA etc., its not like they get to choose the vehicles they drive. The only concernable image is the governments, which at the moment would be preferrably a green image.

[greenfoam]

I would say fining people for clearing property of fallen trees and large amounts of potential fire fuel to be partly contributed to severity of the fire.

Many people couldn't touch the special "endangered" plants and trees on their property in fear of a big fine. Now all the endangered plants and trees are dead anyway, not to mention the terrible human toll with it.

Everyone out in the bush knows clearing the forests and land of fuel saves lives and stock. The aborigines were doing this before white man ever came to Australia.

So yes the greenflies are partially to blame.

As far as the car sales go, good on them. I don't see why police would drive around in a 4 cylinder car to start with? How is that hypocritical? How are you meant to catch hoons and other crims in a 4 cylinder NA car?

I don't know of any greenies that have the power to make laws such as these. But thanks to thousands of years or fires the only plants left in non rainforest Victoria all are capable of regenerating from fire, either by surviving the fire or regrowing from seed (which wouldn't be there if the tree had been removed). The Aboriginies destroyed a huge amount of the country with fire, not all that long ago the entire country was forest. Do you think the megafauna died out at the exact same time as Humans arrived by coincidence, they are no different to anyone else, it just took them longer. Humans break and destroy everything, that's all we do. If we die by fires we started ourselves well so be it, but you shouldn't go around breaking everything else just because you can. I really thing all other life animal and plant needs to be protected from us the best that is possilble

[kuzman89]

There was a case just before the fires. A farmer was taken to court for clearing the land around his House off trees. He was fined $20,000 from memory. It was a greenie policy. The Vic government loves green votes, not hard to see how they became law.

Ironically his neighbors all lost their homes, and a few their lives.

Bush fires are naturally occurring in Australia. Yeah plants can regenerate, but endangered animals cannot, neither can human life. Aborigines destroying Australia with fire? I doubt it. Burning off in winter just does not get out of control

Clearing your land of fuel (bark, dead trees, long grass etc) saves lives. And this bushfire would not have been as tragic if people were allowed to clear their property.

[vztrt]

There was a case just before the fires. A farmer was taken to court for clearing the land around his House off trees. He was fined $20,000 from memory. It was a greenie policy. The Vic government loves green votes, not hard to see how they became law.

It was 50k, but he is thinking of suing the council the last I heard.