Could you please explain why Holden and HSV are experiencing record sales? Media hype aside, the large car market sales aren't falling - they just aren't number 1 any more because fleets are turning to the likes of the Toyota Corolla.
CSP
I'm sorry, but that is "head in the sand" thinking. HSV are selliing around 5000 cars per year, a record for them, certainly not for a complete market. Holden are selling "record" numbers of V8's, when their total sales are falling year by year, and the large car market continues to shrink. So lots of people are still lbuying V8 Holdens. "Lots", that is, compared to previous years, when V6 sales were much better and Holden were selling arond 4,500 to 5,000 cars per month. Nowadays, they sell around 3,000 to 4,00o per month, a crappy little Toyota is beating the sox off them and even a bloody Toyota truck can take top spot on the market! I hate to think of Holden falling further, but if it wasn't for the exports of Commodores, local sales probably would fall to the point where the production of Commodores was no longer profitable. Not this year, but if sales continue to fall, then possibly by late 2009.
Falling sales are facts, not newspaper hype. Holden held about 15% of a record market last year, Toyota held about 21%. That means Holdens sales (all Holdens, not just Commodores) totalled 150,000 or so for the year. Thats about 12500 cars per month. Commodore accounted for about one third of that total - average around 4200 per month.
I know it's a long time ago, but the HQ sold 495,000 cars in 45 months. That's 11,000 HQ's per month. At the same time, the LJ and LH Toranas were available. I don't know what their sales totalled, but these were all Australian made cars. That's a hell of a lot more Australian made cars selling month after month than Holden is selling now. Other models, particularly Commodores, have had great sales records, though not like the good old days of the early 70's. Face facts - Holden are selling less and less Commodores each year than the previous year - it's not "media hype"!
Private buyers of large Holdens are drying up - if they can't sell enough of them, they need to do something to get people back into large cars, and just restyling existing bodies won'd do it.
Someone else said that Holdens are too heavy to pull a four cylinder. If that's the case, how come Mercedes, Audi, BMW and various other Euro's do it so successfully? Their cars aren't lighweight - they reach upwards of 1.7-1.8 tonnes, just like the Commodore, and fly with turbo diesels and modern transmissions.
Referring to past four cylinder Holdens doesn't compare to the engines of today. Look back at the absolutely rotten excuse for an engine Holden used - the 1.9 Misfire was probably the crudest, most ancient engine ever released and all it did was ensure that "four cylinder Commodore" were three dirty words. It would never be like that again. Any four that appears under a Commodore bonnet will be the latest technology, hooked up to up to date transmissions, and fitted into bodies that undergo major lightening programmes through the incorporation of lightweight and expensive steels and alloys.
Holden doesn't have any choice - it's either go down that road or die as a local designer and manufacturer. Ford will go the same way, but I think the Falcon is dead by 2012 anyway.
