Is anyone considering the NG commodore after their VF?

[Calaber]

The sector of the market where the NG is targetted is experiencing ever falling sales despite being occupied by some pretty decent cars. I suspect the NG will just be an also-ran like the current Insignia. How often do you see one of them on the road?

I predict that within five years Holden will be lucky to be within the top ten brands in this country. They have lost too much ground to too many makes now and it's only going to get harder.

 

[Forg]

Subaru Liberty as well. It would be interesting to be a fly on wall in Holden HQ, I wonder what their sales predictions are for NG as opposed to VF. I read somewhere, but forgotten where now (could have been in weekend paper) that Commodore sales are dropping. Also Ford sales are dropping as the Falcon sales fade away. Half of Ford sales were said to be Ranger.

That's not necessarily so bad for Ford; gerlytrux like that cost SFA to build because they're technology from 20 years ago, yet people will (for no known reason) pay more than modern-tech car money for them. Gerlytrux are a massive source of profit, even if sales numbers are down, because there's so much profit per-unit.

You're 100% correct on the Liberty. And probably some strange French thing built by Samsung which I've forgotten as well.

 

[mpower]

Correct Australia could give it a go now with the lower dollar, but the government is hell bent on not wanting it. Obama's game play of printing more money helped bring our Aussie dollar so high at the time.
But our Unions only worked to help destroy the company's as well and that was another big problem.
Our governments are useless as all they do is piss on about total brainwashing **** like gay madness and are hell bent on destroying our children with the so called safe schools, that is more to do with trying to be making kids f ed up and deranged, run by convicted paedophile's.

unrelated deranged rant aside you aren't far from the truth - the current and previous governments have done not just next to nothing they've flat out discouraged manufacturers to stay here and goaded GM to leave the country from the floor of parliament which was an absolute disgrace. Australia should be designing and building high end products for the global market - and unions, well they got too greedy and shot themselves in the foot.

 

[Calaber]

I keep reading posts blaming the government for the closure of local manufacturing. FFS. Holden, Ford and Toyota all misread the market and continued to build cars Australians no longer wanted in sufficient numbers to remain econically viable.

How the hell is that the government's fault?

 

[mpower]

I keep reading posts blaming the government for the closure of local manufacturing. FFS. Holden, Ford and Toyota all misread the market and continued to build cars Australians no longer wanted in sufficient numbers to remain econically viable.

How the hell is that the government's fault?

There was an out and out witch hunt for GM, I've been over it too many times to count and cbf'd with it again. TLDR version, GM's investment and the money it fed back into the local economy and the amount of economic activity it created far outstripped any and all investment the govt put into it but the local media only measured one side of the equation like the idiots they are. Once we dropped out pants and removed all protections from cheap overseas labour it was game over.

GM have many products that suit the aussie market however they are a volume manufacturer and had little interest in investing more money here when the govt was so hostile. The constant removal of tariffs hasn't helped anything as all it's done is allowed overseas manufacturers to dump here with higher margins. Remember all the fairy stories about how lowering tariffs would make cars cheaper? Where are those cheaper cars? Never going to happen because we get gouged with higher margins.

If first world countries like Japan, USA, England, Germany can all maintain auto industries there's no reason we can't either - we've got too many one term wonder pollies scraping the pork barrel and crapping on the local factory workers.

Aussies have all gotten a bit up themselves too and all I seem to see driving round these days is some VW variant.

We had what it takes, we're all just too short sighted.

 

[figjam]

How the hell is that the government's fault?

Aussies have all gotten a bit up themselves too and all I seem to see driving round these days is some VW variant. We had what it takes, we're all just too short sighted.

The rot started in 1985 when the Labor Govt, via Senator Button, stuck their nose into the car industry, uninvited, and created badge engineering.
Well may they say that the car industry was a protected species until then, but we were happy with what we had, and ignorance sometimes is bliss. Who needed those cheap Jap, and overly expensive, rust prone Euros anyway.
Ford were always on a slippery slope since day dot, GMH should have followed them in 1986 with the Nissan engine deal and the drop in the Oz dollar. Chrysler got out of it cheaply via Mitsi.
Once Ford said that it was gone, the domino effect had to hit Holden and Toyota.
Don’t blame Joe Hockey, he only said what was inevitable. GM didn’t suddenly decide within one day that they were going to pack-up, that decision was already made but not announced.
With the money that the Fed Govt put into the car industry, they could have bought Ford and Holden (if they were for sale) and ended up selling Falcodores themselves.
But who would have bought them ? Australians are up themselves with badge snobbery.

 

[SnowDoggyDogg]

Trade agreements with South Korea and Thailand for cheap small cars and trucks killed the local market here. Stir in a hell bent destroyer like Abbott with his BS budget and it's all over red rover.
Current and previous governments are more interested in having our tax money pour into unproductive assets like existing house prices instead of productive enterprise like business.

 

[426Cuda]

If the things which are taking all the Falcodore sales weren't thirsty gerlytrux, we could agree ... but they ain't, so we can't.

It's actually diversity in the market. So many choices. in 1972 a Corolla was sooooooo much less comfortable than a Falcon or a Kingswood, driving the Corolla was almost a trial by comparison; these days the reasons not to choose the Corolla are massively reduced, plus the Corolla has much the same space now as the Kingswood did then (while easily outperforming a stock V8 '72 Kingswood and using 1/4 the fuel while being safer & quieter & more comfy).
So add the fact that a Golf, Mazda3, Corolla, Focus etc are better cars than Falcodores in the heyday of Aussie cars to the fact that all the numpties have been convinced they need to bully every other road user with gerlytrux, then add the number of models & manufacturers in the market, then add not having 45% import duties, then add the competition created by all those manufacturers meaning that new car prices have been dropping c/f CPI ... and the market's spread thin, no one particular model dominates.

Commodore is still, what, number 4? Despite being "unpopular" these days? That's not unpopular! It's just that #4 these days is 20k units/year, when #4 used to be 80k units/year ...

I agree in some respects. But...
There is no unicorn Falcodore you refer to mate. They are four door, rwd, rhd sedans. The similarities end there.
The buzz boxes you mention are not in my opinion better cars. E.g. my daughter has a MY15 Focus manual and it's a full bucket of ****. Apart from that, these cars are in a different category and few buyers would realistically be tossing up between a Commodore or a Corolla.
BTW, I'd still rather a V8 HQ in my garage, than a new Corolla.
Many things have killed Aussie car manufacturing. Falling sales, exchange rates, labour costs etc etc all played a part. But the two biggest factors are:
1. years of poor govt policy ( e.g. allowing our small market to be flooded with a myriad of models with sweet FA in place to support, much less protect local manufacturing; and
2. A lack of govt subsidies. In stark contrast to all other govt's fortunate enough to have car manufacturing in the country.
In short, decisions of consecutive fed govt's over many years, have, quite simply, destroyed demand for locally produced cars, made it unviable and forced manufacturers to become mere importers.

 

[426Cuda]

unrelated deranged rant aside you aren't far from the truth - the current and previous governments have done not just next to nothing they've flat out discouraged manufacturers to stay here and goaded GM to leave the country from the floor of parliament which was an absolute disgrace. Australia should be designing and building high end products for the global market - and unions, well they got too greedy and shot themselves in the foot.

I was thinking the same as you. But then... the whole post weirded me out a bit.

 

[426Cuda]

There was an out and out witch hunt for GM, I've been over it too many times to count and cbf'd with it again. TLDR version, GM's investment and the money it fed back into the local economy and the amount of economic activity it created far outstripped any and all investment the govt put into it but the local media only measured one side of the equation like the idiots they are. Once we dropped out pants and removed all protections from cheap overseas labour it was game over.

GM have many products that suit the aussie market however they are a volume manufacturer and had little interest in investing more money here when the govt was so hostile. The constant removal of tariffs hasn't helped anything as all it's done is allowed overseas manufacturers to dump here with higher margins. Remember all the fairy stories about how lowering tariffs would make cars cheaper? Where are those cheaper cars? Never going to happen because we get gouged with higher margins.

If first world countries like Japan, USA, England, Germany can all maintain auto industries there's no reason we can't either - we've got too many one term wonder pollies scraping the pork barrel and crapping on the local factory workers.

Aussies have all gotten a bit up themselves too and all I seem to see driving round these days is some VW variant.

We had what it takes, we're all just too short sighted.

Well said mate.
The new car market is mainly made up of ill informed sheep. Ignorant to the point of stupidity. But!
Federal Government arrogance and poor short sighted policy is to blame. The buck stops there.