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First Glimpse of New Holden VF Sportswagon and Ute

naf33n

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pretty poor effort they couldnt change the look from the rear after 7 years, dont know why they find it acceptable with utes and wagons, similar story to VG-S and VU-Z
 

Calaber

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pretty poor effort they couldnt change the look from the rear after 7 years, dont know why they find it acceptable with utes and wagons, similar story to VG-S and VU-Z



It's because altering the rear end designs on utes and wagons would entail new body pressings which are extremely expensive. The cost of altering the front end sheet metal can be amortised over the full range of vehicles but wagon rears only fit wagons and ute rears only fit utes, meaning much smaller production runs for highly expensive body pressings.

This has been the story for holden utes and wagons since the first facelift of each body style way back in the 50's. Utes and wagons have always shared the rear sheet metal of the previous model.

So, it's not a case of being a pretty poor effort. It's a case of not being able to sell enough of each body style to justify the expense of new panels.
 

roblpittman

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I have always thought Holden were raiding the Audi designer's draws except I think Audi interiors are second rate to Holden. Now the new bonnet is ala BMW. I hope there is a new Berlina as it is good for people like me who can't afford the Calais or Calais V but want a little more luxury. I have a VE Series 1 Berlina Sportwagon with Calais V Series 1 wheels, leather sliding console lid and leather auto gear lever. Few little other things for bling and it makes people look. Holden could have mucked around with more aggressive tail lights the same shape but different light set up. Somebody mentioned lift up glass in the tailgate on another forum. Overall I think the Sportwagon looks great and much nicer than the Caddilac Sportwagon I just looked at on an American GM site, very ugly. Holden nailed the market with Sportwagon and I'm curious about how many sell compared to sedans. I have heard 50;50 but think that's not right.
 

naf33n

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It's because altering the rear end designs on utes and wagons would entail new body pressings which are extremely expensive. The cost of altering the front end sheet metal can be amortised over the full range of vehicles but wagon rears only fit wagons and ute rears only fit utes, meaning much smaller production runs for highly expensive body pressings.

This has been the story for holden utes and wagons since the first facelift of each body style way back in the 50's. Utes and wagons have always shared the rear sheet metal of the previous model.

So, it's not a case of being a pretty poor effort. It's a case of not being able to sell enough of each body style to justify the expense of new panels.

ummm pretty sure the VE wagon outsold the sedan when it first went on sale, and the ute is a huge seller, you have to remember the VE is the longest running model of commodore, so its currently at 7 years of the same shape, the VF would be expected to run for a few more on top, no one in there right mind would want a car the looks 80% the same as a car in 2006, .
holden should of stepped up and made some changes, even if minor ones. if you look at there sales over the last decade, sedan sales are down, wagon sales are up and ute sales a steady, not quite at the stage of flogging a dead horse with the sedan, but put some coin into the growing/consitent markets
 

Jonesy484

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I doubt it, unless you have proof

I'm pretty sure he is right, the first week of ve sedan sales vs first week of wagon sales I was told wagons sold better as they were more desirable
 

Calaber

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ummm pretty sure the VE wagon outsold the sedan when it first went on sale, and the ute is a huge seller, you have to remember the VE is the longest running model of commodore, so its currently at 7 years of the same shape, the VF would be expected to run for a few more on top, no one in there right mind would want a car the looks 80% the same as a car in 2006, .
holden should of stepped up and made some changes, even if minor ones. if you look at there sales over the last decade, sedan sales are down, wagon sales are up and ute sales a steady, not quite at the stage of flogging a dead horse with the sedan, but put some coin into the growing/consitent markets

Perhaps you should read the sales figures and have a sound idea of the enormous costs involved in designing and manufacturing new panels before making such statements. Ute sales were way down last year and wagon sales have been falling over past years. They no longer sell in anything like the numbers they once did. In a review on this exact matter in one of today's Sydney papers, numbers for the ute were quoted as having dropped from 17,000 to less than 8,000 sales per year. In addition, because the utes and wagons use different tail-light assemblies to each other, the cost to alter either or both would be far greater than the sales would recover. The cost of altering plastic bolt-ons such as lights and bumpers comes into millions per model while the cost of new presses for sheet metal changes is much greater again. It would cost Holden far more to redesign the rear ends of the wagons and utes than they would ever recover with a satisfactory profit level over the anticipated life of the model which, after all, is only around three years. They might recover the costs in full eventually, but the sales would not be sufficient for them to get the sort of profits they would need. In other words, they can realise a better return by doing little or nothing and that, after all, is the name of the game for a manufacturer.

Put simply, cold hard economics prevented Holden from redesigning the rear ends of utes and wagons.
 
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Calaber

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I'm pretty sure he is right, the first week of ve sedan sales vs first week of wagon sales I was told wagons sold better as they were more desirable

You are talking about 2008, before the GFC hit. Things are just a little bit different today. Total sales of Commodores are just over 30,000 per year. They reached a peak of over 90,000 per year during the VT production run. What was once a terrific slice of the pie is now much, much smaller. Even if wagon sales were still 50% of the Commodore total, which they are not, they would only be around 15,000 cars per year. That's a pretty small number these days.
 

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On the positive side, Calais wagon has chrome window outlines.

It's well understood changing the rear panels would cost alot of money, but the lights them could have been changed to a more elaborate design without altering any sheet metal.
 
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