Holden Acadia - Kills ZB.

[losh1971]

Public perception? because that is what counts and Toyota is winning the sales war.

Holden traded on it's "made in Aussie" and Commodore labels, effectively it has lost both of those as a major marketing/selling point even if the product wasn't maybe quiet as good as the foreign products on offer so now your choice is between foreign products you may as well take the more reliable one.

part of the problem was penny pinching from GM. The Yanks are good at trying to cheapen a build wherever they can. I had a yank XJ and I absolutely loved it. But the **** that wasn't made to last ended up being quite a long list. Chrysler could have spent 10 bucks on both front and rear axles and fitted decent bearings like we used to see on cars made in the 70s but nup they cheapen out and go for Yum Song and the parts wear out after 100k. Same i suspect with Dores the late ones the big bosses trying to cut costs to increase bottom line go with cheap **** parts and now we have the end result of people owning $70k Dores with problems that in a few years will be out of warranty and cost $1000s to fix.

 

[Brettly-2008]

Don't underestimate image. Holden has an image problem, and Commodore is uncool. The bulk of Australia's population lives in capital cities and the inner-city, urban thinking that permeates that cosmopolitan lifestyle loathes the concept of nationalism and Australian-made stuff suffers as a result. ZB might be made in Germany but most people don't know that, they see it as an anachronistic sedan (which it isn't) sold by an Australian company. Why would you buy something like that when you can buy something with a worldly flavour like Audi, Renault, MB, Range Rover etc and flaunt your worldly, multicultural outlook.

 

[arsevee]

part of the problem was penny pinching from GM. The Yanks are good at trying to cheapen a build wherever they can. I had a yank XJ and I absolutely loved it. But the **** that wasn't made to last ended up being quite a long list. Chrysler could have spent 10 bucks on both front and rear axles and fitted decent bearings like we used to see on cars made in the 70s but nup they cheapen out and go for Yum Song and the parts wear out after 100k. Same i suspect with Dores the late ones the big bosses trying to cut costs to increase bottom line go with cheap **** parts and now we have the end result of people owning $70k Dores with problems that in a few years will be out of warranty and cost $1000s to fix.

The US car industry has always been guilty of this - post-war, when their economy was booming like crazy, new models were being released yearly; they weren't expected to last more than a few years and were built that way. Factories don't make money when you're hanging on to a car for years (hence the annual model-cycle) or buying second-hand (which is why they fell apart after a few years...

It vos zee Chermans who changed this, along with the Japanese - now companies like Kia & Hyundai are putting seven-year warranties on their cars - you won't see that on many US-built cars...

 

[Immortality]

Long story short, Holden is screwed!

/thread.

 

[arsevee]

Long story short, Holden is screwed!

/thread.

Holden as we knew it / grew up with finished when they closed the factory gates. Truth be told it was doomed a long time ago; the population mix changed, people's expectations changed, people's tastes changed (why else would people buy SUVs) and our market was just too small to allow for a diverse product portfolio.

But it was fun while it lasted

 

[Immortality]

Yep. We have a number of genuine Holdens with cult like status/following and finally the after market is starting to support those models/engine more. long live the Commodore and 304

 

[losh1971]

I love the 304, but even the 90s Holden V6 was the forerunner in the RWD convential 6 cyl cars and utes of that era. The Tickford was a decent engine too but not overly common in the poor mans cars of the 90s, unlike Buicks and Ecos.

 

[Holden17]

Public perception? because that is what counts and Toyota is winning the sales war.

Holden traded on it's "made in Aussie" and Commodore labels, effectively it has lost both of those as a major marketing/selling point even if the product wasn't maybe quiet as good as the foreign products on offer so now your choice is between foreign products you may as well take the more reliable one.

Fact is that for many years (prior to SUVs) there was absolutely no foreign product sold in Oz that could match Commodore/Falcon for the combination of family size, RWD, general cost as well as BFYB. These were the traits that the public were after and it was the foreign product which was never as good with many missing by a long shot.

Go back far enough and there was also the Valiant.

This was the one category (large sedan) that Toyota couldn’t fool the Oz public as hard as they tried...marketing the Avalon as a large car family alternative (bwahaha) as well as trying to offload Avalon models that were always a generation/series or two behind what they sold OS. Closest they got was the Aurion but it was still FWD and Camry sized rather than ‘large’.

Along came the SUVs, many of which still could not match the Commodore/Falcon in roominess and were as gutless as, but all of a sudden the public had a myriad of ‘trendy’ alternatives.

 

[blackve76]

Don't underestimate image. Holden has an image problem, and Commodore is uncool. The bulk of Australia's population lives in capital cities and the inner-city, urban thinking that permeates that cosmopolitan lifestyle loathes the concept of nationalism and Australian-made stuff suffers as a result. ZB might be made in Germany but most people don't know that, they see it as an anachronistic sedan (which it isn't) sold by an Australian company. Why would you buy something like that when you can buy something with a worldly flavour like Audi, Renault, MB, Range Rover etc and flaunt your worldly, multicultural outlook.

isn't it made in Poland?

 

[blackve76]

Long story short, Holden is screwed!

/thread.

Honestly rebadged daewoo's was the start of the end, how many of them do you see on the road bugger all I see more VS commodores