Holden Acadia - Kills ZB.

[tuckerbag]

The writing has been on the wall for at least a decade when it comes to dealerships and their decline. Any dealership or staff member who hasnt decided to be proactive in the hope that things magically turn around have been kidding themselves.

The way they treat their customers like mugs is finally coming back to bite them i’d reckon

 

[Sabbath']

The way they treat their customers like mugs is finally coming back to bite them i’d reckon

Less to do with that and more an unsustainable business model.

 

[blackve76]

If our local dealership is any indication, the days of exclusively dealing with one brand are long gone. If you look at dealerships today, you'll find many are multi-franchises and sensibly, have widened their range to include those brands which are doing well. I look at our local Holden dealer and I see a Colorado and an Acadia in the showroom, with a few examples of other new models along the front row in the yard and maybe, a used VF or 2. The other side of the yard is Hyundai and Nissan, with many more new examples of those brands than there are new Holdens on show. I think its fair to say that the Holden sales and service staff of today will happily stay on to sell the brands of car Australians are buying tomorrow and next week.

Agreed but cars sales are down a massive amount compared to last year(across the board) there has to be jobs lost, for instance less apprentice ships offered etc. I have 2 mates in industry one at ford(have Toyota as well) dealer one at a holden dealer the difference betwwen the 2 is chalk and cheese. Fleet sale of rangers as insane they cant get enough cars holden dealer sold more used than new last month

 

[Calaber]

Agreed but cars sales are down a massive amount compared to last year(across the board) there has to be jobs lost, for instance less apprentice ships offered etc. I have 2 mates in industry one at ford(have Toyota as well) dealer one at a holden dealer the difference betwwen the 2 is chalk and cheese. Fleet sale of rangers as insane they cant get enough cars holden dealer sold more used than new last month

Yep, you're right. I was forgetting the current sales pattern. Last month YTD Holden 34,000, Toyota 154,000. Unbelievable because the Toyota range really isn't all that bloody marvellous either.

 

[Immortality]

Nope, but for the A to B crowd the plain Jane toyota that requires only servicing once a year is brilliant.

 

[tuckerbag]

Nope, but for the A to B crowd the plain Jane toyota that requires only servicing once a year is brilliant.

And retains a bit of resale unlike the holden crap of late

 

[losh1971]

Unfortunately for Holden they have had a bed rep for some time. I think thi is part of the reason the Dore sales dropped. Compared to Toyota it would seem Holdens have more than their fair share of problems. Lets face it VFs shouldn't have engine issues including V8s. Hate to say it but for some reason the manufacturing quality dropped over the last 10 or more years. Other makes have also dropped their standards but it would seem that Holden have been bad as some of the other real junkers we see on the streets now. Which to me is sad because a nice VF SS look **** hot but to have some significant issues arrise this soon after production is a concern.

 

[Holden17]

Nope, but for the A to B crowd the plain Jane toyota that requires only servicing once a year is brilliant.

Not up with all Toyota models and their servicing schedules but a quite conservative mate had a couple of Yaris models in a row from new. It was their only car because they lived on a tight budget yet fuel economy was well above what you would expect from a little buzz box and servicing was every 6 months...all perception that Toyota was the only manufacturer capable of building cars that didn’t break down and their smaller models had to be the best available economically speaking...not reality (but it would be the absolute soulless driving that would kill me).

 

[Immortality]

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.

 

[arsevee]

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.

Yep, and for too long; there's only so long that brand loyalty & brand equity can keep you going... I've bought Ford & Holden in the past because they were locally made (same as grocery shopping, which is becoming increasingly difficult to do) - now that local manufacturing has gone, it 'frees-up' the choice - I suspect that others feel the same way.

Also there's more choice of 'niche' vehicles, so it's no longer a choice between a Falcon, a Kingswood, a Valiant or cheap & nasty Japanese car.

The buying public moved on, Holden didn't sadly.

I am slightly concerned that Holden may be gone altogether in a few years; either GM drops the pretence & the Holden name, or Inchcape buys the brand and slaps a Lion onto the full range of PSA Opels.

If GM does give the game away (after all we're a much smaller market than Opel/Vauxhall were) and just feck off back to 'Murica, I wonder what we're going to do for warranty, spares etc.