HOLDEN had asked the government for more taxpayer money to build fewer cars using a s

[c2105026]

Yeh but what replaces it probably won't sell at 2000 units a month, unless it's as gobsmackingly good as the original VB was in its day.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Well actually , there is something touted to replace the Commodore.

Yes, the Falcon.

 

[Reaper]

The ad for the malibu was on for about a week, it was how the car wasn't beige etc. not a very interesting ad. Ford and Mazda ads are IMHO much more interesting.

Could it be that the holden brand itself has an image problem?

Established names sell; Camry has been around for almost 30 years. Mazda 6 is based off the 626, been here for 35 years. Its also possibly the only reason why commodore and falcon sell anything at all to non-enthusiasts.

mid size holden cycle has gone like this - Torana 1974-1980, Camira 1982-1989, Apollo 1989-1997, Vectra 1997-2005, Epica 2005-? (I forget). Keep chopping and changing. Stick with the one name plate.

You could be right, however the Commodore smashes the Camry, Mazda 6 and Falcon out of the park. Has done for near 20 years and even today continues to do so. As for name plates - yeah it takes a long time to get buyer recognition from the non-enthusiast. TBH it's something Ford have struggled with too since the demise of the Laser badge. As for Nissan and their Pulsar/Tida fiasco - wow - yet another case of the mother ship knows best and ####ing over what was an excellent market for them. (Detroit are guilty of this with FoMoCoAus too).

 

[Calaber]

The problem with some name plates is that they are forever associated with duds. The Camira is a nameplate that would never be revived, yet the basic car was well engineered. It was just poorly built and rusted severely, as well as being underpowered in its first version. Cortina had a great name during the '60's, but the TC spoilt it with similar quality probs to the Camira. Later Cortinas weren't well made, either. So much for the Cortina....

Commodore, Falcon, Corolla, Camry are names carried on for year after year, model after model, but they succeeded because each one never really had a bad model. Some were just better than others. The names stuck and some will be missed when they finally disappear.

 

[Calaber]

Yeh but what replaces it probably won't sell at 2000 units a month, unless it's as gobsmackingly good as the original VB was in its day.

Wouldn't they love to be building HQ numbers. 11,000 per month at its peak. (just under half a million in 46 months) And a popular smaller car (Torana) running alongside on the production lines, too.

 

[Reaper]

The problem with some name plates is that they are forever associated with duds. The Camira is a nameplate that would never be revived, yet the basic car was well engineered. It was just poorly built and rusted severely, as well as being underpowered in its first version. Cortina had a great name during the '60's, but the TC spoilt it with similar quality probs to the Camira. Later Cortinas weren't well made, either. So much for the Cortina....

You are right - the early Camira was light years ahead of it's competition in the way it drove. Sadly, soft rings, rust and numerous other quality issues trashed that brand. The last of them were actually very well sorted and great cars. Unfortunately the damage was done. Why Holden retired the Torana name is beyond me though.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Wouldn't they love to be building HQ numbers. 11,000 per month at its peak. (just under half a million in 46 months) And a popular smaller car (Torana) running alongside on the production lines, too.

But there weren't eleventy billion imports on the market either.

 

[Calaber]

But there weren't eleventy billion imports on the market either.

That's right, and as Reaper has pointed out numerous times, the sort of numbers that led to market leadership twenty years ago are numbers that distributors and local manufacturers can only dream of today.

 

[slr74]

I believe the marketing for Holden has been one HUGE f*** up in my opinion. Someone clearly had their balls up their a** with the release of the VF for example. They new it would be an all or nothing situation with the VF, all the cards were on the table with no tricks up the sleeves... YET the only real advertising was on the internet eg Facebook? These adverts or promotions were seen only if you 'liked' Holden on FB ,meaning you were already were a Holden fan. It makes no damn sense at all. Holden didn't really need to sell the VF hardcore to the people out there who already loved the brand now did they? What they needed was to bring those back that had converted to Nissan, Toyota, Kia ect ect... Yes there was the odd advert on TV but I tell you what if my business was relying on the sales of a car I would throw all I could into making sure everyone knew about it.
Two months after the release of the VF I Was watching a current affair and they were doing a story on car technology. The technology was on a crash avoidance warning,heads up display and a few other safety features, It was on a 250k Merc. Well they done the whole speel on the fantastic new tech and at the end they said they hope one day it will come to an Australian car and be affordable to us???? I couldn't f****** believe it. What about the VF? It had every feature they spoke about.
To top this off I went into 4 different Holden dealerships in Perth after the VF release to see if they could 'sell' me a car. I couldn't believe it. I was horrified as they didn't know bugger all about the car. At Goldy Holden (Midland) I went in and walked around the new Redline as salesman and women walked around totally ignoring me. I did this for 20 minutes all the while getting furious that these are the people on the front line with the future of the company I hold so close to my heart. I eventually asked one of the wandering salesmen can they please talk to me about buying a VF. Well they guy knew very little about the car and stared blankly when I told him so. He didn't know about the bare boys or the crash avoidance just to name a few. So here I am thinking ok this is just one dealer. Well again I was horrified when the following 3 dealerships weren't much better.
I called Holden direct and told them what had happened to which they replied " we don't own that side of the business, they are all franchises and there's nothing they can do". I wrote official letters to Holden and called HSV as well. Nothing.

Excuse me while I drive my head through a window!
Sorry for the long rant guys but this whole thing sickens me to the core!

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Major franchises have the misconception that the cars sell themselves. To a certain extent, they do. Most buyers these days are well read on the make and model they want and often know more about the car than the sales people. You proved that. Were you looking to show off with your knowledge or were you trying to prove the sales people wrong? You clearly know a lot about the features of the VF already, were you really looking to buy a car or just test the sales people?

Marketing has very little to do with sales figures, it's more about pricing and fleet deals. Fleet sales account for the majority of big brand numbers, not retail. When the fleet buyers are looking at nothing more than safety rating, how "green" the car is and the price, big Australian cars miss out. Holden should have realigned their focus on selling the car rather than building to fill fleet orders. If they scaled down and focused on the retail market earlier on, and maybe built cars that filled a niche rather than doing what they have always done and hoped for the orders to roll in, maybe they would still be viable today. Sure, they wouldn't be breaking any records, but they would still be making and selling cars.

That's what I think anyway. It's a changing market for new cars and Holden need to roll with the punches and concede they are will not be the biggest and best for ever.