Holden market share in free fall.

[greenacc]

Exactly, so it's not really an issue of size then. Most of those things are bigger than a commodore.

 

[losh1971]

Exactly, so it's not really an issue of size then. Most of those things are bigger than a commodore.

What people want is changing. Yet Holden for so long can not get it right. The large 4WD they brought out years ago was a flop, the small SUV they have now is a sht box. For some reason their dual cab ute is not popular, even though it used to be advertised immensely on the giggle box. And now the new Commodore, right........ Too soon to say but had we kept the VF just made it in the States we might have seen GMH claw back some sales, since now we have no proper RWD sedans, now that the Falc is no more. I think the RAA was right back when Mitsi closed it's Tonsley plant. They were saying that Aust is swamped with FWD vehicles and Mitsi trying to reinvent itself with the car that replaced the Magna, which flopped should be evidence enough that medium size FWD's will never take off, when you have Camry's that have proven themselves over a number of years.

 

[Zehq]

Yeah true, but now look how many big SUVs you see around, and those massive wank tank Rangers and so on carrying nothin but a surf board or tool box.
As someone said earlier I think the purchase price was a big part of it, and that stupid Aussie sheep mentality that anything imported has to be better, yeah just like those Vanamei prawns bluurk lol

Oh yeah, Australian's are leaning towards one extreme or the other. It's either a SUV/dual cab or small car.

Purchase price has everything to do with it. The price had to be so high to maintain a profit margin great enough to support an Australian workforce. Why pay someone $40 an hour when some lad in Thailand will do it for 30c an hour? Why spend so much money on R&D (1B for the VE IIRC) when you can import another model? All this when at the end of the day someone would rather spend 20 grand on an entry level small car instead of 40 grand on a base model commodore. Give them an extra 10k and you've got a nice 2017 X-trail with more features than the commodore. Why would you spend 40k on an outdated car?

Now don't get me wrong they're still good value for money but those are precious sales figures that contribute to it. They were still selling 30k(?) commodores a year but that's a big difference from the 180k in early 2000's. EDIT: and that's a figure they can justify to maintain production. You've got to get a large market share to maintain production when there's only 25 million people in your country!

 

[losh1971]

Another big seller here in Tas in at least the north of the state is Jeeps. Seems like every man and his dog has one. I'd say Jeep sales are outselling Landcruisers by a mile, going by the few Cruisers you see compared to 10 years ago. Hilux is still popular.

 

[figjam]

Seems to be still a lot of confusion about the (old) Commodore being an Opel.
Yes and No.
If you look at the body design of GM products over the years, they all sorta look the same, as it was a ‘family’ design that had to have visual cues that were dictated by GM America.
Yes, Commodores were developed from Opels, but they were not Opels, or Vauxhalls. As example, the Vauxhall Carlton looks very much like a VN Commodore, but that’s about the only similarity. This similarity goes back to the 1950s and 60s. Shrink a Chev by 20%, put various new grilles and bootlid / taillights on it …….. voila….. the new Holden/Opel/Vauxhall,
Did anyone ever see the Chinese Landwind version of the Isuzu MU/Vauxhall/Holden Frontera ? ? Same same, but very different.
Holden never had any thing to do with Proton.
Deawoo were going down the tubes, and were bought by Holden, that’s why we ended up with bastardised Barinas, and ‘other somethings’ replacing the Astra and Vectra. (whose reliability and built quality was only just better than a Deawoo anyway )
Whose money did Holden use to buy Daewoo ? Probably yours and mine via taxpayers subsidies, laundered through Detroit.

 

[greenacc]

Same here, because Jeep now has a sporty persona somehow, and that's about all they're good for, the boot in most is so small you'd have to make to trips just to do the weekly shopping. But land cruisers are fkn massive and gas guzzlers so I wouldn't buy one either unless I was going around OZ or buying a massive boat!

 

[losh1971]

Holden never had any thing to do with Proton.

Any idea who it was Holden was in bed with back when the VT's and VX's were being made. Like I said it was front page news. I was supporting a new employee at Southgate Holden when the sht went down. At the time it was quite controversial. Employees weren't allowed to talk about it. I asked a manager a question about it and was told they were no longer attached to the Co. Maybe it was an Adelaide thing and interstate dealers weren't involved??? But I remember it not only being in the news but also on Today Tonight.

 

[figjam]

Proton are a Malaysian manufacturer who bought Lotus, and made much of that heritage by boldly proclaiming that their cars had brilliant handling and engines.

Are you thinking Suzuki ? Holden Barina/Suzuki Swift, Holden Drover/Suzuki Sierra. The Suzuki Baleno of that period looked like a little Commodore / Statesman. (if you squinted with one eye closed and used your imagination)

During that time most home grown badges in Australia suffered from the Button Plan badge engineering.
Holden Commodore /Toyota Lexcen, and Toyota Corolla /Holden Nova, Toyota Camry/ Holden Apollo, Nissan Pulsar / Holden Astra, Ford Falcon Nissan ute, Ford Kia/Mazda Fiesta Festiva, Ford Bronco Nissan Patrol, Ford Mazda Telstar 626, Laser 323 …… real dogs breakfast.

 

[losh1971]

Not one of the above. I remember it being more of a partnership of sorts. I searched the Net for it but I think it was too long ago. It wasn't a major brand like those above at the time not in Aust at least.

 

[greenacc]

The Ford version of the patrol was the Maverick! The add had a song something about a "big maverick" ?