Will ZB be the end of GM in Australia

[vs-lover]

Happen to have about half an hour to kill between my son's last umpiring appointment and his playing game at a different location and thus we stopped at Kittle Holden (formally Smiths of Port Adelaide) yesterday and got out to have a good look at the new ZB's etc.

At a glance my thoughts were, imagine if these had a V8 in them, no one would be whinging much at all. After looking at a few and especially at the wagon offering my thoughts were no thanks, they just look like many other cars on the road (boring) and they really didn't stand out like the many new VF's they still had in the yard. I will say though that I do like the dash layout of the Calais much more than the VF, I was never a fan of the VF instrument and radio knob layout. The VB layout just flows so much better IMHO. The centre console looks so tall off the floor pan next to the drivers knees and thus replicating the looks of a kid in the corner store reaching up asking for a bag of mixed lollies to the shopkeeper behind the counter.

One thing that's already telling the story and that is one ZB had written on it's side window "Was $44,000, Now $38,000", well if that's not telling the story I don't know what is.

I feel that dealers will quit them at much lower prices just to get rid of them and not order many more. I also feel that many Holden Dealers will now reconsider their position of being Holden Dealers and move to other brands like Hyundai and Mazda.

One longterm dealer here in Adelaide has already moved on to Haval after a massive falling out with the general.

It's a sign of the times I guess.

 

[Calaber]

I've been a Holden man for over fifty years since dad bought an FC in 1965. I've gone to the dealers every time a new model was released, even getting an advance viewing of the HK two weeks before they were let loose on the public. Every new model since 1968. Until now. I still haven't bothered to go to the local dealer and look the ZB over. And I don't know if, or when, I will.

 

[apollo13]

Didn't know the Falcon had that bad a rep that the name needed to be removed from Ford altogether. The E series were pretty ordinary. Although the redtop engines were pretty decent. But no different to some of the Commodore line up that had and still do have a bad rep.

Well they had the crap diff in the BA, and finally fixed it in FG series II. Then the automatic transmission heat exchanger problem.
But I have a cousin with a fleet of taxis. He tells me the LPG Barra was a brilliant engine - it will last forever and ever (3 times as long as anything else in the car)

 

[vc commodore]

The BA XR6 Turbo diffs were swapped under warranty when they were about 2 years old. The standard Falcon diffs seemed to be fine, when they were a couple of years old. I also heard a few V8 diffs went kerbang, but that was due to abuse, not everyday driving.

Yes, the trans cooler located inside the radiator has a problem, where it would split, causing water and trans fluid to mix....The solution was to by pass it with an aftermarket transmission cooler.

 

[Mike Litherous]

I've been a Holden man for over fifty years since dad bought an FC in 1965. I've gone to the dealers every time a new model was released, even getting an advance viewing of the HK two weeks before they were let loose on the public. Every new model since 1968. Until now. I still haven't bothered to go to the local dealer and look the ZB over. And I don't know if, or when, I will.

Yes I’ve been partial to the Holden brand since I had my LX torana back in 85’. The prognosis is not good. Hope dosent go the way of GM SAAB. I guess at the end of the day market forces will dicktate what happens. Either ppl will buy the product or it won’t. So far they aren’t.

I feel sorry for the dealers but perhaps they should have seen it coming. It’s been telegraphed for a few years now. My local dealer seems to have a small volkswagen pocket as well as Suzuki, Nissan, and those Isuzu and ldv so they will be fine.

It’s the standalone holden dealers who will be doing it tough

 

[figjam]

I've been a Holden man for over fifty years since dad bought an FC in 1965. I've gone to the dealers every time a new model was released, even getting an advance viewing of the HK two weeks before they were let loose on the public. Every new model since 1968. Until now. I still haven't bothered to go to the local dealer and look the ZB over. And I don't know if, or when, I will.

Geez ….. totally agree.
And as you mentioned an FC, I drove Dad’s FC ute on a lot of unsealed roads in far western Qld as an underage driver. On its skinny rims,and 6.40x13 tyres it handled the outback stony roads competently. I think that my decision to leave the VZ at the end of the sealed roads on the way to Birdsville recently was justified. That part of Oz belongs to Toyota these days.
Bought my first new Holden in 1968, and since 1974, I and immediate family members, have bought 11 Holdens, or badge engineered Holdens from the same dealership. The rot started in 2003 when they told me that they couldn’t sell me a Monaro due to supply problems. BS or laziness ?
I won’t go into the servicing problems that I had since then with this dealership with 3 of my cars, but in the end, I told the service manage that his staff’s product knowledge, competence and attitude was just not good enough, for one example, how hard is it to tighten an oil filter and replace the stone tray under the sump.
The last time I seriously looked at buying a ‘real’ Holden was in 2010 when I (unselfishly and generously) offered to buy my wife a V8 Calais wagon. She insisted on a Territory Ghia, which so far has been a good choice.
I don’t know if the reason I haven’t looked at a ZB is because I am really, really crapped off with GM’s decision to close the Holden plant, or indifference because it is ‘just another FWD’ amongst the same-same crowd, or ho-hum styling which doesn’t tug at the automotive emotions and wallet (I have seen one so far on the road, followed it in the adjacent lane for a while), or the ‘unproved in Australia’ drive train and its complexities.
GM will not regret calling the ZB a Commodore, nor the advertising which effectively dismissed their previous customers, nor the poor reputation of their service departments, nor the current ‘chuck a dart at the board and see where it lands’ offerings ……... GM will most likely not even notice that Holden once were here, and soon they will be not.

 

[losh1971]

To me owning a Holden or Ford used to be about your heritage. Back when I was at school you were either a Holden man or Ford man, you even had the jackets to prove it and often this was based on the preferences of your parents, myself hating Fords but loving Holden's. There was the few Chrysler blokes but they were few and far between and they dropped off even more once the Chrysler's pulled out of their two Adelaide factories. And if you drove a Jap car it was nearly always called Jap Crap. When I think back when the Commodore was introduced some of the folk sort of lost the nostalgia of what was really known back then as the true Holden's, those being the H Series and it's predecessors plus some of the Torana's. I remember that it took a while for people in my circles to warm to the Commodore, some used to even say Commodores were not true Holden's. I guess the difference now is that the ZB is so far removed from an old Holden or even late Commodore it's not funny. I wonder if they would have done better to have at least kept the ZB range as RWD, instead of playing follow the leader.

 

[tml678]

I feel sorry for the dealers but perhaps they should have seen it coming

Not if they're the same dealers who were absolutely rorting their VFII customers last year with inexcusable price gouging on delivery charges. What was normally around the $1-$2k mark ended up over $5k..how this could be justified I'll never know. And stories are still abound of these ars_wipes STILL refusing to budge off RRP for their remaining VF's, which are at a minimum, now eight months old.

People have long memories, and while they sucked it up because they wanted a final-run car, good luck getting them back in the door for return custom, ain't gunna happen. You reap what you sow..

 

[VS 5.0]

how this could be justified I'll never know.

Because they could see the writing on the wall....make hay while the sun shines etc.

 

[tml678]

Because they could see the writing on the wall....make hay while the sun shines etc.

That's my point, they were price gouging. The extra charges had no basis in reality.