Australia’s favourite car for 16 years prepares for its last hurrah

[csv8]

Australia’s favourite car for 16 years prepares for its last hurrah
The Holden Commodore’s 16-year reign as the country’s top-selling car – the longest winning streak in Australian automotive history – is likely to come to an end next year.

But there’s every chance a Holden will still be on top of the car sales charts with the ramp up in production of the Cruze sedan and hatch.

Motoring.com.au understands Holden is planning to scale-back production of the Commodore in 2012 in anticipation of weakening demand during what will be the vehicle’s sixth year on sale.

When Holden unveiled this generation Commodore in 2006 – before the Global Financial Crisis and the swing to more economical cars – an all-new model was expected in five or six years, according to the then managing director, Denny Mooney.

Holden executives today say publicly “customers will decide” which is Australia’s top-selling car next year, however privately Holden has already locked away production plans for at least the next 40 weeks – almost a full year – and, as per normal, has given order forecasts to component suppliers.

Holden would not disclose to the media whether its planned production output next year favours the Cruze or the Commodore. But it did say the forecast production of each model can be adjusted marginally about three months in advance.

During a phone conference with Federal Industry Minister, Senator Kim Carr on Monday, the sales and marketing boss of Holden John Elsworth said Holden would sell a “similar” number of Commodores and Cruzes next year – but would not be drawn into which would be the top seller among the two.

“We want to build the number one and number two [selling] cars in Australia. At the moment we build number one and number five,” he said. “We are absolutely committed to making cars in Australia. What we make will be determined by what the market wants.”

Sales of large cars such as the Holden Commodore have been in steady decline over the past decade as buyers have shifted to small cars, soft-roaders and crew-cab pick-ups.

In 2011, the Holden Commodore has faced its biggest battle in the history of the nameplate. It has swapped the lead swapped six times with the Mazda3 and has also been beaten by the Corolla to the top of the charts on three individual months.

With two months of the year remaining, the Commodore is only a few hundred sales ahead of the Mazda3 – 34,995 versus 34,624 according to VFACTS data from January to October 2011.

Mazda Australia has said it would not discount cars in an attempt to claim top-seller status. Last month the managing director of Mazda Australia, Doug Dickson, said he’s “not going to die in a ditch” if the Mazda3 doesn’t outsell the Commodore.

“I know it sounds a bit trite but we don’t see that as something that will help us,” he said. “If it happens that’s great but it’s not something that we actually set out to do. It’s not that important for us.”

In October, the top-three selling passenger cars were small hatchbacks or sedans: the Toyota Corolla, Volkswagen Golf and Mazda3. The Golf had its best month on record thanks to sharp drive-away deals that ended on October 31, and which prompted some dealers to register cars to cash-in on the incentive before it expired.

The Cruze ranked fifth but will get a lift next year with the arrival of a hatchback model, which typically accounts for 58 per cent of sales in the segment.

Holden has launched the new Cruze with a promotional price of $21,990 drive-away for the sedan or hatch. New for 2012, all models – sedan and hatch – now come with voice activated Bluetooth phone connectivity and changes to the suspension to improve ride and handling.

The Holden Cruze sedan went on sale in Australia in June 2009 as an imported vehicle from Korea. But with $149 million in taxpayer assistance from state and federal governments, the sedan went into production at Holden’s factory in Adelaide in March this year and the hatch came on line locally this month (November).

The Cruze’s addition to production capacity has enabled Holden to add a second shift, 300 jobs, and improve the viability of its local manufacturing operations. Holden says it will build 100,000 cars this year, the highest annual output since the GFC, but still at least 50 per cent short of its peak of 165,000 units in 2004.

More than half of the parts that make up a Cruze are sourced from overseas but Holden says it is gradually increasing the number of components sourced from local suppliers.

Meanwhile, a survey by Holden revealed 30 per cent of owners of the original, Korean-built Cruze thought it was made in Australia.

But since local production began, Holden says its research found 92 per cent of Cruze buyers know it is now made in Australia – and 75 per cent of Cruze buyers said it was a factor in their purchasing decision. My comment Could this be why the Cruze is selling way above Focus etc????

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[Poetic Justice]

Originally Posted by csv8

doh My comment Could this be why the Cruze is selling way above Focus etc????

I would say it's almost a certainty.

We've always known Holden's marketing of Australian built vehicles is successful.,

[Powdered Toast Man]

Most layman people believe most Holden models are built in Australia, and that Holden is the only Australian automotive manufacturer.

I mean I even had a Holden fan uni mate who was a little into cars be surprised that the Falcon was made in Australia. He thought it was American!

[Nikked]

Perhaps this is why FoA didn't want to build the focus here?

[Brazen]

Way small cars are going, be very suprised if Commodore isnt overtaken before a new model comes out.

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mell...25794200051D10

News - Market Insight Market Insight 2011 Market Insight: Small is the new big

Small but growing: While sales of light, medium and large cars have declined in 2011, the small-car segment continues its upward climb.

Trend-defying increase for the small-car segment in Australia
8 November 2011
By DAVID HASSALL
AUSTRALIANS have been increasingly turning to small cars for the past decade – and never has that trend been more obvious than in 2011.

While sales in the three other main passenger car segments are all down this year, breaking the recent upward momentum in the light and medium segments, small-car sales have continued to flourish and are ahead by 1.8 per cent year-to-date.

That puts the small-car segment on track for a record 240,000 units in 2011 – 25,000 more than last year and some 80,000 units ahead of where the segment was just 10 years ago.

In percentage terms, the light and medium segments might have shown the highest growth rates over the past decade – increasing by 98.9 per cent and 93.3 per cent respectively since 2002 versus 48.8 per cent for small cars – but in terms of sheer volume the small-car segment rules. That 80,000 increase comfortably beats 66,000 for light and 36,000 for medium.

Of course, the big loser in the passenger car market has been large cars, the home of the traditional Aussie family car and once such a dominant segment that all the others were comparatively niche markets.

Since crashing through the 200,000 barrier in 2003, sales of large cars have been in rapid decline and are projected to finish this year below 80,000 for the first time – not far ahead of the medium segment, which could surpass it in 2012 unless Falcon and Commodore sales suddenly recover.

From top: Holden Commodore, Ford Falcon, Toyota Corolla and Volkswagen Golf.

Small-car sales have undoubtedly benefited from a number of factors, not least the rising price of petrol, but buyers are also seemingly responding to more luxurious equipment levels, more substantial build quality, larger interior dimensions and better performance from engines that are bigger, more efficient, turbocharged or even diesel.

A Toyota Corolla – the top-selling small car in 2002 and second only to the Mazda3 so far this year – is as spacious and comfortable as a medium-size Camry of only a couple of decades ago.

While the fleet-friendly Corolla has lost its small-car crown to the Mazda3, which dominates private sales, Toyota will sell as many this year (about 34,000 for a 14.7 per cent share) as it did back in 2002 when it accounted for a whopping 21.2 per cent of the segment.

Like everything about the highly competitive Australian motor industry, the small-car market is a rich tapestry of choice for the consumer, offering some 31 models this year compared with only 23 a decade ago.

Long-running badges including Ford’s Focus, Honda’s Civic, Hyundai’s Elantra, Mitsubishi’s Lancer, Subaru’s Impreza and Volkswagen’s Golf still appear on menu alongside Corolla, indicating a strong sense of loyalty in the segment. Even Nissan will bring back its Pulsar badge next year after a sad affair with Tiida.

Significantly, all but Elantra and, possibly, Corolla will exceed their sales of a decade ago, despite the massive growth in sales for newcomers such as the Mazda3 (which will sell more than 40,000 compared with 16,000 for its 323 predecessor a decade ago), Holden Cruze (about 35,000 compared with 27,000 Astras in 2002) and Hyundai i30 (about 30,000).

But perhaps the most remarkable small-car story is the Golf, a nameplate that has been around since 1974 – almost as long as the 45-year-old Corolla badge. Last month the ubiquitous VW achieved a quite incredible 3337 sales for the month thanks to a driveaway pricing campaign. That not only made it the third-highest-selling car in Australia for the month, but placed it ahead of the top-selling Commodore.

Furthermore, even though it is still only fifth on the small-car ladder year-to-date, and may even drop back to sixth behind the Lancer when the final scores of 2011 are tallied, the Golf has outsold the Ford Falcon to the end of October. When the dust settles at year’s end, the Falcon may be back on top, but the imagery could not be clearer: the move to small cars is undeniable.

For further clear imagery, look no further than the sleepy northern Adelaide suburb of Elizabeth, where once 100,000-plus Commodores rolled out annually. Now, as Commodore volumes drop to half that level, GM’s new Cruze – now in a tight tussle with Corolla for second on the small-car sales table – is taking up the slack and could soon account for half the plant’s annual output.

As improbable as it would have seemed until very recently, Cruze could usurp Commodore as Holden’s biggest seller in Australia as early as next year. As well as making Ford Australia ponder the wisdom of not building its Focus here after all, this will confirm that small is the new big.

[zoomie]

My dad had a bloke a couple of years ago tell him how damn good his Australian built Holden Rodeo was!
He was very annoyed when my dad quite rightly corrected him and proceeded to tell him that the rodeo was infact a rebadged Isuzu built overseas and imported into the country.....

The guy wouldnt believe it and said that ALL holdens are made here in Australia cos holden is a Australian company and that my dad was just a jealous Ford lover cos his XR6Turbo is only a imported piece of junk from america....

That shows how easily brain washed alot of holden owners are.

[Neale]

I think that Ford like to promote the focus as being european like the Golf.

But Im sure holden can sell the cruise as an Australian car, from an Australian company. When its a rebadged Korean daewoo from a company thats owned by the American government.

[Legit290]

goodbye and good riddance opel commodore vauxhall gto poxbox

[2011G6E]

Holden has succesfully been able to distance itself from GM in America by virtue of having a name of it's own..."Holden". It used to be "General Motors - Holden" (with a pause in the middle clearly saying they were just a division of GM), then "General Motors Holden" (all one phrase), then "GMH", and now they don't seem to like to mention the "GM" part anymore. They're "Holden", an old Australian company with a long and proud history.

Ford simply cannot do this...they've always been Ford, always will be Ford. They can add "Australia" after the brand name, but they're still subconsiously seen as "a part of that Yank car company", an image that is extremely difficult to shift, if not impossible.

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

Holden has succesfully been able to distance itself from GM in America by virtue of having a name of it's own..."Holden". It used to be "General Motors - Holden" (with a pause in the middle clearly saying they were just a division of GM), then "General Motors Holden" (all one phrase), then "GMH", and now they don't seem to like to mention the "GM" part anymore. They're "Holden", an old Australian company with a long and proud history.

Ford simply cannot do this...they've always been Ford, always will be Ford. They can add "Australia" after the brand name, but they're still subconsiously seen as "a part of that Yank car company", an image that is extremely difficult to shift, if not impossible.

except every spare part has GM on it...

[351capri]

Originally Posted by zoomie

My dad had a bloke a couple of years ago tell him how damn good his Australian built Holden Rodeo was!
He was very annoyed when my dad quite rightly corrected him and proceeded to tell him that the rodeo was infact a rebadged Isuzu built overseas and imported into the country.....

The guy wouldnt believe it and said that ALL holdens are made here in Australia cos holden is a Australian company and that my dad was just a jealous Ford lover cos his XR6Turbo is only a imported piece of junk from america....

That shows how easily brain washed alot of holden owners are.

Hit the nail right on the head mate, and this is the only reason why an outdated p. o. s. and a rebadged daewoo(read cruze) outsell clearly better vehicles built by FORD. Red sheep will always be, well, red sheep!

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by csv8

My comment Could this be why the Cruze is selling way above Focus etc????

I think it would be more likely due to feature content, price point and being drowned with advertising. Ford on the other hand has been sporadically advertising the new Focus, they have the wrong (low series) variants on offer that nobody wants, and the price point is a bit off.

[Bossxr8]

They can't get the supplies they want out of Europe either. The sooner the Focus comes from Thailand the better, should also either allow a lower RRP or increased equipment levels too.

[NX74205]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

They can't get the supplies they want out of Europe either. The sooner the Focus comes from Thailand the better, should also either allow a lower RRP or increased equipment levels too.

But that might come with a (slight) decrease in build quality. I've driven the latest Focus and its build quality is hard to fault. I've also driven the Fiesta when it was imported from Europe, but haven't driven the latest version imported from Thailand, so I guess I can't really compare.

[LightningStrike]

Any word on when Thai Focus imports start?
I have a red Titanium on order for my Mum which is expected in December - I am expecting this to still be Euro......

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by NX74205

But that might come with a (slight) decrease in build quality. I've driven the latest Focus and its build quality is hard to fault. I've also driven the Fiesta when it was imported from Europe, but haven't driven the latest version imported from Thailand, so I guess I can't really compare.

The focus is built in south africa...im sure tailand can do better

[Joe5619]

Originally Posted by Nikked

The focus is built in south africa...im sure tailand can do better

the old focus was built in souht Africa.. The new one is built in germany, for now. It will move to Thai late next year..