Last March, Holden posted a record-low sales month. In July, Holden bested it with just 3,927 new cars sold, according to Wheels.
The dismal sales performance saw Holden slip to the ninth best-selling brand in Australia. Rival Ford sits in fifth place while Toyota and Mazda still dominate the market. To put Holden’s sub-4,000 sales figure into perspective, Toyota sold nearly as many HiLux pickups than Holden sold of its entire vehicle portfolio.
The 2018 ZB Commodore range and Holden Equinox have failed to spur sales, but the Holden Colorado did see an uptick in sales. Every other Holden vehicle was down in July. Holden’s sales were down a whopping 39.3 percent.
Holden also failed to crack a top-ten best-selling vehicle in July.
The brand brought in former Toyota chief Dave Buttner as its latest chairman and managing director in an attempt to redirect Holden’s path post local manufacturing. Buttner officially started the job August 1 and plans to tour Australia and speak with dealership councils to understand where the company has gone wrong.
This example is a former NCRS award winner.
Many automakers oppose right-to-repair laws citing cybersecurity concerns.
Breaking out the spec sheets for a comparison.
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Extra comfort for rear-seated passengers.
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I can tell you one of things they did wrong: killed off the VF Commodore. That was an absolutely outstanding car, and even though I love my 6th gen ZL1, I miss my '16 SS that I traded... such a GREAT car, and incredibly sad that GM/Holden killed it off.
More sales then I am interested in seeing! Holden gets exactly what they asked for. The Australian people did this to themselves and they have nobody else to blame! Can you say the next GM car company to be sold?
Wow! Guess the plan for Australia is a failure? Who is making these decisions? Case of telling consumers what the y should like and buy. All that history and loyalty flushed away.
GM could sell Holden to PSA, they will fix it!
If that means that I as a GM fan never have to hear the name Holden in reference to GM then I am all for it! Get rid of them, they are not loyal and they make excuses blaming everybody but themselves for the predicament they are in!
GM took all of the kool cars away from Australia as a punishment for being so disloyal to the parent company GM. Now GM will give them fun cars and make the people of Australia pay threw the nose for them which I love to see and hear!
To the people that support holden good riddance! I'd rather make less money and not have you around anymore! Maybe if you supported GM more then I would have more sympathy for you and your supporters!
Brian - your puerile comments just prove what an ignorant tw_t you really are. Thought you'd like to know,
If ignorant you mean tells the truth? Then I have zero issues with it! The Australian people are not loyal and now they are learning what the punishment for that is!
The people of Australia would of had a thriving car business if they had stayed loyal to GM and therefore Holden. But you decided to allow other car manufacturers in and bought them instead of your home grown cars from holden!
If you had not ran to the competition you would still have a automotive industry but now you dont!
That's truth! It must be hard to except!
This Brian has really strange conceptions of the relations of a profit making business with its customers.
Brian sees the business not as a profit making venture, but as an ailing charity which has to be supported by alms, or as a religious institution, a church, which is supported by loyal believers by regular dues payment.
The reality is different. The customers buy what they deem the best offer. A "brand loyalty" might play a role in that one would look first at offers of a business using that brand, but not in buying something expensive out of mercy for the seller. Exceptions are low value items like a set of postcards "painted with the mouth" you might buy from an asylum for handicapped.
That said, I don't think that the cars offered by GM under the Holden brand are crappy and there is no need for mercy towards GM.
It is just that the way the switch from the Zeta based Commodore to the E2XX based Commodore was coupled with closing the manufacturing on Australia. I consider this to be a marketing error.
But fact is, automobile manufacturing is ending completely in Australia, not only by GM. As I understand, GM was the last to close their manufacturing after Ford and Toyota.
Brian - In that case, Brian who exactly was being "punished" when GM went bust and had to be bailed out by the US taxpayer? And who is being punished today with 18% of new car buyers in the US who choose GM cars and the 82% who buy from someone else?
You are correct, the truth is hard to accept - I find it very hard to accept that GM totally screwed up Holden, massively mismanaged Vauxhall/Opel then gave it away and sent GM Korea down the toilet all completed in under two years.
I'm a GM's fan but I'm disappointed to see that they reduce their world footprint because GM is unable to improve what is essential: The reliability, the customer satisfaction. I'm sure that as Opel you could give Holden to an other automakers to manage, they will do better. Holden have no more the apology for producing in australia and their products haven't the good reputation of japanese cars. The GM car has a poor reputation in the world! They are goner!
They should have sold the Zeta platform to Guido Dumarey, so at least somebody could keep making it.
The big problem is that Holden no longer have their own vehicle. They're now flogging off crappy GM vehicles with a Holden badge. Not too many Aussies are going to be loyal to a 2nd rate company that sells 2nd rate vehicles.
The quicker Holden fails and GM get their rubbish out of Australia the better.
The "GM vehicles" Holden is currently "flogging" are not at all crappy.
The entire model range is either mediocre or above average... let's not let hyperbole get in the way of a decent discussion.
This is the result of Mary Barra's "America First" policy :
Spark - gone.
Barina - gone.
Astra sedan - gone.
Astra hatch - gone by 2019.
Captiva - gone.
Equinox - gone by 2019.
Commodore - ?
Colorado/Trailblazer - ?
It is patently clear to everyone that GM is going to quit the Australian market. No one wants an orphan.
This is exactly right.
Half of the current model range has either been discontinued or is about to be axed (Captiva and Barina) and replaced with new models that have much higher prices. This is resulting in much less volume.
It does feel like GM is going to pull out. It's not a matter of if, but probably when. Unless they plan to hold out selling much less volume, but the dealers will go broke in the interim or lose complete interest in the brand altogether, if they haven't already.
The experiment with the Holden name on an Opel does not seem to be working. The Australian public know when they are having one put over on them (conned). Now that the French have bought Opel they will try and sell us French Holdens. How ridiculous does that sound? Don't try to con us, just put the manufacturers name on the car. Give credit where it is due and if it is any good it will sell.
@Rob:
I am convinced that after the expiration of the life cyle of the current models (Insignia, Astra, Cascada), GM will no more source Buicks and Holdens from Opel factories.
And please accept the fact that the time is gone long ago that the name on the factory entry is the same name on the products churned out inside.
And third, I think that the problem for the Holden brand is the coupling of ending assembly in Australia with replacing the old Commodore by the new ZB Commodore as import. They should have uncoupled the two events by first moving the Commodore assembly line to the underutilized Gunsan factory of GM Korea, and only a year later replacing the old Commodore from Korea by a new one from Europe.
Costly from the production standpoint, but a useful marketing expense. People like to be cheated.
holdens own fault for producing poorly designed cars for last twenty years,simular faults through the years.
GM becomes regional company - only cash cows U.S. and China market is actual target - do not care about the rest of of the world. Traditional market like Europe or Australia is ready to be linked to virtual trash can. GM only cares about money for its management and shareholders. Costumers satisfaction, tradition or ecological aspects are on the last position. Cheap crappy products for a lot of money is new GM philosophy.
If the people of Australia would of continued to support holden and therefore GM then car production would of never stopped. The Australian people turned their back on their home town car company and now they get what they deserve. No industry, no kool cars without sky high prices.
Brian seems to think that GM is a charity which is dependent on alms offered as sacrifice by merciful souls.
Nope, GM is a company for profit and if there is a area of the world who will not support GM then it should be GMs choice to move on and let them fend for themselves!
If the people of Australia do not want to support Holden then GM as a parent company should just shut them down or sale them to get them off of GMs books!
This is really hilarious: Brian on the one hand acknowledges that GM is a "company for profit", and on the other, that it is an entity needing support, for mercy or for what reasons.
Man, get your head straight!
Yes GM is a for profit company and if you support the company then there will always be profits.
Your talking to a guy that has only owned Chevy cars and trucks!
I dont cross shop for cars and trucks! I only shop with GM.
When a for-profit company does need SUPPORT like a not-for-profit charity to make profit, then it is not worth living.
Everybody who is buying a car or whatever from a for-profit company will try to pay as low as possible a price, and certainly not want to SUPPORT that profit-making entity by paying more than absolutely unavoidable.
This person named Brian is really completely confused in his mind.
No, the capitalist market is not a collection of charities and exchange of alms, it is a pool of sharks trying to eat each other.
So by that logic, if the US people had supported Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Oldsmobile instead of imports they would still be in the GM range?