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Originally Posted by BBDOS CV8
Waste of time. Holden already sells to the same market demographic as Chev, and to establish them as a purveyor of bottom end GMDATs would kill the Camaro and any other high-value vehicles. It's seen to be damaging Holden, even if Joe average doesn't notice.
We already get the Colorado/Canyon as the Rodeo, which name is changing to the Colorado due to Isuzu owning the name, but Holden owns the Thai factory that makes them in RHD. No North American Chevs are made RHD, so forget that.
We already get four Daewoos as Holdens, and Holden owns 45% of the company so there is no need to get anything at 50% higher cost from the US.
Cadillac we'll see, but the bulk of BMW and Merc sales are small fours which are far lower priced than the Cadillac's proposed level. With one model and one engine it isn't going to even be felt by the Euros. It is competing for a luxury vehicle market of 100,000 cars, including Holden/HSV who sell 15-20K cars into that market, plus all the big SUVs and Euros. It isn't going to capture more than a few percent.
Nissan tried to set up Maxima here - bombed. Their top model is sold throug Nissan dealers as the Nissan Maxima. Honda never even tried with Acura - they're all Hondas. Toyota has Lexus, but without the Toyo dealers it would have folded. Our market is small for that segregation, plus we have lots of players here like Renault, Citroen, Alfa, Fiat, Peugeot who never left.
Buyers here are looking for good small cars. Those things aren't synonymous with Chev. And things like Tahoes and Silverados are way too big, with petrol approaching $7.00 a US gal. People are staying away from big SUVs. In that market probably more than half the veficles are diesels, as we have good fuel here and it is almost on a par with petrol.
Sorry, fixing Chevvy's problems by dumping product is not going to work. The biggest selling cars here sell around 4-5,000 a month, with daylight after them. The Thai-made Hilux (Tacoma) only sells so well because of the Australia-Thailand free trade agreement means it is priced very low. Plus it's always been a big seller here in the commercial segment.
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I would agree, the Australian market is not large enough for another GM brand and GM will have hard enough time getting Cadillac right and the Corvette can be marketed as a seperate "brand" as it was in Europe for years.
Holden needs to get Opel models made in lower cost plants (isn't that what GM has been planning all along?) and Chevy models that may do well Australia like the HHR can also be offered as Holden products, what is so hard about putting a Holden grille on it and calling it a Holden HHR?
To me the Concept 60 should be the next Monaro since it has a strong following and see no reason to sell the Camaro there.