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Holden Aiming for 2017 +1

5K views 35 replies 17 participants last post by  kts3502.0 
#1 ·
New products to help Holden maintain third place on sales charts

19 June 2017

By DANIEL DeGASPERI

GoAuto.Com.au


HOLDEN has banked on this year’s fresh product onslaught to help it cling to fourth position on the brand-sales charts, despite the impending effects of October’s factory shut-down, as well as Ford and Mitsubishi closing in on its numbers.

Five years ago Holden was second only to Toyota for annual brand sales, recording 114,665 sales in 2012. It was overtaken by Mazda in 2015 and then Hyundai in 2016 as sales slumped to 94,308 units last year, while the top three brands continued to post six-figure tallies.

According to sales data to the end of May 2017, Holden’s 32,840-unit haul has fallen by another 10.4 per cent year-to-date, remaining behind Hyundai (37,568 and down 10.7 per cent), and with Ford (31,582 and down 0.7 per cent) and Mitsubishi (30,407 and up 6.5 per cent) hounding at its heels.

Meanwhile the Australian offshoot of General Motors (GM) has after three years replaced its executive director of sales Peter Keley with Michael Filazzola, who spoke with GoAuto about plans to turn the sales tide around at the national media launch of the Astra sedan in Byron Bay this week.

Asked where the 21-year Holden veteran would be happy with the brand finishing in 2017, Mr Filazzola was clear: “We want to be in the top four.”

“My drive is to ensure we actually don’t finish fifth, sixth, or seventh. We’ve got to keep the leadership within Hyundai, Mazda and Toyota. We have to keep it in that segment, I think, and that is where I’m aiming towards.”

Much more at the LINK

 
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#3 ·
They need product

Their range without Commodore is pretty dismal

Colorado is getting there but needs a better engine , When you read that GM isnt going to replace it(the Colorado) till 2022 it doesnt give me a lot of confidence in teh brand considering I will be up for a new one in around 2020 I'm not going to buy the same vehicle I already have , this is what lost them Commodore sales

Astra is a nice car - but they have screwed the sales mix and you need to be upsold to a near 30k model to get a decent engine - too much money for a small car

The micro cars are decent and if I was in that market I'd consider one

They desperately need decent SUV/CUV's

The Captiva is pension age , however if they think they can suddenly charge full price for its replacement they're kidding themselves. They tried this with Astra initially and it didnt work

Wont work for Commodore replacement either I fear as you can get decent cars from the opposition for less cash , a common complaint about Commodore from some , but they havent factored in that COmmodore is half a class bigger and is a better car IMO that 6 , Camry ect ect

So

Basically it's a bloody long hard journey back and in the short term Holden is ****ed
 
#10 ·
The Global Colorado and the US Colorado are on different platforms and different product cycles.
My Humble opinion is that Australia is sophisticated enough of a market to justify the North American Colorado over the Global Colorado. But UAW together with their North American Engineering counterparts probably do not have the ability of making a RHD model even if someone put a gun to their heads,
 
#4 ·
I sense that Holden is trying to fix everything at once with a barrage of new product,
they're throwing heaps of product at the market in the hopes that some or all will stick.

That to me is not a plan, it wreaks of just trying to sell anything instead of asking,
who are our actual buyers and what is it that they want compared to our competitors.

The question is how Holden entices those buyers to choose its product over the competition,
I'm actualy hoping that Holden sees more leverage in SUVs of all sizes - Arcadia is interesting...
 
#6 ·
If you stand back and look at the new product from Astra going forward, it does look moderately cohesive (even though the Astra sedan doesn't look as fancy as the hatch or wagon). The entire small car lineup....er... lines up. From Spark to Trax and the 3 Astras, the Holden lot will look like a family again, even though it will be missing it's favourite son. I think Equinox will slot in just fine. We need to see the styling of the Acadia though because it will obviously be the adopted/milkmans step child.

:slap:
 
#7 · (Edited)
Good luck with this - I was decried as a doomsayer but so far this is playing out exactly like I predicted.

GM seemingly doesn't have a plan and making Keeley a scapegoat for it won't help - it's Opel sourced product too dear. My brother and his wife just bought an eight month old Spark, current shape. It's done 7000 km and they got it for $18k from a car yard. It's dropped like a stone in value even though it's the pricier model with pleather and nav - he said RRP was high twenties with options.

Astra hatch going from Carsales' breakdowns in the comments section, has stalled. It's sold less so far this year than Cruze did in 2016, and Cruze was on limited runout - whatever Holden says, that's not to plan. Sedan going on history will add maybe one in four sales, not a big fillip and selling a Cruze as an Astra sedan - wrong move IMO. It's a bigger roomier vehicle (plus looks hatchy) and Cruze like Captiva actually has some street cred in the market for solid value.

Colorado is promising, but like Captiva it's off the back of deals and not retail. At present, it's struggling.

I reckon Holden's just lucky Nissan has lost the plot and VW's rebuilding or it'd be staring at eighth in the market, not fourth. You can't rely on own-goals from others and I fear Terrain (which is odd - why not Equinox which has cohesive styling) at full whack will prove to have buyer resistance, which will erode healthy medium/large SUV sales which Captiva has maintained.

Ford's in a better position only because of one product - Ranger. That's a pretty tenuous thing, depending on Dearborn for product planning. They have a history of following winners with whoopsies.
 
#8 ·
 
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#13 ·
I had a look at my local Holden dealer on the weekend. There were four people inside the showroom and they were all looking at an immaculate HG Premier they have on display. I saw them go in and out and they didn't even glance at any other vehicle.
I also stopped at the Ford dealer and walked around the lot for fifteen minutes, particularly looking at XR6 and Mustang demos. Not a sole came near me and I could have bought any of them if I wanted to -none floated my boat especially the drab colours on the Falcons.
 
#14 ·
Hang on - they want to be one better that 2017th ? I think that is achievable !
 
#18 ·
Originally US Colorado was going to be a minor cosmetic change, but ended up receiving a series of significant upgrades as when the US engineers got their hands on the ROTW Colorado for testing they realised how sub-par it was for a competitive US truck market. Included chassis/frame upgrades. Though they are the same platform there's more than just cosmetic differences.
 
#25 · (Edited)
New products to help Holden maintain third place on sales charts

19 June 2017

By DANIEL DeGASPERI

GoAuto.Com.au


HOLDEN has banked on this year’s fresh product onslaught to help it cling to fourth position on the brand-sales charts, despite the impending effects of October’s factory shut-down, as well as Ford and Mitsubishi closing in on its numbers.

Five years ago Holden was second only to Toyota for annual brand sales, recording 114,665 sales in 2012. It was overtaken by Mazda in 2015 and then Hyundai in 2016 as sales slumped to 94,308 units last year, while the top three brands continued to post six-figure tallies.

Asked where the 21-year Holden veteran would be happy with the brand finishing in 2017, Mr Filazzola was clear: “We want to be in the top four.”
RHD is virtually dead a gonna at GM.



Top 4 LOL Holden will be sitting behind VW when the Commodore sales are gone, not unless GM can send design a small GMC pick-up for global markets outside the US rather than a garbage Thai Colorado, Holden probably won't exist in under a decade as RHD is less popular than a Dodo at GM who have pulled the plug on it globally.

"RHD" Holden will become extinct pretty soon after when the Commodores gone because of future poor Holden sales, Holden will join Saturn, Hummer, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Plymouth, Mercury in that great scrapheap in the sky great names of the past that recently died that all thought building dull boring pig fugly anodyne cars was the way to go.
 
#29 ·
I seriously don't know WTF is going on with GM or Holden anymore (or if either of them have any idea either) but now goauto.com.au is reporting that there is no guarantee of a V8 model for Holden in the future?

Small car, pick-up and SUV range must be executed well before Holden V8 return

20 June 2017

By DANIEL DeGASPERI

HOLDEN executive director of marketing Mark Harland has revealed that he believes the brand must execute its small car, SUV and pick-up product strategy successfully to make V8 sportscar discussions with General Motors (GM) easier.

Speaking with GoAuto at the national media launch of the Astra sedan in northern New South Wales last week, Mr Harland – who has notched up six months in the role – insisted that the unnamed V8 sportscar was still in planning, but Holden must achieve other targets first.

That included, he listed, making successes from Astra small hatchback and sedan, Equinox medium SUV and Colorado pick-up ranges. “Certainly from a product point of view, you know the product line-up, where the growth is in Australia is obviously in the SUVs, the small- to medium-sized SUVs,” Mr Harland said.

“If we can execute on the upcoming product launches, I think that gives us a lot of credibility with the senior leadership back in Detroit so that our managing director, Mark Bernhard, can say, ‘Hey, we really think we’d like to have a rear-wheel-drive V8 as a halo car.’

more at link:

http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf/story2/84A1AED11C6585EFCA258144007D45A2
 
#30 ·
That pretty much tells us what most of us have suspected for a while, there is pretty much no chance of another V8 RWD GM car being sold new in Australia once Commodore is gone. :(
 
#35 ·
um... ok. Got to admire your passion but you may be going just a little over the top. For the record, VASuperCars has a RWD V8 Altima, so the Mustang has no bearing on its capability on the track (even though the Nissans are all slow).

With respect to decent RHD cars, there is always Hyundai Kia who are doing good things. I agree that with our current exposure, Holdens future appears ruinous, but equally that is not so say that the Equinox and Acadia don't provide buoyancy to their sales numbers.

If the badge is the problem, maybe they need to work on that rather than trying to convince us that the product is as good as it is (and not try to convince us that they sucked two years ago but now it's ok).
 
#36 ·
I think Mustang sales might drop off a bit I know 5 people who were thinking of buying one until details of the MY18 model with 10 speed auto and MRC were released now a couple of them a waiting for the new model the others are waiting for the Stinger GT to come out and see what it's like and if that doesnt excite them enough they will wait as well all 5 of them are current V8 Holden owners and no new Holden V8 model means they are looking else where.
Given that Holden have been throwing out LTZ Colorados for 50K drive away I expected them to sell more maybe there will be a jump next month. Tell you the truth I've actually warmed to the Colorado for unknown reason and right now it would be the only Holden I would buy.
Could the fact I've always wanted ute and now im 46 I've decided I really should have one in my life, but I need something that seats 4 my only choice is a pickup which is close enough for me.
 
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