'Inferior' Holden Daewoo Sourcing Policy A Failure, Says Ford Australia

[JoeT]

Ford: Korean Barina 'Inferior'

Marton Pettendy
14 March 2008
www.goauto.com.au

New Ford Australia president Bill Osborne says GM Holden's Korean sourcing policy has failed because it underestimates the importance of product appeal in the small car market.

Speaking on Thursday (March 13) at his first monthly sales briefing with media, a tradition started by former Ford Oz boss Geoff Polites and continued by his successor Tom Gorman, Mr Osborne said Holden's low-cost light-car strategy had resulted a Barina that was "inferior" to its predecessors.

"Fiesta continues to be a real strong bright spot for us in the small (light) car segment," he said. "It's clearly a growth segment we believe we have strong product in and can capitalise on.

"The biggest performer was the new Mazda2, but the biggest loser is Barina. We attribute this really to GM's sourcing strategy out of Korea," said Mr Osborne, referring to February sales results, which saw Fiesta's share of the light-car segment rise from 6.0 per cent after the first two months of 2007 to 6.3 per cent to date this year.

Meantime, although it still comfortably outsells the eighth-placed Fiesta, the fifth-placed Barina's share of Australia's smallest vehicle segment has fallen from 13.8 per cent at this time last year to 9.6 percent YTD.

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Holden Barina Decision Looms - Opel Or Daewoo?

Daewoo produced Holden Barina

[YupYupYup]

Wow, what arrogance...Coming from a company that is so in the ****ter...I guess they have to find something to deflect attention away from their mess.

"...although it still comfortably outsells the eighth-placed Fiesta..."

Coming from a company whose competing entry places below a KIA?!?!??! Three places below that "sh*tty" Barina?!?!?! Umm, yeah, okay... !

[ford&holden]

Originally Posted by YupYupYup

Wow, what arrogance...Coming from a company that is so in the ****ter...I guess they have to find something to deflect attention away from their mess.

"...although it still comfortably outsells the eighth-placed Fiesta..."

Coming from a company whose competing entry places below a KIA?!?!??! Three places below that "sh*tty" Barina?!?!?! Umm, yeah, okay... !

Do tell...

What profit is Holden making on the koren sourced vehicles? Holden is making no better profit than Ford AUS yet currently has more market share?

It's no secret that that current barina is an inferior vehicle compared to the Euro sourced barina.

Viva is not even outselling the more expensive Euro sourced astra, epica is not selling greatly while captiva with a diesel is not toppling petrol only territory.

Tell me the success?

When Holden can make far more profit than Ford AUS which has less market share, many might be convinced Holdens current strategy is working.

Unfortunatley when you drive a VE, barina, viva, astra etc you can't tell there're from the same manufacturer, with Fords product range you can.

[t-rex]

Originally Posted by YupYupYup

Wow, what arrogance...Coming from a company that is so in the ****ter...I guess they have to find something to deflect attention away from their mess.

"...although it still comfortably outsells the eighth-placed Fiesta..."

Coming from a company whose competing entry places below a KIA?!?!??! Three places below that "sh*tty" Barina?!?!?! Umm, yeah, okay... !

True the Fiesta's not burning up the Oz light car sales charts but...

The point is, sourcing Daewoos for small Holdens hasn't been a success. The cars have a poor reputation, exacerbated by the fact that Daewoo-sourced Barina replaced the superb Opel-based model.

Did Daewoo designs magically became great cars because GM bought the company? The Kalos/Barina, Optra/Viva/whatever (GM seriously needs a uniform naming policy) are the exact same mediocre cars that you GM fans laughed at before GM bought the company.

Which of course solidifies my belief that GM fans don't care about the cars, they care about the 39-cent badge that says "GM" on it...

GM should have started producing Corsas in India. The Aveo's doing poorly in India because there's no Diesel option; not a problem with the Corsa (of course dropping a Diesel in the Aveo can't be THAT hard can it?). Holden could source Barinas from India and price them aggressively against the Koreans.

Or, GM could buy Proton. Corsas and Astras could be assembled in low-cost (at least compared to Europe) Malaysia and exported to Oz/NZ. Those two models could become Protons in ASEAN markets, replacing the current Satria and Gen2, respectively. The upcoming RWD Alpha could be both a Holden Torana and Proton Perdana. It's at least an interesting scenario!!

The Barina is a well-known model name in Oz, having been around since the mid-80s. It developed a good reputation over the years, being based on Suzuki, and later Opel, designs. While the Aveo/Kalos isn't a piece of crap, it's notably inferior to the Opel Corsa. This move may have hurt the Barina name for GM. And the Kiwis, who lean slightly more Euro than their neighbors across the Tasman, seem to hate it worse than the Aussies!

[Butz]

Did Daewoo designs magically became great cars because GM bought the company? The Kalos/Barina, Optra/Viva/whatever (GM seriously needs a uniform naming policy) are the exact same mediocre cars that you GM fans laughed at before GM bought the com

Thank you, some people need to realize that, or keep a distance from the GM Kool-Aid. I'm a GM fan but wont consider a Daewoo, not now and probably not ever!

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by t-rex

True the Fiesta's not burning up the Oz light car sales charts but...

The point is, sourcing Daewoos for small Holdens hasn't been a success. The cars have a poor reputation, exacerbated by the fact that Daewoo-sourced Barina replaced the superb Opel-based model.

Did Daewoo designs magically became great cars because GM bought the company? The Kalos/Barina, Optra/Viva/whatever (GM seriously needs a uniform naming policy) are the exact same mediocre cars that you GM fans laughed at before GM bought the company.

Which of course solidifies my belief that GM fans don't care about the cars, they care about the 39-cent badge that says "GM" on it...

Your blanket statements are getting out of control. I wouldn't touch an Aveo with a 40 foot pole but I would love an Astra (I know different classes). The point is, the Daewoo sourced models need to improve or go away.

[rentakeyboard]

Someone should introduce Bill Osborne to the word FESTIVA!

[Robert Ryan]

[Did Daewoo designs magically became great cars because GM bought the company? The Kalos/Barina, Optra/Viva/whatever (GM seriously needs a uniform naming policy) are the exact same mediocre cars that you GM fans laughed at before GM bought the company

Sadly very true. I would sell the Korean maker as quickly as possible, you cannot make a pigs ear into a silk purse.

[powervette]

it underestimates the importance of product appeal in the small car market.

I've been saying for very long that Korean products (other than new Captiva and Evanda) underestimated Chevrolet brand. That guy isn't ignorant, he says the truth.

[Ssom]

I think the plan was good as a short term profit booster, but now the novelty has worn off and most makers are matching the Barina on price (For example in NZ: Suzuki Swift 1.5 XE Man- $16,990, Nissan Micra 1.2 Si Man- $17,995, Daihatsu Sirion 1.3 Man- $16,990, Kia Picanto 1.1 Man- $16,990, Holden Barina 1.6 3 dr man- $16,990) and absolutely anihilating it on merit.

People don't go to Ford/Holden for white goods and they never will.

[paul8488]

I'm one of the few Daewoo fans out there, but I don't think this Ford guy is that far off the mark. Clearly the current crop of Daewoo-sourced cars aren't what people want. The Epica and Captiva are better efforts than the previous generation models, but even they're not catching on all that well. The customer is never wrong, so while some of us try to defend the Epica and Captiva, even those are off the mark. I think Ford is a little overzealous using the Fiesta as an example as it is outsold by the Barina, but there is some truth in what they say.

A vehicle has to excel at SOMETHING... the Daewoo models don't seem to have any one strong point. Fuel economy... safety... value... performance... price... styling is a questionable one, but not many would argue that Daewoo has the most compelling designs, even if most aren't ugly either.

[paul8488]

Originally Posted by Robert Ryan

Sadly very true. I would sell the Korean maker as quickly as possible, you cannot make a pigs ear into a silk purse.

I don't see why GM would sell a huge manufacturing base like Daewoo just as they're trying to increase their low-cost volumes around the world. Chevrolet is doing well in Europe and parts of Aisa, where for whatever reason people are happy enough to buy GMDAT products. There's no question that they need to improve to become truly competitive, but I don't think there's anything unfixable with GMDAT's operations... GM just needs to make better decisions and realise that it's very important to get GMDAT vehicles up to standard with respect to fuel efficiency and crashworthiness. GMDATS's diesel is a nice little unit, and the Captiva and Epica are measurably better than anything previous... they just need to really hit the ball out of the park with the next versions. Maybe Holden will get to have more input in the next versions, instead of being force-fed exisiting models that don't suit the market.

[teamkiwiracing]

Originally Posted by ford&holden

Do tell...

What profit is Holden making on the koren sourced vehicles? Holden is making no better profit than Ford AUS yet currently has more market share?

It's no secret that that current barina is an inferior vehicle compared to the Euro sourced barina.

Viva is not even outselling the more expensive Euro sourced astra, epica is not selling greatly while captiva with a diesel is not toppling petrol only territory.

Tell me the success?

When Holden can make far more profit than Ford AUS which has less market share, many might be convinced Holdens current strategy is working.

Unfortunatley when you drive a VE, barina, viva, astra etc you can't tell there're from the same manufacturer, with Fords product range you can.

No arguements here that the BC is inferior than the TK Barina, though on the profit issue, they are making a lot more profit with the TK Barina compared to the euro sourced BC(?) Barina. It has been covered numourous times on this forum, so no need to start this debate again, each one sold makes more $$$ and they sell more TK Barina compared to the BC(?) Barina. The current Barina is a stop gap model, due for replacement late 09/10, so it should be a lot better.

Viva? yes its not doing as well as Holden had hoped, but once again its a stop gap model, with the replacement due late this year earl next, and indications from the spy shots suggest that it is going to be A LOT!!!!! better than the model that its replacing, a lot more upper class!

Epica, again stop gap model, though it is holding its own. Doing a lot better than the Vectra in term of sales, and is surprisingly doing better than the Mondeo (yes i know supply of diesel model is an issue with the Bondeo) even with its limited model lineup compared to the mondeo.

Captiva, again holding its own 950-1100 sales a month compared to Nil couple of years ago, i dont think holden will be complaining too much about the performance of the Captiva, 3rd best in its segment. And No i dont think that the captiva will out sell the Terrie either. And although Captiva does have the advantage of the Diesel, the Terr has the advantage of FWD which accounts for approx 50% of the sales, hence Toyotas decision to bring in the FWD Kulger/Highlander.

So ya have to say that the Korean pathway is slowly paying dividends to Holden, especially with the new GM-DAT developed products such as the Captiva. One can assume that once Holden get ahold of the other models later this year and next, Holden should hopefully see the rewards from taking the Korean pathway that it has choosen to take. Only time will tell. (ill bet a lazy dozen of NZ's finest beer that it will)

[BBDOS CV8]

Well you know how it goes - can't play the ball, play the man. It must be galling for Ford - garnering all those best smallcar awards and still no-one wants to buy that little German car. Why doesn't he mention that terrific little car the Focus, which is going out the door backwards at a great rate of knots? Why would anyone spend more on a cheap version of the 3?

6 to 6.3% whoopie-do, crack the champagne - what does that represent, an extra 20 cars last month? If the Barina sold 4% less so far this year (which could simply mean one shipment of cars less came here), and the Fiesta only picked up 0.3%? I'd be sacking Ford's sales and marketing staff! and changing ad agencies.

Seeing as the old model Barina is about to be replaced you'd imagine numbers might be up and down. But they still sold 1300 last month, equal to about 3-4 months sales on the XC Corsa/Barina, when it wasn't being offloaded.

Tell you one thing, I'd rather have Holden's problems than Ford's. No-one wants their little cars, hardly anyone seems interested in the Mondeo which people on this and other sites thought was going to clean up, and not many people seem interested in the FG Falcon.

Superb Opel Corsa - puhleese! Might be true of the current one. But the old XC was nothing special, nothing special at all. Not in build, not in equipment, not in behaviour. Unless you sprang for the CDX. Then it was silly money. The City and CD equipped the way Holden had to sell them to get the price down were very ordinary little cars.

What terrible reputation does the current crop of GMDATs have? The trade certainly knows nothing - nothing - about it. Uninspiring drive? So are Toyotas but they sell. Being 'inspiring' isn't helping the Fiesta clean up.

Really, hardly anyone wants inspiring in the bottom feeders or the Yaris wouldn't move a single unit.

[RedVee8]

Keep Daewoo, the cars you dont like will be replaced by better ones shortly (ish).
I'd still like Opel designs to be sold here though.
let see.... Opel design and dynamics, Daewoo build cost... mmmm sounds like a winner.