SA Footy

Reading this months Wheels magazine I was a little surprised to see the new Commodore so quickly knocked off out of the number one selling car spot by the Corolla, a model that is comming to the end of its life after a few years in that body shape.

8 out of the top 10 selling cars are small economical cars. In the U.S they are begining to sell Hybrid Camrys, if Holden doesnt get into this market, how long will they be able to keep on manufacturing in Australia?

not surprised with the price of petrol/ living etc...

I have a 2003 corolla, best car i've ever owned. My mechanic says that if everyone in the world owned a corolla, mechanics would go out of business cos theyre such a reliable car...

Cars like the Commodore and Falcon are a dying breed. I like six cylinder cars but they are becoming a bit of an extravagence unless you are towing things a lot of the time. No suprise at all the Corolla is outselling the Commodore, unless our local makers start manufacturing more fuel efficient cars they will be a fond distant memory in a decade Although a hi-tech diesel Commodore or Falcon (Ford already manufacture a very hi -tech V6 diesel for Jaguar... maybe we'll see it in the Falcon in the future) may be a possiblity.

mick wrote:Cars like the Commodore and Falcon are a dying breed.

Hooray! Along with the knobs who drive them hopefully

Falcon Chick wrote:not surprised with the price of petrol/ living etc...

I have a 2003 corolla, best car i've ever owned. My mechanic says that if everyone in the world owned a corolla, mechanics would go out of business cos theyre such a reliable car...

1st rule of stalking.

Find out what car the victim drives.

*Check*

Booney wrote:

Falcon Chick wrote:not surprised with the price of petrol/ living etc...

I have a 2003 corolla, best car i've ever owned. My mechanic says that if everyone in the world owned a corolla, mechanics would go out of business cos theyre such a reliable car...

1st rule of stalking.

Find out what car the victim drives.

*Check*

Ive got a 1987 Corolla better car than my old 2x '79 SLE Commodores.

zipzap wrote:

mick wrote:Cars like the Commodore and Falcon are a dying breed.

Hooray! Along with the knobs who drive them hopefully

Oi! Compared to what Zipper?

Falcon Chick wrote:

Booney wrote:

Falcon Chick wrote:not surprised with the price of petrol/ living etc...

I have a 2003 corolla, best car i've ever owned. My mechanic says that if everyone in the world owned a corolla, mechanics would go out of business cos theyre such a reliable car...

1st rule of stalking.

Find out what car the victim drives.

*Check*

Toyota is the biggest car company in the world, price of fuel is obviously a big factor, but it really depends what your after, personally im happy to pay more on fuel to have extra power, and a bigger car, but most people are willing to sacrafice the room and power to save money.
Fuel efficiency is what most people are after when buying a new car these days, but Commodores are still the most driven cars on Australian Roads, and regadless of petrol prices, still will be for a long time.

Toyota became the biggest car company by building cars that were more reliable and safer than other brands of car, it didnt happen overnight, yet they are reaping the rewards of their labor now!

In China they are building a plant to build rear wheel drive Statesmans for export, so I hope Holden get it together before it is too late, when the cost of exporting from China is cheaper than from here, I doubt they will invest into our plant anymore.

Holden proved with Radial Tuned Suspension in the late 1970's that they could produce world class technology that was innovative, they will need to do so again if they are to stay afloat this time.

Sojourner wrote:Holden proved with Radial Tuned Suspension in the late 1970's that they could produce world class technology that was innovative, they will need to do so again if they are to stay afloat this time.

Detroit is in to much financial trouble, for them to let the Aussie branch play around with things, Holden may not even be around by the time Detroit says all Holdens (Commodores included) to be built in Asia as is cheaper for us.
The Fed Gov will pump millions into keeping Holdens going though, as GM will convince them that is just a rough patch, when they know its just delaying the inevitable.

as you pointed out on the saftey issue, i still consider small cars to be death traps, but the reliability issue for Toyota is spot on.

yet again the stats provided by vfacts can be misleading ...... one main reason why the toyota corolla records many sales is due to the fleet program they run
( one way to create poor resale)

if you would like to see a true indicator of sales is retail sales..( ppl like you and me ) that buy cars as too what is popular ....

havning access to VFACTS results monthly i can say the Mazda3 outsells and has a higher resale value then the corolla....

yet because of no fleet program will not get sales through goverment or major companies.......

It will be a very sad day if we ever lose Holdens, My favourite ever car that I owned was a V8 HQ Kingswood, I am hoping in the next year or so to start work on a project car once I finish the renovations that I am doing to the house, My list of potential cars are all Holdens with the exception of an Isuzu Belett if I could find a good one!

There is time for Holden to reverse things, when they had the VK Commodore with the Black 202, things didnt look so bright, yet they got the best engine they could, a Nissan engine and were able to reverse their fortunes somewhat, they were critisized for that, yet it soon turned them around as they made a great car and the engine was the best you could get at the time in Australia, save for the ones in the Skylines that Nissan wouldent give Holden access too!

Holden should be lining up Toyota and one way that they could go about it would be to go and have a chat with the management of Honda who like Holden are engaged in fierce competiton with Toyota, if Holden could convince Honda to allow them to fit the Honda Civic Hybrid running gear into the Astra, it would give Holden some breathing space and a chance to launch an attack for sales on the Camry - Corolla in that market.

the main problem with all this is, the final say comes from GM in Detroit now, not so much Holden, there are strong rumours about a diesel engine being released in the VE, but 1st GM are sending over Hummers to combats Ford Territory, Camaro's, and a few other bigger cars.

Im always working on my project/current car, and always in the market for more cars.
currently a VN ''S'' 3.8L V6 and a VY Clubsport 6.0L V8 is on the coming soon list.

dont just think honda are the only ones producing hybrid engines........


just like diesal vehicles which only make up 6% of sales and increase from 2 % last year

how about holden produce a quality 4 cyl to compete

sorry astra and focus do struggle in this area

dinglinga wrote:dont just think honda are the only ones producing hybrid engines........


just like diesal vehicles which only make up 6% of sales and increase from 2 % last year

how about holden produce a quality 4 cyl to compete

sorry astra and focus do struggle in this area

spent to much on the VE to design a whole new car themselves, 4 cyl they currently have are built overseas, engine included, the Commodore is to big to be powered by a 4 cylinder, thats why they stopped 4 cylinders after some of the early commodores, pretty sure they kept them going in NZ for abit longer though.

The main problem with diesel cars is that they are all mostly manual which is a shrinking market in 4cyl cars in Australia. I dont know why that is, I wouldent have thought than an auto slushbox would have been a big drain on a diesel engine?

The Holden Gemini easily beat its rivals in its day, today Holden import crappy Daewoos and rebadge them as Holdens with all of a 2 star safety rating, that is a good way to get rid of buyers.

Why not go back to the past and rebadge an Isuzu? The Jap stuff is way better than anything made in Korea yet maybe the profit margin isnt as high.

The problem with making ordinary quality cars is that you will alienate buyers who know where your stuff comes from and that they can buy better elsewhere.

I can't fit a wife, two kids under five, 6 bags, 3 pillows, a bed rail, esky, lunch bag, food bag, beers, 2 fimbles, Lightning McQueen, Mack, FiFi, Violet and laptop in a ******* Corolla

A Commodore sedan on the other hand.......

As the kids get bigger the Commodrore Station wagon will be purchased....

exactly, can only fit so many sub woofers in the back of a corolla, and extra space in the back of the Commodore can be used for other things.