Does Holden have an advantage after local assembly stops?

[Spammy]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Kuga is no smaller than an Xtrail, Outlander, Rav4, IX35, Sportage, Tiguan, CX5, Captiva, CRV, Forester etc

So why does it sell 2/5ths of nothing?

[XR Martin]

Who knows, but with the 2L ecoboost it craps on everything performance wise.

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by Spammy

So why does it sell 2/5ths of nothing?

That's the irrationality of the market isn't it? Why do people buy Camrys instead of Falcons, Captivas instead of Territory's etc?

The Edge will join this category in Australia in a couple of years.

[malazn mafia]

Originally Posted by new2ford

That's the irrationality of the market isn't it? Why do people buy Camrys instead of Falcons, Captivas instead of Territory's etc?

The Edge will join this category in Australia in a couple of years.

I suppose Ford has a market perception on par with Microsoft in the mobile phone market. No matter how good they make it, people will go the Mcdonalds formula I.e. predictable, mediocre, affordable, offering

[MickyB]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

They haven't announced anything officially yet, bar they will have some sort of sportscar available, which could be anything.

I can also confirm the 2016 Camaro is not being engineered for RHD, so if it were to come here, it would have to be the follow up to the 2016, which would be due 2020-21. Unless HSV convert them in Thailand.
Source: Holden engineer.

[XR5]

Originally Posted by MickyB

I can also confirm the 2016 Camaro is not being engineered for RHD, so if it were to come here, it would have to be the follow up to the 2016, which would be due 2020-21. Unless HSV convert them in Thailand.
Source: Holden engineer.

Not trying to be rude here but do you think a lowly holden engineer is going to be privy to the executive decisions being made at the top level of the GM food chain. About the only person in Holden who would have any idea what was coming would be the new M.D. The Camaro is coming. It won't be here until 2017 after commodore is gone. Jacoby's announcement of a two door sports car for holden from a few weeks ago only leaves the door open for corvette or camaro. As the corvette has only just been updated in 2015 it will be years before another redesign. The gen 6 camaro is due to be unveiled this year with production starting next year and has moved from the commodore Zeta platform to the smaller Alpha platform which also allows easy build of right hand drive as well as left hand drive. They may not announce RHD at its unveiling but it will have been built into the design costs. GM are stupid but not stupid enough to give Ford the market on V8 sports sales in this country, no matter how much of a niche area it is. The easiest way to look at it is from a money point of view as the cost of developing RHD for a tiny market like ours (and other niche RHD sales like South Africa etc) is easily absorbed by the profit they make due to the geographic sales they make in North America alone on this vehicle and then take into account the high sales throughout the Middle East region as well. It had been done before for the Current generation but the GFC and GM's chapter 11 bankruptcy put paid to the current generation Camaro coming here.

Does Holden have an advantage here after production ends?

They have no more of an advantage than any other car maker., if not less of an advantage. If they supply the right vehicle at the right price then they will sell cars. They only produce two local cars and the commodore and more to the point the SS models and SV6 is their volume seller. The Cruze is tired, old and outdated with terrible engines and poor build quality. The Captiva, again is tired old and due for replacement, the Colorado has poor build quality, has subjective looks and reliability problems. All of these vehicles are due to be updated soon and this should help Holden. The Captiva is being replaced, the Colorado is rumoured to be going to be updated with the U.S body style which looks a hell of a lot better visually.

Come 2017 expect to see a lot of badge engineered vehicles for Holden. They have already started with the Opels arriving here this year. They have simply had the Opel badges removed and Holden badges fitted. Holdens will get no unique front and rear bumpers as they have in the past. The new 2015 Cruze shows that. It is simply the U.S front bumper with the Chevrolet twin port grille. All that has been done is the Chevrolet badge removed and Holden badge fitted.

I honestly don't see Holden as a brand lasting. I think Holden dealers will simply become GM dealers and sell a multitude of brands. For example the Opels will be badged and sold as Opels. The Cruze, Colorado, Captiva replacement will be sold as Chevrolet etc and so forth. The director of cadillac has also said that he wants to look again at getting cars down here around 2020 and GM won't allow Caddy's to be rebadged. GM are currently looking at simplifying their brands and if they can save dollars by doing this they will. They had no troubles killing off Pontiac so they will have no issues killing the lion.

The same as HSV. I don't see them surviving the end of manufacture either. You have to see the writing on the wall when your head designer resigns a couple of years before production ends to go and design caravans. Their bread and butter is V8's and with Holden getting the V8 sports car what will they have to do. They can't even hot it up a bit as Chevrolet already do that by selling the ZL1 which can just be sold through a Holden dealer as well anyway. They have also released a statement saying that they may be going to look into other makes so essentially that simply makes them a tuning house. They are only contracted to Holden anyway. Holden does not own them, they are a private entity with an agreement through Holden to work with and modify Holdens cars and GM can rescind the contract when they wish. The best they can become is a tuning house (but for that they already have Walkinshaw Performance so what is the point) or a RHD conversion specialist for the models Chevrolet sells that aren't or aren't yet made in RHD like the Corvette and Silverado.

That's my opinion anyway. I could be right, I could be wrong.
I guess it all comes down to price, product and marketing. Meet the people's needs and wants and you will sell but having an advantage, no Holden don't have an advantage.

[MickyB]

Originally Posted by XR5

Not trying to be rude here but do you think a lowly holden engineer is going to be privy to the executive decisions being made at the top level of the GM food chain. About the only person in Holden who would have any idea what was coming would be the new M.D. The Camaro is coming.

I'm just posting what I've been told, I have no idea why he would tell me it isn't engineered for RHD if he didn't actually know. You said only the MD knows what is coming, I agree, no one knows for sure.
Maybe it will come here in 2017 but why would every article state that it isn't being built in RHD and there be no announcement from Holden? Maybe Jacoby only said that Holden will have a 2 door sports car to try to steal a bit of thunder from the Mustang? I actually hope the Camaro does make it here, the competition will be good for the price of the Mustang.

As for Holden's long term future - I agree with you, the future is very bleak, their future model's are nothing but badge engineered Opels and Chevys and none are class leaders.

[johnydep]

"Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed."

Although not identical, it appears this spied tester may also feature styling cues from the special Camaro concept produced for this year’s Transformers 4 film.

And, with Ford now at last planning to give its new Mustang a proper launch here, this new Camaro may hold even more significance for Australian buyers than its locally-developed predecessor.

The Camaro had previously been withheld from Australia due to the lack of right-hand-drive production - GM prioritised a convertible model instead, and the global financial crisis limited the company’s options at the time.


The next model, however, is expected to finally include a right-hook option, making the model more desireable in the UK (although left-hand-drive versions can be had there), while also opening the door to an Australian launch.

With Holden and GM famously tight-lipped on future plans, we may have to wait and see what comes next - but with the Mustang on the way and HSV soon to be short of heroic rear-wheel-drive performance cars, the Camaro would seem an ideal fit.

[XR5]

Originally Posted by MickyB

I'm just posting what I've been told, I have no idea why he would tell me it isn't engineered for RHD if he didn't actually know. You said only the MD knows what is coming, I agree, no one knows for sure.
Maybe it will come here in 2017 but why would every article state that it isn't being built in RHD and there be no announcement from Holden? Maybe Jacoby only said that Holden will have a 2 door sports car to try to steal a bit of thunder from the Mustang? I actually hope the Camaro does make it here, the competition will be good for the price of the Mustang.

As for Holden's long term future - I agree with you, the future is very bleak, their future model's are nothing but badge engineered Opels and Chevys and none are class leaders.

I think GM works the opposite to Ford myself. They spread a lot of disinformation in order to not hurt sales of an existing product, in this case commodore as there would be a few people who would hold out on buying if they knew the Camaro was coming. I have much more respect for Ford and the way they did things. Just coming straight out and saying what was coming. Just another one of the reasons I have switched to the Ford camp from years and years of GM stuff.