douglask

As the gloves came off the Ford-Holden rivalry at the launch of the BF MkII Falcon last week, Ford Australia's president Tom Gorman acknowledged Ford’s range would use its European links to leverage sales. Fiesta television advertising already heavily features a connection with its German heritage and Focus advertisements reinforce ride refinement. "The question came up... and I commented that I really thought they (Holden) were the Korean car company," he said. "They clearly have gone for a strategy of low-cost, bottom-end with their Korean line-up. "It starts with small cars and it’ll flow into Captiva, I’m sure. "We have a different model here. The vast majority of our products that aren’t locally sourced come out of Europe and we think that’s a competitive advantage for us in terms of how we position our cars. Full article: http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf...A2572020009F33B

The RHD Ford F-series trucks sold in Australia are from Brazil, they're cheaper and supposedly have better build quality than the US models. Neither Holden or Ford currently sell any North American built vehicles in Australia, but they are large importers of parts. Chryslers and Jeeps sold in Australia are built at the Magna Steyr manufacturing facility in Graz, Austria. As far as I know, the Nissan Murano and Honda Accord & Odyssey are the only US built vehicles currently sold in Australia.

Huh? General Motors Holden Ltd is a 100% owned subsidiary of GM and has been for the past 75 years. You might be thinking of HSV (Holden Special Vehicles) of which Holden owns something like 25%.

GM Holden has dispatched its first shipment of all-new generation export versions of Commodore, Statesman and Caprice from Adelaide's AAT Port to its largest export market, the Middle East. The 500 cars, prepared as the Chevrolet Lumina and Chevrolet Caprice, are destined for ports throughout the Middle East where they will be distributed into the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. The shipment represents an exciting new chapter in what has been Australia's longest and largest automotive export program. GM Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Denny Mooney, said exports were a key part in Holden ensuring its South Australian vehicle operations continued to run at full capacity. Mr Mooney said the Middle East market had grown into Holden's largest destination of vehicles, with more than 30,000 shipped there last year. He said the Chevrolet versions of Statesman and Caprice had become major sellers, enabling Holden to invest $190 million in the development of the WM series to extend its place in the domestic and export markets. "The long wheelbase Holdens are now our biggest seller overseas which has allowed us to take these all-new cars to a whole new level," Mr. Mooney said. Full article and more pictures: http://www.autoblog.com/2006/09/20/jealous...-exports-begin/

HOLDEN has pulled yet another rabbit out of its corporate hat by announcing its first ever medium 4WD range will be headed by a flagship based not on GM Daewoo’s South Korean-built Captiva but on GM Opel’s more upmarket Antara. The twin-pronged Captiva range will go on sale in November following its official public unveiling at the Sydney motor show opening on October 26 and its media launch early next month. "It makes sense to launch two models under the same nameplate given it’s an all-new model for us, because it will avoid confusion," Holden spokesman Jason Laird told GoAuto. "Pricing will be competitive given we’re entering a mature market segment." Rightly, Holden says Captiva will give it a "legitimate presence" in Australia’s competitive SUV landscape, in which it’s currently represented only by slow-selling models in the VZ Commodore wagon-based Adventra AWD and the Suzuki-sourced Cruze mini-SUV. The latter will eventually be replaced by a compact SUV based on GM Daewoo’s T2X concept, which followed the S3X show car that became Captiva. Just as Captiva plugs a gaping hole in Holden’s SUV product portfolio, another GM Daewoo-sourced model - the Epica sedan - will technically replace Vectra to give Holden a mid-sized Camry rival for the first time in December. Full article: http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf...A2571E70005BB8B

Vauxhall unveils two new additions to its swelling VXR stable. The limited-edition VXR500 is based on the standard 6.0-litre Monaro VXR, but uses a new supercharger to crank up the power from around 400bhp to almost 500bhp, with torque up from 530Nm to a quite pant-wetting 677Nm. There’s also an upgraded fuel system, clutch revision and bespoke engine tune, all meaning the Monaro VXR500 can hit 60mph in less than 5 seconds and will do something like 190mph. The Monaro is one on the greatest cars on British roads – and with a £35,995 price tag it’s phenomenal value, seeing as it’s half the price of the next cheapest 500bhp+ car. Damned practical and great to drive, too. Full article: http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news.php?newsId=4696

The Holden Commodore's days as Australia's best-selling car could be numbered. Denny Mooney, Holden's managing director, has told Drive that Holden's next-generation family sedan could be smaller and lighter and powered by four- and six-cylinder engines. It would be similar in size to the Torana TT36 hatch concept displayed at the Sydney motor show last year. And it may be in production by as early as 2010. Rising fuel prices and a buyer swing towards smaller cars has put the concept of a mid-sized rear-wheel-drive sedan, first floated by Holden in early 2005, back on the agenda of General Motors. Full article: http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleD...ArticleID=19372

AN ALL-NEW Monaro is coming. Mike Simcoe, the man who crafted Holden’s VE Commodore and the VT-based Monaro - and who is now in charge of exterior design for all GM North America cars - has uttered the words Australians have been longing for: "It will come." However, it will not be seen until bread-and-butter model derivatives such as utilities are built, meaning a likely arrival date of late 2008. The Camaro has been touted as a possible successor for the Monaro-based Pontiac GTO. But Mr Simcoe, who is responsible for the design of future Pontiac cars (as well as those from Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac and Saturn), was adamant that despite sharing a common platform, the two vehicles did not have a common destiny. "The Chev Camaro is not a Monaro," he said. GM Holden chairman and managing director Denny Mooney also hosed down speculation about the next Monaro being derived from the Camaro: "I wouldn’t re-skin a Camaro – a Camaro is a Camaro." What's coming from Holden: VE Commodore sedan - August 2006 HSV E-Series sedan - Late August 2006 WM Statesman/Caprice sedan - September 2006 VE Commodore utility - October 2007 VE Commodore wagon - March 2008 VE Monaro coupe - Late 2008 Full article: http://www.goauto.com.au/mellor/mellor.nsf...A2571AE000F79BC

THE last VZ Commodore sedan will roll off the production line at Holden's Elizabeth plant today, making way for a new generation large car. The first saleable VE Commodore will be built at the plant before the end of this week and the car will be officially revealed for the first time on Sunday. "We're down to building the last few VZs which closes off an exciting chapter of Holden's history," GM Holden spokesman Jason Laird said yesterday. Mr Laird would not reveal how many of the new sedans would be made daily but said the production line would be ramped up gradually. Only a sedan version of the VE Commodore will be made at this stage. It will be built alongside low numbers of the wagon and utility variants of the VZ Commodore, and will be on sale in September. Original article: http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/commo...55E2682,00.html

Video footage (with commentary) of VE Commodore caught outside of Holden's Lang Lang Proving Ground: http://www.drive.com.au/Editorial/ArticleD...articleID=18083

Holden will be the first Australian vehicle producer to make an electronic crash avoidance system a standard feature across its locally-made range. Stopping the slide: Around a left-hand bend, ESP systems can correct oversteer (front-end slide), far left, by applying the left-rear brake. Oversteer (rear-end slide), left, can be corrected by applying the front-right brake. > www.drive.com.au full article

The central mystery of the new movie "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is why General Motors created a dynamic battery-powered auto that drivers loved, only to crush it to smithereens. The mystery, meantime, at the National Museum of American History is why a rare surviving example of that car -- a silvery-blue 1997 EV1 sedan -- would be removed from display yesterday just as interest in the innovative vehicle seems bound to grow. GM, which donated the EV1, happens to be one of the Smithsonian Institution's biggest contributors. A $10 million gift in 2001 paid half the cost of the history museum's new transportation exhibition hall, which was renamed to honor the benefactor. But museum and automaker say the EV1 was removed from view with no thoughts of public reaction to the movie or the display. > The Washington Post full article

SS : LWB: More info and images in the CarPoint article: http://carpoint.ninemsn.com.au/car-review/1806797.aspx

The Holden grant goes towards four projects involving hybrid development, researching fuel economy and alternative fuels, research into cabin design and development of its global design process. Mr Laird said the projects were all long-term and centred on Australian-built models. "They give us the opportunity to do research for the next generation of vehicles beyond VE," he said. The research will investigate whether a new hybrid transmission from General Motors will fit into the VE Commodore, according to Holden sources. The transmission has been jointly developed by GM, DaimlerChrysler and BMW, and claims to be more efficient than Toyota's current system. > Full article

dailytelegraph.news.com.au article: NEWS.com.au article:

A classic Holden Monaro powered by LPG Autogas has set a new Australian land speed record as Australia’s fastest LPG-powered vehicle on a salt lake in South Australia. The 1971 Holden HQ Monaro, owned and built by Dr Don Hudson and co-driven by himself and Dr Justin Clarke, both from NSW, reached speeds of up to 259km/h at last week’s Australian Dry Lakes Racers Speedweek at Lake Gairdner. > Full Article

Size is key. General Motors expects 2005 Middle East sales of its nine-seat GMC and Chevrolet Suburbans and its lumbering GMC Yukon and Chevy Tahoe to soar to 51% over last year, pushed by frantic sales in the biggest regional market - Saudi Arabia. General Motors, Ford and Nissan all reported big October sales declines in America last week, with four-wheel-drives taking the biggest hit. Sales of the Ford Explorer, Lincoln Navigator, GMC Yukon, Hummer H2 and Toyota Land Cruiser were all down by 50% or more. High oil prices were cited as a chief reason. But in one of the auto industry's great ironies, the same oil price rise is driving four-wheel-drive fever in the Gulf. Oil revenues in the six GCC countries are expected to reach almost $300 billion this year, up from just $61 billion in 1998. As oil wealth trickles into every aspect of life there, GCC governments subsidise petrol prices. There are few places where owning a car is so inexpensive. In the Emirates, a gallon of petrol costs $1.70 (44 cents a litre). In Saudi Arabia, petrol costs about a dollar a gallon (25 cents a litre), and in Kuwait, the price is about 83 cents per gallon (21 cents a litre). In the United States last week, the average pump price was $2.48 per gallon (64 cents a litre). > Full Article

Forget hybrids and fuel cells. Some scientists in the US think cars of the future could run on powdered-metal fuel, reports KURT KLEINER. If smog-choked streets test our love for petrol and diesel engines, rocketing fuel prices and global warming could end that relationship once and for all. But before you start saving for the fuel cell-powered electric car that industry experts keep promising, there's something you should know: the car of the future will run on metal. So reckons Dave Beach, a researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, who has come up with a plan to transform the way we fuel our engines. Chunks of metal such as iron, aluminium or boron are the thing, he believes. Turn them into powder with grains just nanometres across and the stuff becomes highly reactive. Ignite it and it releases copious quantities of energy. With a modified engine and a tankful of metal, Beach calculates that an average saloon car could travel three times as far as the equivalent petrol-powered vehicle. Better still, because of the way that this metal nano-fuel burns, it is almost completely non-polluting. That means no carbon dioxide, no dust, no soot and no nitrogen oxides. > Full Article

Aston Martin boss Dr Ulrich Bez has told the producers of the James Bond movie franchise he will no longer pay a product placement fee to see the world's most famous spy drive a car from the British brand. Instead, the producers of the next Bond film are believed to be considering product placement money from ... Toyota. Bez says the British brand [now owned by US giant Ford] has the style and substance to bring unmatched credibility and publicity to the Bond franchise. He says that Bond in a Toyota Camry would do little for publicity or credibility. The dilemma for producers of the Bond films is that other car makers are prepared to pay millions to have Bond drive and, typically, destroy their automotive wares. Cash-rich Toyota is said to be prepared to pay big dollars to be in the Bond film. > Full Article

Extract from: http://www.drive.com.au/editorial/article.aspx?id=10601 : Discounts from Holden Holden has made employee discounts available to the public on all its models. It is advertising that anyone can now buy a car for the same price that a Holden employee can. The only catch is that the company isn't divulging what those prices are. John Elsworth, Holden's marketing director, won't say how much extra business Holden hopes to generate with the scheme, which runs until December 31 and applies to all models with compliance plates dated before July.

you can find scans in this thread: http://www.ls1.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=45980

Is $60 billion profit a typo, as wouldn't that make Isuzu the most profitable vehicle manufacturer in the world?

Quoting November's MOTOR magazine cover, "World first look at Holden's all-new VE!" :

EVIDENCE that General Motors’ large rear-wheel drive vehicle plans are back on track continues to emerge from the US, with GM last week announcing the appointment of a chief engineer for Holden’s Zeta global vehicle architecture program. Doug Houlihan, formerly assistant chief rear-drive vehicle engineer for North American applications, has been named as the man who will run Holden’s Zeta architectural development centre, or "homeroom", in Port Melbourne. At the recent Holden Tigra launch, GM Holden chairman and managing director Denny Mooney added that reports proclaiming the Zeta program as dead were wide of the mark. "Holden’s involvement in Zeta will be much larger than what many thought it would be," he told GoAuto. "We’re still working on it." > Full Article

HOLDEN fans should forget about ever seeing another Australian-made Torana. That is the view of outgoing GM Holden executive director of sales and marketing, Ross McKenzie. "If you take the concept car the guys put together, it is a fantastic looking thing. But the cost of developing and building that car is the same cost as a VE Commodore. "There is maybe a little bit less steel in it, but if you look at the engineering and design costs you cannot make it cheaper (than a Commodore). "Yet the market expectation would be that it (a Torana) would be significantly cheaper." > Full Article