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Holden Commodore ‘could have won’

  • By Mark Hinchliffe
  • The Courier-Mail
  • 11 January 2012
  • image

    'Holden's goal is to be solidly profitable over the long term'. Holden boss Mike Devereux says.

Commodore could have scored a 16th year as Australia's top-selling vehicle.

The Koreans starred, the Japanese mounted a comeback, and One Ford hit the headlines with an extended family of Focus-based newcomers that it is certain to make a big hit in Australia. But it was one car and the commitment of its company chief that made the most impact as America fought back on the opening day of the 2011 North American International Motor Show.

Instead, Mazda3 won the 2011 title by just 812 vehicles. Holden boss Mike Devereux admits they could have "done things" to win, but says that is not their goal.

"Our goal is to be solidly profitable over the long term," he says. "We need to be a future-proof business. 

"If market share comes, it comes from a solid business. 

"Our main aims are to take care of our customers and make profits. Market share is just an outcome. 

"Mazda3 was number one by just 600 units. Do you really think that at the last minute we couldn't have done something about that! "But we have a long-term plan. 

"We are proud to have two of the top-selling cars and they are made in Australia (Commodore and Cruze)."

Comments on this story

Displaying 3 of 28 comments

  • Mazda sell to heaps of fleet and government, I know I am in the industry competing against quotes..check your facts.

    peter of melbourne Posted on 04 February 2012 11:31am

  • It may be true that Holdens and Fords are overpriced but it would be terrible for the Australian economy to have all new cars imported; car sales is such a huge industry here.

    Graham of Hobart Posted on 30 January 2012 8:51am

  • The work VE Commodore is the biggest pile of crap, plastics breaking, battery always going flat, awful heavy steering. If i had the choice in the work garage i would take the Toyota Aurion or FG Falcon over the Crappodore everytime.

    Tony Posted on 22 January 2012 10:15am

  • What a bunch of sore losers Holden's and many of the bogan comments here are.... 1. Mazda 3 became #1 by itself, by private owners, they recognize reliability and great driving dynamics and economy. 2. Mazda sells almost no fleet or government sales. 3. Will Mazda do it again in 2012...no. 4. Who will 5. Korean (Hyundai) 6. The sooner Holden and Ford leaves Australian manufacturing the better, they are the reason we pay nearly twice for all our new cars. Watch prices tumble when they start 100% importing, and they will.... Even Mazda's are WAY overpriced, hal fprice in USA and our dollar is worth more??, all comes out of same Japanese plant.

    Ash Posted on 21 January 2012 12:04pm

  • MikiG..... WHAT A NUTTER, NOT EVER HAVING IT SERVICE ALL OF THOSE 17 YEARS. you don't deserve to spruke about how good it was, just imagine what the next owner will have to put up with...

    adrian small of geelong Posted on 20 January 2012 7:05pm

  • All this Mazda palaver about Private buyer type....Check their Return on Sales (profit) - it's way lower than Holden, and Hyundai for that matter....guess No. 1 comes at a (big) cost in incentives & ads. Mike D. is right - business is for profit - sales & CS will follow...

    Prince Eugen of Sydney Posted on 18 January 2012 4:14pm

  • If you only remove only Police dept purchases of the Commodore from the figures, the numbers look bad. Remove all Govt sales of the Commy and the figures look totally horrendous. Having driven several dozen VE's, I can't understand how it sells at all. It's been a dog of a car from the start.

    CQ of QLD Posted on 18 January 2012 12:03pm

  • MikiG - Mazda make long-life vehicles. The Mazda 323 we bought new in 1995 was only sold last week after having been in the family for almost 17yrs, and well over 300,000 relatively trouble free kms - (a/c not working toward the end, but it'd never been serviced). I'd have bought a 3, but for it's poor fuel economy (compared to Focus).

    Alan of Logan City Posted on 17 January 2012 10:56pm

  • Would have, could have, should have - didn't. I agree with Jason B except for one point. The concept of a level playing field is basically flawed - unless you want Aussie workers to work for the wages paid to workers in Asia. Imports should all be taxed as they once were, and the ACCC regulate local car prices, like every other industry (except fuel - separate argument ).

    Rob Cochrane of Brisbane Posted on 17 January 2012 10:45pm

  • Totally agree with Jason B of Sydney. Also Holden, along with Ford, ruined Bathurst racing by getting it restricted to V8's only. Neither of them liked getting resounding beaten by 2 Litre Turbo-charged Nissans, and other better European cars, that handled much better and outclassed them on every front. Bring the original Bathurst back!

    MikeMoama of Moama Posted on 17 January 2012 8:59pm

  • To Jason B of Sydney, I can say that although I once worked for GMH at Fisherman's Bend in Melbourne; I must reluctantly agree that Australian motorists are being done in! The trouble is, I am not sure that the reasone for our over-priced cars lies with GMH or Ford; but is rather endemic of over-government in Australia. For example, although the $A is higher than the $US, have our imported fuel, cars or anything else for that matter come down? Have local government rates and levies, or state authority/government electricity, water bills, sewerage, stamp duties or payroll taxes come down? For that matter, why are we still paying stamp duty on cars, houses (eg $40,000 if you buy a $1 million house) and many other items when 11 years ago every state agreed to abondon such fees in return for their fair distribution of the new tax called GST. Not one government has abided by the deal! Everything in Australia is overpriced by world standards and the reason is over-government and under-regulation of consumer rights. Keep your hands in your pockets and only buy the necessities until Australian Governments realise that they have a nation of disaffected and angry consumers!

    STEVE of Brisbane of MORETON REGIONAL COUNCIL Posted on 17 January 2012 8:43pm

  • Don't the sales figures include sales to car rental companies? How many Commodores, Falcons and Camrys are sold to the rental companies? (A lot!) How many Mazdas are sold to the car rental companies... NIL... not quite a level playing field.

    Steve of Canberra Posted on 17 January 2012 8:31pm

  • Mazda got #1 through normal sales without the huge fleet sales on razor thin margins which prop up the Commodore, so I find that more impressive than the idea that Holden could have managed to get the Commodore into #1 if they were willing to lose huge piles of money by fire-saling over 800 Commodores at a loss at the end of the year. Mike should have just referred to the fact that Commodore + Cruze is doing really well, said that Commodore is losing sales because Holden buyers are downsizing to the Aussie-made Cruze, and left it at that.

    Arky of Melbourne Posted on 17 January 2012 5:44pm

  • You can't name your price for a Commodore I went to trade 2009 60th anniversary and they wanted $19000 changeover car has travelled 48000 kms. Can you let me know the dealer where you can name your price I'll go in.

    jeff b Posted on 17 January 2012 5:34pm

  • Who cares, its just another bogan car. Cars here are well over taxed. Decent cars over $100,000 are atleast 40% tax.

    dam government Posted on 17 January 2012 5:22pm

  • If you want to buy a commodore, you can name your price and you will get it.. Holden will sell you a car at almost cost price to get the sale so they can be at #1 spot. Other car companies want to operate profitably.. This is why total sales is 1. Toyota 2. Holden and 3. Ford.... Yet Ford and Toyota make more money than Holden.... GM bosses have apparently told holden to make a profit rather than chase #1 spot... by stopping the deep discounting to make commodore #1 seller.

    nik Posted on 15 January 2012 10:43pm

  • I don't think that you can really compare to the comodore sales to the mazda 3, but rather the cruze. But I agree that the performance/price ratio is why the Mazda3 is selling so well. The Comodore is in another price bracket. However, the Mazda3 is better than the Cruze. Over the long-haul anyone with half a brain would know the Comodore (6 Cylinder) is more reliable. For example, how many mazda 3's (4 cylinder) do you see reaching >200 000 kms; not many I'd say. There are plenty of Comodores running fine with those Kms

    MikiG Posted on 14 January 2012 1:17pm

  • The government gave Holden money to stay for no good reason. It failed to acknowledge how Ford and Holden has ruined the overall car industry for Australia and caused Australians to pay double and triple for many years for cars making it virtually the most expensive country in the world to buy a non-locally produced vehicles. Holden was key in the recent development of the Camaro - a great muscle coupe - which sells in the USA from $29,000. Australian car market has been in a grave need of a mid priced $30000 - $60,000 coupe for the last 2-3 years with only the Kia Koup available in that price bracket. Yet GM won't give us the Camaro and if they were to do so they would sell it at more than $80,000 here... and the Australian government is giving GM millions of tax payer money to stay...without an undertaking for GM to give Australians inovative products... When Holden developed the Monaro - GM in the USA clicked their fingers and it was sold in the USA in no time as GTO. In a USA market that had 50 coupes to choose from not 1... Remove all the luxury car tax and other duties on imports, don't give them handouts and finally free Austalian car buyer from the chains of GM & Ford.

    Jason B of Sydney Posted on 14 January 2012 8:59am

  • Mazda can brag when the 3 sits atop of the charts for 15 years in a row and commands a 20% market share like the commodore once did !

    Andrew Whitby Posted on 13 January 2012 9:35pm

  • Sore losers! Every Commodore ad has always mentioned it was the #1 selling car in the country, could have won if they wanted too! how arrogant can you get Now they can't advertise the #1 selling car anymore (that's all the car had going for it) so they put out a press release saying that they could've been #1 if they wanted too, sounds like primary school antics to me. Grow up Devereux, you tried and failed and deservedly so. The Mazda3 is a much better car.

    falcodore of grafton nsw aus Posted on 12 January 2012 5:10pm

  • The Commodore is now to expensive, it needs a $29,999 drive away. If they had a diesel the wood-ducks would have purchased maybe 3000/pcs, would still be #1 Falcon should have the option of the Terri diesel too. Good run anyway, 15 years #1

    DAVIDZ of AUS Posted on 11 January 2012 8:56pm

  • Oh I'm so sorry, it's funny that you don't attack me for the truth about the car in question but a simple over-exaggerated word choice. I would bet money that you are a Commodore driver/Holden employee, it's easy to tell!

    Cameron B of Mt Gravatt, QLD Posted on 11 January 2012 2:52pm

  • Holden done a great job considering the market is so concerned with drive away, bottom dollar pricing and the light car market. Pricing for the '3' is around 10 - 15K cheaper the the VE Commodore so it should be an easy win for Mazda in these tough times. Credit is due to Holden for making the sales so close.

    Dave S Posted on 11 January 2012 2:34pm

  • Why are they whinging for? They've been rorting the system for years. It's really quite easy, just get the dealer to register every vihicle they stock, then they just have a sale - it seems - every weekend.

    Teddy Bear Posted on 11 January 2012 2:12pm

  • Hello - the only reason why the Crudmodore has been the top selling car in Australia for the last 15 years is because of fleet sales where Aussie companies are made to buy Australian. Take the fleet sales out of the picture and Holden are last on most lists.

    Steve of Canberra Posted on 11 January 2012 1:40pm

  • "Mazda3 because 3 is reliable, feature-packed and holds it's value and all this while costing a ton less in petrol" ton less petrol?? Really. What a fertile imagination.

    Cam Buffoon of Mt Gravatt, QLD Posted on 11 January 2012 1:21pm

  • Mazdas boss in on record saying they didnt want to take the crown form Cdore because they were concerned there would be a backlash against them for dethroning an aussie icon!!! They aren't gonna scream it form the rooftops when they are worried about it having a negative impact are they????

    rentakeyboard Posted on 11 January 2012 11:46am

  • Talk about butt-hurt. They should just suck up the fact that their Commodore is not as popular as Mazda3 because 3 is reliable, feature-packed and holds it's value and all this while costing a ton less in petrol. It shows their character that they had to make a bloody news article to say they could have won if they wanted. At least Mazda isn't crowing about it, there was a news article but that was just stating a fact, not gloating.

    Cameron B of Mt Gravatt, QLD Posted on 11 January 2012 10:38am
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