HSV W427 won?t be last

Holden Special Vehicles boss Phil Harding is cagey about it.

He's been misquoted before on future supercars from the Clayton-based brand but says the W427 won't be the last super car from HSV.

Mr Harding says there needs to be a time gap and low production numbers to maintain exclusivity.

"Some have called it an Australian icon and I'm happy with that, but you need a timeout and then come back later and do something like that again - but I don't know what that timeframe is."

"One customer has bought two, one on bricks and the other is being driven, so they probably think its going to help them in the future with car value," he says.

The model mix has not swung in the smaller four-cylinder direction but HSV is still looking at additional four-cylinder models, including examining an HSV version of the Cruze.

"We have a lot of internal activity, I don't think I'm ready to say more than that, on Corsa and Insignia we have business cases to finish off, that's still happening."

"But since then in the public domain the Cruze has entered the melting pot, that's given us another opportunity that we're looking at.

"We're looking at the concept, I'm not confirming that we're going to do it.

"The Corsa and Insignia haven't gotten any worse - in fact they've gotten better - so I don't want to throw them out in a product sense, they'll only be thrown out if the business case doesn't work," he says.

The company's sales tallies have followed the market down by about 20 per cent but Mr Harding says the figures are in line with the company plans.

"We're in line with our plan, which is down on last year, but like every car company we're doing all the right things - controlling costs, motivating our dealers, focussed on selling cars and the sales are where we thought we'd be at the end of quarter one, we're down about 20 per cent in line with the market."

Mr Harding has ruled out any HSV versions of a Holden SUV and has expressed a preference for the exciting product like the W427.

"We're also bringing LPG to the market later this year, that's progressing. We're doing well with that."

"We've existed for 20 years and we've got great products.

"It's tough, but we've been in the tough times before and we'll come out of it and we'll have some great times," he says.