Holden Commodore 2013 News

Stand-by for a short-term price war as car dealers panic sell to clear orders cancelled due to the Rudd Government’s controversial changes to Fringe Benefits Tax rules.“Thousands of cars here or on their way here have had their orders cancelled or postponed because of the sudden changes to FBT," said Richard Dudley, the CEO of the Australian Automobile Dealers Association.“There will be an initial glut of new cars but what happens depends on the outcome of the election. The government is not prepared to move on its FBT decision whereas the opposition says they will abolish the changes."As Ford Australia confirmed it is considering cutting production of the Falcon sedan and Territory SUV, its arch rival Holden issued an urgent bulletin to dealers offering new discounts across most of its model range.“Due to the uncertainty created by the recent announcement on FBT … Holden is offering an additional bonus over and above the current retail incentives”, the confidential bulletin obtained by News Corp said.All new Holdens except the Commodore have an extra $1000 slashed from their prices while the Colorado 4WD has an extra $2000 discount. It means the cheapest car in the Holden range, the Barina Spark, can be bought for $12,990 drive-away.Toyota is understood to be preparing to clear up to 1000 Camrys over the next two months because it is unable to cut production at short notice. The last time Toyota had to quit Camrys, prices dipped to $27,990 drive-away, about $5000 off RRP.Ford, which will end production in Australia in 2016, has foreshadowed further cutbacks. “We can confirm we are looking at what mean for our August production,” said Ford spokeswoman Sinead Phipps.Ford Australia has also put an immediate halt on its employee company-car program. “We’re not calling cars back, but we’re not issuing any new ones at this stage.”Manufacturers have stopped most company-car deliveries to their own staff because the new rules will increase their FBT bills by more than $50 million -- an estimated $20 million each for Toyota and Holden and about $15 million for Ford which has a smaller fleet.The car industry is yet to accurately measure the impact of the FBT changes on new-car sales because the data is compiled on the last day of the month.“It is too early to determine the impact of the FBT on sales after just 10 days, but we will likely see a slowdown in the next two months,” said Tony Weber, the chief executive of the Federal Chamber Automotive Industries. “Long term, if the FBT changes are not reversed, we expect to see a reduction in new-car sales of at least 10 per cent.”Industry estimates say a 10 per cent drop in new-car sales would wipe $1.3 billion in GST revenue a year. When the Rudd Government announced the changes to company car tax rules it forecast a contribution of $1.8 billion towards the axing of the carbon tax.State governments would also miss out on an estimated $100 million in stamp duty revenue from new-car sales and about $50 million in registration fees each year.Luxury car buyers will also be able to grab a bargain. BMW took out advertisements in daily press during the week advising customers against novated leasing because under the new circumstances “a novated lease may no longer be the most suitable way” to buy a new car.Mercedes-Benz is understood to have a surplus of about 400 of its most affordable sedan, the C-Class, which is Australia’s second-biggest selling medium-sized car after the Toyota Camry.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

The SSV Ute’s 8:19:47 lap was faster than any other utility, pick up, or commercial vehicle – ever.Watch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 1: The MachineWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 2: The DriverWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring – record lap

The SSV Ute’s 8:19:47 lap was faster than any other utility, pick up, or commercial vehicle – ever.Watch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 1: The MachineWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 3: The RingWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring – record lap

The SSV Ute’s 8:19:47 lap was faster than any other utility, pick up, or commercial vehicle – ever.Watch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 2: The DriverWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 3: The RingWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring – record lap

In an inspired move, Holden has taken one of its utes to the famous Nurburgring circuit in Germany, where it has posted a lap record. In fact, Holden is claiming a world record for the fastest lap of the treacherous 20km circuit by a commerical vehicle.With Holden Dynamics Engineer, Rob Trubiani, at the wheel of the 270kW VF SS V Redline Ute the Aussie icon posted a sizzling 8m 19.47sec lap,  faster than many exotic sports cars costing several times more than the Ute."We came up with a plan to tackle the Nurburgring and break the world record for a commercial or utility vehicle but when we did our research it seemed one didn't exist, so we decided to set a record instead!" Mr Trubiani said."Without a lap record to break, we sat down and calculated what we thought the Ute could do and targeted around 8min 30sec. Initial practice sessions at the track confirmed that was a stretch target so that's what we aimed for.""To slash 11 seconds from that time with an 8m 19.47sec lap was incredible. There may not have been a utility-vehicle record before but I'm proud to say the VF SS V Redline Ute is now the Nurburgring benchmark!"The record lap time was set during a full run of the Nordschleife section of the Nurburgring, a total of 20.8km. The treacherous circuit has more than 170 corners with huge elevation changes and multiple surfaces and there is no tougher test for a car and its dynamics.Stock standard apart from a small amount of additional negative camber dialled into the front wheels (but still within production tolerances) and the removal of the speed limiter, the Ute ran flawlessly for seven days and 35 gruelling laps in total.The only components that required changing during the entire program were tyres and brakes. The ute is fitted with the widest wheels and tyres ever fitted to a mainstream Holden and the first split front and rear tyre arrangement, with 19x8.5-inch front (245/40/R19) and larger 19x9-inch rear wheels (275/35/R19)."If a vehicle can handle The Green Hell it can handle anything and proves yet again that Holden's testing and development processes produce world-class cars with world-class handling," Trubiani said."Being surrounded by mostly European manufacturers at the industry days, the Ute really stood out and I was getting plenty of thumbs up. Plus a few of the more expensive European cars on the track got a shock as this red Aussie Ute flew past them!"Watch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 1: The MachineWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 2: The DriverWatch the Holden VF Ute vs The Nurburgring -- Part 3: The Ring 

The first thing to be said about Holden's demand that its workers take a pay cut, or the company will follow Ford out the door, is the extraordinarily inept timing. Holden is in the process of launching its new -- and quite possibly its last -- locally designed and built Commodore.That said, it is a product which is intended to last and hopefully thrive for nearly a decade -- through the 2022 current end-date of Holden's deals with three governments. The vehicle is the absolute foundation on which the company hopes to build its future in Australia, at least through 2022 -- which, these days, ranks as the ultra-long term.The future, not just of the manufacturing side of its business in Australia, but its overall product mix and its entire corporate dynamic. No Commodore, and by implication no Cruze either, and Holden would be a very different, hugely challenged, business. It would have to completely re-orient itself in a very different place in the car market landscape.And then suddenly, smack bang out of left field, its CEO Mike Devereux all-but invites consumers to force this exact outcome on the company; by not buying the new Commodore.Yes, it might be unsustainable to keep making cars in Australia at a cost higher than other parts of the world. But as various former makers from Leyland to Mitsubishi discovered, it's even more unsustainable to keep making cars that people won't buy.That's precisely what Devereux is risking by his industrial relations brinkmanship and dire warnings Holden could pack up and go. Before yesterday, anybody contemplating buying the new Commodore would have been confident the product was here to stay, at least through 2022 -- the current end-date of Holden's deal with the federal, Victorian and South Australian governments.With all that meant to confidence about parts and servicing to re-sale value. And crucially, to confidence in the build quality of the car. All that potentially got shredded in an instant yesterday. Talk about undermining your own marketing. There's only one thing worse than buying the proverbial ‘Monday car’. And that's buying the car made on the last ‘Monday’, figuratively speaking. The last ones made before the plant is shuttered.Yesterday Devereux implied that could be as soon as 2016. Quite how that would work in the light of Holden's commitment to stay until 2022, is another altogether uncertain and challenging matter. Maybe he thought this was the time of maximum leverage -- both inward to its workforce and outward to the community and government, governments, in particular.In the shock and awe in the wake of Ford's departure. And in the state federal politics is in. Although it hardly helps Tony Abbott, as Holden wants to do its own mini-version of what Labor so desperately wants to suggest an Abbott-led government is determined on imposing on Australia. Aha. Here's Holden running interference for the return of an even more punitive wage-cutting Work Choices! Not even John Howard's ‘good' version. But the new Abbott really evil crush-the-worker version.The other big problem with what Holden is trying to do now is that it made its own bed, so far as its pay deals with its workers and its subsidy deals with the governments. And now doesn't want to lie in it. What Holden has done might seem entirely rational to Devereux. That it has to set its prices -- very attractively, on what appears to be a magnificent new vehicle -- to make it competitive in the market, and most obviously against imports.So then it has to adjust its cost structure -- down -- to make itself viable, at those selling prices. Selling prices, that are in a real-world sense imposed on it. Yes, all true and rational. Except that the company had done it in precisely the opposite direction. It had agreed very generous wage rates with its workers; it had copped their inefficient working practices in employment conditions.What did it think it was doing? If it wanted to make a profit with that cost structure, it should have understood it would need higher selling prices. Or did it think it could cover the gap with higher and higher taxpayer subsidies? All this said, Holden has done us a big service by posing some big questions. First, do we seriously want to have a car manufacturing industry in Australia? If we do, we have to get realistic about maximising productivity and achieving some reduction in labor costs.That does not mean slashing wages to Chinese-equivalent levels. The potential productivity improvements from having far more flexible working arrangements is more important than wage cuts. It's certainly far more important to Holden. I'd suggest that the wage cuts asked for by Devereux are a form of employer ambit claim. If he could get the flexible working conditions he wants, he'd be happy to keep paying the high wages.The same goes for the economy and business more widely, and business big and small. It's much less about the wages, and far more about working conditions. And all that government regulation and red tape! So Devereux really has posed the question much more broadly and deeply. Are we going to get real about productivity and IR across the economy? To maximise competitiveness and jobs. And wages. 

It's not hard to track it back, since the Commodore VY II update in 2003 included the four-door Holden Crewman. The back-seat space was upright and cramped, and the ute tray was stunted, but it tapped a growing need for work-and-play utes.The Crewman was culled at the same time as Holden killed its Commodore wagon and, in reality, it never made commercial sense and was never properly costed against the potential return. But people who like the Crewman really love it, and now there are more and more people looking for the same sort of combination in their car.The new generation of four-door utes can really be all things to most people, since they can also be loaded with four-wheel drive on one side and sports packs on the other. Engine choices often run from basic fours to sweet sixes and torque-alicious turbodiesels.They are, in short, the ultimate crossover. And they don't just cross over, they blur the lines between cars and trucks. The popularity of double-cab utes has made them one of the country's boom categories, with showroom action only triumphed by SUVs and small cars.There are plenty of VFacts sales numbers to confirm the rise and climb of the ute, but the Roy Morgan research group recently did some sums that show there are 300,000 more one-tonne ute drivers today than there were just five years ago. Australians are now 30 per cent more likely to be driving a work-and-play ute in 2013 than they were in 2008.Roy Morgan also has interesting demographic data that shows ute drivers are wealthier than they were, with one-in-three now earning more than $70,000 a year compared with one-in-five in 2008.Tellingly, ute drivers are now more likely to describe themselves as big spenders, where they were far less likely to see themselves that way in 2008. That could help explain the tendency to splash on top-end utes.The Toyota HiLux is still the most popular pickup in the country, but Ford is doing extremely well with its Ranger - the Carsguide choice in the class - and now reports a waiting list up to four months for the XLT double cab despite prices starting at $34,990 for the XL.This reporter is on Twitter: @paulwardgover 

Ford has already announced the end of the Falcon ute, along with the entire Australian-made range, at the end of 2016. Holden has just launched its VF Commodore range, including a Sportwagon and ute, but there is no certainty the ute has a long future either.The VF Commodore will continue until a new model is introduced at the end of 2016. Holden has disclosed there will be a new Commodore but only a select few within Holden and General Motors know what it is, whether it is a large car, medium sedan or crossover vehicle and whether it will be rear-drive or switch to a cheaper and more efficient front-drive set-up.The chance of an Australian Holden ute is limited if the next Commodore is not rear-drive, unless Holden can continue to produce the old ute and SS sedan alongside the new model, as mooted by senior GM executives.Holden had hoped to boost ute sales by exporting it to the US but GM president Mike Reuss has told Carsguide the business case just didn't stack up for the load hauler. The Holden and Falcon utes have been beaten up by Thai-built one-tonners such as the Toyota HiLux, Ford Ranger and Holden Colorado, which are more civilised than before and have crew cab convenience.Falcon ute sales have dropped to a monthly average of just 352 so far this year, according to Vfacts, a far cry from the 1500-odd monthly sales it registered a decade ago. The Holden ute isn't doing much better, averaging 452 a month, well down on the 1200 tallied 10 years ago.

The automobile industry doesn’t get anywhere near the credit it deserves for the advances in road safety over the last four decades. Although there have been some legislative requirements, the vast majority of innovations have been brought in voluntarily and with competition between carmakers driving the safety of motor vehicles to higher and higher levels. While many of the initiatives have originated in Europe it’s reassuring to see Holden taking the lead with an Australian-made car that’s at the leading edge of vehicle safety. The following features are available in the new high-tech VF Commodore: Blind Spot Alert Regular readers will be well aware of our views on the dangers of driver inattention and the fact that if a driver adjusts their mirrors correctly then there’s no such thing as a blind spot. Nevertheless the reality is that there are such drivers out there, so a system such as Blind Spot Alert that uses radar sensors mounted on each side of the rear fascia to alert them to a car coming alongside may well save the lives of the occupants of both vehicles. The VF Commodore’s Blind Spot Alert flashes an orange warning icon on one or other of the car’s two door mirrors. It is available as an option with the Commodore Evoke and is standard in all other models Lane Departure Warning Another system designed to avert possible crashes it uses a digital camera mounted at the top of the car’s front windscreen to ‘look at’ lane markings on either side of the car and to alert the driver both visually and audibly when the car moves out of the lane. It only operates at speeds in excess of 56 km/h when it has been activated through a steering wheel mounted button and only when the driver has not signalled a lane change. Lane Departure Warning is only available in the SS V Redline, Calais V and Caprice V models. Forward Collision Alert This system uses the same digital camera as that on the lane departure system to monitor vehicles immediately in front of the Commodore and warns the driver if they are approaching such a vehicle too quickly and that a collision is imminent. Unlike some other systems it will not apply the brakes. As with the Lane Departure Warning it’s only available in the SS V Redline, Calais V and Caprice V models. Head-Up Display Now for a feature that assists the alert, rather than the inattentive, driver. A Head-Up Display projects a variety of information onto the bottom of the windscreen immediately in front of the driver thus reducing the need for them to take their eyes off the road. We’ve seen quite a few of these systems in European and Japanese cars, but none with the choice of information in the VF Commodore. Displayed are vehicle speed, the current speed limit, audio functions, vehicle messages and phone information. Too much information? Yes, we think so. The position of the display and its brightness can be adjusted via a dashboard mounted control. Again, HUD only comes with the SS V Redline, Calais V and Caprice V models. Auto Park Assist Auto-park systems are now available in a number of imported cars, with Ford Australia pushing this feature strongly. These use sensors or cameras to detect a suitable parking space and combine with the driver to safely park the car. Most auto park systems are currently in small to medium sedans where the problem of parking is significantly less than it is for the driver of a large family car, so it’s great to see the Commodore using them. According to Holden, the Auto Park Assist fitted standard across the VF Commodore range including the Ute and WN Caprice, is the largest GM car to have such a system. It can be used to park in either parallel or right-angle parking spaces with the driver operating the throttle and brake and the car’s computer doing the steering. Reverse Traffic Alert One feature that will appeal to any every driver who’s ever been stuck, parked forward, between a couple of big SUVs in a supermarket car park. The Reverse Traffic Alert system uses the radar sensors in the rear fascia to send both a visual and audible alert if, when the Commodore is being reversed, it detects a vehicle approaching from either side of the car within a distance of 25m. It operates on angled parking as well as driveways. Love it! IsoFix Child Seat Mounting An advanced method of mounting child seats that locks the seats into a set of anchor points instead of through rear seat belts. Any parent who watches the Holden crash test video and sees how much more secure their children will be is likely to immediately change over. That is, if their car has IsoFix mountings, because the stupidity of regulators in Australia meant they were illegal here for many years. All VF Commodore sedan, Sportwagon and WN Caprice models have three IsoFix child seats anchors although at this stage they are awaiting ADR approval. MyLink Additional safety features such as Enhanced Voice Recognition, Bluetooth hands-free telephone and text messaging to voice operate in conjunction with a range of fascinating new features through Holden’s MyLink system which is standard in every VF Commodore and WN Caprice model. The large 8-inch colour touch screen is placed at the top-centre of the dashboard to minimise the amount of time diverted from the road. Included among the features it operates are satellite navigation with traffic management; Siri voice commands; Smart phone integration with embedded apps such as the Pandora music and Stitcher worldwide radio access.  

OMG the new Holden Commodore VF can RSVP. As safety experts around the world wrestle with how to stop drivers from reading and sending text messages while on the move, Holden has come up with a simple solution. Every new Commodore comes with preset text messages that enable the driver to reply at the press of a button, or with a short voice command. You can also program your own message. Included among the 15 options are “Can’t talk now, I’m driving”, “I need directions”. There is even a shortcut for a simple “yes” or “no”. There are also 50 spaces for personalised responses, which can only be typed into the Commodore’s system when the car is parked. It’s part of the new VF Commodore’s touchscreen and infotainment system and it is believed to be the first car on sale in Australia with the technology. Toyota displayed a sample of a similar system at last year’s Geneva motor show but the Japanese company is yet to introduce it locally. Commodore drivers also have the option of using voice control that’s been tuned to understand Australian accents. For now, the preset text message responses only work with Android and Blackberry operating systems. Apple’s security settings don’t allow it, says Holden. Instead, iPhone users will need to use Siri to dictate a message. “No matter which device you have, there is no need to touch or glance at your phone while driving,” said Holden technology communications manager Andrea Matthews. “But depending on your device, you can reply by voice or tap the touchscreen to reply with a preset message.” Regardless of which type of smartphone you have, however, the Commodore can read it aloud over the audio system speakers. Holden is working with Apple to enable preset responses for iPhone users. “We have ongoing discussions with all of the phone providers. The preset reply menu is one of things we are talking about with Apple,” she said. Telecommunications figures show smartphones with Android operating systems now outsell Apple’s IOS system both in Australia and overseas. Although Apple sells more phones in most markets, Android-compatible devices accounted for 64 per cent of sales in the first three months of this year across nine countries -- Australia, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom and North America -- according to a study by Kantar, a British-based firm that regularly researches global mobile phone use. This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling