Holden Commodore News

The full-sized family favourite has been mauled by a pair of baby- class contenders this year and, with just one month until the end of the showroom stoush for 2011, it trails the compact Mazda3 by 301 sales. The Toyota Corolla actually topped the sales charts in November for its fourth monthly win of 2011, with the 3 also trumping the Commodore again after the Holden was only fifth in October. The November results reported in official VFacts sales figures show Holden and Mazda trading the year-to-date lead again in a reflection of the touch-and-go battle between the two cars throughout the year. The 3 has topped two individual months, far less than the Commodore, but the focus now is on the final numbers on December 31. In November, Toyota sold 3731 Corollas, Mazda managed 3480 with the Mazda3 and the Commodore was well behind on 2808. Despite the closeness of the battle, and the importance of Number One bragging rights, both Holden and Mazda said they are not focussed on the showroom numbers. "We've said all along that it's going to be a tough fight. But our focus is on profitability," said Shayna Welsh of Holden. "At the end of the day, the Mazda3 is secure in its position as Australia's number one small car. Whether it's number one overall is not something we're greatly concerned about," said Steve Maciver of Mazda Australia. "Consistency has been the key to Mazda3's success. Some of our competitors have been up and down, but that's the key to this success." The results through 2011 reflect the overall downsizing in Australian driveways, with the Commodore hit hard and the Ford Falcon battling through a huge double-digit decline that is almost certain to result in a successor that is designed and developed overseas. But Holden has not given up after running a number of value-added sales incentives this year with the Commodore. "We're not going to chase sales in December. (But ) it could still be 16 years," Welsh said.

1. The Flintstones carHow could this not be the ultimate cartoon car? To start, it's a rag top, so it's got sex appeal. It's a family car, seating a whole family and its pet dinosaur. Most importantly, it's the ultimate in green power. Forget about hybrid machines and electric power, this car was powered by foot and included two-foot brakes. And it came with leather seats. The number plate was XYZ643 not YABADO as in '94 movie.2. Homer Simpson's carIndestructible and pink. Homer's car was crashed so many times, yet it kept returning to each episode brand new - except for a minor dent in the front. It features a driver's side airbag, a bent radio aerial, and an eight-track audio system. While it is modelled on a 1973 Plymouth Valiant, Homer's mechanic says in one episode it is made from Soviet tanks and built in Croatia. The orange station wagon driven by his wife Marge is also similarly indestructible.3. The HomerYes, from the same cartoon show, this was Homer's vision of the perfect car. It was the height of sex appeal with its shag carpeting, tailfins and three horns that played La Cucaracha. Homer said the engine sound causes people to think the world's coming to an end and has "power like a gorilla, yet soft and yielding like a nerf ball". But its crowning glory was its family values with its separate sound-proofed dome to enclose the kids in the back seat, including restraints and muzzles. It also had supersized cup holders. It cost $82,000 and sent his half-brother's company bankrupt.4. Scooby Doo Mystery MachineThis multi-coloured psychedelic van was a mystery because it seemed to be able to fit a huge number of people: a Great Dane, four teenagers, the Harlem Globetrotters and various guest stars. The van was bought by redhead Daphne Blake's rich dad. He should have bought the rights to it as well, because millions have been made on the toy version.5. Speed Racer's Mach 5At 5000 horsepower this race car has five times more power than a Bugatti Veyron. It has many features such as being able to drive on the ocean floor, jacks for super jumps and quick repairs, and seven buttons on the steering wheel that could adjust road traction - 40 years before Ferrari thought of doing it with its F1 race car.6. Lightning McQueenThe star of the Pixars film, Cars, is an amalgam of three of the best-loved sports cars of all time: Chevy Corvette C1, Mazda MX-5 and Dodge Viper. Add a big smile on its face and give it a bright disposition and who couldn't love it? The car is mistakenly believed to be named after Hollywood star and car nut Steve McQueen, but is actually named after a Pixar worker who died of skin cancer.7. The GadgetmobileInspector Gadget's car was, of course, loaded with gadgets. They include the ability to turn itself into any other type of vehicle, radar to track Gadget's location, tyres that expand upwards and retractable jail bars for criminals in the back seat. But it's really a hoon machine with its rear-mounted powerful engine and constant law-breaking speeds. The Gadgetmobile says: "Speed limits are for cars, not the Gadgetmobile."8. The Compact PussycatPenelope Pitstop's compact pink convertible in the Wacky Races had red lip bumpers and was a beauty parlour on wheels. She often used these features in her car to improve her appearance and distract the other drivers in the race. Sometimes they even let her pass. Typical!9. Spider-MobileSpiderman's car wasn't ostentatious like the Batmobile, but a fun dune buggy. Spider-Man was asked by Corona Motors to drive a non-polluting vehicle but he asked friend Johnny Storm to customised a dune buggy. It features web-launchers, a spider-signal and could be disguised as a normal car. It was wrecked but later modified to go up walls and drive itself.10. Hong Kong Phooey's PhooeymobileThe "number one super guy" travels around in the Phooeymobile fighting crime with the aid of his manual, The Hong Kong Book Of Kung Fu. He's an incompetent anti-hero and a shocking driver who crashes into everything but gets away with it. When he drove the Phooeymobile through wet cement, splattering workers, they said it was an honour to have a whole day's work ruined by "the great Hong Kong Phooey". The perfect car for incompetent drivers.

Despite decades of pressure on big engines as emissions and fuel economy legislation squeezes, they're still being made. General Motors today will build its 100-millionth small-block V8 engine - 56 years after the first production small block - that stands as engineering defiance of a global trend to engine downsizing. Chevrolet introduced the small-block in 1955 and the production milestone comes in the same month the brand marked its 100th anniversary. The small-block engine has been used in GM vehicles around the world and is currently found in the Holden/HSV models, Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac. "The small block is the engine that brought high-performance to the people," said David Cole, founder and emeritus chairman of Center for Automotive Research. Cole's father, the late Ed Cole, was the chief engineer at Chevrolet and oversaw development of the original small block engine. "There is an elegant simplicity in its design that made it instantly great when new and enables it to thrive almost six decades later." The milestone engine being made today is a 475kW (638hp) supercharged LS9 small block - the power behind the Corvette ZR1 - which is hand-built at GM's Performance Build Center, northwest of Detroit. It represents the fourth generation of the small block and is the most powerful engine ever built by GM for a regular-production car. GM will preserve the engine as part of its historical collection. The small block has been adapted throughout the auto industry and beyond. Newer versions of the original Gen I engine are still in production for marine and industrial uses, while "crate" engine versions available from Chevrolet Performance are used in their thousands by enthusiasts to build hot rods. The 4.3-litre V6 used in some Chevrolet and GMC vehicles is based on the small-block, just missing two cylinders. All of these versions contribute to the small block's 100-million production milestone. "This tremendous achievement celebrates an engineering triumph that has reached around the globe and created an industrial icon," said Sam Winegarden, executive director and group global functional leader of Engine Engineering. "And while the small-block's enduring design has proven adaptable to meet performance, emissions and refinement challenges over the years, it has more importantly delivered them with greater efficiency." The engines now feature aluminium cylinder block and heads in car and many truck applications to help save weight and contribute to better fuel economy. Many applications feature fuel-saving technologies such as Active Fuel Management - which shuts down four cylinders in certain light-load driving conditions - and variable-valve timing. And despite the years, they still are powerful and relatively economical. The 430hp (320kW) LS3 version of the Gen-IV small-block is used in the 2012 Corvette and jets it from rest to 100km/h in about four seconds, run the quarter-mile in just over 12 seconds and achieve a top speed of more than 288km/h while achieving EPA-estimated highway fuel economy of 9.1 litres/100km. "The small-block engine delivers guilt-free performance," says Winegarden. "It is the quintessential V8 engine and a living legend that is more relevant than ever." GM also announced this week that the fifth-generation small-block under development will feature a new direct-injection combustion system that will help enhance efficiency over the current-generation engine. "The small-block architecture has continued to prove its relevance in a fast-evolving industry and the fifth-generation engine will build on the performance legacy with a significant advance in efficiency," says Winegarden. GM is investing more than $1 billion in manufacturing facilities associated with producing new small-block engines, resulting in 1711 jobs that have been created or retained. The Gen-V engine is expected in the near future and is guaranteed to have 110mm bore centres which has been part of the small-block's architecture from the beginning. GM started on the V8 following World War II, after Chief Engineer Ed Cole transferred to Chevrolet from Cadillac where he oversaw the development of its premium V8 engine. Cole's team retained the basic overhead valve design that was a staple of Chevrolet's inline-six engine - affectionately called the Stovebolt. It was seen as one of the Chevrolet car line's selling points, reinforcing a message of simplicity and reliability. Cole challenged his engineers to tighten the new engine package to make it more compact, less costly and easier to manufacture. Upon its debut in the 1955 Chevy lineup, the new V8 engine was physically smaller, 23kg lighter and more powerful than the Stovebolt six. It was not only a better engine for Chevrolet cars, it represented a better way of building engines, with a minimalist design that took advantage of streamlined production techniques. After only two years on the market, the small-block began a steady march upward in displacement, power and technological advancement. In 1957, a version equipped with mechanical fuel injection was introduced, dubbed Ramjet. The only other high-volume manufacturer to offer fuel injection at the time was Mercedes-Benz. Mechanical fuel injection was discontinued in the mid-1960s, but the small-block debuted electronically controlled fuel injection in the 1980s and established a benchmark with the 1985 launch of Tuned Port Injection. This electronically controlled port fuel injection system was advanced in its day and its basic design is still used on most passenger cars and light-duty trucks more than 25 years later. The small-block's 110mm bore centres would come to symbolise the compact, balanced performance of the small-block. It was the dimension around which the Gen III small-block was designed in 1997. In 2011, the small-block is in its fourth generation, powering Chevrolet's full-size trucks, SUVs and vans, midsize trucks and the Camaro and Corvette performance cars. The first 4.3-litre (265cu.in) engine in 1955 produced up to 145kW (195hp) with an optional four-barrel carburetor. Today, the LS9 6.2-litre (376cu.in) supercharged small-block in the Corvette ZR1 is rated at 638hp (475kW), making it the most powerful engine ever installed in a regular-production Chevrolet or GM vehicle.

I dread to think the whole championship result could come down to that this weekend at the finale in Sydney. I think it's time to go back to the old rule of closing the pits when there is a safety car on the track. The problem is that if a safety car is deployed around your pit window, teams have no choice but to bring all their cars in at the same time. And that is likely to happen several times at Homebush where there are concrete barriers and little run-off. If there is more than one competitive team car on the track at that time, the second team car just has to queue up behind their teammate and watch all their competitors go past them. I'd be really disappoitned if that determined the championship and so would the fans who want to see racing on the circuit not in the pits. It hasn't just affected our team. I think James Coutrney was affected at Bathurst. It is a problem for any team that has more than one competitive car. Of course, I can get around the problem by making sure I'm in front of my teammate, Jamie Whincup, all weekend. However, I could win both races and still lose the championship, so long as Jamie finishes in the top six. Saturday is crunch day for me. The whole season has come down to one race. If I can't reduce the points gap to Jamie by 38 on Saturday it's all over for me. But this is what a championship is all about; pressure going into a race like this. You need to step up and perform. Unfortunately I also need for Jamie to have some problems or issues. I think he's aware of the situation as well, so there's pressure there for both of us. The format is two 250km races on hard tres with qualifying both days and a top 10 shootout on the Saturday. Neither of us has a good record at Homebush. It's a circuit we both enjoy but we haven't been able to get the best out of our cars and ourselves. I'll address that by working very hard on car set-up so that it responds well. Then it's a case of getting that one quick lap in to get to the front of the queue and avoid the carnage of a street circuit. I believe the track layout, including tyre barriers and kerbs are the same as last year, but we are heading down to Sydney early this year to check things out. Earlier this year I suggested a Nascar Chase scenario where at some point in the season, the top 10 plus others within a certain points gap qualify for the championship chase with the points scrubbed back to zero. It creates a lot more excitement and puts more teams into title contention. Now I see some of the other drivers have been talking about it because TeamVodafone has dominated the season and are set up for a one-two finish this weekend. While some of that talk might be jealousy by other teams, I actually agree that it is a better format and something we need to look at to keep the excitemenet level high right to the bitter end. If we had re-set the points at Bathurst, I don't think there would be much difference between Jamie and me, anyway. Maybe some of the others such as Mark Winterbottom would be a lot closer, though.

Suncorp Claims Team has identified for Carsguide some of the more "unusual" claims stories to show a lighter side to the industry.

These workshops are free and provide practical advice and helpful guidelines on car maintenance and safety. Holden Technicians will be on hand during each workshop, running five different `hands on' stations. Each station will demonstrate different procedures, such as changing tyres, maintaining correct tyre pressures, jump starting a car with a flat battery and teaching participants how to identify worn components such as brake pads and dirty air filters. These seminars are free for all Holden and non-Holden owners and particpants will receive a useful gift bag containing a first-aid kit and torch, as well as light refreshments provided at the end of the night. Places are limited to a maximum of 50 per session so register early at www.wowheels.com.au Seminars will be held at Ashfield on November 30.

But realistically, it will only happen if my teammate Jamie Whincup has a DNF at Sandown this weekend or in Sydney next month. And I can't foresee that happening because of the reliability and consistency of his driving this season. My second and fifth places in Tasmania at the weekend have made my job a lot harder, especially with Jamie taking a clean sweep and maximum points. But I will fight to the bitter end. I'll never give up and never say die. It's going to be an uphill struggle, but I just need to win as many races as I can. I jumped to 100 points in front of Jamie after Bathurst and then fell to 143 behind after the Gold Coast. Now I've dropped another 51 points behind. However, if I'm still within 300 points after Sandown this weekend, then anything is possible at Homebush. We saw that last year with the top three guys getting caught up in an incident. James Courtney ended up winning the championship virtually on a race in the pits.  I've spoken to Jamie and he's still very mindful of the maths equation. If he doesn't score any more points this season he's still guaranteed second in the championship. But I know that won't be enough for him. Apart from the driver's championship, we are also just 24 points away from the team championship. I don't want to dwell too much on what happened in Tasmania, but I will admit I didn't get the job done in Sunday qualifying. I had three green sets of tyres. I used one for warm-up, then put on another set and got caught up in traffic which is always a problem on a short circuit like Symmons Plains. With one final set left I got a clean run, but I just didn't put a solid lap together and ended up 15th on the grid. I then had a discussion with my race engineer JJ (Jeromy Moore) and we decided on an early pit strategy which paid huge dividends. We had good pit stops on the weekend but a few teams had problems with the new crew rule that allows two extra people in pit lane. The problem is that it gets congested on the right hand side of the car. The changes have been made for safety and health reasons. Our sport has a good safety record and we have to keep making changes to make things even safer. The teams will just have to get their heads around how to manoeuvre more efficiently. Nascar does it with seemingly a cast of a thousand, but maybe they have a better set up with more space. They also need the extra person because they have five wheels nuts rather than one central one. Anyway, it's something that everyone will have to work out. I'm sure most teams will have it right for this weekend. Another lesson that will have to be learnt for this weekend is that two into one doesn't go. We saw a spectacular crash last year at the end of the back straight where two drivers tried to squeeze into the one slot at a corner where we are going 270+km/h. I don't think there is a problem with the track, just the drivers. Hopefully they have learnt from their mistake. For me, my plan will be simple; win both races. It's a track I know and love and have had good results on in the past, so I have no excuses.

... as exports of Australia's favourite car continue to collapse. Overseas sales of the Commodore this year are likely drop to around one-tenth of their recent record, 60,518 cars in 2005, because of falling support since then in the Middle East, Brazil and the USA.  Last year's total was just 7817 cars. The only bright spots are relatively strong demand for the long- wheelbase Caprice in the Middle East and the growth of police car sales in America. The export slide has also seen output from Holden's factory at Elizabeth in South Australia fall from 165,000 cars in 2004 to 66,061 last year, although the company hopes local production of the compact Cruze alongside the Commodore will eventually rebuild its total to around 100,000 a year. "This is why we are doing Cruze. For a plant of our size, on a two- shift operation and depending on what you're building, a good target is around 100,000 cars," Holden spokesperson, Emily Perry, said yesterday. "From an operational point of view, it's not necessarily a bad thing for us." The Middle East retreat came as this year's sales total for the Commodore, badged as a Chevrolet Lumina, inches toward an insignificant 160 cars. Holden is also likely to soon end a Brazilian export program, despite promising sales of 600 cars in 2010, after the recent imposition of a massive import tariff to protect locally-made cars in the South American country. "The Lumina is being wound up in the Middle East. We haven't made a decision on Brazil," said Perry. "We said we were going to sell 600 cars there and we've certainly done that. The short-term impact is from the tariff they have put in ... that has added 25-30 per cent to the price of the vehicle." Holden admitted its overseas sales have been hurt over the past two years by the strength of the Australian dollar, but the company was hit hardest by the end of its G8 export program to the USA when General Motors shut down its Pontiac division. "The Australian dollar doesn't help," Perry said. Holden's efforts with the American police car program are improving but the company refuses to give production numbers, waiting for confirmation of deliveries in the USA. "It's 614 cars his year, and that's in the six-month period since March. They only started being recorded as sales in June," Perry said. "The patrol cars are starting to be delivered. Of course it's gaining momentum." The export defeats come at a time when there are more and more questions about the future of the Commodore, particularly beyond the VF model that is now confirmed for showrooms in the second half of 2013. But Perry said Holden's efforts, and particularly its production for Australian buyers, needs to be measured against the two other local carmakers, Ford and Toyota. "If you think that we've sold twice or three times as many locally- made cars as our local volume competitors, that speaks volumes about what we've done. We're nearly double Ford and triple Toyota," she said.

The successor to today's VE is under development at Fishermans Bend and construction of the first road-ready prototypes began last week. The project is costing more than $200 million and is focussed primarily on efficiency, including major weight reduction and engine improvements, although owners can also expect much bigger external rearview mirrors and significant body changes. Confirmation of the VF program comes following a firestorm over the future of the Holden Commodore, which was lit and fanned by representatives of the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia. It claimed there would be major job losses at GM Holden as there was no confirmed future for the homegrown Commodore beyond 2014. However, Holden's chairman Mike Devereux vigorously denies the claims and hits back by revealing previously-secret details of the VF. "The 2014 Commodore is designed and engineered here. It is being engineered right now. We started building prototype vehicles in Port Melbourne two days ago," Devereux says last Thursday. The prototypes will be headed straight into test and development work based at Holden's proving grounds at Lang Lang, south-east of Melbourne. The cars are the first solid proof that the Commodore has a homegrown future until at least 2018, as the upcoming VF will have a four-year life expectancy when it takes over from today's VE. But Holden stops short of confirming anything for the car that will follow the VF. It says it needs to do more research on future sales and technology trends in Australia and overseas - as well as the potential for financial assistance from the Federal government - before making decisions on the next major investment by the brand. "No, we haven't made a decision on what we will build in Adelaide post our current range and post model-year 2014, I won't speculate on the timing," Devereux says. "What we are going to make hasn't been decided yet. It's still too early." It's most likely that the car beyond VF will be an Australian tweak on one of GM's world cars, most likely smaller overall than the traditional Commodore but with similar interior space. The biggest question mark for Commodore traditionalists, the continuation of rear-wheel drive, is unlikely to be answered for at least three years but everything points towards a front-wheel drive move with all-wheel drive available for people who need extra hauling capacity. Ford Australia is moving the same way with the successor to the current Falcon, with consistent pointers from Detroit towards a local clone of the top-selling American Taurus for the next-generation Falcon.

SEVENTEEN of the top 20 cars stolen in Australia in the past year are early model Holden Commodores that can be started with a dipstick. The other three cars in the top 20 are the 1997 and '98 Hyundai Excel (eighth and 17th) and the 1991 Toyota Camry (20th), according to National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction figures. Executive director Ray Carroll says Commodores are over-represented because there are so many on the road and the early models lack adequate security. ``In some of the early models you only need a key vaguely of the same make and model; the locks are so worn anything with a similar profile will start them. Some even start with a dipstick,'' he says. ``Holden introduced immobilisers to Commodores in 2001 but the early versions were pretty poor quality in terms of effectiveness.'' The Commodore has been Australia's most popular-selling car for more than 10 years and the models which top the theft council's ``most-stolen'' list range from 1989 to 2003. Most stolen is the 1992 Commodore with 393 going missing in the past year. Of these, 332 are short-term thefts for joyriding, vandalism, transport or to commit a crime while the other 61 are classed as ``profit-motivated thefts'' where the cars are ``rebirthed'' and sold, usually interstate, or broken up and sold as parts. Carroll says V8 and six-cylinder Commodores are an attractive target for joyriders because they are ``good for doing wheelies and donuts''. They are also targeted by thieves for their value as parts on the black market, he says. Theft council figures show car thefts have plummeted 65 per cent in the past 10 years from a peak of 129,923 in 2000-01 to 53,588 last financial year. ``There is a lot of speculation about the reasons for this trend,'' Carroll says. ``One is that the fleet is becoming more immobilised, but there are still something like five million unsecured non-immobilised cars in the country. ``Also, as the theft rate comes down, there are less offenders doing it which means police can concentrate on more intelligence-led policing of high-rate offenders. ``There is a small number of offenders committing a large percentage of car theft, so police can have a big impact on theft rates if they take these criminals out of action.'' Carroll says another major contributing factor to the drop in car theft is the increasing vigilance of motorists. ``When we started 10 years ago the typical old-fashioned statement was `no one would ever want to steal my old bomb','' he says. ``There has been a lot of work done by us, the police and others to educate people that it's the older cars - or bombs - that get stolen the most. ``People are more security conscious now.'' MOST STOLEN CARS 1992 Commodore 393 1990 Commodore 343 1991 Commodore 330 1998 Commodore 323 1989 Commodore 319 1995 Commodore 295 1999 Commodore 294 1997 Hyundai Excel 282 1997 Commodore 282 1996 Commodore 275 2000 Commodore 266 2002 Commodore 261 1993 Commodore 257 1987 Commodore 245 1994 Commodore 240 2001 Commodore 229 1998 Hyundai Excel 229 2003 Commodore 220 1986 Commodore 219 1991 Toyota Camry 215 (2010-11 National Motor Vehicle Theft Reduction Council) CAR THEFTS Fin Year     Short term    For profit 2000/01      114,766          15,157 2005/06       55,995           12,231 2010/11       34,155           11,659 BIKE THEFTS Fin Year     Short term    For profit 2000/01        2295              3863 2005/06        2392              4263 2010/11        3036              4738