Holden Commodore News

Pontiac parent General Motors built a small number of full-sized cars with clear plastic bodies to showcase their internal parts. One of these a four-door Pontiac, this month turned up at RM Auctions at St. Johns, in Plymouth, Michigan. The car was built for the 1939-1940 New York Worlds Fair and has a flathead-six under the bonnet and white tyres - not whitewall, the whole tyre is made of white rubber. It does drive and has only 86 miles (138km) on the clock. After its show duties the car was spirited away to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. where it sat for eight years. It then disappeared - really - into the garages of private collectors in the 1980s. Now the ghost is back. It will on July 30 be put up for auction by RM Auctions. The price? It's predicted to fetch about $500,000.

….following the announcement today that Australia’s biggest fleet management company will soon begin trialling seven “proof-of-concept” electric-powered Commodores. Yesterday’s announcement sees GE, an advanced technology, services and finance company, join forces with a local consortium of partners, including GM Holden, the CSIRO and electric vehicle infrastructure and services provider Better Place, under the umbrella group EV Engineering. GE’s CustomFleet arm manages 120,000 fleet vehicles in Australia and globally the company plans to buy 25,000 electric vehicles by 2015. The first two electric Commodores will be on the road by September, EV Engineering CEO Mike McCleave said yesterday, at which time GE will being assessing them in its fleet operations and provide feedback based on drivers’ experiences. McCleave said the Commodores will have a range of around 160km but GE “ecomagination” director Ben Waters said the tie-in with Better Place meant range wasn’t an issue. “Range is not a concern to us because the battery is a replaceable item. It can be changed as quickly as filling up a car,” he said. GE sees fleet managers adopting electric vehicle technology as part of their company’s overall sustainability initiatives. “Motor vehicle fleet operations have the ability to contribute significantly to a business’ overall sustainability goals,” Custom Fleet managing director Jim Cock said. “As we move to a carbon-constrained economy we certainly expect to see interest from Australian fleet operators in an electric vehicle option as part of their portfolio of transport solutions.” GE and Better Place announced a global partnership in September last year under which GE will develop battery financing plans. The logic is to lower the cost of electric vehicle ownership by buying the car outright but then leasing the battery, which can account for a third of the cost of an EV vehicle , from Better Place. Introducing EVs into fleets is also a quick way to achieve “critical mass” for the technology and infrastructure. Better Place is already trialling its infrastructure in Israel and plans to have a major network of recharge points and battery swap stations in place by 2013.

THE Aussie muscle car bubble has burst, but car dealer Donald Smith isn't concerned even though he could have made a sizeable profit on his 1980 HDT VC Brock Commodore. "I actually put the VC on the market to buy a Brock VL and had an offer of $132,000," he says. "But I changed my mind and I'm glad I held on to it even though it's only worth about $80,000 now," says Smith who owns four Brock specials. Legendary touring car racer Peter Brock collaborated with Holden in the 1980s to produce high-performance Commodores to fund his Holden Dealer Team (HDT) racing exploits and to homologate some models for racing. The first HDT Brock special was the VC, available in HDT racing colours of black, red or white. Brock made 502 VC models, but only 69 were black and only about 30 had four-speed manual gearboxes, making Smith's VC build number 110 one of the rarest variants. It was originally bought by HDT Car Club of Queensland foundation member Clinton Fox in 1980 for about $20,000. Smith bought it from a dealer for an undisclosed amount in 2007 with only 71,000km on the odometer. "The oil was blacker than the paint and we polished it about six times," he says. The dashboard has been signed by Brock and his brothers Lewis and Phil, lauded race team manager Harry Firth, Brock's co-driver John Harvey and HDT parts manager Chris Ceswell. It is in original condition except for the wheels which have been replaced with Simmons mags and Bridgestone Potenza RE55S road-legal racing slicks. However, Smith has six original Irmscher alloys fitted with "very hard" Uniroyal Steel Wildcat tyres. The VC is powered by a 5044cc (308 cubic inch) V8 pushrod engine with just 160kW of power which is 30kW less than today's 2997cc V6 Commodore. He only drives his cars to HSV Car Club events and plans to show the VC and VL at the RACQ Motorfest at Eagle Farm racecourse in Brisbane on July 17. "You don't see too many 31-year-old cars that look as good as this," he beams proudly.Peter Brock's Holden Dealer Team made about 4000 road-going cars from 1980 until the introduction of the highly controversial "Energy Polariser" in 1987. They included the VC Group C, VH SS Group III, VK SS Group A and VL SS Group which were primarily made just to meet racing regulations. Holden approved of the HDT cars, but the relationship soured when Brock began fitting his "Energy Polarizer" in 1987. The unit contained crystals and magnets and was claimed to improved the car's performance and handling by "aligning the molecules". It was fitted to the Director model which failed to sell after the Polariser was criticised by the motoring community as hocus pocus. When Brock refused to let Holden test a Director, the company withdrew warranty support. This led to the birth of Holden Special Vehicles (HSV). SMITH'S OTHER HDT CARS ARE: 1985 HDT Brock VK SS Commodore (5L V8, four-speed manual) that cost $22,000 new. 1987 HDT Brock Director (4.9L V8, three-speed auto) with a controversial "Energy Polariser" fitted. It cost $87,000 new and only 12 were made. 1988 HDT VL Brock Commodore Bathurst Aero (4.9L, five-speed manual) that cost about $60,000 new. Only eight were made. AT A GLANCE Model: 1980 HDT VC Brock CommodoreYear: 1980Price new: about $20,000Price now: $80,000Engine: five-litre V8Body: five-seater sedanTrans: four-speed manual

The Adelaide-based car maker's recruiting office is looking for another 49 staff to fill production line positions.The company has recruited 265 new staff since it resurrected the second shift and took on local production of the Cruze small car earlier this year.Last month's sales figures showed the Holden Commodore had returned to the number one position as the country's most popular car, almost tripling the sales of its arch rival, Ford's Falcon.The Cruze recorded almost 3000 sales last month to top the small car sales list and rank third overall in vehicle sales for May. The 314 new jobs follow the company's cuts to its Australian workforce that reduced it from a peak of more than 6000 staff to just over 4500 during 2009.Holden's HR director for labour and manufacturing operations Ashley Winnett said the additional staff were required because of Cruze and Commodore sales."We made the decision on Monday, Cruze and Commodore sales, as well as some US police car orders - but mainly the Cruze sales figures," he said.Mr Winnett said the 49 new staff - in production and trade capacities - would also be offered 12 month contracts in line with offers made to recently-hired new staff. "The approach we've taken is that we want to build slowly and make sure there's momentum behind us, it's a sensible business approach."We're doing it on a business but we've got the right number for where we're at at the moment," he said.The company also wants to encourage female applicants to consider a position in the manufacturing sector with Holden."A lot of females don't consider it as a career, we've increased female staff by 33 per cent - off a low base - since last year, we want to continue to market manufacturing as an area for females to consider in terms of a career," he said.Holden has also opened applications for its co-operative undergraduate student program, a year-long paid course for as many as 25 students who want industry experience.

… and opt for automatics. More are learning to drive on them and more are buying them, amplifying a trend that began with our love of the large sedan. The Holden Commodores and Ford Falcons that used to dominate the market were overwhelmingly automatics and while our vehicle choices have changed, we are more clutch-averse than ever. Compared with Britain, where just one new vehicle in five is an auto, 71 per cent of Australian buyers opted for one last year -- up from 61 per cent a decade ago. The habit is being driven by congested cities, technical advances that mean automatics are no longer the thirsty option, and our preference for the luxury-end of a model line, where automatics are the default choice. But even at entry level the two smallest car categories are now 68 per cent automatic, up from 44 per cent a decade ago, as fewer new drivers learn to change gear. Licence numbers reflect this, with 69 per cent of NSW P-platers limited to driving automatics, up from 61 per cent in 2000. P-plater Erinn Brukmann shares her mother's new Ford Fiesta and says learning to drive a manual was never a priority. "None of my friends know how to drive manuals," she said. As singles become families, they buy SUVs but not the truck-like off-roaders of old. In a modern high-riding crossover, buyers want the transmission to do the work. A decade ago, 44 per cent of SUVs were automatics, now it's 84 per cent. SUVs have become the launch pad for a different type of auto, the continuously variable transmission, with more than 26,000 bought last year. Efficiency was a weakpoint of traditional automatics but their ability to offer more gears means they have caught up. Where manuals are effectively restricted to six speeds, automatics could reach double that. Even in sportscars, the manual gearbox is being replaced. The quickest -- and most economical -- sportscars now have paddle-shifters behind the wheel like Formula 1 racers. In Australia, four out of five sportscars are bought with two pedals, double the figure 10 years ago. In a first for the brand, the new Lamborghini Aventador will not offer a manual gearbox at all. At the Geneva motor show in March, Lamborghini chief Stephan Winkelmann said demand for manuals had withered to zero.  

The car maker dropped to second in May - with 11,044 sales for the month - to be overtaken by Holden's tally of 11,115, according to Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries (FCAI) figures released yesterday (Friday 3 June, 2011) . Holden's Commodore returned to the top of the podium for monthly and year-to-date sales with 3504 sold in May, with Cruze falling just short of 3000 units, giving Holden the top two passenger cars for the month. Toyota's HiLux range pushed the Cruze into third place overall, with 3162 sales, but the company's woes were illustrated by Corolla's 1454 sales figure for the month, beaten by the Cruze, the Mazda3 (2797), Hyundai's i30 (2479) and the Volkswagen Golf (1864) in the small car segment. Toyota remains the clear market leader for the year so far, with 72,614 units sold, still 15 per cent down from this time last year. Holden sits in second spot with 49,743 sales for the year to date, down just over nine per cent. Executive sales and marketing director John Elsworth said the company was pleased with its May result - which included and acknowledged the difficult circumstances many of the competitors were facing. After a slow start to the year and a challenging few months for the global and local car industry, May was a positive result for Holden, he said. "Public reaction to our new and improved Series II range of models is pleasing,'' he said. Reduced parts supply has hindered manufacturing at Toyota’s Altona plant in Victoria, as well as shortened supply of imported vehicles, are blamed for the market leader's fall from first place. Toyota senior executive sales and marketing director David Buttner said the supply of vehicles arriving this month would be almost double the May level. "In July we will receive almost the full quota of cars we ordered well before Japan's natural disasters occurred,'' he said. "For the rest of the year, our business will basically be back to normal, thanks to a faster-than-expected pick-up in production,'' he said. The passenger market finished the month at 42,582 vehicles - down 7868 sales or 15.6 per cent - with every segment failing to show any improvement over May 2010 figures. The SUV market totalled 17,121 vehicles and is also down, dropping by 6.4 per cent - only the Luxury SUV segment made any ground on 2010 sales volumes, improving by 340 vehicles (16.4 per cent). Last month was the third in a row to show slowing new car sales, down 13.2 per cent on the same month last year. FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar softer new vehicle sales were suffering following the effects of the Japanese natural disasters. "A number of brands have experienced disruption in the supply of some vehicle models and components, as a consequence of the Japanese tsunami,'' he said.  "More recent reports indicate that these challenges are now being addressed more quickly than originally expected and we are hopeful that supply constraints will improve over coming months,'' he said.

It's cheaper than petrol, so the running costs are lower, and it's cleaner, and the great thing about today's high-tech injection systems is that there is no loss of performance. The gas revolution began in 2003 when LPG system manufacturers were required to comply with the OBD, On Board Diagnostics, requirements laid down in our exhaust emission laws. To comply they had to be able to isolate the operation of individual cylinders, something that was impossible with the old venturi/mixer systems that had been in use since the 1970s. They also had to be able to isolate individual cylinders to be compatible with other systems on the cars, such as Traction Control and Electronic Stability Control. Without such control Ford hasn't been able to fit its dedicated LPG cars with electronic stability control. While the old systems could be made to work perfectly well on the older cars and are still being fitted today to older models by owners wanting to save a few bucks at the bowser, they weren't suitable for newer cars under the new laws. That was the main motivation for the move to the sequential-injection systems that are now being used. The main sequential injection system in use injects vapour into the engine in much the same way as sequential petrol-injection; the gas is injected through a dedicated LPG injector in the intake port near the intake valve. As a result the quantity of fuel injected is accurately controlled, and because it's done near the intake valve, the intake manifold isn't filled with an explosive mixture of air and LPG, which reduces the possibility of a backfire to almost nil. Holden uses a sequential vapour-injection system on its Commodore and Colorado models. When Ford eventually introduces its new dedicated LPG system it will be a sequential liquid-injection one, but test cars have been on the road for at least five years, which suggests there have been issues with its development. HSV also uses a sequential liquid-injection system, but in HSV's case it's a dual-fuel system rather than a dedicated gas system like the one Ford will use. The proponents of Liquid-injection claim it to be a more efficient system as the LPG is injected as a liquid the same way the petrol is injected, but those who favour vapour-injection say their system is more accurate and not subject to issues with cylinder bore wetting, or underhood vapour-lock problems or refuelling issues that they claim can affect liquid systems. Both systems deliver the same driveability as an engine running on petrol, and also the same performance.

The spiralling petrol prices mean fuelling a family car like a Commodore or Falcon now accounts for 2.6 per cent of average weekly earnings. But you don't have to sit back and take it in the hip pocket. These families have all taken different approaches to reducing their fuel bills.DOWNSIZINGTheir 2000 Falcon was costing the Andrew family of Brisbane a small fortune to keep running, so they decided to downsize.However, instead of buying one vehicle, they went for two Suzukis, the cutesy Swift and the three-cylinder ultra-frugal Alto.Warren, 47, says the Falcon had a 65-litre tank while the combined tanks of the Swift and Alto are 77 litres. "We now get twice as many kilometres from the same expenditure on fuel," he says. Though it has to be noted that the additional cost of registering and maintaining a second car would probably offset any real cost advantage.His wife, Karen, 43, says having two small cars is more versatile for transporting their children Jess, 12, and Emily, 10, to and from primary and secondary schools. We don't miss the Falcon in the least; maybe we will when we go on holidays," she says."It's been great. Having the two cars means we can take a child separately - one to primary and one at high school. The Swift is really cool. The Alto is a good little runabout but I enjoy driving the Swift. We drive whoever's car is at the back. Warren tends to take the Swift. I think he deliberately leaves it at the back."We fill them with petrol every couple of weeks and we can squeeze into smaller parking places. "Jess and Emily love the cars more than the Falcon. They say it's my car'."LPG Retirees John and Lesley Braggs planned to become grey nomads so they bought a 2003 BMW X5 V8 petrol a few years ago. "You wouldn't get much change out of $120 when you filled it up," he says.About eight months ago they converted it to a dual-fuel petrol/LPG system. "We were travelling around a lot going down to Melbourne and back and have plans to travel to Adelaide and Alice Springs," he says."We only put about 20 bucks a month of petrol into it because it starts up on petrol and then a few seconds later the gas kicks in. "The petrol also kicks in if you run low onLPG but we never run low and need to use it. I only ever have about a quarter of a tank of petrol, otherwise it's excess weight we don't need."He says he hasn't noticed any change in performance. "It seems to have the same amount of power as when it's running on petrol I reckon," he says. They had a 70-litre LPG tank installed where the spare tyre was located under the cargo floor so they didn't lose any luggage space. "I carry around a pressure pack in case we have a puncture," he says.The LPG installation cost about $4500 with the government rebate. "I'm really wrapped with it. There is nothing different with the performance and it's cheap," he says."LPG is currently about 70c a litre. When we first got it, it was about 40c a litre, but it's still cheap."HYBRID The Knights have discovered another benefit of their fuel-efficient Toyota Prius with the recent birth of their son, Thomas."Now that we have the baby we don't have the radio on and we can tell how quiet it is," Tanya says. "It's a bit disconcerting sometimes when it kicks into electric." Tanya and husband Stephen bought the Prius two years ago."We were in the market for a new car and wanted to be as fuel efficient and environmentally conscious as possible," she says. "We came from a Falcon with LPG so I didn't want to go to a petrol car and pay X number of hundred dollars to fill it."We found the LPG wasn't particularly fuel efficient. It guzzled the fuel, but it was half the price. "Now I fill up maybe once every three to four weeks on a 60km daily round trip to school and home. "With highway driving, I can get over 1000km on one 40-litre tank of fuel which is amazing. We're really happy with it and wouldn't go to a petrol-only car ever."Mrs Knight says the Prius is a bit quirky in design and function. "But once you get used to it, it's interesting," she says. "People are astonished. They say the car has turned off."She also defends the Prius as a family car. "It's actually a reasonable size car. We get the baby capsule in and there is plenty of space for other people, she says. "My dad used to run taxis and many in the industry are going to hybrid cars."DIESEL The Webbs were a bit skeptical about diesels when they went to test the Hyundai i30cw CRDi wagon. But Adam and Katie Webb of Brisbane were pleasantly surprised. "My only experience of a diesel was my mate's old diesel HiLux which chugs and smokes," says Adam. "I had done some research and knew a bit about the new turbo diesels but my wife was especially concerned about the noise and smoke of them."However, when I took it for a test drive I was surprised. For a 1.6 (litre engine) when you put your foot down it really takes off. "It's really quiet. Especially on the highway you hardly notice you are driving a diesel. "There's still a bit of noise when you start it up. You know it's a diesel, but it's a lot smoother and quieter than we thought."The Webbs traded in their 1996 Magna wagon three months ago. "We pretty much downgraded in size, but there is still plenty of space," he says. "Me, my wife and the two kids all fit in quite well and when you have a couple of kids their stuff takes up a lot of boot space."The burning question is fuel economy. "We bought it just for the fuel efficiency," he says. "I'm not too sure on the actual economy figures but we drove about 600km to Rainbow Beach and back last weekend and there's still about a quarter of a tank left."He rejected concerns about limited and dirty diesel bowsers. "My wife drives it more than I do and she hasn't had any problems finding a boswer," he says. "Hyundai supply 10 disposable gloves with the car to use when filling up, but we've never used them."

The funds, part of the now defunct Green Car Innovation Fund (GCIF), will be used by Holden to slash the fuel consumption of its next Commodore by up to 7 per cent. Aluminium body panels, more efficient engines and better aerodynamics are Holden's key areas of development. Holden says the 7 per cent saving in fuel use "would save around 3.6 million litres of fuel and reduce CO2 emissions from the Commodore fleet by around 9000 tonnes a year''. Awarding the money at Holden's body shop in Adelaide, Senator the Hon. Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, says the GCIF is making Australia's automotive sector "more environmentally sustainable''. It is the second grant from the Fund to be awarded to Holden since the scheme started two years ago. Holden, which recently announced a 2010 profit of $112 million, received $149 million last year to build green cars, specifically local production of the Cruze small car. Holden is not alone in benefiting from the Fund. Toyota received $98 million from the Federal Govt. to build the Hybrid Camry and produce more fuel-efficient cars; and Ford received $42 million to develop the EcoBoost 2-litre turbocharged four-cylinder engine for the Falcon. The Fund, which was frozen in January and funds diverted to aid natural disasters such as the Queensland floods, is one part of a more ambitious New Car Plan for a Greener Future program. This program sits beneath the umbrella Automotive Transformation Scheme, which Senator Carr says will provide support worth $3.4 billion up to 2020. Holden chairman and managing director, Mike Devereux, says the funds are "critical'' for the Australian car sector to compete on a global scale and to bring new technologies and innovations to locally-made vehicles. "Holden continues to be one of the country's largest investors in research and development and to invest in the future of automotive design, engineering and high-tech manufacturing in Australia," he says. "The assistance from the Federal Government will enable Holden to bring Australian-made firsts in fuel-efficiency and weight saving to market and to secure local jobs in the broader automotive industry." Mr Devereux says Holden's track record included improving the environmental performance of Commodore with fuel-saving technologies like Active Fuel Management on V8 models and Spark Ignition Direct Injection (SIDI) on V6 engines, "The success of Holden's product development program, and co-funded programs like the new locally-made Cruze, shows new vehicles and technologies have to be affordable and return real-world savings for the environment and for Australian drivers," he says. "Holden is also continuing to develop other low emission and alternative fuel solutions in our Ecoline portfolio including a dedicated LPG Commodore and E85 flex-fuel capability on the 3.6 litre SIDI V6 engine later this year." Senator Carr says the New Car Plan is the catalyst for introducing new technologies into locally-made cars including "hybrid engines, electric vehicles, new fuel systems, batteries and light-weighting''. "The Plan is instrumental in enabling the Australian automotive industry to emerge from the global economic crisis in better shape than many of its international counterparts,'' he says. "The industry is producing higher-quality vehicles with high-skilled, high-wage jobs for Australians.''

March was Chinese brand Chery's first month on sale, with the brand retailing 53 units of the $11,990 drive-away J1 hatchback and 166 of the J11 2WD SUVs nationally.  Ateco Automotive - importers of Chery and Great Wall - spokesman Daniel Cotterill said the Chinese brand was building up its network and expected volumes to grow as the dealerships - currently numbering 45 across the country - were established. "We're in the early stages of setting up the dealer network, those that were set up and had stock sold to our expectations," he said.  Mr Cotterill said the Great Wall brand had taken 18 months to sell its first 10,000 cars in Australia but expected the second 10,000 would be sold during the 2011 calendar year. The Great Wall brand - which only currently sells light commercials and SUVs - sold 537 units last month, taking its YTD total to 1654.  Proposed interest rate hikes, higher petrol prices and fewer fleet sales may impact on new vehicle sales but market leader Toyota said the absence of buyer incentives had let the market return to its natural level, according to Toyota's senior executive director sales and marketing, David Buttner. "In 2010 the industry enjoyed a record March as a result of the improving economy and the final influence of government incentive," he said. The Adelaide-built Holden Commodore remained the nation's most popular car and sales and marketing executive director John Elsworth said Commodore and Cruze sales figures set the tone for a positive year ahead. "In the small car segment, not only has Cruze had its second best month since launch, sales are up 32 per cent on March last year," he said. Industry sales figures released yesterday by the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries for the first quarter of 2011 show the new vehicle market at 248,464 - down by 3363 sales on the 2010 tallies to the same point.  Light cars and compact SUVs were the only segments to remain ahead of last year's year-to-date (YTD) totals, with only the compact and luxury SUV sales segments showing positive signs in month and YTD sales over last year's numbers.SUV sales grew in March and overall for the year so far - almost 2400 units up the first quarter of 2010 - thanks to an increase in private buyers.  Light commercial sales remained buoyant, up just over nine per cent for March - a 1547 vehicle increase - and 2.2 per cent ahead for the year so far.FCAI chief executive Andrew McKellar said the demand for new vehicles is "broadly consistent" with other economic indicators.  "The reality is the overall level of new vehicle sales remains robust and remains well above 1 million units over the past 12 months," he said.Stephen Scheffler, 58, from Victor Harbor, covers between 35 and 50,000km a year as a HR training consultant and researched the Chery brand before buying a J11 SUV. "I've only had it a week and I'm extremely pleased with the car, I do a reasonable amount of driving and I was looking for something that looked like a 4Wd but wasn't so it was a bit cheaper to run," he said.   TOP 10            MARCH        (YTD) Toyota             18,466            (47,887 -7.3%))Holden             10,816            (29,515 -11.8%)Mazda              8039              (22,883 8.4%)Ford                 8698               (22,713 3.4%)Hyundai            7126              (20,143 -5.0%)Nissan              7789               (18,258 19.3%)Mitsubishi         5656              (15,311 4.7%)Subaru             3901              (10,731 5.0%)Volkswagen       3228            (8758 4.6%)Honda              2634              (7446 -27.4%)TOP 20 VEHICLES       MARCH      (YTD)Holden Commodore   4170           (10,644)Toyota Hilux             4028           (9411)Mazda3                     3979          (11,159)Toyota Corolla           3067           (9712)Holden Cruze             2804          (7446)Nissan Navara            2575          (6586)Hyundai i30               2376          (6705)Mitsubishi Triton         1978          (4496)Mitsubishi Lancer        1749          (4980)Ford Falcon                1719          (4448)Toyota Camry            1639          (4229)Toyota Prado            1628          (3831)Ford Ranger              1603          (3841)Mazda2                    1544          (4475)Ford Fiesta                1477          (3764)Hyundai Getz            1463          (5086)Toyota Yaris             1461          (4629)Toyota Kluger           1370          (3182)Toyota RAV4            1318          (3345) Subaru Forester        1227          (3353)