Holden Commodore News

The official showroom total for 2008 is 1,012,164 vehicles, a result achieved despite a major slide during the final quarter thanks to the global economic meltdown. Toyota continued its reign as Australia's favourite brand but the Holden Commodore survived the challenge from Brand T's compact Corolla and working-class HiLux ute for another year at the top of the tree. The full-year results were confirmed this morning by VFacts, which also confirmed a December total of 76,510 vehicles, down by 11.3 per cent on the same month in 2007. Despite the late slide, and gloomy predictions of a major fall to around 850,000 sales in the coming year, the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries put a positive spin on the results. "I think it's a good result, in fact an outstanding result," says the chief executive of the FCAI, Andrew McKellar. Toyota, Mazda, Subaru and Volkswagen were the only top-10 brands to improve their full-year sales in 2008, as a number of high fliers including Nissan, Honda and Hyundai went backwards. The full-year total was only 37,818 vehicles, or 3.6 per cent, behind the all-time record set in 2007, but the passenger car market fell by 6.3 per cent. Once again it was large cars which suffered most, with the Commodore-Falcon class falling 14.4 per cent on the 2007 result. TOP 10 BRANDS 2008 Official VFacts figures (Previous year in brackets) 1. Toyota, 238,983 (236,647) +.98% 2. Holden, 130,338 (146,680) -11.14% 3. Ford, 104,715 (108,071) -3.1% 4. Mazda, 79,826 (77,734) +2.69% 5. Mitsubishi, 60,692 (65,397) -7.19% 6. Nissan, 59,214 (60,015) -1.33% 7. Honda, 52,571 (60,529) -13.15% 8. Hyundai, 45,409 (50,007) -9.19% 9. Subaru, 38,492 (38,445) +0.12% 10. Volkswagen, 29,875 (27,400) +9.03% By contrast, the United States market fared much worse in terms of percentages, with most of the major brands taking a significant sales hit, the main exception being BMW's Mini brand, which recorded a small rise. Audi -9.3% BMW  -40.2% Chevrolet -25.8% Chrysler -59.8% Dodge  -51.9% Ford  -33% Honda   -34% HUMMER -59.3% Jeep  -48.5% Kia  -39.2% Lexus -32.4% Mazda   -27.9% Mercedes-Benz -32.1% Mini +0.1%     Mitsubishi -22.6% Nissan -30% Pontiac -45.5% Porsche  -25.5% Saab  -57%     Saturn  -30.9% Subaru -7.7%                                                    Toyota  -37.5% Volkswagen -14.4% Volvo -47%

Its VE Commodore has qualified for the benchmark five-star safety rating awarded by the Australian New Car Assessment Program after a series of upgrades that bring it into line with the Falcon, which got the first five-star tick for a locally-made car earlier this year. The problem, for the moment, is only the Omega sedan model in the Commodore range is rated as a five-star car. The missing link for the rest of the Commodore family is a reminder light for the front passenger's seatbelt, something which will be added from January production at the GM Holden factory in Adelaide. "We have made the commitment that the passenger seatbelt reminder will be standard across the range," Holden spokesperson, Kate Lonsdale, said. Holden has made a series of safety upgrades to the VE range this year, adding extra side and side-curtain airbags. There is also an energy absorbing panel on the steering column shroud, and the seatbelt reminder on the $37,290 Omega. "Of course it is disappointing that this five-star result does not apply to all Commodore sedan models, but we are confident Holden will address this next year,” said Michael Case, chief engineer with the RACV, one of the ANCAP partners. “There was an issue with the lack of a front passenger seat belt reminder on the Commodore, but Holden has undertaken to incorporate these reminders into their production processes through 2009 to ensure other Commodore variants offer the same levels of protection." While the Commodore has done well, the latest ANCAP crash-test results are not as good for some other makes and models. The Ford Falcon ute and Honda's compact Jazz both got a four-star rating but the baby Nissan Micra only got a three-star score, no better than the company's four-wheel drive Navara and Isuzu's D-Max ute. The Jazz missed a five-star tick because the top models with six airbags are not fitted with ESP stability control, which is essential for the top ranking in 2009, while Ford did not submit the ute for the pole-impact test necessary for the top mark. “ANCAP is still waiting for the breakthrough of a five-star commercial vehicle so that tradespeople, couriers and other such vehicle users can have the same level of safety as company executives,” Case said. And, once again, the pedestrian safety ratings — a new focus for ANCAP — were below the crash-test score in every case. The Jazz rated three stars from four for pedestrian protection, the Falcon ute and Micra got two, but the Commodore, Navara and D-Max only got one each. "These results are clearly disappointing," Case said.   ANCAP SAFETY SCORES December 2008 5 stars: Holden Commodore Omega 4 stars: Ford Falcon ute Honda Jazz 3 stars: Nissan Micra Nissan Navara D22 4wd Isuzu D-Max utility  

It would have been so easy for the Blue Oval team to drop the bundle as they worked towards producing a new car for a segment that was shrinking daily before their eyes.

Whincup, 25, extended his championship lead to a commanding 233 points with the last round of the series to be held at Oran Park in two weeks.His nearest challenger is Mark Winterbottom, who will be snapping at his rear bumper in another Ford. Whincup won both sprint races yesterday after finishing second on Saturday to Todd Kelly, in his Jack Daniel's Racing Holden.“If this championship happens it's going to be a great team effort,” Whincup said.“We're going to Oran Park in a fortnight needing about 70 points from a possible 300 to get the job done.“I can't see why I can't do it. It's a track I really like to race, while I also want to round the year off as well as I can.”Whincup's win in Tasmania yesterday was his fourth straight, a feat achieved by only six other drivers.The finale at Oran Park, the last time cars will race at the track southwest of Sydney, comes down to a two-horse race, with Winterbottom the only driver who can catch Whincup. Defending champion Garth Tander dropped out of the title race after he could only manage eighth overall in another disappointing weeked for the Holden Racing team driver.“We were hanging on by our fingernails coming into the round, but the championship's definitely over now,” Tander said.But it wasn't all doom and gloom for Holden fans, with Kelly winning in the wet on the first day and two third placings, the best this season for the Jack Daniel's team.The Oran Park round will also be Mark Skaife's last appearance in the championship series. ,p>

We certainly could have done with a flash piece of kit like this when we were courting the young ladies at the drive-in. Sadly drive-ins are now pretty much defunct as are station wagons.

So well in fact that some customers are buying two of HSV's most-powerful weapons, the W427, one to drive and one to keep as a collectors' item and investment.HSV spokesman, Simon Frost, says the Clayton-based performance car builder is on target to deliver 90 W427s this year and has 30 forward orders already for the first quarter of next year."Our experience is that it's not marginal customers who are buying the 427, it's really passionate car enthusiasts who love our brand," he says.In a sense the W427 is HSV's crisis proof car.Frost says the plan is to build “up to" 427, a number that refers to the 7.0-litre V8's old-fashioned cubic-inch capacity.However, he says that the car does not have a "never-ending" lifespan."These will be built to order," he says."At some point or other there will have to be a decision about the final build but it won't be any more than 427."That means there's a good chance the 427 be HSV's hero car for future generations despite the unveiling of the 7.4-litre Pontiac GXP Street Concept at the recent SEMA trade show in Las Vegas.Frost says HSV has no plans to slide the massive 7.4-litre V8 _ codenamed LSX454 _ under the bonnet of a local HSV for an even brawnier performance car.The show car is a made for America car only, he says."We have no plans to look at that car from an HSV perspective," he says."Our hero car is the 427 and the two-year research and development program to bring that to market was expensive and it's produced a car that we're excited about and has a good reception in the market despite all the doom and gloom around."The W427 shares its V8 with the Chevrolet Corvette and is hand-made on a separate production line at GM in Detroit, the same line that built the 7.4-litre Street Concept engine.The W427 develops 375kW at 6500 revs and 640Nm at 5000 revs.The LSX454 cranks out 476kW and a whopping 813Nm, 101kW and 193Nm more than even the hottest HSV.Frost says HSV is conscious of growing green concerns about fuel-guzzling V8s.HSV is looking at different technologies as well as their conventional V8s as part of the wider approach to deliver greener cars."It's not about producing bigger and more powerful engines," he says."And we still want to have that core HSV DNA in any vehicle."But other options that use less petrol or different forms of combustion are under consideration." 

Only a major mistake stands between Jamie Whincup and a maiden V8 Supercars championship after the Ford driver blitzed the Desert 400 round in Bahrain.Whincup was flawless in his clean-sweep, winning all three races on Friday and Saturday to stretch his championship lead to 187 points over Mark Winterbottom with two rounds remaining.It was the 25-year-old's fifth round win of the season and seventh straight race win after triumphs at Bathurst and in all three races at Surfers Paradise last month.It also helped erase the demons of his last visit to the Middle East track where he effectively lost the championship in 2007 by failing to collect a point.With Whincup closing in on the title he so desperately wants, the championship leader said he would take a more conservative approach into the final two rounds at Tasmania's Symmons Plains and Sydney's Oran Park.“We're not getting too far ahead of ourselves,” Whincup said yesterday.“There's still 600 points up for grabs in six races so, of course I'd be silly not to change my approach from here on in.“I want this championship more than anyone else and will do whatever it takes to try and be No.1 at the end.”The Triple Eight Racing team of Whincup and Craig Lowndes lit up the desert in their red Ford Falcons, with Lowndes claiming second overall in the round from the impressive Russell Ingall.Whincup's rivals coming into the event, Winterbottom and Holden's Garth Tander, both found trouble.Winterbottom at least kept himself in contention with fourth placings in the last two races, the first of which was stunning considering he started from 21st on the grid after an opening-day crash with Tander.“We won't be giving up,” Winterbottom said.“One DNF (did not finish) will put (Whincup) under pressure and he's at the back.“You never give up but it's getting harder.”Tander's hopes of retaining his championship were effectively buried after a disappointing weekend.He was 23rd in the last race after crashing into teammate Mark Skaife, who finished only one race in a miserable round for the Holden Racing Team.Whincup has 2916 championship points, ahead of Winterbottom (2729) and Tander (2624), who also refused to concede defeat.“It's still mathematically possible and the next two tracks we're going to we've been very strong at the last two years,” Tander said.“We won't be giving up without a fight.”The teams will return to Australia for the Tasmania Challenge, which begins on November 21.   ROUND 12DESERT 400, BAHRAINRACE 3 RESULTS1 Jamie Whincup (Ford)2 James Courtney (Ford)3 Craig Lowndes (Ford)4 Mark Winterbottom (Ford)5 Russell Ingall (Holden) CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS1 Jamie Whincup 29162 Mark Winterbottom 27293 Garth Tander 26244 Craig Lowndes 23675 Steven Richards 2178 

You can buy an LPG-powered Falcon from as little as $1400 more ($2400 for a Commodore) and they offer the average motorist significant fuel savings.But are they worth it and what are they like to drive?We hope to answer these and other questions in the coming weeks because, after months of badgering, Ford has finally given us the keys to an E-Gas Falcon to put though its paces in the name of economy.As the cost of fuel continues to see-saw, we thought this car would be of particular interest to readers as a low cost alternative to standard petrol engined cars and because LPG or Autogas as it's known is relatively cheap to buy.Ford's Falcon is available in E-Gas form with XT, G6 and G6E grades _ all at a premium of $1400 each.Our test vehicle is the middle of the range G6 E-Gas 4.0-litre automatic priced from $41,390.LPG or Autogas as it is known is a combination of butane and propane gases stored under pressure in liquid form.The two gases are generated as part of the oil refining process and generate less carbon than petrol _ 19 per cent less CO2 per kWh, 30 per cent less than coal and more than 50 per cent less than coal-generated electricity.A third smelly gas called ethanethiol is added to the mix so that leaks can be easily detected.LPG-powered vehicles can be distinguished by a small red sticker on their number plate.Most readers will be familiar with the technology from taking taxis, 95 per cent of which operate on LPG.The reason is of course is that their cheaper to run, but the impression is not always a favourable one.It should be remembered however that taxis lead a long and very hard life and that the “taxi pack” as it's known in the trade sees the standard upholstery swapped for hard wearing vinyl.Although LPG is cheaper to buy, it is important to note that you burn more of the stuff than petrol over any given distance.For example, the Falcon G6 petrol model is rated at 10.5 litres/100km while our test G6 E-Gas is rated at 14.9.In percentage terms, it uses an average 42 per cent more for every 100km travelled.Because it burns more fuel, the LPG model is fitted with a larger fuel tank (93 litres versus 68) _ to give it the same sort of range.But some space must be allowed for expansion, so the tank can never be fully filled.The trade off for the larger tank is found in the boot where there's a bloody great spare wheel taking up valuable luggage space.Looking at average fuel consumption for the Falcon, the petrol model has a theoretical range of 648km and the E-Gas, 624km.At the time of writing, the price of unleaded petrol in Sydney was $123.9 a litre while Autogas was 64.9 cents.Doing the maths, it means the petrol model will consume $13.10 worth of fuel per 100km and the E-Gas, $9.67 _ making the LPG model 26 per cent cheaper to run.We can see the LPG model emerges as the clear winner, but there are some other considerations.The Falcon engine produces less power when converted to gas and that the E-Gas model makes do with an old tech four-speed auto, instead of the current five or six-speed unit.It's irritating but of less consequence than the fact the E-Gas model misses out on electronic stability control, a technology that has been proven to prevent single vehicle accidents.Ford is quick to acknowledge this and it is working on the problem, hoping to offer DSC as it calls the technology with E-Gas models in the first half of 2009.The 4.0-litre straight six E-Gas engine itself is basically a carry over from the previous model with some minor changes designed to improve economy.New inlet and exhaust systems have been fitted, along with a re-tuned throttle map and optimised engine calibration.With dual independent variable camshaft timing (DIVCT), stronger conrods, and harder valves and seats (the latter required for use with LPG), the E-Gas engine produces 156kW of power at 4750rpm and 371Nm of torque at 2750rpm.In comparison, a standard petrol engine produces 195kW of power and 391Nm of torque.Although it doesn't have the punch of the petrol engine, the performance penalty is not sufficient to outweigh the cheaper running costs of LPG.And, after driving the car for several hundred kilometres, it really doesn't matter anyway. 

The Commodore has had its V6 engine tweaked to improve economy and cut emissions, with the V8 to follow in January with a major technological change which will cut cylinders during low-load running for even greater efficiency.Official details of the engine update will be announced by GM Holden later today, but the company claims a cash saving of more than $1.50 a week for an average family Commodore running an average of 20,000km.The improvement could mean a 60-litre saving on fuel use a year, with a CO2 reduction of close to 170kg.But there is a price to pay — the V6 will lose 5kW of power, reducing output to the level of the 2004 Commodore at 175kW. It means the Holden will trail well behind the rival Ford Falcon, even though it easily outsells it in showrooms.“You would have to be a race car driver to feel it. The fuel economy benefits far outweigh it,” GM Holden spokesperson Kate Lonsdale said last night. “The big focus at the moment is on fuel efficiency and emissions.”Ms Londsale said the improvement in economy is up to 0.4 litres/100km, or more than 2.5 per cent.The LPG Commodore has received an even bigger tweak with an improvement of 1.3 litres/100km for the sedan, and slightly less for other models. 

It's a one owner, one-off machine that has only had one driver, and he just happens to be the legendary Peter Brock. The last Holden that Brock drove, and the last car that he ever competed in on a circuit has been put up for sale. Owner and old-Holden restorer Phil Munday, who built the 1948/215 Holden from a shell into a retro racing car for Brock to race in 2006, is asking for "$600,000 plus”. Brock raced the car at the Goodwood historic racing festival in England in 2006. After returning to Australia several days later he competed in a Targa rally in Western Australia where he was killed in a racing crash. Spokesman Tim Pemberton says it is an unique car, particularly for Brock fans. "He is the only bloke who drove it,” he says. "And it's personally signed by Brock on the roof." "It's his last Holden and his last circuit car." But is it worth $600,000? "It's hard to put a price on these things. It's worth what people are prepared to pay,” Pemberton says. "But, Peter Brock memorabilia is selling extremely well at the moment." Pemberton says a collector paid $550,000 last year for the Torana XU-1 that Brock drove in the 1973 Bathurst 1000. He says the retro Holden race car has already attracted contact from "three or four interested parties”. However the current credit crisis had forced them to renegotiate their funding. Since returning from England the car has been stored and put on display at various car shows. The old Holden was a personal favourite for Brock. Before going to Goodwood he told Carsguide: "It's the best early-model Holden that's ever been built. I don't think anyone has got any more out of that engine ever. "I owned a lot of them. I had 48-Series Holdens before I turned 20 and I got my CAMS (racing) licence driving one."