Holden Commodore News

The award, presented by a worldwide jury of motoring journalists, is judged according to styling, performance, handling, comfort, value, safety and environmental responsibility.To be eligible, a new car must be available in a minimum of five countries on at least two continents.The Commodore is sold in Australia and exported to countries including New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, Lebanon, Oman, Fiji and South Africa.Holden chairman and managing director Denny Mooney said the nomination reinforced the VE Commodore's status as a truly global car."It is especially significant given our aim was to compete against some of the most expensive and most carefully crafted cars around the world," Mr Mooney said."Careful consideration of global expectations and potential markets was always at the forefront of the design and engineering of VE Commodore."Other cars in the final list include models from Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Citroen, Jeep, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo and Honda.AAP

The former rugby league star has defied the knockers who generalise that anyone with a profile who arrives in motor sport is a mug lair who can't drive.Elsegood elevated himself above that status when he was runner-up in the ute series in 2004, his second year of ute racing.He is running second again this year, still in with a chance of winning the championship and locked in a serious battle with the championship leader Marcus Zukanovic, who lives in Melbourne.That title fight will be decided at the Creek, but regardless of the result, Elsegood has decided it's time to raise the bar.He will move into the Fujitsu series in 2007 with an aim of fulfilling his dream of driving in the main game with the likes of Craig Lowndes and Mark Skaife in years to come.As a footballer for Eastern Suburbs and Manly, Elsegood was one of the more glamorous stars in the sport. A career of about 150 games produced 70 tries and his blond hair and good looks ensured a high media profile.But as soon as the footy was over Elsegood switched to cars, essentially straight to the utes. “I always wanted to race cars. I think every young bloke wants to race cars at some point of his life,” Elsegood says."It's always been a passion. As soon as I finished the footy I got into property development which gave me enough money to get started. No motor sport is cheap but utes is one of the cheaper ones and along with the TV coverage it made economic sense."V8 utes are an Australian icon and everyone relates to them," he says.Elsegood's rise in the sport is more impressive considering that when most budding motor sport stars were learning their craft racing go-karts, Elsegood was sidestepping and swerving his way around a rugby league field."I've given away between 10 and 30 years of experience to some of the other drivers," he says. “But if you are a naturally competitive person you can overcome some of that."I suppose that's why the first few years were a pretty steep learning curve, but I got up to speed pretty quickly."I've had good speed, got the odd lap record here and there and won plenty of races."Elsegood says he will need some luck to haul in Zukanovic's 40-point lead over three races."I need to win races to win the championship," he says. "Marcus might be able to accumulate a few points but I don't have that luxury. There's only ever one tactic: go out and race as hard as I can and try to win."As for the future, Elsegood points out there are not many V8 Supercar drivers living in Sydney. "Most live in Melbourne or Queensland. I'm hoping sponsors will see a bit of value in having a driver who lives in Sydney," he says.Apart from the utes there will also be racing for the Australian Performance Car championship, the GT Championship, Commodore Cup, Saloon cars and Superkarts. Racing starts at 9am next Sunday at Eastern Creek Raceway. Adult tickets are $15 and children under-13 enter free.

Car-makers from all over the world flock to the NT for its combination of unrestricted roads and hot weather, but many will abandon their testing programs when the 130km/h speed limit comes into effect from January.Holden, Toyota and Ford Performance Vehicles will cease or prune their NT testing programs, and sportscar specialist Porsche is expected to relocate to South Africa.Territory businesses say accommodation, transport and security services will suffer."From our point of view speed limits will have a huge effect on the testing business and our members stand to lose millions," NT chamber of commerce chief executive Chris Young said.The testing season from October to April coincides with the low point for tourist numbers, Mr Young said, and the regulation would cost $6 million to $9 million a year in lost revenue."There can be up to 15 engineering teams testing out between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek during the summer and the wet," he said. "When they arrive they need accommodation for up to 20 people in each team, warehouse facilities, rental cars and secure car transporters."They provide very welcome business at a time when the wet season in the Top End and the summer in the centre keeps most of the tourists away."Central Australian Tourism Industry Association general manager Craig Catchlove said the limit could cost businesses in Alice Springs alone about $1 million over the summer."We don't believe the speed limit will reduce the number of tourist accidents, but we do think it will have a significant economic impact," he said. "Our best estimate is about $1 million, which is significant in a place the size of Alice Springs."Porsche spokesman Paul Ellis said the German maker had used the Territory's roads for more than 20 years, but management was evaluating the change and future testing in the NT was unlikely."We would comply with all regulations and if driving faster than 130km/h was prohibited we wouldn't do it," he said. South Africa was favourite to pick up the business.Toyota manager of vehicle evaluation Mina Rezk said high-speed testing might now be conducted in the Middle East."A major market for Camry is the Gulf region which is a high-speed, high temperature environment," he said. "One requirement in testing Camry was to maintain high speeds in high temperatures with the airconditioning on, to put a full load on the cooling system. We will not be able to do that as we used to, but we have to respect the law."Mr Rezk said the company would still use the Territory for dust and off-road testing.Ford Performance Vehicles spokesman Steve Colquhoun said FPV would be "impacted by the NT Government's decision" and would "reassess our test procedures".Holden spokeswoman Maya Donevska said Territory highways had been invaluable for high-speed hot weather testing the new VE Commodore, but the company would look elsewhere. "Holden will explore alternative locations for testing, and in the interim will use the proving ground facility at Lang Lang."Mercedes-Benz spokesman David McCarthy said the NT had made Australia attractive for testing and local buyers had benefited. "When German engineers came to the Northern Territory they left with an understanding of Australian conditions," he said.Ford spokesman Andrew Ellis said the company's recent decision to expand its testing facilities in Victoria meant it could minimise the effect of the speed limit.A new laboratory at Ford's Victorian testing ground could replicate conditions ranging from -40C to +55C and generate wind speeds up to 250km/h, he said."The new environmental facility will go online sometime next year, eliminating the need to travel to the NT for high-speed hot weather testing."

The Australian Grand Prix Corporation was deep in discussions with the organisers of the European GT3 Championship — contested by race versions of cars such as the Dodge Viper, Chevrolet Corvette, Porsche 911 and Lamborghini Gallardo — but the class will not race at the Australian Grand Prix in 2007.It is understood the bid to bring the GT3 racers to Australia was on track until late last week.Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive Tim Bamford said the company was involved in discussions with European GT3 series organiser Stephane Ratel."Up to the last minute we are considering options and making decisions, so the reality is there is lots of things that we think about," Bamford said.He said the fact the GT3 championship would not run at the Grand Prix did not detract from the event."I think that really it is a matter of making sure we have got the best possible package of entertainment and we are confident that with Formula One and four days of on-track action ... that is what we have got," he said.The main support races for the Grand Prix will include the Porsche Carrera Cup, Formula Three and the celebrity race, with Aussie Racers and V8 utes joining the line-up next year.Race organisers are keen to fill the void that will be left by the absence of the V8 Supercars, which will be missing from next year's Formula One festival for the first time.Many fans looked forward to the V8 Supercar races at Albert Park, even though the races did not carry championship points, because it was often the first chance to see the Ford and Holden race cars, with some drivers making their debuts for new teams at the track.Asked if having the V8 utes race at Albert Park would appeal to V8 fans, Bamford suggested the Formula Ones were already doing so."You know what, we have got V8s at the Grand Prix? We have the best, the loudest, the most exciting V8s in the world — Formula One," he said.Australian Mark Webber said the V8 Supercar class was a great category, but added the Grand Prix would draw a good crowd without it."The event is big enough and strong enough, it is an F1 event, that is the main drawcard," Webber said.While it is still unclear whether or not the loss of the V8 Supercars would hurt the Melbourne Grand Prix, it is worth noting the support card still outshines that of many Formula One races held overseas.

A CarsGuide investigation of ACCC and manufacturer recall records revealed significant national recalls

Tander outpaced his rivals to take today's two races and clinch his second consecutive Symmons Plains round by just one point from Ford's Jason Bright.However it was his Commodore compatriot who left the big winner - Kelly overhauled series pacesetter Craig Lowndes in race one and two races later left the track with a 73-point lead in the championship.While most drivers were avoiding off-track incidents and bits of shattered track signage, Tander drove aggressively and flawlessly while Kelly was mindful of protecting his lead. And he said that would be the team tactic for the remaining two rounds - in Bahrain, which will debut on the calendar this year, and the season-closing round at Phillip Island."We left Bathurst 100 points off the lead and that was quite a bit, we knew it was going to be a challenge to get them back," Kelly said."Now that we've done that we need to go back to the approach we took at the start of the year which was to be a little conservative out there and aim to finish in the top five and hopefully in the top three."Two rounds doesn't seem like a long way to go in a 13-round championship but it is - there's a lot of points up for grabs and anything could happen."Kelly is unconcerned he could take out the championship without winning a round - he's more concentrated on being able to "hold myself back" when a win was in sight and maintain team strategy.Kelly said he was confident of doing well in Bahrain, comparing it to the Shanghai round last year, which was another unknown quantity."If we just stick to our guns and what we know works with our cars we should have a reasonably good round," he said. Lowndes, meanwhile, is confident he can make up the deficit in the championship and regain top spot."There's six races and still 600 points so I don't think 70 points is really that much difference," Lowndes said."We actually thought this weekend wasn't going to be a good one for us anyway - if you look at last year's results we were fourth, behind both Garth and Rick so we probably didn't expect to go much better in the sense of speed."I think though we attacked pretty well this weekend and we'll do the same at Bahrain and the same at Phillip Island, we've just got to qualify better and stay out of trouble,'' he said.Tander, who took his second win of the year and his sixth overall, described his victory as one of the toughest he had achieved."The conditions today changed every lap and there was that much dirt and junk on the tack the conditions were changing on every corner," Tander said."I was getting a warning (on the team radio) on every corner I reckon about dirt and junk and cars going off and bits of signs going off."But it was a great effort by the guys because there was a warning there for me at every corner so it wasn't a surprise."It was a lot tougher this year but probably a lot sweeter as well."AAP

The recall affected the rear seat belt buckles in around 13,000 of the car makers newest line of vehicles, which were developed at a cost of a billion dollars and released in July.

Holden pruned prices on upmarket versions of the VE by as much as $8400 for the luxury Calais compared with the VZ Commodore, but raised the price of the entry-level Omega by $500 while scaling back the run-out factory discounts on the previous model.While Commodore sales rebounded last month to 5455, the result included 700 old-model VZ station wagons, leaving a market of approximately 4745 VEs. Dealers report strong demand for higher-priced versions, but muted interest in the volume-selling Omega.Operations director for fleet managers Leaseplan, Anthony Rossi, said some of his client fleets had been disappointed with pricing for the Omega, and were waiting for the price to fall."We've had some major customers who have not been very happy with the way the numbers are coming out for VE," he said. "I'm hearing some dealers are wavering a bit. There are signs they are prepared to break ranks on pricing".Automotive industry consultant Tony Robinson of risk management firm Sureplan agreed the fleet industry was lobbying for a lower price on the Omega. "I'm hearing from fleet managers who are very disappointed with VE pricing and are prepared to sit on their hands, at least until they get a look at the (Toyota) Aurion."Mr Robinson said other local makers who had previously tried to dictate prices to fleet buyers had all retreated. "Mitsubishi tried it with the 380, Ford tried it with the AU, even Toyota tried it in the '90s under Bob Miller — but they all stepped back."Mr Rossi said there was "a vibe," among dealers that fleet discounting would start soon.But Holden marketing manager John Elsworth said sales were on target and there were no plans to increase the factory fleet discount on Commodore models. "We're selling about what we thought we would."The build mix from Holden's Elizabeth plant was moving towards more highly specified versions, Mr Elsworth said. "We have a flexible plant and we can align what we build with what dealers order. Right now, that's driving towards the Calais and SS versions and SV6."Retail discounts on upmarket Commodores were already running at up to $4500 on Calais V and SS V models, said the director of car-buying agent Privatefleet, David Lye. "That leaves plenty of margin for dealers, but it's perhaps a little more than you'd expect at this stage in the car's lifecycle."The previous entry-level Commodore Executive and Equipe models had been consistent low-volume sellers with Privatefleet's buyers, but all the agency's Commodore sales last month had been SS, Calais or SV6 models, Mr Lye said.A bright spot for Holden was strong sales for the Commodore-based WM Statesman and Caprice limousines, which returned to dominance of their market segment and reversed the slumping sales of the previous model. And total Commodore sales included a monthly record of 491 high-performance and premium-priced Holden Special Vehicles models.Dealers reported stronger demand for the repriced performance and luxury versions of the VE than for the basic versions and some metropolitan dealers reported difficulty keeping luxury and performance versions in stock."I can't keep a Statesman demonstrator — as soon as I put one on the floor it's sold," one dealer said.Last week's October sales figures showed a rebound in car sales, with 80,000 sales putting the local market on track for 970,000 by year's end. But local makers were largely left out of the action in a recovery confined to light and medium-sized models.Toyota's Melbourne-made Camry was the only local model to benefit from the resurgent medium-car segment. Large locally-made cars failed to share in the prosperity with sales down by 3.4 per cent on the previous October.Ford Falcon monthly sales dropped to under 3000, and for the first time the six-cylinder and V8 powered Falcon was outsold by the new four-cylinder Toyota Camry, which recorded 3046 buyers.Mitsubishi's Adelaide-built 380 sedan remained stable at 944 sales to record a disappointing 14,100 for its first year on sale but Toyota's new Aurion large car had 343 registrations, despite only going on sale last week.

Lowndes has every right to be under pressure after being asked to attend a stewards hearing at Tasmania's Symmons Plains just hours before the crucial next round starts at the track.The Gold Coast-based driver faces losing precious championship points or a hefty fine for post-race comments at the Gold Coast round last month.He has been accused of claiming Gold Coast officials deliberately conspired to reduce his lead over his rivals and so produce a closer finish to the series.And after having his championship lead chopped to just 30 points by Holden young gun Rick Kelly with three events left, Lowndes can ill afford to have any points deducted.But Lowndes today kept his eyes on the prize, opting to focus only on his race set-up for the Tasmanian round near Launceston which starts with a practice round on Friday.Lowndes said he would unveil a brand new Ford Falcon at the round that may just determine whether he breaks a 10-year drought and claims another Australian touring car crown.His teammate Jamie Whincup will take control of the Bathurst-winning Falcon.Lowndes said the new Falcon had a test day at Ipswich's Queensland Raceway last week - and he liked what he saw."The new car is very, very good and the team is delighted with the way it has come on," he said."I am extremely happy with the way the new car performed at last week's test day and I am looking forward to using it for the remainder of the championship."Lowndes is buoyed by the fact that he is a two-time champion at Symmons Plains but is wary of the tight course's perils."We have not yet had a wet race at Symmons Plains so things could certainly get interesting if we have rain," he said."It is also a track that is semi-difficult to pass on so team strategy and qualifying position will be the keys to getting a good result."After winning six of the 10 rounds to date, Ford can wrap up the manufacturer's title with victory at Tasmania.AAP

And he's not joking.Leno helped bankroll the ultra-light two-seater EcoJet which was built and developed in collaboration with motoring giant General Motors at Leno's garage in LA where he houses his 100-odd collection of cars.It began with a sketch Leno drew on the back of a napkin. He showed the drawing to GM global design director Ed Welburn who authorised a model.Eight months later the partially-completed EcoJet was unveiled last week at the Special Equipment Marketers Association show in Las Vegas.Leno's main design principles were that it had to be "green", modern, but not drive like a hybrid Toyota Prius.The car runs on biodiesel made from vegetable oil and Leno joked that he would probably only drive it "during harvest season".Biodiesel is a popular fuel source in Europe, becoming increasingly common in the US and now available in Australia with two production plants at Narangba north of Brisbane.EcoJet is powered by a Honeywell LT101 gas turbine engine expected to produce 650 horsepower (484kW) and 786Nm of torque which compares with a VE Commodore Omega's 180kW and 330Nm.However, while the Commodore sips about 10.9 litres of unleaded petrol every 100km, the Ecojet will drink 39 litres of biodiesel over the same distance.Leno, Alcoa and GM bankrolled the project but no one is divulging the cost."I'm not sure. I'm afraid my wife would find out," Leno said. "I am president of the more-money-than-brains club."The final version of the EcoJet will have a skin of carbon fibre and Lexan, a strong and lightweight glass alternative.It sits on an aluminium chassis and aluminium wheels developed specially by Alcoa, and features suspension, brakes, and transmission from the Chevrolet Corvette C6 sportscar.Even the duco is "green" using eco-friendly waterbased paint from German chemical and manufacturing company BASF.