Holden Crewman News

What have been the most significant Australian cars since January 1, 2000 so far? With the first 25 years of the 21st century now out of the way, we rate the 10 most important models that left their mark, or came into their own afterwards.

Five years ago, this month, Holden became the final carmaker to withdraw from full-vehicle manufacturing in Australia. Predictably, since then, prices of locally-made “metal bumper bar” and high-performance models have soared. Yet – almost unbelievably – there are some increasingly rare Australian classics that are still within reach. Here’s a list of our top five. But you better get in quick!

As Holden continues to fade from the automotive landscape in Australia, with dealerships transitioning and GM Specialty Vehicles stepping up, it's timely to remember the golden days for the brand.Back in the early 2000s Holden was riding high on the succe

The homegrown Holden ute is about to be retired forever, after clocking up almost 65 years on Australian roads. The Aussie icon has had its sales -- and hopes -- crushed by a flood of pick-ups imported from Thailand.One in five of all new vehicles sold so far this year comes from Thailand, second only to Japan. Australian-made cars now account for less than one in 10 of all new vehicle deliveries; local production is at its lowest level since 1957.Enthusiast buyers have less than three years to decide if they want a new Holden ute before it is relegated to the history books alongside the arch rival Ford Falcon ute by the end of 2016.The end of an era means the Holden Commodore ute will likely reach cult status. When the Kingswood "one-tonner" ute eventually went out of production in 1984 and wasn't immediately replaced (a Commodore ute didn't surface until 1990) its resale values skyrocketed.Holden would not comment on the future or the fate of the Commodore ute. But News Corp Australia has been told that if Holden continues manufacturing beyond 2016 it will adopt two new "global" cars, one of which is a large front-wheel-drive sedan that will not be made into a ute.Holden's US police car export program could have given the Commodore ute a stay of execution because it shares its core underbody structure with the Caprice. But ute sales are now so low Holden bosses are poised to euthanize it.Holden Commodore ute sales are down by a staggering 31 per cent year-to-date, the lowest sales of all time. The sedan and wagon are up 15 per cent since the new Commodore arrived. Holden cannot justify the investment in a new Commodore ute because buyers have shifted to Toyota HiLux-style pick-ups -- most of which are made in Thailand, where production labour rates are one-fifth of Australia's.Adding salt to the wound, Australia has a Free Trade Agreement with Thailand and vehicles imported from the kingdom have attracted a zero per cent tariff since 2010.The result has been catastrophic for local car manufacturers but the homegrown utes have been hit hardest. More than 100,000 4WD pick-ups from Thailand have been sold in Australia in the first nine months of this year alone, compared to just 4100 Commodore utes and 3500 Falcon utes. At their peak in 2004, Holden and Ford sold more than 20,000 utes each.The Toyota HiLux was the second best-selling vehicle in Australia last year with more than 40,000 deliveries -- after leading the entire new-car market on six individual months. So far this year the Toyota HiLux is the third best-seller -- behind the Toyota Corolla and Mazda3 small cars -- but three other pick-ups regularly appear in the Top 10 (Nissan Navara, Ford Ranger, Holden Colorado).It's not just the mining boom driving sales; about half of all imported utes are bought by small businesses and private buyers. "We've seen orders more than triple in the past five years," said Abe Tomas, managing director of Fleet and Financial Products at Macmillan Shakespeare, one of Australia's largest car leasing companies."A lot of companies are now using crew cab utes to replace station wagons. But they're also popular with private buyers because they're part 4WD, part family car and part ute. They're more of a lifestyle vehicles these days."Holden built a four-door ute called the Crewman in 2004 to try to compete with imports, but the model was axed in 2006 because of weak sales. The market had already shifted towards roomier, diesel-powered imported crew cab utes. How the Free Trade Agreement with Thailand killed the Aussie uteSales of Australian made vehicles were overtaken by Thailand in the very first year the Free Trade Agreement with Thailand came into effect, in 2010.And Thailand has been powering ahead ever since. Sales of Thailand-made vehicles are up a staggering 46 per cent in the first nine months of this year -- and have already overtaken last year's annual tally.Thailand-made vehicles are now on track to comfortably eclipse 200,000 sales in Australia this year for the first time.Ford shipped just 100 Australian-made Territory SUVs to Thailand in 2012, the same year we imported 170,000 Thai-made vehicles.Ford says there are no plans to ship more vehicles from Australia to Thailand. Holden says it has no plans to embark on similar a mission.The Territory SUV may have a zero per cent import tariff in Thailand but it attracts a separate 40 per cent excise because of its engine size, pushing the price to $100,000 (compared to $40,000-$60,000 in Australia).Australia versus the world: where your car comes fromJapan: 275,450 -- down 7 per centThailand: 172,850 -- up 46 per centKorea: 102,950 -- down 6 per centAustralia: 83,500 -- down 18 per cent* Number of vehicles sold in Australia January to September 2013, percentage change compared with same period last year. Source: FCAI.This reporter is on Twitter: @JoshuaDowling 

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

There has been a rash of locally developed high-performance off-roaders such as the Ford Territory FPV F6 and Toyota's HiLux TRD. Now Holden Special Vehicles is looking to get in on the act.It is considering the idea of an HSV-inspired Captiva but HSV boss Scott Grant is wary of building an HSV Hummer, saying HSV had no plans to do so. However, the HSV Captiva could be a goer, he says.“We don't have any specific programs on that model,” he says. “But since I arrived at HSV, one of my big focuses is trying to expand the relevance and choice within the HSV brand. And the SUV 4WD, all-wheel drive category is too big to ignore.”Grant says HSV has been looking at Captiva but “we're not close to doing anything just yet.”He also believes the new Holden Sportswagon could form a solid base for a HSV-inspired wagon.“That's another opportunity for us,” he says. “But at the moment we've no plans there either.”Despite Ford and Toyota going in hard with their performance off-roaders, Grant says there is no urgency for HSV to get into the segment.“We'd only enter it if it made sense for our core credentials and brand,” he says. “It's obvious the other local players have strategies to expand into performance off-roaders.”However, he says HSV has to consider whether the brand is elastic enough to work with AWDs.The last HSV AWD was the $73,900 Avalanche launched in late 2003.The Avalanche was based on the Holden Adventra AWD which failed to reach sales targets locally despite a price cut and hard-sell by the company.HSV also built a performance XUV ute based on the Crewman.The company spent $4.5 million developing the 270kW 5.7-litre V8 Avalanche, which used Holden's Cross-Trac 4WD system.