Holden Equinox News

Holden will put considerably more emphasis on its range of SUVs in a move to arrest a sales slide that has seen the company fall to record lows.The company held what it labelled an ‘SUV day' for media this week, ahead of a multi-million-dollar advertising campaign highlighting each of the SUVs Holden sells which will be rolled out over the coming weeks and months.That line-up starts off at the Trax, with the Equinox slotting in above it. For those who don't quite want to go all the way into SUV territory there's the Tourer, a high-riding wagon version of the Commodore/Calais, and the company offers a choice of two seven-seaters: the rugged Trailblazer (based on the Colorado ute) and the US-built Acadia (sold as a GMC in North America).Holden chairman and managing director, Dave Buttner, said the company is fully aware that it hasn't been selling enough of its SUVs to date, and asserted his hopes that 2019 will be the year of the SUV for Holden."As you know, in Australia for year after year after year, Holden was known for its passenger vehicles. And as we've seen the decline of the passenger car market over the last few years – that's not just a trend in our domestic market, but more widely – we've seen the passenger segment decline and the SUV segment grow."We have to ensure that customers in both Australia and New Zealand are aware of the portfolio of the products that we have to meet the market segmentation as it stands today," said Mr Buttner."The key thing is to create awareness – what does Holden sell? – which then leads to consideration, so the customer will consider buying a Holden as their next car, which of course then leads to inquiry at the dealership."We're unashamedly focusing on our SUV and LCV portfolio. It's where the market is, and of course they are more profitable product lines than others we have," he said.Despite that focus, Mr Buttner said Holden's remaining passenger car offerings – the Astra and Commodore – aren't under threat.Holden undoubtedly needs its SUV range to fire in 2019.For context, last year the brand managed 5433 sales of the Trax – which was down 27.5 per cent in a segment of the market that rose 17.2 per cent.The Equinox managed 4999 sales in its first full year on sale, which was just 2.9 per cent of the medium SUV segment, which tallied 174,259. The Equinox was outsold by the runout Captiva, which tallied 5100 units in its final year on sale.The Acadia only arrived late in 2018, so its sales were negligible at best, where the Colorado ute-based Trailblazer – which has been on the market for several years following a name change from Colorado 7 back in late 2016 – saw just 2606 sales, a drop of 21.1 per cent on the previous year.Mr Buttner is confident the new ad campaign will help right the ship when it comes to Holden SUV sales in Australia."We've got to go step by step. We've got to focus on 2019 – I really see this as being a pivotal, watershed year. We will go back to our basics, get the fundamentals right, land the portfolio of products that we have, stabilise the business, and then we'll worry about where we go with share after that."We said to our dealers very transparently, very honestly on Friday, we have to work together to get this year right."

Holden has introduced a diesel engine to its Equinox mid-size SUV line-up, with the new model commanding a $3000 premium over equivalent petrol variants.

Holden’s sales tumble has continued, with the once-dominant Red Lion brand in jeopardy of falling out of the top 10 list for sales by manufacturer according to official VFacts figures released today.

Holden has a significant amount of work to do to rebuild its position in the Australian marketplace.

Holden has brought back its seven-year warranty from last year for a limited time as an incentive to try and boost sales of its new imported ZB Commodore and the Equinox mid-size SUV.

Holden recorded its lowest monthly market share yet last month, dipping to 4.9 per cent while it transitioned to its new model line-up, including the imported ZB Commodore and Equinox mid-size SUV.The Red Lion, a one-time market leader, claimed eighth position for the first time ever in last month’s VFACTS national sales rankings, trailing Mitsubishi, Ford, Honda and Nissan but just ahead of Volkswagen and Kia.Managing only 4689 units in February, Holden sales were down 18.1 per cent on the same month last year, despite the overall Australian new-vehicle market improving by 7.8 per cent to 95,999 vehicles – the second best February return yet following 2016’s 96,443 units.Holden product and brand communications senior manager Mark Flintoft said the brand had anticipated a slower start to the New Year, but expected to return to form soon.“It’s always our aim to sell more vehicles, and our current market share is not where we want it to be,” he said. “That said, February’s result is unnatural in that new Commodore is only just reaching dealerships, and while Equinox inquiry and test drives are growing, we are still establishing the nameplate.“We’re also waiting on the diesel Equinox which arrives at the end of the month. We’ve got our strongest product line-up ever with more in the pipeline, so we expect to bounce back quickly.”Holden sold only 737 Commodores during the month, representing less than half the total of February last year when 1566 examples of the locally built model were sold.It was also the second month in a row that Holden’s sales took a significant hit, with its January tally down 20 per cent, partly due to a lack of Commodore stock and a flood of ‘demonstrator’ Astras registered in dealerships in December. The newly-minted Equinox amassed just 364 sales last month, good enough for 11th in the evergreen mid-size-SUV segment that was again led by the Mazda CX-5 (2181). While light-commercial vehicles were booming in other showrooms, Colorado sales dipped about 20 per cent, to 1039 vehicles – around a quarter of the Toyota HiLux’s volume.Overall, Holden’s sales are down 19 per cent year-to-date – or 2500 units – while its market share sits at 5.6 per cent, which is well behind its full-year effort of 7.6 per cent in 2017.SUVs and light-commercial vehicles again drove the market last month, up 12.1 and 13.3 per cent respectively year-to-date, while passenger cars slid once more (down 0.7 per cent).Toyota took advantage of the thriving market conditions, increasing its sales by 12.1 per cent, to 18,281 units, which allowed it to again claim first place.Similarly, the HiLux utility was the most popular model in February, tallying 4426 sales – its best-ever return for the month and an improvement of more than 1000 units over last year – to outpace the Ford Ranger (3544) which assumed second place.Mazda totalled 9913 sales last month – down 0.1 per cent – to take second spot on the sales chart ahead of Hyundai which sold 8001 vehicles – up 14.3 per cent – for third position.Mitsubishi and Honda were two of the bolters in February, with the former increasing sales by 24 per cent to 7142 units and fourth spot, while the latter improved 55.3 per cent to 4962 vehicles and sixth place.Strong Ranger sales – up more than 20 per cent – and better performances from its SUVs helped Ford lift its sales by 6.9 per cent to 6059 units and fifth position.Nissan’s Navara utility – which was recently updated – and X-Trail mid-size SUV were central to the seventh-placed Japanese brand’s increased sales, up 9.9 per cent to 4863 vehicles.Volkswagen came within striking distance of Holden for the first time, finishing in ninth spot with 4671 sales. However, it was ahead of Kia (4664, up 11.7 per cent) and Subaru (3901, up four per cent).

The Australasian New Car Assessment Program (ANCAP) handed out a four-star safety rating to the MG ZS last week, while the Hyundai Kona and Holden Equinox impressed with five stars.

Holden has announced pricing and specification details for the Equinox ahead of its Australian launch next month.

Holden Australia is set to introduce General Motors' connected 'OnStar' service into its line-up in 2019.

Holden has announced a standard seven year/175,000km warranty for all new-vehicle purchases made from now until December 31 this year.