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Holden Viva News

Viva la Torana! The first Holden small car turns 60
By Byron Mathioudakis · 15 Dec 2024
The first Holden small car in history turns 60 – and it's not what you think it is!
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Holden designs China show stars
By Paul Gover · 29 Apr 2010
For the third time in 2010 - but not the last - the team at Holden Design has created a show star for General Motors. Actually, there are two at Auto China 2010, one from fantasyland and the other potentially from tomorrow land.The EN-V is a pure dream machine, created to showcase the potential for individual city transport systems and to star in the GM pavilion at the World Expo in Beijing from next month, but the Volt MPV5 could easily become a showroom reality.The Chinese concepts follow the Chevrolet Aveo concept, which was designed and built by the Holden crew as a teaser for the all-new Holden Barina and unveiled at the Detroit Motor Show in January."A lot of the concept cars are now done in Australia," says Kevin Wale, himself a transplanted Australian who is president of GM China. "They have got capability there. That's part of the global design process, to find out where the best designers are in the world and then allocate the work to them."This time the EN-V and MPV5 concepts were designed outside Australia but then built at Fishermans Bend, where the advanced styling studio has the capacity to handle all the work from a computer sketch to a running car. "With today's 24-hour instant data transmission, it doesn't matter where you sit. You get the best input from the best designers. They will just put the work where it is needed," says Wale.It's an approach which worked brilliantly for the Chevrolet Camaro, which was designed as a coupe and convertible in Australia for production and sales in the USA. The MPV5 show car is the first significant stretch of the mechanical package beneath the Chevrolet Volt sedan, the extended-range hybrid which will eventually join the Holden showroom range in Australia.The mini people mover is longer and wider than the sedan and is intended to show what can be done with the hybrid powertrain for different countries. It's not particularly adventurous in design but shows the potential in the Volt package.It also shows the capability in Fishermans Bend and hints at what could be coming before the end of the year, most likely at the Paris Motor Show in October. Holden designers have done the job for GM once before at the French event, creating a race-style concept - the WTCC Ultra - which previewed a small Daewoo hatch called the Holden Viva.Wale says more and more design work is being done in Fishermans Bend because it is recognised as a global asset at GM. "A few years ago they went and hired a lot more designers. They are building up quite an international reputation," Wale says.
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Korean car sales boom
By David Fitzsimons · 12 Nov 2009
An accelerating Korean auto industry is now within a car's length of equalling sales of our home-grown models.  According to the official car sales figures for October released last week Korean vehicle sales in Australia were up 80 per cent compared to October 2008 and up 23 per cent for the year so far compared to the same period in 2008.Sales of Korean-made cars (12,324) nearly equalled the total sales of all Australian manufacturers (12,822) for the month.  Nearly 20,000 more Korean-made cars have been sold in Australia this year than in the same time last year.  By comparison, locally-built cars are down by 24,594 units, a drop of 17 per cent.Hyundai is leading the way, recording its best-ever October result in Australia, up by 106 per cent over October 2008, and is our fourth biggest-selling carmaker behind Toyota, Holden and Ford.  It's not only Hyundai and Kia that are raising the profile of Korea.The Holden-badged models of Captiva, Cruze, Barina, Viva and Epica are made by GM-Daewoo in Korea. The Renault Koleos is made by Samsung in Korea and Ssangyong SUVs are from a Korean plant.  About 39 per cent of light cars sold in Australia, 27 per cent of small cars and 26 per cent of medium-sized SUVs - including Australia's most popular SUV, the Holden Captiva - are built in Korea.A Hyundai spokesman said: "We are now on the shopping list. There was a time when we weren't but we have won awards - such as the Carsguide Car of the Year in 2007 - which has made people really notice us.  We didn't take our foot off the accelerator when the recession started late last year.  We didn't reduce production and we didn't spend less on marketing. That worked in our favour because people saw us as being constant."Overall car sales in Australia were up in October for the first time in 16 months.  Improvements were across the board covering private, business and rental buyers.  Sales of vans and Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) were particularly strong.And the situation is set to improve when import tariffs drop 5 per cent from January 1.  Some importers, including Mazda and Subaru, have already passed on savings.
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Holden icon or just con?
By Paul Pottinger · 03 Jun 2009
A dying Sydney newspaper this week rather cleverly headlined their coverage of the GM humiliation as “Government Motors Holden”.Not bad that. A flash of the old cleverness.Except, of course, taxpayers forking out to subsidise the building of cars they themselves don’t want is not exactly news in this country.Yeah, yeah, yeah - everyone’s cock-a-hoop that Holden’s remaining 6500 workers, its dealer network, and the thousands whose livelihoods are contingent on this brand, are not going to be out of work. For now at least …The manufacture of cars badged Holden – whether it’s an essentially 20th century six cylinder sedan bought mainly by fleets or a re-badged Daewoo – means the marque remains as firmly clamped to the breast of subsidy as a newborn to its mummy.The federal Government has committed $6.2 billion of your and my money to succouring local car makers. It’s paying Holden to build the globally-engineered, four-cylinder car (and already endlessly spruiked) Cruze here from next year.So it had better be bloody good.It had, in fact – given that Holden has lost $300 million in recent years – be better than the Mazda3.That’s the benchmark for sub-$30K car quality. As the May sales figures showed yet again, it’s the car on which Australians spend their own moneyYes, the ever declining Commodore sold 3683 to the 3’s 3038 – but not one of the Mazda’s sales was to fleets, without which Holden’s scarcely overtaxed production lines would be barely ticking over. Nor can Holden continue to rely on the approximately 75 per cent of bung ’em at out a bargain price fleet orders - not given the haste with which they shed value.So the only question is if Holden is to justify the continued injection of funds from people who really don’t want to buy them, is this: will the Cruze be good enough to trouble the Mazda3?Because if it’s just another anodyne re-badge job – if it’s just another Barina, Viva or Epica – you can officially remove that “i” from icon.
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GM Viva the revolution
By Paul Gover · 15 Sep 2007
A new Holden compact contender will emerge from South Korea next year. The next Holden Viva has already been previewed, through the Chevrolet WTCC concept, and is being finalised for production. The Viva is part of a global plan to centralise development of two General Motors products, its mini and small cars, in South Korea at GM Daewoo. It parallels the large rear-drive operation in Australia that has already produced the VE Commodore, Pontiac G8 and the forthcoming Chevrolet Camaro coupe. The difference is the Viva is the result of a truly worldwide program that will see two distinctly different vehicle lines, one to be sold under the Opel badge and the other for use by Chevrolet-Daewoo-Holden — emerge from the same product plan. “It is the first of the global architectures,” GM Asia-Pacific president Nick Reilly says. “We wanted to make sure we had an architecture that was broad enough to be able to take several brands. That basic architecture will be responsible for a Chevrolet and an Opel. “Obviously, the looks will be completely different, but even some of the specifications will be different, to meet the brand needs. The architectures are being designed with enough bandwidth to cover different specs, different cost levels and so on.” Reilly says the switch to Daewoo-built cars in Holden showrooms is working well, pointing to the improved numbers achieved by the dollar-driven South Korean Barina and the acceptance of the classier mid-sized Epica and the four-wheel drive Captiva. “I have no apologies for the products coming out of Korea. The sales would suggest that it's been successful. I'm not saying they have all been home runs, yet, but we have had some terrific success with them,” he says. But the Viva has not worked as well and Reilly hints that it is about to get a makeover. The WTCC concept is widely accepted as the style direction for the Viva, though stripped of its wild racetrack body bits.  
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Motoring industry's costly love affairs
By Neil Dowling · 26 Jun 2007
The car industry uses a web of alliances to survive.Lust, affairs, one-night stands, engagements, marriages and divorces — it can be hard sharing your love. It can also be expensive, especially if the human analogy is applied to the car business.DaimlerChrysler's recent divorce cost the now-solo Daimler AG a cool $33 billion.Daimler and its former partner, now known by her maiden name of Chrysler Group, still share the kids.These include shared components and manufacturing, including the Chrysler Crossfire (based on the previous Mercedes-Benz SLK) and Jeep Grand Cherokee, which uses Mercedes' V6 diesel engine and transmission.Daimler-Benz and Chrysler courted in the late 1990s, sealing their association in 1998 with a new name, DaimlerChrysler.The marriage was mutually beneficial. Daimler gained economies of scale and a new customer for engines, transmissions and an outlet for its old platforms. The previous Mercedes E-Class shares the same platform as the Chrysler 300C.Chrysler gained unprecedented, cost-effective access to the drivetrains used to power its distinctively styled cars.Of the divorce, shareholders of Daimler- Chrysler spitefully said “I knew it wouldn't work”.Marriages may be difficult, but alliances are what keep many car companies afloat.All these inter-relationships are spurred by one goal — profit. So competitive is the car industry that every dollar counts.Making cars cheaper improves profits, even if that means relocating factories to countries with low labour costs, non-existent unions and tax-free government incentives.Few would know that 10 models on the Australian market are made in Thailand. South Africa makes five, there's one from the Czech Republic, three from Slovakia, one from Poland, four from Malaysia and one from Indonesia.Build quality in most cases is as good as you'd expect from a country-of-origin factory.The biggest difference is manufacturing costs. Building a Volkswagen Golf in Germany, for example, costs substantially more than building the same car in South Africa. Sharing components such as engines, transmissions, platforms and bodies with a rival company — or at least one perceived as being a rival — is big business.The platform of the Mazda3 is similar to the Volvo S40 and Ford Focus. Ford has a big chunk of Mazda's shares and owns Volvo outright.The Toyota Aygo, a one-litre hatch soon to be sold in Australia, is built in the Czech Republic with the Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107. The only differences are interior trim, grilles, head and tail lights. Everything else, except the badge, is identical.General Motors has a giant web of ownership, component sharing and minor shareholdings. It owns Saab and Hummer, and rebadges cars including the Daewoo Matiz as Chevrolets.GM owned 20 per cent of Fiat until it dissolved the relationship in 2005. But retains component sharing deals and owns 50 per cent of Fiat's JTD diesel engine technology.GM also has 3 per cent of Suzuki (it had 20 per cent until selling down in March 2006) and 7.9 per cent of Isuzu.This relationship crosses with Fiat. Suzuki buys Fiat diesel engines for its European cars but also buys diesels from the PSA group (owner of Peugeot and Citroen) and Renault. Fiat this year will also supply diesel engine's to Saab.The Suzuki Splash, to be launched in Europe later this year is based on the Swift/SX4 platform, but will be rebadged the Opel/Vauxhall Agila for European sales.Fiat sells the Suzuki SX4 as the Sedici in Europe.Suzuki also owns 11 per cent of GM-DAT, the Korean-based company that makes the Holden Epica, Captiva, Viva and Barina.GM sold its 20 per cent of Subaru parent, Fuji Heavy Industries, in 2005. Fuji bought back most of the shares, though Toyota bought in and now owns 8.7 per cent of the company.Toyota also owns Daihatsu and has a big stake in Yamaha. Yamaha has an engineering alliance with Toyota — twin-cam engine and multi-valve heads included — and recently created the V8 engine for Ford-owned Volvo.GM also gets its Saab plant in Sweden to make the Cadillac BLS mid-size car, alongside its Saab 9-3 and 9-5.The Hyundai Sonata's 2.4-litre engine is shared with the Jeep Compass, Dodge Caliber, Chrysler Sebring and Mitsubishi Outlander.Renault has an alliance with Nissan and owns Samsung (Korea) and has a joint venture with Mahindra (India).Porsche's Cayenne SUV is built in Volkswagen's factory in Slovakia alongside the Volkswagen Touareg and Audi Q7. Porsche's Cayman is built in Finland. That's just the tip of iceberg.Peyton Place has nothing on these guys. 
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Safety sacrificed in imported cars
By Mark Hinchliffe · 24 May 2007
Motoring journalist and safety advocate Clive Matthew-Wilson said importers of European cars had “completely lost the plot in the past decade”.“They are more concerned with style over substance,” the New Zealand-based author of The Dog & Lemon Guide said.“Stripping out safety features to keep costs down helps the manufacturers sell more cars as it makes them cheaper, but the end result is that ordinary people die,” he said.“What also worries me is Australians are reading international crash test reports where the safety features were included.”Matthew-Wilson, who successfully lobbied the New Zealand Government to make unsafe old seatbelts unlawful, said he was “probably not on car companies' Christmas card list”.He said stripping out curtain airbags was of particular concern as they were known to save lives in crashes with poles and trees.“An airbag at the factory probably costs about $25. If they can get away with it they do.”He said cars imported into Australia had fewer standard safety features than those imported into New Zealand.“The Barina (imported from Korea) has ABS standard in New Zealand, but in Australia it does not come with ABS, but costs about the same price,” he said. “In New Zealand, importers are competing with second-hand Japanese imports with all the safety features. In Australia they do not have the same competition.“It's a cozy arrangement between the car companies to leave safety devices off to cut costs.”GM Holden national media relations manager John Lindsay said the markets and pricing structure were different between Australian and New Zealand markets.“The Barina in NZ starts at a higher specification which we believe is required to compete in that specific market and this is reflected in a higher entry-level price,” he said.Matthew-Wilson said electronic stability control was a crucial safety device available in most new European cars.However, in Australia, only the top models had ESC fitted.“Airbags and electronic stability control are considered luxury features and are usually only included in a package with mag wheels.”Matthew-Wilson said top-of-the-range imported cars had a substantial array of safety features, but we were being overcharged for them.He said Asian cars often featured more safety features and were near the top of consumer satisfaction surveys on reliability while European cars were near the bottom.The latest British customer satisfaction survey has awarded Lexus, the luxury arm of Toyota, the top rank for the seventh consecutive year.“English cars are the worst of the worst, but most of them are not truly English any more, they are German,” he said.Matthew-Wilson is also concerned about the poor standard of seatbelts in second-hand Australian cars.He wants the Australian Government to legislate for the replacement of unsafe seatbelts.“This is of real concern because some older style seatbelts stretch like rubber bands in an accident. They are as bad as no seatbelt at all,” he said.  Differing safety features   (Australia and New Zealand markets)All Honda Odyssey (imported from Japan) versions have dual front and side airbags but in New Zealand head curtain airbags are also standard and in Australia they are only fitted to the luxury model.Current Honda Civic models (imported from Thailand) have six airbags on all models in New Zealand, but in Australia they have a cheap version (VTi) with two, a moderate version with four (VTi-L) and others with six.Mitsubishi L200 Triton (imported from Thailand) has ABS standard on all models in NZ, but in Australia it is an option on most models and standard on expensive models.Hyundai Tucson (imported from Korea) has dual front, side and head curtain airbags on all models in NZ. In Australia they have dual front airbags standard, but dual side and head curtain airbags available on Elite and City models. Electronic stability control is standard on all NZ models, but it is not available in Australia.Holden Viva (imported from Korea) in New Zealand has ABS standard and in Australian it's standard on the wagon and an optional extra with alloy wheels on others.(Source: The Dog & Lemon Guide)Clive Matthew-Wilson on these statistics "They are not however 100 per cent accurate simply because many car manufacturers and dealers make it very difficult to find out what safety features are on their cars, even if you go to official websites or call the actual dealers, you are quite often put through to someone who simply doesn't know much about the product they are selling. Also it's worth noting that the week after we ask (a manufacturer) about safety features...they may have a new load in with a different configuration."
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Paris Motor Show previews Holden Viva
By Paul Gover · 30 Sep 2006
Australia has injected excitement into the Paris Motor Show with one of the most outrageous concept cars in the French capital.The Chevrolet WTCC Ultra Concept Car is the work of talented young GM Holden designers Ewan Kingsbury and Breony Crittenden, who stood beside their creation in Paris this week as it was revealed to the world.And there is more to the outrageous new coupe than just a potential motorsport program. The Chevrolet-badged newcomer will probably become the next Holden Viva.It was displayed in Paris with a turbo-diesel engine and stripping away the pumped-out bodywork reveals a good-looking coupe that could easily be turned into a South Korean production car.It is also a fully operational car, not just a plastic body dropped over a set of wheels.The WTCC racer is the latest work from a Holden team that has won a worldwide reputation for its talent and commitment on a range of concept and production cars stretching back to the Suzuki-based Cruze and including the latest Efijy show stopper, VE Commodore and the conversion work on the production model of the Chevrolet Camaro.Kingsbury was the lead designer on the body of the new Chevrolet and Crittenden did the cabin, renewing a partnership that saw them working together on the Torana concept car that was produced in Australia and is still the model for a mid-sized future car stretched out of the VE Commodore mechanical package.The Australian connection on the WTCC car includes designer Max Wolff, who developed the original concept and early design work in South Korea, and the design department workers at Fishermans Bend, who produced the scale and full-sized clay models for the car.The interior was done in Melbourne by a digital sculpting team working entirely on computers.They were not in Paris this week, but the last big international motor show this year was flooded by Australians touting the cars that will be coming Down Under in the next few years.Australians led the work on the WTCC Ultra but Peter Bramberger, design manager at GM Holden, says the car is the most global project undertaken by General Motors."The way the WTCC Ultra took shape is indicative of Chevrolet's international alignment and intentions as a brand," Bramberger says.Apart from the Australian and South Korean input, the WTCC Ultra includes model work in India, technical input from Chevrolet's race team in Britain and a final construction team in Japan, which also builds the Daewoo T2X and S3X four-wheel-drive concepts.And the project was co-ordinated from the United States by GM's global design chief, Ed Welburn.But it is Kingsbury and Crittenden who know the most about the car and what it means."A car's proportions are the biggest factor in its appearance, so all the early work concentrated on this area. Correct proportions are vital, they can make a car look fast even when it's standing still," Kingsbury says."The intention was to give the concept a fresh, exciting and aggressive combination of surfacing and graphics. All the lines on the car accelerate rearward of the front door, to give the car more speed, and keep the visual weight in the correct position."The work on the interior was matched to that concept.Crittendon notes, "We opted for raw dark surfaces by using unpolished metal or matte carbon fibre inserts. By doing this, we kept a little secretive about the material, and called this design principle the 'stealth them'."
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