South African exports of Holden Ute to continue
February 27, 2008 by Matt Brogan
Holden announced yesterday that it will export the VE ute to South Africa which continues a five year trend of ute exports to that country.
Although the ute will be re-badges as a Chevy Lumina SS, the specifications are almost identical to our own SS-V.
“The ute is the only vehicle of its kind available in South Africa and has a tremendous appeal amongst a set group of buyers” GM South Africa Marketing Manager Des Fenner says.
Holden export manager Kristian Aquilina said “The company is pleased the long-standing relationship with South Africa will continue. The VE range, including the Ute, has generated a great response from our global partners and there is certainly a market for this kind of vehicle.”
“Exports are an essential part of our strategy and with the success of the VE range overseas we expect to export fifty per cent of the vehicles we make here in Australia in the near future.”
Print it: 
*****PRIMO!*****
Good to see Holden get with the export-program [Maybe Foulcan *could* be exported too, eh Ford? OR is it already countdown to Aussie exit, 380 style?]
Now, about the Ute, Holden – WHAT ABOUT A BENCH SEAT please?
Would NOT need to worry about a van in that case! :-)
Cheers
F-0
Hey F-O, I think Ford may have some plans in the pipeline for exporting Falcon. If not this one then maybe the newbie in 2010… we’ll see :)
Matt, Ford is all about maybe, maybe, maybe, someday…..we’ll be as smart as Holden in Australia.
Just don’t hold your breath :)
MATT -
Its all rumour, where can they sell it?
Europe – No, to big and thirsty
USA – No, all protected industry and have there own rubbish to sell, Crown Victoria comes to mind.
[Did you know the Crown Victoria can sustain a rear impact of 70MPH! and not catch fire or kill the passengers?]
ASIA – Same as Europe
Not even engineered for LHD ATM.
Leaves just little markets like NZ and S/Africa.
I would say it doomed, hope they can make money selling 30,000 a year…..or less
Cheers
F-0
lol about the crown victoria
One of these in Morpheous would brighten up a shanty village.
“One of these in Morpheous would brighten up a shanty village.”
NO, one of these with a benchseat would![Well for me anyway]
Rather a Commodore ute than a Falcon, but they failed me in not having the 1 tonner and no benchseat [Had BOTH in the past!]
Cheers
F-0
Frugal One,
sadly holden will never give this a bech seat. They admitted as much when they said its was targeted at the recreational customer not the tradies. I guess it really is the poor mans monaro.
Show pony not a work horse
Good to see some more Aussie product heading overseas.
Looks better than a VT Monaro!!!!!
I can’t see Ford exporting the Falcon anytime soon.. because if it was the Americans [in particular] would realise what ugly crap cars they have had to put up with for so long.. and think why wasn’t this car [the Falcon] available here before?
Frugal One you’re a moron. You’ll actually find more Falcons and Territorys on South African roads than you will Commondores.
Looks like Holden have secured their Future…. bye bye Ford Aus.
Let 2010 come…
One second Holden and Ford is stupid for turbos going on motors and now you backflip and say Holden have secured there future?????? So what you want people to see with your comments is your saying on other hand til they have turbos on engines and then future not secured. TP mate…like really you are a unit at times mixed in with great comments. Sometimes your too bizarre to take serious…if at all!
Frugel one,
mate you seem to have 2 problems related to the auto industry that you seem to have no dsire to solve so i will solve them for you right here right now free of charge.
“no review on the CX7″
well here is a novel idea………
how about since you are interested in it, go and book a test drive and get the best possible review (first hand)
“no bench seat in the commy ute and no alloy tray option”
yet another novel idea………
you obviously have intent to use it for its intended purpose so why not go and get the ute that is the true work ute out of the 2 and go buy the falcon ute. also you would stop whinging about “no bench seat” and you could also opt for the alloy tray if you desire.
also the extra load capacity and raw pulling power might be handy too
just a couple of ideas
Phillip – firstly ford only sell the territory in south africa, not the falcon. Secondly Frugal One wasn’t denying that ford export cars to south africa, he even said as much you bloody idiot! Learn to read peoples post before having a dig at them! All he was saying was that ford australia’s export potential is small relative to what holden are doing with sales in the middle east, south africa, US, UK (albiet in very small numbers), and asia.
Sorry dude but that is actually the way it is, ford are sucking at this export stuff right at the moment and its something they need to address, ford australia themselfs have admitted this, unfortunately though they have a bunch of dumb americans calling the shots which is stuffing up all of their plans
notice how holden plans to export as much as 50% of the vehicles they make in australia in the future.. mate ford can’t even dream of doing that right now!
TP,
keep your petty little comments in the school yard please.
oh and pull your thumbs out of your ears and suck you tongue back in as your immaturity is beyond ridiculous
ANDREW M…I now!
Knew you would sum up as rolled my eyes in my response; so thanks for stating the obvious last comment!
hey Richo,
did you here the aussie dollar just went up again?
thats food for thought for those exporting at the moment………….
as holden and toyota turn to exports to keep their australian operations viable, ford increases the variants they make here to pick up the slack.
i doubt anyone here has done in depth studies into which option is best,
so i dont know how people can pass fords way of dealing with it as wrong.
i think it would make more sense to take the “falcon recipe” and make it in the US to service the US, and make it in AUS to service AUS.
it saves development costs and at the same time doesnt get affected by higher wages, taxes and the aussie dollar
This ute’s unique. There’s plenty of places to go if people want a bench seat and aluminium tray, and there’s no shame in that for Holden.
LOL…………TP’s absence, did ANDREW M give him detention at FORD HQ. He would starve himself to death there. Ha Ha
Yep, Ford’s HQ in Broadmeadows have a lock-up and the naughty idiots locked up in there have to live with the old part disposal and used oil everywhere. :D
Andrew M, if what your saying is correct and manufacturing in Australia is a solid and viable business, then how come ford aus is the first to admit that they are actively seeking more exports?
Look Ford are gonna build the focus in aus, thats fine BUT fact of the matter is that it actually costs around the same to build a focus as it does to build a falcon, however the falcon sells at a much higher price and as such the profit margins are significantly greater. When your a low volume manufacturer (and all 3 aussie manufacturers are low volume relative to the rest of the world) you need to maximise profits as much as possible, that is why holden and ford and even toyota with the aurion are so keen to continue to build large cars in australia. Toyota could build the corolla here and import the camry from somewhere else, why dont they? answer is obvious
Fact of the matter is that for the manufacturers in australia to be viable they pretty much have to be running their plants at or near full capacity. Now toyota and holden are acheiving this through exports where as ford has decided to build the focus for aussie consumption to take up the slack in their production capacity. Even with taxes and exporting costs, holden and toyota still make more money from exporting commodores, camrys and aurions on a per vehicle basis then ford will on the focuses they sell.
And before you say that ford europe seem to manage on building focuses, keep some perspective and realise that ford sell focus’s for falcon money in europe, hence the profit margin and their sustainability, but how do you think ford would go trying to sell focus’s for falcon money here in australia? Heres a hint, it starts with “not very” and ends with “bloody well!”
and frankly i really don’t understand why you are trying to argue the toss on this, i’m not saying the ford products are bad, far from it, they have made very good products for some time now, all i am saying is that ford australia’s business plan is short sited. But you know what? thats not their fault! it’s their idiot american owners fault because basically, their idiots!
They are selling their two most profitable businesses in jaguar and land rover, and this AFTER they had already sold their most profitable (on a per vehicle basis) brand in aston martin! Their solution? It’s ok we don’t need those profitable premium brands (profitable because they can charge $100,000 for a car that only costs $10,000 more to produce then a falcon) because we believe our Lincoln brand can become our premium global flagship brand! I MEAN PLEASE! Their massive nob heads and they are dragging down the best efforts of ford australia who have no say in the matter at all!
I agree with most of that Richo. FordUS seem incredibly ignorant and arrogant.
RICHO…I have said that Ford USA is reason for downfall as stupid rules and designs forced onto Ford elsewhere – just gawk at Ford website in USA and you will see the tragic designs Iam referring to!
I would say that the Falcon and commie utes would sell reasonbly well here (UK) but only if they shoved a diesel in them. 99.9% of commercial vehicles here are diesel. These utes would mmake a re-freshing change to the 4WD Wheelble Wobble and they will fall over Toyota Hiluxs’s
No Name, you’ve probably seen on here that a turbo diesel is go for Commodore next year and Falcon from probably 2010, when the Duratorq goes in.
They could well be great cars.
Hi GolfMiester – Pity Ford have not read the market regarding diesels otherwise they would have slipped the 2.7 twin turbo in the new Foolcan. Holden don’t really have a decent large diesel thats up-to-date enough. The 3.0litre Isuzu unit in the Euro Vectra is no-where near enough up to scratch.. I know cos I drive one. Its only a mtter of time as they say.
No Name – Holden are getting their hands on a brand new turbo diesel V6, i think its a 3.0litre, which has been designed by some italian firm whose name currently escapes me… but anyway its an all new unit which hasn’t yet been used in any other cars, so its a little hard to know if it’ll be any good or not at this stage as their is no form to go off just yet
RICHO-
Its VM, a top quality Italian engines, used before by AlfaRomeo and RangeRover.They both made their own diesel engines.
Good product, but wont be cheap
Cheers
F-0
Yep – you’re right. I had read something on this a while ago. Its VM’s RA630 6cyl. Good for Euro 5 legislation producing 184kw and 550Nm. boy that’ll perform. I would guess at 0-100in 8’s and 8lits/100kms. mmm it’ll appear in Euroland soon I suspect.
I agree NO NAME….the 2.7lt twin turbo in one of there interests (Peugeot motor I think ????) would be a treat. Instead where are Ford Aust…no where sitting down! How hard is it!
I read in one of the aussie mags, i think it was wheels, that GM was likely to use two versions of the VM engine, a high output and a slightly lower output version obviously, but no one knows which version holden are getting.. perhaps they will use both?
Richo, if you read my post again you will see that I was simply stating that there are Falcons and Territorys on the SA roads. The Falcon was exported there until the AU, when they (justifiably) pulled the plug.
The Commos exported to SA are purely symbolic. They are about as common on the roads there as a Renault Megane would be in Australia. Plus, if GM SA really believed in the product they would have put an Opel badge on them (like the Vectra, Astra etc) but instead they are selling it along the Lancetti and other Daewoos.
Philip – its a no brainer that the chevy badge is a better fit for a v8 engined ute then an opel badge.. thats just common sense
I just learned something, thanks to Phillip. GM sell cars in South Africa under the 2 name plates. And yes, the Chev badge does suit the Commodore Ute more than it being an Opel but, sadly, Chev is where it ends up with the Korean cars as stable mates. Yukky.
GM sells Saab’s in SA aswell don’t they?
Yeah, okay, Saabs as well, then. Three brands. Maybe Hummers too?
The problem Richo is that we Australians tend to have a rather romanticised idea of what a Chevy is. We look to America where it means big muscle cars, but in South Africa (following on from Europe) it’s just a cynical brand hijacking exercise used to try and sell Daewoos. If you look at the GM website in SA you will notice clear demarcation (Chevrolet, Opel, Saab, Cadillac, Hummer and Isuzu). In short, an Opel, Saab or Cadillac buyer is not going to buy a Chevy, because the brand to them means a Chevy Spark (an updated version of the tinny Daewoo Matiz).
I always felt it was dangerous for Holden to head in the direction they did when relaunching Daewoos. After all, if they’d separated the brands they could have kept the Corsa and Vectra. Now, the Astra is a bit of an orphan in Holden’s 4 cyl stable, a rose amongst the thorns.
don’t depress Philip, from what i hear the current generation of holden daewoo’s may very well be the last with Holden’s new CEO apparently very keen to go back to opel as their prefered supplier of smaller cars. The captiva is probably the only daewoo that will still be sold as a holden within 4 or 5 years
the general consensus amongst holden’s top brass is the daewoo experiment has failed
Richo,
mate im hearing you……….
you make some valid points but here are a few of mine in return……….
to my understanding ford are not actively seeking more exports but rather just conducting another study into whether or not an export program would be viable for the falcon. it was brought on after the changing of the guard with the coming of the new ford basketball playing head honcho.
also how much are holden making on the VE exports if they can palm them off over seas and be sold at an equivalent rate of 33 aussie dollars?
im not having a dig but rather saying that the doller per unit profit on a focus is propably on par with a commy profit per unit when exported because they obviously arent making near the same profit on the export market that they turn when sold for australian roads
also whats to big deal about diesel?
why would we honestly want our commodore or falcon on diesel?
i think ford and holdens decision to implement diesel options was a pure kick of the can by the CEO’s in realising that the consumers arent that bright.
just some quick math…….
for eg the current falcon returns 10L/100k.
with a diesel it would return a predicted 8L/100k
dont forget diesel is 20c dearer and asks a half decent premium
100k from a petrol falcon would cost you $12.00 (@1.20/L)
100k from a diesel falcon would cost you $11.20 (@1.40/L)
now what would the premium be for owning a diesel falcon or commy? you save $160 a year if you bought a diesel falcon or commy.
you could easily pay upwards of $2000 for the “benefit” of owning a diesel engine which means it takes you more than 12 years to recoup the outlay………
at least an LPG option would see you recoup the outlay in under 1 year
the main benefit for diesel engines are in our commercial vehicles hence why Hilux’s, Tritons, Rangers etc have had it for years. the reason being because the petrol versions can chew up to 15L/100k where as the diesels hover around 8L/100k.
and the difference is even greater once load is added as fuel consumption in diesels is a little more constant under load than petrol
so who is going to rush out and buy their beloved falcon or commodore once a diesel option is added??? NOT I
Andrew, Andrew, Andrew….what have I said about calculators before? If people used calculators half as zealously as you do here, you could safely remove three quarters of our cars from the market on the grounds that they “don’t make sense” or “would only recoup costs after 8 years’.
It’s pretty easy to tell I’m a diesel convert and I can assure you that a Commodore with a turbo diesel would have great appeal for a larger number of people out there based on driving characteristics alone. Diesel’s impost is about 10% greater than standard ULP and gives 50% greater mileage in my case over the equivalent petrol car.
The cost of the car? Whatever its price is.
LPG yukkie yukkie (okay, just putting that bit in to be cheeky)
Ooooo look at moi, I’m just warming up.
Right now in March 2008, it would be fair to assume that Holden and Ford honchos wish they had a turbo diesel offering RIGHT NOW for their large cars instead of 2009 onwards. They never forecast where fuel prices were heading during the developmental stages of their large cars and must sorely wish they had something in the showrooms right now.
I know you love LPG and swear by it, but it just isn’t firing in the market. The take-up rate of turbo diesel cars is what’s firing. Just ask a BMW, VW or Peugeot dealer.
You’re right Golfschwein, Holden and Ford are disastrously slow in the diesel stakes. Just imagine if Ford have have introduced the TDCis when they first started importing Fiestas and Focuses – they’d be kicking goals by now! But instead they played what they considered to be a safe hand, and although their doing quite well, the cost of the opportunity they missed is incredible. Plus, Fords lack of commitment to LPG is evidenced by the fact that they are not offering traction control or the new 5-speed auto with the new Falcon range.
BTW, my security word is Eunos. Now there’s an unfortunate blast from the past!
Golf,
mate i only pulled out the calculator to prove to others what is only to clear to me.
i didnt need to go right through the maths to see that paying 20c more per L wont balance the 2L less you lose.
it is only really beneficial where there is a greater consumption difference between petrol and diesel which is clearly demonstrated in commercial vehicles.
diesels are proven to beneficial in the jap trucks and small cars but i doubt the set up would be as beneficial in the large sedans. they would have to return 6L/100k in a commy or falcon for savings to be the reason to buy one.
LPG is good but ford foolishly didnt run with it.
Phillip,
no traction control on LPG because it interupts the “carby style” fuel delivery currently used on the E-gas
well if ford and holden have been slow in getting on the diesel band wagon, then where the hell are the market leaders toyota? not one single diesel passenger vehicle, yet their small car (corolla) still manages to sell strong