Holden offers fuel at 99 cents per litre
September 2, 2008 by Alborz Fallah
The economics might not make all that much sense on the surface, but given the amount of money and research that goes into developing more fuel efficient cars, perhaps it’s more practical to simply offer cheap fuel instead of making fuel efficient cars? Plus it makes more marketing sense! Right?
No doubt that idea was brought up at one of GM Holden’s marketing seminars. In a revolutionary move to offset the rising cost of fuel, Holden will be capping the price of fuel at 99 cents per litre for all new Holden customers! Yes, that’s not a typo.
The offer only applies to private buyers but includes Holden’s entire range of cars. The only catch? Well there really isn’t one, simply take delivery of any new Holden before the 31st of October and the old General will make sure you only pay 99 cents per litre for 91 RON petrol or diesel for up to 20,000 kilometres or two years, whichever comes first.
“We will provide this cap across all segments to ensure the benefits are as widely available as possible, given that fuel prices impact all drivers regardless of the size of their car, whether you’re buying a Commodore for the family, a Barina as your first car, or a Colorado as tool of trade, we know everyone will appreciate our helping hand.
GM Holden is committed to providing affordable and economical cars to our customers, and this campaign is another way that can be achieved.” Alan Batey, Executive Director of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales said
How does it work? Holden will give all new Holden customers a Holden 99c Fuel Cap debit card to purchase fuel for up to 20,000 kilometres or two years.
The system might sound complicated, but it’s rather simple and clever. Holden will base the litres of fuel purchased and compare it to the vehicle’s ADR081/01 combined fuel consumption figure. So if you purchase 50L of fuel and your ADR fuel rating is 10L/100km, Holden will record 500km.
In most cases within 48 hours after the fuel has been purchased, Holden will debit from the customers nominated bank account to the value of 99 cents per litre purchased.
The benefits of the system are not simply limited cheaper fuel, or that Holden will pay upfront and then take the money later, but also because all accounts can be monitored by a monthly email statement or checked any time online or by phone.
This will allow consumers to see how many litres have been purchased during that month. A sort of online trip computer. Granted it won’t be a very accurate one, but it will allow for a better overall picture of one’s fuel costs. Interested? We are too.
The cars that will benefit the most are the thirstier V8s, Holden has put together a table of all its cars and how many litres each car is entitled to over the two year period. You can find out more about that and the offer in general here.
Given the V8s desire for slightly better than average fuel, we are a little concerned that Holden will somewhat force new V8 owners into using 91 RON fuel to benefit from the scheme.
Will the new offer entice you to go with a Holden? Or perhaps to go with a bigger thirstier engine? Or is it just a clever marketing ploy? And if so, will it work?
Print it: 
I suppose you could just make more fuel efficent cars…
No just throw some marketing mumbo jumbo at the customer. short tem fixes are we are about… Chrysler are currently doing this in North America and it backfired big time. Customers rightly veiwed this as smoke and mirrors.
It’s very sad. Whats next? Cashback? Employee prices for everyone? (oh hang on, the ACCC sued us over that,damn)
Shame Holden, Shame.
“we know everyone will appreciate our helping hand”
Awwww Thanks holden for your generosity. Nothing like sincerity in a corporate press release to make me barf.
Sorry to post twice on this But Holdens are well engineered, Good value products (in the main) and this deseration P&$#ses me off!
91 RON is useless for the SS and all V8 models unless you want your new 6.0L to be pinging it’s t#ts off (detonation).
I wouldn’t be using anything less than 95 RON in these new V8’s. Most SS drivers use 98 RON anyway. Sad thing is we pay extra for higher octane fuel even though the cost of production is exactly the same as the lower grade stuff. Again another oil company myth that 98 RON costs more to produce, BS!
Working out the maths:
Assuming average fuel consumption is 10 litres/100km.
Then over 20,000km, it uses 2000 litres.
ULP is currently around $1.45.
$1.45-$0.99 = $0.46
So, you save 2000×0.46 = $920 over this period.
Not very much in savings really. You can probably haggle more out of them without this scheme.
DanMan ofcourse its just marketing, but its very good marketing and if someone was offering you 99c a litre for 20,000km i bet you would take it in a heart beat. Whats the problem with it mate? Yes ofcourse its not a long term solution, but long term solutions take time to happen. Thats why you have short medium and long term solutions don’t you? This is holdens short term one, and we already know that they are working on medium term ones including diesel commodores, DI, DOD and even a 4cyl commodore, and the longer term solution is the chevy volt that has been all but confirmed to be coming to australia, just not till around 2012 at the earliest
“The offer only applies to private buyers” then says later “or a Colorado as tool of trade”. That would make it a business buy then yes?
Which is it Holden?
Nice try and you will undoubtedly attract a host of new car buyers. But should you be doing this with such a huge debt looming?
Philip – exactly mate, it is pure marketing and very clever marketing too! but really, you don’t save all that much more then that downgrading from a commodore sized car to a corolla sized car, but people still do it.
John – in the actual press release i’m pretty sure it says 95RON is covered too, but even if it doesn’t the big V8 won’t ping on 91RON thanks to its dual knock sensors, but it certainly will be down a bit on power.
So, you save 2000×0.46 = $920 over this period.
Well played sir.
Look up ACCC EMPLOYEE PRICING to see what happens when you sail close to the wind with this kind of marketing. This is unfocused and dilutes your brand values. Hyundai and Kia usally own this type of stuff.
My god imagine the idea’s they reject if this seemed like a good idea.
Reminds me of 4 cents off woolworths dockets.
Volt? Soon be seen in transformers 2?
With the new Honda “prius fighter” on sale before then. version 2.0 prius and Camry hybrid on sale before 2012 Volt doesn’t stand a chance. And thats as long as GM isn’t bankrupt (chapter 11)
I pinched this off another site – they reckon the savings are more like this:
“The owner of a Commodore Omega V6 auto sedan, for example, can purchase up to 2160 litres of fuel at the 99 cents rate, based on the large car’s 10.8L/100km fuel consumption.
With the average price of petrol costing about $1.50, the Omega owner would save more than $1100 ($2138 v $3250) using the 99c Fuel Cap card.”
Wow DanMan you certainly have a bee in your bonnet. Why did you even bring up employee pricing, its just not relevant here. BTW, its more like a 46c a litre fuel voucher, one that doesn’t expire in 16 days. I think what we are all forgetting here is that diesel is generally floating higher than ULP! For Holden to not only bring down the cost of diesel to at least ULP but to cap it at 99c also is going to make diesel buyers rather happy. If only they had a diesel commodore…. DanMan, lets focus our anger at the Gov’t, with their stupid artificial inflation of diesel!! We are going to use less of the fuel and hence create less emissions, don’t charge us more for it you f*cksticks! This is a direct contradiction to that stupid Penny Wong’s rubbish emissions target and speaks volumes about a government that up clearly has wasted millions holding all these summits and committees to discover that they are all smug arseholes and will do whatever they want anyway. Double dissolution gets my vote.
realcars or dingo? not sure…
realcars is usually more objective then that, so probably dingo. Therefore not worthy of a response.
DanMan – calm down mate, also do your research on the chevy volt, its a far different car then a prius, infact its an entirely different format of hybrid power. Unlike the prius which uses both petrol and electric engines to power it, the volt only ever uses electric engines to power it, and the petrol engine is more or less just a “power plant” to produce electricity to charge the batteries when they get low. Also, its only due in 2012 in australia, its due in the US by 2010 but demand in the US will mean the rest of the world will have to wait.
Government has nothing to do with price of diesel. My understanding is that Aus sources its diesel from different reserves to say Europe. The reserves we get our oil from is ‘cleaner’ as such and produces less diesel, as diesel is heavier than petrol. I still think diesel in Aus is not the way to go, LPG is.
Are you sure 98 doesn’t cost more to produce? In should be cleaner and I would’ve thought it would take slightly more refining to get the higher octane.
It’s not really a great move. These quoted fuel consumption figures are a joke. If you own say a SS, you won’t be pulling 10L/100km, which is what Holden says you will because they’re basing their numbers on the combined cycle. Even for say a Barina or something, the real figures will be higher than Holden’s, especially if you don’t hit the highway much (a fair chunk of people don’t).
As has been pointed out, it’s a false economy. Plus, if it encourages people to go and buy a SS now, in 2 years when the fuel ‘voucher’ runs out, than what do you do? Fuel will probably be even more expensive in 2 years time and you used a short term marketing ploy to justify buying a car more expensive to run than you expected. Good luck with the resale.
Making cheaper fuel is a dumb idea compared to developing more efficient engines. Even with V6’s, Holden’s aren’t as efficient as other companies. GM needs to lift its game with regards to engine technology before throwing out stupid marketing schemes. Forget hybrids and diesel, just make your petrol engines more efficient (it’s quite possible). Embrace things like factory-built EGR systems or water injection or put more money into variable cylinder compression and cylinder deactivation technologies.
Haha, what the? A coherent article from Dingo!?
Holden deserve a big fat slap in the face for this one. I hope that customers treat this with the contempt it deserves like US consumers did with Chrysler.
Sure it is a marketing ploy, but it encourages the purchase of the thirstier cars, e.g. the Caprice is entitled to 2800 litres of fuel, but a Barina is only entitled to 1400 litres.
also the next prius will be the third version of the car, not the second, and hopefully it won’t be an awful car to drive like the current one as well as largely irrelevant to anyone who actually takes their money seriously. I mean lets look at it, a prius costs $16,000 more then a corolla even though it is roughly the same sized car. The prius uses 4.4l per 100km which really isn’t that impressive when you look at things like Hyundai i30 diesel’s, but lets not go their just yet. The corolla uses 7.3ltr per 100km. At a fuel cost of $1.50 per litre which is realistic, you would have to travel over 350,000km’s to recoup the $16,000 extra you have spent on fuel savings alone. Then take into account you will have had to replace the batteries in the prius probably twice by the time you have hit 350,000km’s and the economic realities of the prius aren’t all that pretty. And neither are its so called green credentials, with batteries that don’t brake down for a thousand years and the extra waste products created in its manufacture, its only marginally greener over its entire lifetime then a camry. But no lets just have a go at holden for marketing spin, even though they have never created an entire car that is 100% spin (and offcourse, massively profitable).
GTRmon – all of those technologies will be present in the 2009 VF commodore update, so yes, holden are putting some substance behind their economy push as well as just a marketing campagn. Also lets be realistic, someone in the market for a V6 isn’t suddenly going to go and buy a V8 because holden is giving them fuel for 99cents. People aren’t as dumb as some of the comments that go up on here sometimes. I mean really, who actually thinks that people are going to suddenly run out and buy V8’s because of this? I mean to suggest such a thing would be assuming people are as dumb as your comments
Dingo! Mate! A well constructed, thoughtful and non-biased comment! Keep this up mate and people will start treating you with a bit of respect! Good work mate.
Your argument is sound, and it will be very interesting to see what the Volt is like. On the plus side for GM is that despite their economic situation, they are actually on a bit of a roll with their products, the quality of their cars, particularly in the US, has been improving massively in recent times with no finer example then the cadillac CTS which some are saying is the best car ever to be built in america
Haha. my spam word was HSV. Irony
I mentioned ACCC because Holden has Indulged in deceptive practise’s before. The accounting alone on this offer is a nightmare. Prepare to be audited…
Fair point on the Govt, but this is a car website, so…
Look up “volt birth watch” on google and prepare to be… dissapointed. They will sell for around 40k in North America. so how much in Aussie?
It might encourage someone to upgrade from an Epica to base model Commo. |4 to V6 change. People do prefer the power and size of a V6 Commo to a 4 cylinder Epica.
How many of those technologies are going into the VF? EGR? I doubt variable cylinder compression. Cylinder deactivation maybe, but unlikely for the others.
Haha. my spam word was HSV. Irony
I mentioned ACCC because Holden has Indulged in deceptive practise\’s before. The accounting alone on this offer is a nightmare. Prepare to be audited…
Fair point on the Govt, but this is a car website, so…
Look up \”volt birth watch\” on google and prepare to be… dissapointed. They will sell for around 40k in North America. so how much in Aussie?
i meant that sincerely by the way dingo, good job
danman – i don’t know what your talking about it being deceptive, holden has made no comment that it will save you thousands, just that it will be a help, which it will be.
GTRmon – direct injection and cylinder deactivation will be on the VF as well as more efficient gearbox’s. They are also looking at a turbo 4cyl version aswell. So they are doing something to back up the marketing.
Never have I read so much unadulterated B/S from a bunch of absolute morons.
So Holden is offering a discount to its customers to the tune of $1000 average. And the idiots scream their stupid sentiments louder and louder.
My God, I hope they aren’t old enough to vote.
Dingo and realcars response within a minute just after being queried. Easy to do when you have 2 pages up at same time and write on both before hitting the reply button. As was said before realcars is more balanced so I too are leaning towards Dingo using realcars name.
Good on you Holden for trying to help potential new car buyers. And as it involves all classes of cars not just VE/WM models it will make fuel cheaper for all not just the priviledged few who buy the more expensive to buy cars.
Car Advice is concerned about V8 customers using 91 RON?
PULL THE OTHER ONE!
This from the same guys who last month ran a story about driving a V8 Commodore to see what fuel economy they could get whilst clearly stating they rang it on…..
91 RON!!
Which is it Car Advice? You can’t have it both ways!
Fair enough, but there’s still engine technologies not being used enough, like EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) and water injection, both of which are quite feasible to setup in the home garage let alone a factory.
Reckless1, the point is that Holden is offering $1000 discount, but it’s a lure into cheaper short term running expenses. It would be better to offer satnav or alloys or a sunroof or something as a $1000 discount rather than fuel.
Besides, why would I listen to a preachy Golf owner? And yes I am old enough to vote; are you old enough to be in a nursing home?
look its a marketing scheme to attract some customers through some savings at the fuel bowser. No one said anyhing when nissan offered $1,000 worth of free fuel now did they! Where people concerned then that people would go and buy a patrol instead of an xtrail because of the sceheme? Ofcourse not, this is just yet more holden bashing. Alot of people on here need to get a bit of balance i feel!
Dingo – no doubt GM faces significant challenges, but getting the cars right is definetly 1 of those challenges, and so far they are starting to tick boxes. As for this adding to overheads, well I dunno but I just don’t see how this is going to cost them more then a special edition with $3,000 worth of extra kit for free, like pretty much every manufacturer does from time to time. If its only going to cost them an extra grand like people are suggesting, then that’s not really an issue, and quite often with these things it will be coming out of the dealers margin anyway, not the manufacturers.
dont know if this has been mentioned before – but i assume these figures are based on the standard 10.8l/ 100km. Is the limiting factor 20,000km or is there a maximum fuel credited also? Otherwise there would be no restriction on hoons using more in the order of 30l per hundred if they so desire.
Harmful81, the fuel consumption is based on Holden’s calculated combined cycle; so the more you hoon, the more money it costs you. A flaw in the system.
In fact, at least with a $1000 fuel card, you get free money. In Holden’s system, you’re only getting what Holden think you should get, which is probably less than realistic.
Ian: HA! 5 star “safty” my arse, I don’t think the “genral” speaks incoherent BS. As for the Falcon getting 5 star over Holden, I’ve read both ANCAP results and ignoring the side pole test (interesting considering how GM touted the Holden as having better side impact protection than ever before, which I can vouch for after seeing side impact wrecks at Pickles lots) the results are near identical with VE winning in areas and FG winning in areas, however the big thing was the LL Index, a figure they give no explanation in calculating in which the FG had a large margin, the only section FG had a large margin. Other than that the cars were virtually on par aside from one of the doors in the VE opening which was a big deduction for them. So really, if you are in an impact that was going to kill you in a VE, you’d be dead in the FG too. I can’t imagine anyone would want to buy your soul anyhoo.
Eddy, that’s a good point, I did use 91 RON fuel for the SS fuel economy, however, that’s not to say I would do that on a regular basis on my own V8 (if i had one).
The higher octane fuels actually tend to return better fuel economy anyway. And burn better as well.
anti-span word ‘holden’
Wouldn’t it be better to just offer $1000 in free fuel like other manufacturers. Will the customer have free choice where they get their fuel or will they have to go out of their way and go to a certain petrol chain. If you happen to live in the bush this may be a real problem.
the fuel is a gimmick,take the discount instead,and put the coin in the bank at 8%.realcars.holden isn’t going anywhere(ford/mits??).i know a d.p.(do you know what that is?).holden WILL have a new barina,viva,locally made astra,and insignia.holden is going the toyota/honda(seen to be green)route.hybrids are great for the earth but bad for your wallet(resale,batteries)etc.their future given all the new technology is cloudy at best.better having a all electric car than 50/50.or hydrogen,solar,whatever…
Good idea from a marketing point of view.
As the calculations attest fuel is still the cheapest part of car ownership.
Wish Dingo would stop using my label although it is kind of flattering.LOL.
Any unholy remarks about Holden or Ford are not me.LOL
They can fake it all they like, I’d rather get a full size spare and haggle the bucks off the deal.
As a VE SS Auto driver, I can confirm that they do return better economy, & ofcourse better performance when using 98RON fuel. I find my average consumption, (according to the trip computer in the car), is around 14.8-15 litres/100 km on 91 RON, & 13.5litres/100 km.
Roughly 10% difference.
So, if 98 RON fuel is less than 10% dearer than 91 RON, it’s worth buying the premium fuel.
This is often the case where I live, (Brisbane), so I almost always buy Premium 98 RON.
I’ve also found that economy & performance really suffers if I buy E10 Ethanol fuel.
These are real world figures, including gridlock peakhour traffic, minimal highway cruising, & regular fuel throttle blasts, anywhere there’s a gap; on ramps, traffic lights, ….
Impressive economy for a 6.0 litre v8, Jason!
Heh Jason, glad I don’t own your car. My little Golf diesel returns 4.5l /100, but its all about choices eh. Good luck.
Stevo the Devo,
they provide the offer via a Visa card.
you would be able to use that at any servo.
its not a typical fleet fuel card.
Greenroom,
damn right its all about choies, and my choice always will land with the vehicle i would much rather drive.
if it were between an SS and Golf, its no contest…SS Wins
if you are seriously worried about your hip pocket, then head to LPG. after all LPG is the only real answer we have to fuel savings.
i forget who said it,
maybe the fuel savings will sway some to keep the existing fuel budget and upsize their engine.
i know that the SS for the SV6 price that holden offered me on Saturday would have easily swayed me to the SS if i decided to go red.
but oh well, i signed on a FG XR6 instead
oh,
i meant to say………
the concept of this is really no different to toyota offering capped servicing costs is it??
Or me having no service costs for 3 years…
Oh, and speaking of marketing, cover your eyes here, Andrew M…
The Golf needs 4 new tyres and I spotted the Ford 3-1/2 tyre sale (get the 4th tyre at half price) on this very page. You might too.
So I rang the local dealer and the woman I spoke with in service didn’t even know about the promotion whose links I followed on the www. So I read out the important bits to her, such as Goodyear, Dunlop, Fulda, Falken etc and she trotted off for 3 or 4 minutes before declaring a total price of $497 for “Goodyears”
Including fitting and balancing? Hold on. Another 2 or 3 minutes. No. That’s $60 plus $55 for alignment for a total of $612. Thank you, I’ll be in touch.
Bob jane’s fitting 4 Michelin XM1s tomorrow for $629.50. Thank you, I’ll take those.
Last month..
Holden offered the packed deals on all the range. This brought the retail price down of their product range in somes cases up to 5,000 dollars. Not bad value at all I would say…
Example
last month (aug).. If you purchased say a ss 6.0 ute you paid $36.990 this included auto. Today (this month) this price has sky rocket back up to $41,990. for the same car.
You now pay this month $5,000 dollars extra for the same car !!!.
Lets see,
This month you take this showroom fuel card gimmick and you will save at best, may-be around $1,000 over this 2 year period in fuel.
Remember you have now paid 5,000 dollars extra in list price this month for this car.
Subtract this fuel card, you have still paid 4,000 extra for the car than you would have if you bought last month. There is no saving here AT ALL…
Again we see the 70′/80’s type car salesmen mentality and tricks coming out of the industry. Someone in this blog mentioned ’smoke and mirrors’
This is bullshit Holden and its cheating your customers!!! this is the sort of crap that makes people walk out of your dealerships. Customers need to do the math on this..
Do all companies now have to act like that woolworths and scam Australians…
I can’t see it as BS or a scam or any other such nonsense.
Maybe there were better deals on last month. That’s what happens when they have promotions. They end and it may be replaced by another one.
This one is worth about a $1000 on a Commodore, so anyone purchasing can take that into consideration when doing their sums.
You’d have to be pretty dumb to consider that “smoke and mirrors” or the least bit tricky.
If this isn’t the best deal you’ve seen, they’ll be plenty more coming, so just wait for the next one.
In short, all the whining numbnuts on here should get over it. If a sale offer upsets you so much maybe you shouldn’t be reading car news websites.
Klaus, I reckon your best assurance of a good deal is checking the advertised price and then give all those components that comprise the smoke and mirrors, such as the trade-in, finance, insurance and window tint to someone else.
Ok whats with the tacky add CA above the live comments section,Unique cars tried this and their readers complained profusely that it cheapened the mag,It cheapens the site guys!
I quite like that picture BM!
(Although I agree with you.)