Holden Commodore 13 years at the top
January 6, 2009 by Alborz Fallah
Despite momentary threats from Toyota’s Corolla, the Holden Commodore has remained Australia’s favourite passenger car for the 13th consecutive year after finishing 2008 as Australia’s best-selling car.
2008 saw 51,093 Holden Commodores sold in Australia, continuing Commodore’s unbroken record from 1996 as the country’s leading passenger car range.
Despite the general downturn in the market, GM dealers managed to sell 10,848 new cars in December last year, this included 5413 Commodore and 1629 VE Ute models, the best monthly sales record for both vehicles in 2008.
The increase in sales numbers is partially due to heavy discounting by dealers. We have heard reports buyers around the country getting thousands of dollars off the sticker price. One buyer in Brisbane managed to buy a brand new HSV R8 for under $48,000!
Summing up the year GM Holden sold 130,338 vehicles in Australia commanding a market share of 12.9 per cent. This is in shadow of Toyota’s monumental with 238,983 sales or 23.6 per cent market share. Ford came in third with 104,715 sales or 10.3 per cent.
Another model which boosted sales for Holden was the new Sportwagon which went on sale in July. Holden says 8200 were purchased in just five months. Making the Sportwagon more successful than any SUV in the market during the same period.
The Holden Statesmen, no longer challenged by the Fairlane, led the Upper Large category for vehicles under $100,000 with a 38.8 per cent market share. The VE Ute also beat the Ford Falcon Ute.
GM Holden Executive Director of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, Mr Alan Batey says the figures show that family-sized vehicles continued to be attractive to Australians. Holden believes the Commodore continues to remain as a smart buy.
It just shows that during tough times, people are attracted to products that represent outstanding quality and value for money. Commodore has become a symbol of local design and engineering expertise and Australia’s ability to compete on the world stage. “Holden is committed to a program of ongoing development to ensure Commodore maintains its reputation as a smart buy for Australian motorists.” Mr Batey said.
It’s worth noting that the figures include sales to government and private fleets.
Will the Commodore remain as the best selling car once again in 2009?
Print it: 
Realcars,
Don’t get too excited just yet. Isn’t it only Omega?
The more expensive cars will only have the modifications filtered through over the coming months.
Just for the record, some 65>70% of the total new vehicle sales in Australia are fleet based. I know of a particular fleet department that is turning over a round 230/month with the mix being 90 Toyota, 70 Ford, 40 Honda & 30 Subaru (on average for 11 months of 2008, didn’t have Honda in January). Total Subaru sales for that dealership /mth is 45 so the theory of fleet making the numbers wrong doesn’t wash.
Holden still have a fair share of the Avis & Budget rental fleet, Ford still fairly heavy into Hertz, but both were blown away by the pricing of Toyota Aurion. Neither could/ wanted to match it and were happy enough to let it go. Similar story with most Govco fleets. (or at least those that haven’t sworn to the green 4 cyl brigade)
I believe a mod to the steering column shield and knee airbags will render the entire range five star!!!!
Who was the guy that said the Commodore couldn’t be five star?
Just the plastic panel under the steering column and a seat belt reminder light for passengers
So what if 60-70% of Commodore sales are fleet sales…
I mean running a fleet is an expensive exercise and companies who operate fleets are always looking for ways to improve efficiency and performance and reduce costs
Therefore; the fact that so many companies and government departments use/prefer Commodores shows you that they obviously believe that the Commodore is more economical to run cheaper to repair and maintain than say an Aurion not to mention more reliable.
Because the more time a company car spends in a workshop the less money its making as it inhibits their ability to provide a service or make a sale etc.
I am in fleet management and nearly all of my customers get government discounts which are huge. When fleet managers are looking at new vehicles the price is very important so the Commodores, Falcons, Camrys and Aurions all do well. However when I do Novated Leases most go for Audi, Subaru, Peugeot, VW etc, especially when they have to pay out a residual at the end. Someone mentioned that private buyers buy the former fleet cars, but the prices have to be low which is why resale on Falcadores is so bad. Perfect example, 2004 Berlina/Fairmont cost $42,000.00 New, are now worth less than $12,000.00. My 2004 Accord V6 Cost $40,000.00 new and is now worth around $20,000.00. Because the Berlina/Fairmont would have been sold to fleets at around $30,000.00 the loss is about the same, that is why very few private buyers buy them new.
You want to talk about fleet sales? one of the biggest fleet providers in the country is Mercedes Benz as almost every state uses Merc-Benz Sprinters as Ambulances..
almost 90% of Sprinter sales if not more are to the Ambo’s
Taken from ANCAP.com.au…….
The tested model of Holden Commodore was introduced in Australia during 2006. This 5 star ANCAP rating applies to Commodores with several upgrades, including a front passenger seat belt reminder and a redesigned steering column cover. The Omega variant is the first with these upgrades, applicable to vehicles built from October 2008.
Dual front airbags, side airbags and head-protecting side curtains are standard equipment. Antilock brakes (ABS), electronic brakeforce distribution (EBD) and electronic stability control (ESC) are also standard. Advanced seat belt reminders are fitted to both front seats.
The front seat belt buckles are mounted on the seats and the upper anchorages are adjustable. These features improve the fit of the seat belt. Pretensioners are fitted to the front seat belts to reduce slack in the event of a crash. A three point seat belt is fitted to the centre rear seat. This provides better protection than a two point (lap) seat belt.
Falcon will beat holden again when GM goes bust ha ha again…. Spam is falcon
anti-spam=diesel lol :)
Thank you for the affirming my suspicions MisterTwo!
Doesn’t make you right, though, Bucket. The favourite car is the most favoured. Highest number wins.
Okay, no more lessons from Golfschwein on what defines favourite. It’s not a difficult language.
Well we’re going to have to agree to disagree on that one Golf :). I’m not disagreeing with the definition of Favourite just what quantifies as favourite in this case and I’m siding with individual private sales with out fleet included, Whichever company tries to make that claim.
Bucket – If you’re going to exclude fleet sales from the overall sales figures
Does that mean that you will also exclude the sale of Commercial vehicles such as 4×4s Vans and Pick Ups as well and only focus on sales of Passenger Vehicles such as Hatches Sedans Wagons and Coupes?
Hmmm. A whole can of worms to be opened there, Wheelnut. From now on, when I watch the footy, I’m going to subtract goals by Buddy Franklin and all the other players who contribute to artificially high scores and devise my own scores and results to be collated at the end of the season.
Regardless of the many valid arguments being made by our colleagues, the Commodore is still selling relatively well in both the domestic and overseas markets. Their marketing models, fleet deals and export plans are examples of strategic excellence, but the car itself will need to improve if its going to remain competitive and continue to appeal to a broad range of purchasers. In what ways do you think it needs to improve and when should Holden release a new model?
Exactly Golfie; I mean could you imagine how bad Toyotas sales figures would be if [going by Buckets "logic" ] they excluded all cars that were white? – just a thought
leg byes, wides and no balls still put points on the board dont they??
Australia’s top selling car = Commodore
Australia’s best selling car by people spending their own money = Mazda3
And Bret, Mazda3 does NOT do fleet sales.
runs on the board wood duck
Err…guys..rewind..
We are only talking about a family sized car arent we?
It’s a car that is primarily marketed at private buyers thus shouldn’t they be using the figures that are private sales?
“GM Holden Executive Director of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, Mr Alan Batey says the figures show that family-sized vehicles continued to be attractive to Australians. Holden believes the Commodore continues to remain as a smart buy.”
Somewhere in that statement he failed to mention companies Australians (meaning individuals I would think) and Companies, the biggest buyers no doubt fail to get a mention…and ofcourse, Holden would like to maintain the perception that majority of sales go to the private sector.
I’m leaving it at that.
Mistertwo u omitted the fact that thse fleet Falcodores on average have covered far more klms than your 2004 Accord on average as well which also affects resale.Also true if u look at exfleet Camaurions which seem to be turned over more often than Falcodores by fleets i.e less klms.
Australia’s driving future Holden.
Quote [Bucket]: We are only talking about a family sized car arent we?…. It’s a car that is primarily marketed at private buyers thus shouldn’t they be using the figures that are private sales?
No Bucket we’re talking about a Large [Locally Built] RWD Sedan/Wagon.. because a Mondeo or even a Corolla is also capable of accommodating your average family – of 2 adults and 2 kids… although they mightn’t have as much room features performance or safety etc..Plus the Commodore sales figures also include Utes
There are a number of cars that are used for a wide range of purposes other than the initial reason for which they were designed or built.. So even though tge Commodore can easily fit 5 passengers and their luggage it can also beused as a commercial vehicle for business needs
Commodores are a pleasant distraction in an otherwise sea of blandness filled with Toyotas
do we delete Corolla fleet sales that arent sold directly to individual grandmas and teeny boppers as thats the real target audience for them??
and do we delete private sales of commercial vehicles because private buyers arent “commercial” customers??
GET OVER IT
sales are sales.
those that know the bigger seller doesnt indicate the best vehicle will quickly realise sales counts for nothing whether they are inclusive of fleet sales or not. All it does is give a manufacturer bragging rights.
Stock sells stock, so thats the reason why manufacturers see it as important to have masses of their product out there, or the headline that says they do
Golfie is techniclly right.
It CAN be termed “favourite”
some have purchased it because they favour its looks,
some have purchased it because they favour its performance,
some favour it because they feel it is the most Australian
and some favour it because of the great fleet pricing deals they get on it.
Either way its favoured for some reason or another
Wheelnut,
Ill think you will find commodore sales DONT include ute sales.
Also bad example using the Mondeo, because it sported better safety and features than the commy…….
And to add further from before…..
The commodore prob is a smart buy (as Mr batley says) to those that dont want to end up with DVT, as compared to the other sardine cased choices
QUOTE “Realcars”
……………..
“Commodores are a pleasant distraction in an otherwise sea of blandness filled with Toyotas”
Ill pay that mate…….
I have a novated lease my car is a HSV VE R8 which the company pays the leasing firm and i sacrafice the rest……..my choice, my car at the end of lease this in my eyes makes the purchase private. The diatribe that has been going on here all day about fleet v private sale is rubbish, a sale is a sale is a sale i should know i am a sales manager as far as i concerned when our company makes a sale who cares what demographic bought it… it still counts fo market share move on please….by the way we sell earthmoving equipment not cars!
Well it’s only because it’s Australian isn’t it? It’s not the worst car in the world by any means but there are so many other cars for the same or less money that deserve to be sold in higher numbers than the Commodore. Even the Falcon. If Holden bring the Insignia along with a diesel and a nice automatic for about the same money as a Mondeo and the Commodore still sells better, that will prove that the Commodore is not being bought because it’s a good car, but because it’s a default car. There are so many people that would never go past the lion badge and most of them would never go past the Commodore badge and if they did, it would be to a Statesman and they would probably spend they’re ownership of that car thinking “who needs a Mercedes, this is the best car in the world”. It’s a sad, sad person who thinks a Holden/HSV is the best car in the world and unfortunately, there are many who think that.
Guys, no one gives a shit what your anti-spam word is
Hi Realcars, my figures are based on sales of vehicles with the same overall kilometres. However you are right in a way because of the high number of Falcadores of the same age with over 100,000km on them will push down the values of vehicles with 50,000km. There are fewer Accords out there with high kms which helps the resale, but also the fact that it is a better car and doesn’t have the “image” of the Commodore (read into that what you will but I don’t think it’s a good image, personal opinion only). I can say this as I have driven a number of Commodores in my line of work and always found the Accord to be a much smoother car to drive and has a much higher quality feel.
There is still an element of “default” in the purchase of Commodores, generally because the family all drive them/grandad always had Kingswoods etc.
so what if fleet sales are included, someone makes the decision on what to buy! and that someone has to keep a whole other bunch of someones happy! happy drivers = happy workers, besides, how many people shell out their own “hard earned” (lease agreements, ra ra ra) personal loans etc.
VZLumina Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Just the plastic panel under the steering column and a seat belt reminder light for passengers.
AND
Bucket Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Taken from ANCAP.com.au……
Guys, It’s actually still more than all that. Theres other things like new burst proof locks. It’s actually quite an extensive list of detailed engineering modifications, that will be built into every new Commodore built from last Oct. But until the more complex wiring looms of the upper spec cars are modified for the seatbelt reminder only Omega gets the gong.
Make no mistake, earlier VE’s are NOT structurally capable of achieving 5 stars.
Falcodore Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
“And Bret, Mazda3 does NOT do fleet sales.”
UMM, YES THEY DO! Collegue had his delivered last week of November.
BTW did you know that the December specials on SS utes was actually lower than fleet pricing? Not that you could actually get hold of one very easily. Quote “No sorry don’t have any manual SS utes, how about an SS-V? Only 6 grand more”.
Bret is spot on. It cost a fair packet to get the VE over the line in terms of 5 stars, this was not a quick fix, but well done to holden for doing it. Some of you guys think they spent a couple of thousand in the safety upgrade, wrong!
Quote [Alex] “Well it’s only because it’s Australian isn’t it? It’s not the worst car in the world by any means but there are so many other cars for the same or less money that deserve to be sold in higher numbers than the Commodore. Even the Falcon.”
You’re probably right Alex there are a few ars on the market that you would expect to do better than they do.. be more popular than they are.
However the copanies who sell them don’t advertise them as much; they don’t compet in some form o motorsport or more importantly they don’t market them properly.
In relation to marketing they could take a lesson from Toyota who use smoke and mirrors to try and make the unsuspecting public or the uninformed customer that to make them think their products are better than they actually are – do anything to make a sale..
As one of my mates in Advertising says if you can’t fascinate them with fact baffle em with b-s.. and its obviously working for Toyota particularly when you look at How popular the Corolla is [though most of em are rentals]
As I tried to write yesterday (however only the spam word came through). Of the 1 mil new vehicles sold in Australia last year, you will find 65>70% are fleet / company sales. That’s all brands, all types. Wether they call it a fleet discount or not, they all sell to that market. BMW will quite happily discount abatch of 7 series if Sheraton asked for a special price on 10 of them. (but they don’t have fleet sales)
As someone above said, a sale is a sale.
Who here has herd of the term, Fringe Benefit, Most large companies like Railcorp & Telstra give their Employees Fringe Benefits, and that means that their employees get to choose a new Car between every 2 to 3 years in a particulary price range. And most of these employees are to choose cars like Mazda 3, Toyota Corrolla, Honda Civic, Holden Astra and cars pretty similar to them.
Now more that 70% of ute Sales are fleet (For tradies, Builders and Form Workers), do u know y, because all u need to have to purchase a car under fleet is a ABN, and instantly u save a few $$$ Thousand dollars. And those Utes are purchased by the builders, tradies etc Hard earned $$, not by some tax Benefit Telstra gets.
Also Over 60% of Statesman & Caprice Sales are Fleet, to those Luxury Taxi’s and Chaufered Limousines, and obviously their owners have paid for their cars by their hard earned $$$.
Fleet sales doesn’t mean that the cars were bought by some large company because that car was popular and therefore they shouldn’t count as sales towards the Car manufacturer, More than Half of Fleet sales are bought by Self Employed Blue Collar Workers, or business owners/ ABN Holders, which entitles them to pretty good discounts
Quote “Australia’s driving future Holden.” Unquote (Realcars)
You forgot Ford and Toyota Realcars. They are just as Australian as Holden. You may not like them, but they are just as important to our “local” industry. Then again, you blinkers may be on that tight that they are cutting off circulation to your brain!! ;-)
On a side note, it is interesting that Australia’s favorite car has the least amount of Australian made content in it, in particular the V8. Not that there is anything wrong with that what so ever. What was that about “Australia’s driving future” Realcars??!!!
Alex,
it is totally correct for you to point out that the commodore is the highest seller, yet there a a few better options than it.
same can be said for the other 2 vehicles that round out the top 3……..
Corolla and Hilux.
they sell both of them by the buckets, yet both are merely mid pack performers
Car-Enthusist,
is it true that the ABN is the deciding factor in whats termed a fleet sale???
Well if thats true, my latest purchase is classed as a fleet sale. I used my ABN to get a discount, but i still chose the vehicle, and would have gotten the same sort of discount no matter who i bought from
Devil,
falcon and commodore are the only vehicles designed and manufactured in OZ for aussies.
the origins make the falcon and commy more australian than the toyota offerings
Sorry again, I missed one of wheelnut’s last posts!! Yes, Toyota may use smoke and mirrors to sell their cars, but IMHO Holden are just as bad, if not worse. Holden would have to be one of the best marketers of their product in this country. Who else could make people believe that the Barina/Epica/Viva etc that they are about to buy is designed, developed and made in Australia? Don’t laugh, because I have seen people who don’t know much about cars think that they are Australian made cars more often than not.
Devil’s Advocate Says:
January 7th, 2009 at 6:22 pm
Quote “Australia’s driving future Holden.” Unquote (Realcars)
You forgot Ford and Toyota Realcars. They are just as Australian as Holden. You may not like them, but they are just as important to our “local” industry. Then again, you blinkers may be on that tight that they are cutting off circulation to your brain!! ;-)
Devil’s Advocate, I think Realcars was reffering to old Holden motto or saying. Remember the stickers on the rear of the older Commodore’s? The VL’s and VN’s for example? It said……….”Holden, Australia’s Driving Future”
You should know?…………………………………….specially Wheelnut.
I know that duck. How could someone forget those ads! I just wanted to make sure that people are aware that there is more to the Australian car industry than just Holden as that seemed to be the common thread.
Although it is hard to keep up with Holden now and their ‘catch cries’. They keep changing them every year or two! I have never seen a car company do that so much/often. It is like they are trying to find an identity but can’t or use whatever sounds good at the time.
Yeah you’ve got to be open minded when you talk/think/work in or about the Automotive field.
“I just wanted to make sure that people are aware that there is more to the Australian car industry than just Holden as that seemed to be the common thread.”
That sentence wouldn’t have been true or very true back in the 50’s and early 60’s though as there were Holden’s everywhere and a few imports but mainly all Holden’s, but today in a Modern era we have now have another “Australian” car brand called ‘Ford Australia’ and if you will ‘Toyota’. But I would not call Toyota “Australian”. As they do not design and make/engineer a car in Australia as much as Holden and Ford does today. And because Toyota was not founded and/or established in Australia. The same as Ford. That’s why people call ‘Holden’ still Australian. Even though it’s n owned by the very troubled indeed ‘GM’ (General Motors) for a while now Holden “WERE” both established and founded in Australia.
Duck, even though technically Ford are more “Australian” than Holden in an automotive sence.
Ford Australia (originally an offshoot of Ford of Canada) have been building cars in Australia for quite a bit longer than Holden.
In fact I’m not actually sure Holden ever built a complete car on their own. Before GM bought them, they really only built bodies for other manufacture’s chassis. GM bought Holden so that they could have a dedicated Australian manufacturer of bodies for their chassis.
Bret you’re right before Holden were taken over by GM in he 1930s [some 80 years after they were established in Australia by James Alexander Holden] they simply built a range of American/European style car bodies which they fitted to GM chassis/platforms.
However; in the first couple of years after Ford setting up in Australia [in 1925] they did the same thing as Holden and that is build replicas of other Fords from Europe and America – some of which were shipped to Australia in Complete Knocked Down Kit Form [like Ikea Furniture]
It wasn’t until 1948 that Holden built what is known as Australias First Car – the FX..
Whereas [I believe] the First Australian Car Ford Australia built was the Falcon back in 1962.
Both of which were derived form American cars but with slight modifications etc to make them more suitable to Australia’s unique environment
But as Duck says Holden is seen to be more Australian than Ford or Toyota because they were established here [from the ground up]
Bret, Holden have built their own car completely on their own a couple of times now like Wheelnut said.