Holden Epica – Don’t like it? Bring it back! If you can
April 29, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
It seems that the auto industry’s (except for Holden’s Wheels magazine) constant negative reporting about Holden’s latest Korean made “aussie” car, the Holden Epica, has scared a few potential buyers.
Lets be honest, we are not Epica’s biggest fans. Nonetheless, we have asked Holden to give us the Epica for a road test, and once it arrives in the CarAdvice garage, you can bet we will give it a thorough run through.
However, it seems that despite all the public campaigning by Holden to remind us all that Epica will not be like its brother, the 2 star barina, there is still a great deal of resistance to the Epica.
So what can you do when no one wants to buy your car? Of course you can start by offering all private customers the option of bringing the Epica back if they are not satisfied! In essence, a Money Back Guarantee, but read on, because this is no ordinary money back guarantee.
This is the first time an Australian manufacturer has offered such a deal on a model. Of course, just like the Epica being “aussie” the deal has some very small fine print.
Customers wishing to return the Epica must first purchase ANOTHER vehicle! And the Epica must be returned within 30 days or 1500kms – whichever comes first. Obvious other conditions include that you do not damage the car in any way, but usual wear and tear is acceptable.
“This offer is a unique and differentiated marketing tool to launch the new nameplate in this highly competitive mid-size sedan segment.
We believe Epica stacks up incredibly well against the opposition for specification, value and fuel economy. Adding the money back offer into the mix will be a further attractive incentive for private customers considering this car.” GM Holden Executive Director Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, Alan Batey,
The above statement is a little bit of a marketing ploy. Firstly, as mentioned, customers will need to purchase another vehicle prior to bringing the epica back to Holden dealers.
Lets think about that for a few minutes, put yourself into the shoes of a prospective Holden Epica owner, The Epica starts at around $25,000, so if you were unsatisfied with the Epica, you would need to first find approximately another $25,000 to buy ANOTHER car, before you can return the Epica.
Not exactly a scenario likely to happen often? You just have to read Holden’s terms & conditions to realize that the Money Back Guarantee on the Epica is a bit of a joke:
The Customer must provide proof of purchase of a new (not used) motor vehicle of equal or greater value than that appearing on the original final purchase invoice for the Vehicle (Epica)
Thank you Holden for bringing about quite possibility the most shameless (and useless) promotional campaign to sell another Korean sourced vehicle.
To put this into perspective, imagine going out and buying an expensive LCD TV with a money back guarantee and coming home unsatisfied, only to go back to the shop and be told that you must first purchase ANOTHER LCD TV in order to get your money back on the original TV, sound logical? Didn’t think so.
If you want to take advantage of this “money back guarantee” deal, make sure you have roughly $60,000 saved up, this will fund you enough to purchase the Epica and quickly purchase another vehicles afterwards if your not satisfied.
Alternatively, before being sucked in by this ridiculous offer, you can give the Toyota Corolla, the Mazda 3, the Ford Focus, the Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Lancer, and other cars in the same class a good thorough run before you put your name down for the Epica thinking you can bring it back; because lets be honest, Holden knows your not going to bring it back.
You can find pricing and specifications for the Holden Epica here.
Print it: 
This car is more Australian than the Commodore
You are a bunch of jerks, have you ever heard of the saying, bad press even sells, slag holden off all you want, you will never buy your perfect car, off the show room floor, there is no such thing as the perfect car, holden make good cars as well as all the other car Manufacturers, they all look as boring as each other these days, you tintops want a car with everything, go and build one yourself, or just a thought learn how to drive one first. Also there is no true ausie car manufacturers, and with out the Governments help, overseas cars,is all Australia would have but thousands of jobs would be lost, so whats more important winging, about why Australian car manufacturers cant be better than overseas ones, or getting behind what is suppose to be Australian, keeping jobs here, so called Ausie cars are just as good as the imports, but cant say the same for the drivers who spend alot of money on new cars only to drive them, like shit, grow up, tintops, and stop winging
Build my own car you say? done that…
Want a car with everything, not likely, I’d give anything for the “driver assists” on my VT to be off permanently, they are there for people who can’t drive around corners or park and have no idea how rain, oil and sand affect traction.
I’m looking forward to getting back in my 5 litre EFI V8 UC Sunbird with no driver assists except a steering wheel, brake, clutch and accelerator pedal, and a lever thingamy to change the gears MANUALLY. Oh it has a fan too, for the windscreen demister/heater, and a nice Radio, thats all the mod cons it has.
Now may I please go back to whinging about less than adequate Korean imports posing as Holdens? Infact any cheap less than adequate import posing as something it’s not… Ford have done it too….Except they mostly stuck with Mazdas which are better than Daewoos…. well that’s my opinion anyway.
Suppose I should get back to work then.
Maybe this is a good thing for Holden…they have smoked fords sales for so long (i know there are exceptions…but seriously they have) and maybe they have almost got to a point where they can give us a below expectations car and still have people defend it to death that it is better than its fords rivals…. now ford is off to a conservative start with nothing particularly bold in its line up… but it has jumped majorly in quality ride and saftey while still being great value… so now it could be holdens turn to try and pull something out to match ford… just as ford will be trying to do with the Orion… im guessing 380 style sales and reponse for the Epica…which is sad, but at least they haven’t soiled the vectras good name like they did with the barina… so maybe the vec will be making a comeback in the future… please no more korean rebadge jobs… Australia is not ready to suffer them and their reputation is compost and it will take a miricle to change that, even though the phrase Jap crap has in reality gone for good… korea will have just as much work to do to shake their reputation. North America GM should give GMH a little more to work with… why there are non of those toranas on the road is to much for me to understand, and its not profit, cause exports would solve that….. i dont know really Australias car manufactoring future is to up in the air for my liking
I think it took guts for John Lindsay and Holden to come on to a blog where the product was being bagged and give its side. Good on you, John. I might not like the Tosca but I respect you coming here and clarifying your company’s position.
Just to follow another point in the original post, about the Tosca’s safety. Remember that the Tosca is basically a development of the Daewoo Leganza, on the old V100 platform. The Leganza, from memory, was not as safe as it could be. Even in Australia (see http://www.aaa.asn.au/ncap/PDF%20Docs/leganz99.htm), it rated two stars. Its V200 successor, the Daewoo Magnus, was found to be one of the least safe cars tested by the NHTSA when it was sold as the Suzuki Verona in the US: ‘The Suzuki Verona received the lowest rating in driver-side frontal crash tests among passenger cars for the 2005 model year.’
The Tosca—V250 in Daewoo-speak, which means a revised, second-phase V200—might not have been tested yet, but I am not confident that it scores as well as the Opel Vectra C. Holden remains mum on the results, yet I thought GMH or GMDAT tested all their cars and should have some indication of its safety.
Call me a cynic, but I think those results will be held back while Holden pushes as many Toscas as possible. Then, when independent results come out, the brand will take a greater nose-dive.
Marcello: and you know, Tosca stands for ‘Tomorrow Standard Car’. Not ‘Tomorrow Superb Car’. Daewoo wasn’t really aiming high. Just Standard. Not Special.
Holden? Standard? Special? Haven’t I heard that somewhere before?
adsGsxr2007 you have taken the wrong approach to this… your opinions….fair enough, but dont just get pissed off at people for not liking a corporations moves…. or accuse people u dont know of not knowing how to drive….. what do u want…to sweep the publics opinion under the rug…for holden to say shut up we dont care what u think ur stupid u get the cars we give u….thats crap…. peoples feedback should be embraced by manufactorers…. and yes i plan to build a car of my own…and i would like to see how u handle a car if ur so cocky……… game on
true u may never buy the perfect car….but why not strive to get as close as you can…
anyone seen australia’s best cars car of the year awards? Epicrap got 17th in its class. Good one Holdenwoo, haha.
Yes I saw those results in Royal Auto. I had zero faith in the quality of the Epica before that. Now…..
The….
Every
Piece
Is
Coming
Apart Is not that good after all.