Falcon sales as 88% just means that they can’t find private buyers to take them.

On the other hand though, I’d question that stat, and wonder how many of the ‘fleet’ purchases are actually companies who novate lease, and so the vehicles are actually ‘people’ choices instead.

yes hiace etc does rate because they make up sales for toyota as a whole. what people are saying is that holden is 80% not commodore so by comparison the whole of toyota should be compared aswell. also if you want to go passenger vehicles yes you have corolla as stated but you must include camry in that total.
also did you make a typo cause you said corolla was 2nd most fleet sales and yet you show falcon with 88%??

ROFL that name isnt aimed at you… another guy from a the GT article!

And here are the stats for fleet sales based on the manufacturers top selling fleet vehicle:

Faclon : 88%
Commodore : 81%
Corolla : 60%

It comes as no surpise given the COmmodores fleet sales that they are the most sold vehicle in Australia, with the Corolla second. But once you only count privates sales (ie people who looked for THE best car for their own hard earned cash) the Corolla is first and the Commodore doesnt even list in the top 5! Maybe now you can appreciate what Im getting at.

Be interesting to see how the Lumina goes, traditionally Holden sell 80% to Fleets… so if the VE has been taken up by the public and the billion dollar investment was a good one, we should see that figure change slightly at least.

If I remember correctly, they had a ‘private sale only’ $500 option pack on the Omega which included alloys, air-conditioning and other private-buyer wants, if not the curtain airbags. At that point, its pricing wasn’t too far off from the Aurion, which is fair enough, given that it a) has the market leadership; and b) it was released first.

Too true about Toyota not releasing many special models just to boost sales – half of Toyota’s sales pitch is the reliability, the other half is security in resale price. It’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that it doesn’t jeporadise (I can’t spell :P) either.

Yeah JW your right on, thats a good part about Toyota and others… they dont use dirty tactics making customers buy their inferior product so they make nice profits and then when its drying up they finally bring out the edition that should have been their in the first place, as we see with this Lumina only now matching the Aurion. Now Id say usually its a business thing, so its ok to do this, but its not so simple… they are using the blinded loyalty of Holdenites (the same loyalty that builds their business) because they know they will buy Omegas and pay extra for basic features like A/C initially and then they bring out new models and make a killing from it all.

Holden does not mean a great deal to Australia… they mean a great deal to U.S wallets – This is never more true with their head honchos, not sure about the new guy but in the past they were yanks… now who the hell you think the yank is looking out for!?.

Im willing to say this now with some confidence, OVERALL Ford for mine are the most Aussie brand and then who knows between the rest, because you cannot say a manufacter who has had 5 cars in their range from Korea, has foreign CEOs and uses an increasingly large number of Korea sourced parts is Aussie! Oh but I spose they compete in the V8 supercars… and they do have that Kookaburra in their VE Commerical…………..

Toyota does this in order to preserve their resale values for the loyal customers that buy their cars. You can be pretty confident that after buying an Aurion or a Camry, Toyota will not release a car with free alloys, and other extra options and be priced below the original price of the base model.

I dont think Toyota will offer any packages like Holden has… the Aurion with its features list and pricing is at the lowest or at least very close to the lowest it will be. The Commodore is just equal to it now really (give or take… rear parking sensors vs 6 speed etc)once you add airbags on top making the Lumina $35,990.

Interesting marketing though by Holden, they have stated the Omega was for fleets… now their is some advantage in brining this kind of package out later HOWEVER I think the detramental part of its outweighs this, as a number of reviews have compared the Omega with its lack of features for prviate buyers. I would have thought it would be wiser to offer this currnet spec Lumina at $35k (like the Omega) and have the Omega the cheaper $32k one with less features designed for fleets.

It’s funny you mention that, because about a week after I placed the order for my ZR6, I saw ahead a black Aurion with a spoiler and thought “damn that looks good! That’ll be mine soon!”

Then when I got closer, I realised it was just an AT-X with the spoiler, but the owner just looked after it, kept it polished and clean and sparkly. That’s primarily why I don’t think there’s that much difference visually between a base model and a Sportivo variant. But I agree – I dislike the looks of the base Commodore.

Dingo, I have to agree, I’m looking forward to what the new Falcon will do to the segment. I think though, it’s bad luck for us that the Aurion and the VE Commodore came out so close to each other. For best competition and innovation, a new generation from each of the makes should appear each year in rotation, so that there’s a chance for a make to bring new ideas and technology, and other makes discount or provide new kits in order to make up for their older technology (eg, Commodore Lumina at the moment).

For both the Commodore and the Aurion to come out at the same time limits innovation and bargain pricing. Although, it’s enough to be said now that the Commodore blinked first :)

Is incorrect! What matters is the strength of the safety cell and pillars! Size and weight of a car will not assist you in an accident.

Yeah exactly… I posted a msg but it didnt appear about that. To put it simple for those who are abit slow and think bigger is better, a crumple zone is first line of protection… airbags your second. NOw considering the Corolla has knee airbags I would want that car in a hypothetical head on within a Commodore every day of the week.. as lower body injuries are common, which regular airbags and your beloved VE Commodore (and Aurion for that matter) provide NO protection for. Now you could argue the Commodore is better as it has a larger crumple zone… however given the fact that the Corolla scored better it then comes down to the effectiveness of it, and the Corolla is obviously superior. Not to mention that they test other things like side impact, and the regular Commodore does not provide ANY protection for this, both the Corolla and Aurion do… and mind you this is the most vulnerable part of the car as their is only a few millemtres of metal protecting between you and another cars bonnet.

QUOTE = I disagree with you on the ‘classy and sleek’ and ‘eye catching presence’ bits though – the Aurion in its AT-X form looks a lump just like every other large car, Commodore included, to me. And while the Sportivos are much better looking, I dunno, it still feels like it looks like a lump with a spoiler

Yeah base model isnt great… but on a crappiness scale 10 being really ugly the Omega sits at 9 for me, the Aurion ATX at 7. But yeah once you got up the range the Sportivo is eye catching, everytime you see one it stands out from the crowd as its differentiated from other models… the SV6 on the other hand isnt significantly differentiated because the kit for example is the same as the body colour etc.

Barina – 2 stars
Yaris – 5 stars

Astra/Viva – 4 stars
Corolla – 5 stars

Camry – 4 stars
Epica – ??… but i would be confidant to suggest that the Epica won’t score as well as the Camry.

Aurion – 4 stars (30/37)
Commodore – 4 stars (27/37)

Regardless, Toyota’s range offers a very competitive crash rating market.

Squishy – point taken. I like the Aurion though and i reckon it is a very nice car. If i had the money i wouldn’t hesitate to purchase one. Toyota has done a really good job with it and i believe it will have relative success. The TRD Aurion is sure to give greater recognition and no-doubt improve sales over time.

However, i believe the new Falcon is the one to watch out for… it will be interesting to see how Toyota and Holden respond to it.

Is incorrect! What matters is the strength of the safety cell and pillars! Size and weight of a car will not assist you in an accident.

As Dingo would know, my money’s where my mouth is – my ride’s a ZR6 :)

Although Dingo, I disagree with you on the ‘classy and sleek’ and ‘eye catching presence’ bits though – the Aurion in its AT-X form looks a lump just like every other large car, Commodore included, to me. And while the Sportivos are much better looking, I dunno, it still feels like it looks like a lump with a spoiler :) Bring back the Supra!

I am just merely pointing out why indeed does Holden charge so much for extra safety?

For a car of similar category, the Camry also charges $750 for its safety pack and it will have ESP standard by August. The Corolla will get ESP as an option by next year.

The Mazda 3 offers a safety pack with side and curtain airbags and ESP and that costs $1700. If an extra $1000 is needed just to get ESP, then I’d rather not choose the option.

Even Toyota said that for the Yaris, the pick-up rate for the extra airbags is only 10% of buyers.

What matters a lot is price of features. I find it hard to find any manufacturer in Australia that sells a safety pack cheaper than Toyota, yet the take-up rate is still so low.

Furthermore, with the development budget and claims by Holden, I find it rather surprising that they can’t achieve a 5-star NCAP safety rating.

Also, yes, the Corolla would lose to the Commodore in a frontal collision, but in situations as tested by NCAP, such as frontal offset with a stationary object and side impact by the same thing, a 5-star car protects occupants better than a 4-star one, as points are allocated to the amount of force placed on occupants at various points. Yes NCAP does not model head on collisions nor does it do collisions from the rear. However, despite all the people arguing against it, it is the only standardised measure. I’d rather have one measure to go by than none. In an ideal world, NCAP would test a car from 100 different scenarios, but financial limitations prevent it from doing so.