Holden Captiva becomes Australia’s best selling SUV
November 5, 2009 by Matt Brogan
The good news regarding strong October sales figures has also been felt at the Holden camp with its Captiva model becoming Australia’s top-selling SUV for the month of October.
Holden’s Executive Director of Sales and Marketing, John Elsworth, said 1255 Captiva’s were sold in October, the vehicle’s highest ever monthly sales result.
“We’ll add the new Captiva 5 five-seater to our SUV range in December so we’re feeling good about Captiva right now,” Mr Elsworth said.
Today’s FCAI figures also confirmed the Holden Cruze had recorded its strongest sales month since it arrived in showrooms in June, with 2183 sold in October.
“We continue to be delighted with the public response to the Cruze – from a standing start it’s now the third best-selling car in small car segment,” Mr Elsworth said.
“It is still early days for this car but our order books are full and we expect demand to remain exceptionally strong.”
Mr Elsworth said Holden’s Commodore continued to be Australia’s top-selling car this year. A total of 36,085 vehicles from the Commodore range have been sold year-to-date, including 3455 in October.
Mr Elsworth said showroom interest in the new SIDI-powered Commodore – which offered more power and better fuel economy – was very high.
With Holden Australia
Print it: 
It’s hard to believe that even one of those people was a Caradvice reader.
Like readers of this website are any smarter than anyone else.
Read this comments section….yours included….and think again.
How can this be, there alot better diesel SUV out there eg: Santa fe, new Sorrento, Outback. I think this is a direct result of people being dupped by Holden in to thinking the Cativa is Australian and they are doing their bit to help buy Australian. Sure buy a Commodore or Falcon and help the local car makers but not this Daewoo Captiva rubbish, you are doing your self a disservice.
In all seriousness though, look for stacks of Captivas turning up in large hire car fleets, replacing the current crop of Klugers. Word I hear is its just a stop-gap till the hire car companies can return full circle to the Territory when the new model is launched next year. Wait ‘n see.
Half the cars you mention were not available for purchase in October.
But don’t let a few facts get in the way of a mindless rant.
Captiva sells because it’s a nice looking car, good size, good choice of engines including diesel, drives well, stops well, handles well.
As for being made in Australia, you’re a total hypocrite. The computer you’re using to post your drivel is not made in AU, the router connecting you to the internet is not made in AU, the telephone exchange through which you connect to the web uses equipment none of which is made in AU.
Buying a Captiva puts profits into Holden Australia’s bank account, the service department employs Australians, the dealership pays rates to the local council, and so on.
Feel free to think instead of posting rubbish.
Drives well? It drives like a toilet. The only reason it sells is because it is extremely cheap and it has a Holden badge. It’s the car to buy if you have small children; when they destroy the cheap and nasty interior you won’t care less.
Reckless 1, couldent agree with you more! What small car or SUV (apart from Territory)is made in Australia? Corolla is usualy the number 1 followed by Mazda 3 and both are imported. Captiva might not be everybodies cup of tea but at least the petrol V6 engines are made in Port Melbourne. Holden is testing the market with Cruze and had it bombed, probably would not have proceeded with localisation. The fact that it is selling well means that localisation goes ahead. The public are voting with their wallets. Not sure about fleet sales of Captiva though. Not sure where that story comes from. Probably sour grapes from some juvenille blogger.
What do you mean? Big chunk of this months numbers IS hire car fleet.
Reckless1
One of the few sensible posts I’ve read in a long time.
Reckless1, whilst I am not trying to take away from the sales of the Captiva, which is good for Holden, how is it much different to any other car manufacturer selling cars in Australia? Seeing as people are using the Santa Fe and Sorento as a comparison, don’t you think Hyundai and Kia dealers also employ Australians in their service departments and pay rates to local councils as well etc etc etc?? Holden Australia, as opposed to the dealer with the sale and on-going service of the vehicle, would not be pocketing a huge amount from the sale of a Captiva. The ‘cost’ price of the car (minus the cost of the V6 petrol engine of course!) would still be going overseas to the Korean Factory and the greater GM empire etc.
Hagar
Most people do research on the net before buying a car nowdays and i don’t think i have ever seen a roadtest where the word Korea or Daewoo doesn’t get a mention when reviewing the Barina/Cruze/Captiva.
A roadtest on another website mentioned the word Korea within the 1st paragraph when testing a Barina.
3455 Commodores! Unreal to think in May 2007 they were shifting 5000 per month. At what number will Holden call it a day? I think SIDI will cause a positive spike in sales until the word get outs its no way close to the acclaimed 9.3l/100.
So using your logic, Ford is gone selling 2′500 Falcons a month then? Oh and Toyota is gone selling 2′000 Camry’s a month plus 1200 Aurions?
Yeah, leave your IQ at the door when posting on here.
The lack of intelligence displayed on here is sometimes breathtaking.
Add the 1000 Ute sales and 900 Territory sales to the regular 2800 Falcon sales and you’ll find Ford is selling the most locally produced vehicles.
Careful, you’ll get in trouble posting facts like that. The truth is blinding sometimes.
However, some months Holden do sell more locally made cars.
i played with a lx captiva’s $500(optional) sat nav the other day,its better than the holden caprice’s $2000 unit.go figure…
A $250 Tom Tom from JB is way better.
you can all bag it as much as you like, how many of you have actually driven one? Probably not many, but at the end of the day, Holden is not having a great deal of trouble selling them now are they! So they can’t be all that bad.. As any good salesman will say a sale is a bloody sale doesn’t matter if its private or fleet, its all money in the bank. Things like Captiva’s and Territories and Klugers are all just cash cows for car companies, their sole purpose is to sell in their craploads. Territories don’t sell anymore because they have no diesel option, doesn’t matter if its the best car or not, if its not offered in the specification that people want, ie diesel, then its not going to sell! pretty simple really!
Richo,
I’ve driven one, and I can tell you I wouldn’t buy it for half the price.
So what has made your short list “G”?
Ive driven plenty over long distances and I would buy one, using my own hard earned as well. They are a good drive. Just as good as a Sante Fe, Kluger or most other imported SUV’s in that price range. Yes Territory is a better drive but inmy opinion it is no better finished and uses more fuel.
Even beat the Forester?
It is the cheapest 7 seat SUV on the market. That’s it.
(I would say considerably cheaper than SantaFe and also the newly released Sorento)
At the end of the day if it’s cheap in it’s target market segment,
people will have a look at…and if adequate for their purpose, buy it!
They are achieiving these sales, and still yet to re-release the even chepaer version (5 seater) – although this will compete with another market segment (i.e. non 7 seat SUVs – and there’s heaps of those)…but people will still have a look, though…and probably buy it?
I thought the outlander was the cheapest 7-seater SUV… but the back seats albeit are a bit… small…
Can it tow with base motor and transmission (Outlander)?
Actually the cheapest is the Kia Rondo. Manual @ $24,990.00 Drive Away. Kia dont sell too many though. Maybe if they put a Holden bagde on it?
Rondo is a decent buy for $25k. Maybe KIA should sell them with the Southern Cross decals on the back window?
And Outlander is petrol only, no diesel.
Marketing. Either that or the majority of car buyers in Australia are idiotic rednecks. Why else would you buy a Craptiva when there are so many better options?
I will agree with the Idiotic Redneck bit!…….Holden means a great deal for Oztraaalians!
Looks odd on the road , too tall and narrow , tippy toe looks dont go with a perceived toughnesss of off road car .
Lots of new korean models will blow it out of the water.
Maybe NEW Koreans will. But Captiva is what 3 years old now without a facelift. It is due a freshen up next years which will be welcomed. Look its GM’s first effort at this sort of SUV. Its not a bad effort and it will get better with each new model.
Ok maybe its not the best out there, but as many have said a sale is a sale, and i dont think the reason people buy it is because they think it is Australian. I know that i for one wouldnt lay out my hard earned just coz the car is australian made(camry). people are not stupid, they do their research before they buy a new car. there has to be something that attracts the buyers away from the competition and Holden seem to have it here in the KOREAN CAPTIVA. many people dont care where a car is made they know the world has moved on and every manufacturer has to follow quality controls and they all do.
Shak, most buyers don’t care as they’ll be offloaded with 2 years. Thats because the bulk of these sales are hire car fleets.
No. They just dont know. Ask anyone on the street were Holden comes from and they will say Australia.
What a load of garbage! You sell Korean cars and you know better than that Salesman. EVERYDODY I ask knows that the Captiva and Cruze are imports!
“Mr Elsworth said Holden’s Commodore continued to be Australia’s top-selling car this year. A total of 36,085 vehicles from the Commodore range have been sold year-to-date, including 3455 in October.
Mr Elsworth said showroom interest in the new SIDI-powered Commodore – which offered more power and better fuel economy – was very high.”
And here I was thinking this article was about the Captiva sales!
Gratuitous plugs aside, I think Captiva sales will peak. The new Sorento and Santa Fe models will get much larger market share now. They offer more efficiency, performance, are also cheaper to buy and maintain/run.
Sorento and the Santa Sleigh are considerably more expensive than the base model Captiva.
Yes I got that wrong. What you say is true except the base model Sorento is very similar in pricing to the base model Captiva.
We bought a new commodore this month and its AMAZING,
Imagine how amazed you would have been with an FG Falcon!!!!!!!! Andrew!
You mean Commodore as in Holden? Commodore of VE fame? Is this the first car you’ve ever driven???
Seriously. You’re happy? Good for you.
Now don’t go driving any other large cars and you will continue to think it’s an amazing car.
The new sorento will blow this away
Not in sales it wont… Rednecks couldnt handle telling their bogan mates they just bought a Kia. They wont even drive one, they’ll just scoff at it, even tho its a far superior car.
Absolutely – they’d much rather tell their mates they bought a Korean made Holden.
I’ve actually already seen 3 new Sorentos on the road in Brisbane. I hope to see a lot more!
Great news for Holden. Can’t wait to see what sales will be like when Captiva 5 is added. Captiva has always been good & i still like everything about 3 years later. Diesel is very good. Had a lift with my friend in one. Very impressive.
Cruze. They’re are so many around. Seriously. Swarming with them. Great news for Holden & Commodore, lack of vehicles hurt sales but they’ll bounce back in coming months. I’m heaps impressed with Holden. Keep up the good work Go HOLDEN!
oh please, holden has been badge engineering since the origional torana.h
come to think of it all the origional holdens were pretty much a chev copy
look at the gemini, a rebadged isuzu a aussie classic.
no one cares
True, but they have different levels of crap and the rebadged stuff is the bottom of the barrel.
I think what most people are trying to get at is that Holden quite cheekily advertises ‘Holden means a great deal to Australia’ whilst parading around a bunch of rebadged imports in the same commercials. At no time does holden actually claim to have built the cars, but such is the brands’s ‘kudos’ with joe public that it is just assumed that they do.
A large percentage of people don’t bother with researching their car prior to purchase (just go to a few dealerships to check them out and slam a few doors) are completely unaware of where their car is built, regardless of what badge is on it, be it Holden, BMW, Honda, Porsche, Chrysler etc. These brands have implied characteristics that people want to buy. Many (not all) people think that if they buy a Holden that they are helping people in Fisherman’s Bend and Elizabeth.
(These people also also think that V8 supercars represent a car you can buy, but that’s for another arguement…)
And the same people think of Holden as an Australian company even though they never even built a single Holden badged car as an Australian company.
Opel based astra’s and barina’s are crap anyway.
What the hell is going on here then ?
Car-fan, it’s time you were banned for life for posting far too much drivel.
Now get to bed and dont forget your nappy.
go the sorento
needs facelift
Why do you
have to rhyme
all the time?
You’re a poet*
and ya dunneven
know it!
*Lots of poets are gay.
C’mon golf, whats wrong with some entertainment on a slow day….
poor form Golfie!
However, about being gay? ………….
Not that there is anything right with that!
Classic!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well done Golfie!
All these armchair experts!
I remember how Holden were going to close soon (that was last year and then early 09) Cruze was a load of garbage and would never sell (early to mid 09), GM worldwide were closing and Captiva was going to be dropped as sales were slow. I love CA for the car articles and the humour!
I’m contributing, in my own funny little way!
Just ask Mr Elsworth how many of these Commodores were sold to fleets, and especially Government.
I laugh everytime I see their ads saying “Australia’s favourite car”. Who do they think they are fooling? Ow, maybe tha thousands of people that are buying the Captivas and Cruzes because they are “Australian”…
If it pays the bills, who cares!
Hey G do you realise that many BMW’s are made in the US or South Africa – everyone still refers to them as German cars, many Honda’s come from Thailand are you going to bag the people who buy those cars as well, as they are not German or Japanese?
All your rant displays, is either sheer ignorance, or a latent dislike of Holden – so out yourself, which is it??
g,
who buys the fleet cars once their 9 mths old with 20kms or them?…
Yeah you know what they say about the out spoken anti gay, that they are usually gay themselves. Cmon Golfie you can come out of the closet its not all bad being gay.
At least Honda and BMW are not re badging a car and claiming it as their own. And that’s what Holden has become. A Daewoo importer. I think that fact upsets us more than anything else.
I hate Holden for what they have become. About as Aussie as Kim Chee.
If this trend continues then Australian manufacturing has no hope.
You seem pretty sure of yourself there. I didn’t find it funny, just totally irrelevant and off-topic. Keep your ‘funny little ways’ to yourself and save me from the cringing.
Flogschwein: Offensive, un-funny and off-topic.
Slight exaggeration with the slapping on the badge bit! The Craptiva and Cruze are a GM DAT development for worldwide consumption, just not another Daewoo!
Either way my brother-inlaw has the top spec one bought 2 years ago and was not weary of its Korean origin at purchase. The car is reliable well equipped, finished better than a VE, and at the time not too bad. Forward to 2009 and in comparison to our 09 Murano it is a horse cart! Times have moved on and with better offerings from the other Korean rivals let alone THE Japanese, only the Holden badge sells the car, not the car itself. But as they say a sale is a sale!
I don’t tink you even know what day it is mate. You just spout garbage. And sell cheap Korean imported cars that will never be built localy, unlike the Cruze! At least the Captiva has locally built V6 petrol engines!
Don’t worry, your hate is on display on every Holden article…no news there.
A GM-owned company selling GM vehicles! OMG Salesman, that’s almost as bad a Honda and BMW selling Hondas and BMWs and claiming them as their own!
If this continues Japanese and German manufacturing has no hope.
The Salesman – that is a ridiculous statement! So who are BMW and Honda claiming the cars to be? – of course it’s their own!!! Get over Daewoos (or probably all Korean cars) – they are a legitimate car maker whose quality and design are world class.
Your right about one thing though Australian manufacturing has no hope of surviving – but thats for another topic.
Holden owns 70% of Daewoo, so techinically, it is their car.
My little pome makes no sense, now. I put it up in response to some tool who wrote a pathetic and offensive poem of his own, and it has rightly been removed.
You know full well he doesn’t mean that you idiot.
I’m VERY sure of myself, cute l’il fella, and having a ball. See ya. Wooden wanna be ya.
What salesman is saying is, Holden don’t build these cars. Yes GM builds them but they are the bottom of the barrel as far as quality is concerned. Opel was at least a decent enough product to put the Holden Badge on. Honda or BMW would not do such a thing just to sell loads of cars. They believe in their product enough, not to rebadge trash owned by the parent company.
I think Golfie’s nick has been commandeered by some unscrupulous vulgarity.
At least I hope that’s the case!
Look, GM owns Holden. GM owns 75% of Daewoo now that they have increased their shareholding. GM can sell whatever they like with wahtever badge they like. Its all part of the one company. It is no different to Mazda and Ford. Ford owns 13% of Mazda and yet it sells Fiesta’s made by Mazda in Mazda factories. They used to sell Festiva’s made by KIA. I have never ever seen any statement by Holden saying the Captiva or the Cruze are made locally so why is anybody bothered. Even the BMW X3 and X5 are manufactured by outside contactors in Austria, as were some Chryslers and Porches. Toyota does not make any of their delivery vans. They are made by Daihatsue and rebadged. Who really cares and why is a big deal?
Bottom of the barrel trash would describe the quality of your comment ‘Car Fanatic’
Go read some reviews before posting rubbish
Good one Maxie, still doesn’t change the fact they are rebadging crap and selling it as Holden. Sure Mazda build the Fiesta, but it’s a great car, when they were Kia’s they were crap. As for the X3 and X5, they too are great cars and not a subsidiary brand of BMW.
Car Fanatic
If you want to look at crap may i suggest you look at your beloved Toyotas.
Start with the 1star no airbag no ESP Troopcarrier i can’t believe country bogans are willing to hand over $65K+ for this junk no airbags in 2009 in pathetic not to mention that outdated cheap 80s style interior.
Then there is the Lowace 3stars for a van even a KOREAN Hyundai iLoad is 4stars and i bet you still think all Jap cars are better than Korean.
Car Fanatic, I’m not sure where you get your info from, but the Fiesta is all Ford. If anything, there’s more Ford in the Mazda than the other way around.
Will have to call you up on the Fiesta.
Mind you, down the track they have plans to build the Fiesta and 2 in thailand at the same plant.
Not much of them is the same mind you ;)
It’s happened before, Simon.
Only almost everything under the skin.
Was that confirmation that the above was not you?
Or can you confirm you were having a horrendous day and ended it in a heavily intoxicated state. All in an attempt to wash away the memory? ;o)
Not to mind – I already posted an ill informed comment on this article. I think I made amends!?!?
Have a great weekend with your +08:00 GMT and 5pm!
Close but not quite Filippo. The small 4cyl petrol engines in the Euro Fords (Focus/Mondeo/Fiesta) are based off the Mazda designed MZR engine. However they are still made by Ford with Ford modified head/camshaft. The block is still an all Mazda design, but built by Ford for the Ford models. That was part of the shared agreement Ford and Mazda have/had. Ford and Volvo designed the chassis/suspension of the various models with Mazda designing the 4cyl petrol drivetrains. Ford and Mazda however do not share their diesel engines. Mazda use their own MZR-CD and Ford use a PSA (Peugeot/Citroen) made and designed engine. :-)
He said it is built in Mazda factories, never said it was a Mazda car.