Holden » Australian Car Advice

Chevrolet Camaro US pricing announced

October 13th, 2008 15 Comments

General Motors has announced official US pricing for the Australian-designed Chevrolet Camaro range.

The first customer orders have begun as of today, with production slated to begin by February 2009 at GM’s Oshawa, Ontario production facility rather than here in Australia.

Hat Trick for Ford at Bathurst

October 13th, 2008 66 Comments

It was three in a row for Ford and a case of history repeating itself for Jamie Whincup and Craig Lowndes who come from fifth on the grid to take out this year’s Bathurst 1000.

The result recalled memories of Lowndes’ friend and mentor the late Peter Brock taking triple victories in the ’70s and ’80s, but was said to me even more impressive in this era of tougher more competitive racing.

HSV GTS 40th and Senator SV08 2008 AIMS

October 9th, 2008 31 Comments

HSV has unveiled two new models at the Australian International Motor with the new 40th Anniversary GTS and Senator Signature SV08.

This launch also marks the introduction of the new TR6060 manual gearbox into the range, which will become standard across the HSV model line-up later this month.

Chevrolet Volt 2008 AIMS

October 9th, 2008 16 Comments

We had our first look and feel of Chevrolet’s environmental champion this morning with a reveal finally introducing us to the Prius killing Volt.

The plan is to have preproduction models built mid-late next year and 2010 before the Volt goes into final production by late 2010. A European (and perhaps Australian) version will follow in 2011.

Holden cruising to build “smaller” car

October 8th, 2008 28 Comments

Holden has let slip on plans that it will build an all new “smaller” car at its Elizabeth plant in Adelaide.

At this stage it is unknown as to whether the vehicle will be manufactured from the ground up (think Torana) or assembled from “knocked down” kit using parts made off-shore.

The union representing the Adelaide plant’s 3,400 workers, the AMWU (Australian Manufacturing Workers Union), wants the car to be built at Elizabeth and will take up the issue in the next round of enterprise bargaining negotiations.

AMWU secretary John Camillo says he does not know which option has been submitted to Holden’s international bosses.

“At this stage management haven’t been too clear in regard to what they are seeking other than to say that they have put a plan in place and it’s only a few weeks away whether they would know that will go ahead or not,” he said.

“They’ve indicated that the need to take the plan to Asia-Pacific to speak to the senior GM management at Asia-Pacific and, if they approve it, they then need to go to Detroit to seek their approval in being able to produce the small vehicle at the Elizabeth operation.”

Mr Camillo says the car will cater for market trends, as larger cars now produced at the SA plant are becoming less popular with consumers.

“We see quite clearly that the Australian consumers of vehicles are targeting the smaller vehicles, so I think if Holdens can get a small vehicle on the production line at Elizabeth by 2010 they would do extremely well in selling that product,” he said.

This new development lends even more credence to our belief that the vehicle could be the partly Australian designed Chevrolet Cruze.

GM Global Vice President of Design Ed Welburn introduces the Chevrolet Cruze at the Paris Motor Show

These first photographs of Chevrolet’s all-new Cruze sedan, which made its world premiere at the Paris Motor Show, reveal a dynamic four-door coupe that proves exciting design and value are not mutually exclusive.

On sale beginning in Europe from March next year, Cruze features a dramatic re-interpretation of the traditional sedan featuring Chevrolet’s new global design language that is becoming a signature on all new products carrying the gold bowtie, or perhaps even our own Holden lion.

Cruze’s arching roof-line, extending from the steeply raked windshield to its sloping rear pillars and short rear deck, brings coupe-like proportions to a compact sedan.

Wider and longer than most of its competitors, Cruze has a purposeful stance with its wheels located at the outer edges of the tautly drawn bodywork. Noticeably tight body panel fits and a restrained use of exterior trim add to a high quality, “hewn from solid” appearance.

Cruze’s dramatic profile is matched by bold front styling, with large headlamp housings that wrap around the front corners and sweep up, arrow-like, into the fenders and sculpted hood.

Other distinct design themes include a concave shoulder line, the two-tier grille and a “wheels-out/body-in” stance. Inside, Cruze features a “twin cockpit” design motif, first introduced in the iconic Corvette sports car.

“Our goal in designing Cruze was to be bold, not evolutionary,” says chief designer Taewan Kim. “We wanted to take a big step forward, making a strong design statement for Chevrolet products around the world.”

Visitors to the Paris show will see how Chevrolet’s progressive design is also reflected in the quality of Cruze’s interior. The use of grained surfaces, soft-touch materials and low gloss trim panels ensures a quality ambience that echoes the clean, harmonious design of the exterior.

At launch in Europe, Cruze will be available with 16 valve, 1.6-litre (82 kW) and 1.8-litre (103 kW) petrol engines featuring variable valve timing (VVT) on both inlet and exhaust sides, giving more power as well as better fuel economy and lower emissions.

An all new 2.0-litre turbo diesel, developing 110 kW and 320 Nm of torque adds power with even greater frugality. Five-speed manual gearboxes and an all-new automatic transmission, Chevrolet’s first six-speed application in the compact segment, complete the powertrain menu.

With sales in Europe up by 23 percent for the first six months of 2008, Chevrolet is GM Europe’s fastest-growing mainstream brand. The arrival of Cruze spearheads an exciting new product roll-out program that is expected to propel the brand to even greater success.

“We are proud that Europe is leading the introduction for this global product,” said Wayne Brannon, Executive Director, Chevrolet Europe. “Chevrolet has always stood for expressive value and Cruze delivers on that promise like never before. It further redefines Chevrolet with its design, quality, materials and great style inside and out. The fit and finish for gaps and interfaces sets a new standard for this segment in Europe and around the world.”

Cruze is the result of a development process harnessing GM’s global expertise and is the first of a new family of compact products that will deliver world class quality. It will be backed by expected highest scores in all major crash safety ratings.

The Chevrolet Cruze will be available in Europe from March 2009, followed by other global markets with regional-specific engine choices.

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TGA ratings hit a bump in the road

October 7th, 2008 98 Comments

With just two episodes under their belt, the Top Gear Australia team has taken a battering with only 674,000 viewers returning for the second episode, a drop of over 250,000 viewers compared to the premiere episode.

TGA finished last in its time slot to become the 26th most watched show last night, hinting that the new series may be taking a while to bed in with Aussie audiences.

CarAdvice does the Deni Ute Muster

October 6th, 2008 5 Comments

This weekend saw Deniliquin, situated in the Southern Riverina region of NSW, host the annual “Play on the Plains Festival & World Record Ute Muster”.

What is perhaps the most unique and quintessentially Australian event on the CarAdvice calendar, we couldn’t turn up in anything less than one of Australia’s finest.

-by Matt Brogan

Now given this was a Holden sponsored event, we thought we’d throw a cat among the pigeons and arrive front and centre compliments of FPV’s stonking new F6 Ute, which turned quite a few heads in CarAdvice livery (we thought it looked pretty specky too).

The Muster celebrated its tenth anniversary this year, so the expectation was that this was to be a big one. Just a few short clicks from Melbourne that sentiment was confirmed with the road to ‘Deni’ paved nose to tail with utes big and small - and of course the obligatory Mr Plods.

Driving in convoy is great fun. Nods and waves from window to window, chats at the road house sharing the love and adoration these guys and gals have for their utes, and of course the request for a look under the bonnet. It’s an admirable and instant comradeship, the kind you only seem to get in the bush.

The convoy also attracts its own records with one group leaving from just outside Melbourne doubling the previous US held title with 600 registered utes.

When we arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed at the main gate for the 5am unveiling, the scale of the Muster really grabbed our attention, it is quite a staggering site. In fact it’s so big, you have to see it from the air to truly appreciate just what 7242 utes (and any number of other vehicles) in the one spot looks like.

The queues extended for kilometres in each direction leading to the main gates and given the dawn opening, an early start is required to secure a spot close to the action. Good spirits, prominently ‘Bundy’ flavoured, were enjoyed to pass the time with entry a surprisingly smooth flowing affair given the populous number of utes on hand.

The event brings not only utes to Deniliquin, but much needed revenue in this time of drought. Last year’s turnover exceeded $10 million and with the tenth year celebrations seeing the 50 hectare site overflow into neighbouring paddocks, that amount is sure to set a record of its own this year.

With the utes parked, camp sites pegged and the gates to the Festival Arena thrown open, the crowd was treated to a fly over from the RAAF’s Roulettes signalling Deni 2008 was open for business.

The CarAdvice team even managed a quick chat with Roulette #7, Flight Lieutenant Ben Miedecke. Trained at #2 Training School (Advanced Training School), and as the only full-time Roulette (the others are weekenders and are mainly flight instructors), Ben commentates for the Roulettes at events such as the Deni Ute Muster.

He was kind enough to run us through the Roulettes normal performance and told us that during maneuvers the team can pull up to 7g which means Ben weighs roughly 700kg during this time.

His Australian built Pilatus PC-9 is good for 950 shaft-horsepower (de-rated from 1200) and weighs in at just 1800kg. To prepare, a few loops and barrel rolls are done to increase blood pressure and prepare blood vessels for high G. The team will typically fly three 90 minute sorties a day.

Back on the ground though, the fun had begun in earnest with Lawn Mower racing kicking off proceedings in the main arena. These things are manic and require not only forged steel wedding tackle to race, but a sixth sense to know where you’re going with the drought making the powdery Deni dust diabolical.

In keeping with tradition, and the organiser’s belief that “behind every good looking ute is a good looking Aussie wearing a blue singlet”, the Bluies are also tallied each year with 2702 Bluies counted in the one place at the one time, just over one-tenth of the overall population at the Muster.

But it’s not all Bundy, Blueys and Blunnys, the Muster also has a carnival atmosphere with competitions, concerts and a huge array of stalls and supplies catering to any discerning ute driver.

A lot of the non-wheeled events are family orientated too with farming families coming from as far as Western Australia and New Zealand to enjoy and compete in the festivities and competitions.

Go-to-whoa and the ever popular circle work championships were of course an event highlight with entrants presenting utes of all ages for a crack at the title.

The often elaborately dressed utes really don’t hold back out here with some of the prizes up for grabs almost worth risking an engine for, and before you ask, no the F6 didn’t make an appearance in the ring.

If the four wheeled entertainment wasn’t to your liking there was also shearing demonstrations, bush poetry, whip cracking, wood chopping and country music featuring artists including The Living End, Kasey Chambers, James Reyne, Mark Seymour, Paul Greene, Lee Kernaghan, The Songbirds, Steve Forde, The Sunny Cowgirls, Morgan Evans and Deniliquin locals The Lincons, just to name a few.

The always popular Holden “Grunt Off” saw some very hung-over competitors race to tow a Holden ute on Saturday morning, which given the 7mm of rain Friday night made for a challenge across a course now ankle deep in wood chips.

Saturday arvo saw the Yamaha boys put on freestyle motorcross demonstrations in the main arena and in keeping with the theme of the show, they jumped two massive tractors.

“It’ll be very unique to jump over New Holland tractors, and a great spectacle for the crowd”, lead rider Matty McFerran said.

The circle work finals and bull riding led the evening into a close before the final concert and fireworks wrapped up the night.

So if Deni sounds like something you wouldn’t mind checking out next year then be sure to circle October 2 and 3 on the 2009 calendar, polish up the ute and shake the red backs from the swag - it’s sure to be a big one.

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Holden made Chevrolet Orlando Paris debut

October 2nd, 2008 35 Comments

Holden will play a vital role in building GM’s international reputation at the Paris Auto Show with the public unveiling of the new Chevrolet Orlando.

Unlike projects involving Holden in the past, the Orlando was actually designed at GM’s global design centre in Bupyeong, Korea and built at GM’s Technical Centre in Port Melbourne before being shipped to Paris.

Cadillac Sportwagon’s supercharged V8 a possibility

September 16th, 2008 25 Comments

In news that we didn’t really want to hear, Cadillac’s new CTS Sportwagon is said to be considered for a supercharged version of the LSA 6.2-litre V8. That’s around 415kW, and apparently an easy transition from the Caddy CTS-V to the wagon.

Now, it’s not because we didn’t want to know about it. We always want to know about these sort of things. No, it’s that the CarAdvice office is now depressed because the Americans get something we’d very much like over here. Think E63 AMG Avant, or RS6 Avant, and you’ll get the picture.

HSV W427 goes 270km/h

September 15th, 2008 126 Comments

“Crickey, that thing is so wicked, it ought to be illegal,” the first words uttered by an excited Kiwi V8 Supercar driver Greg Murphy after stepping from his first few minutes in Holden Special Vehicles range topping W427 sports sedan.

Let’s be plain from the beginning, ‘Murph’ has spent more than a few minutes going very, very fast in all manner of cars, not just his regular V8 Supercar ride.

- David Twomey

Whatismore, it was palpably plain from the excitement on his face as he burst into The Chalet at GM Holden’s Proving Ground complex at Lang Lang outside Melbourne that he had had more fun than normally is the case, at least sitting down!

I, and my assembled motoring writer colleagues, stopped eating our very excellent GM provided lunch as Greg repeated his statement and then went on to wax lyrical for several more minutes on just how much fun HSV’s “supercar” W427 was – and all he’d done is a few laps of the so-called “ride and handling track” – a simulation of just about every bad piece of Australian road that GM has been able to put together.

Even better was to come later, certainly for yours truly, but let’s roll back a few hours to an early morning start in Clayton at the industrial complex-hidden headquarters of HSV.

While much of the local motoring media had spent a day at a wet and windy Calder Park Raceway near Melbourne with the HSV W427, CarAdvice was invited along to a road drive program from HSV HQ in Clayton that was to culminate at the super-secret Lang Lang Proving Ground with the opportunity to drive the W427 on some of the test tracks, in company with aforementioned Mr Murphy.

How could we refuse? Of course we didn’t!

In the beginning there were the usual presentations from a string of HSV executives who explained that the W427 will be built to a total of 427 individually constructed vehicles over the next two years and the first 90, governed by the availability of the LS7, 7.0-litre V8 monster that goes under the bonnet, will be built and delivered to owners who, apparently, have happily parted with $155,000 for the most expensive Holden Commodore, and the most expensive HSV, ever built.

The W427 was conceived to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of HSV and the 375kW/640Nm Chevrolet Corvette-engined W427 is the car “HSV has always wanted to build” according to engineering manager Joel Stoddart.

He added that it had been the focus for the organisation over the past two years.

Like most of HSV’s powerplants the LS7 engine is shipped direct from the GM Performance Build Centre in North America, but all the external bits, including the dry-sump system, the exhaust and the cold-air induction system were all developed right here in Australia.

The standard Corvette engine computer and the Electronic Stability Control system were also modified after a year of local development work.

HSV’s Managing Director Phil Harding was keen to tell us that the W427 demonstrated that engineering and design ingenuity was alive and well in the Australian car industry.

He’s also keen to have the W427 identified as a ‘supercar’ and while we doubt its credentials as such, preferring the tag to remain with somewhat more bespoke automotive creations, there is no doubting that this is one of the most competent cars ever built by HSV.

HSV’s design team, led by Julian Quincey, are also keen to ensure that the distinctive mark they have left on the W427 doesn’t go un-noticed.

Quincey told us;” the design brief for the W427 was to create a unique face for this HSV, one that would signal the car’s immense capability, authority and power.”
“The W427 is the flagship of the HSV range and we wanted to emphasise the hand-built qualities of this car, “ he said.

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Rodeo returns as new Isuzu D-MAX

September 15th, 2008 22 Comments

If you are slightly nostalgic or the new Holden Colorado doesn’t quite tickle your fancy - then you’re in luck, with Isuzu set to debut its new Ute range based on the next generation Rodeo.

Despite the feud which led to the release of the Colorado, with Isuzu owning the rights to the Rodeo namesake in Australia - this new model will instead be known as the D-MAX.