New winch bar to boost Holden Colorado fleet appeal
BY TUNG NGUYEN | 19th Sep 2018
HOLDEN says its new Colorado Z71 Xtreme, which ushers in an in-house-developed winch bar and included winch system, is expected to attract interest from fleet buyers as the OEM-integrated component retains the pick-up’s full five-star crash safety rating.
Speaking to GoAuto at the launch of the new Colorado Z71 Xtreme In Coober Pedy, Holden general manager of light-commercial vehicles Andre Scott said the beefed-up front protection accessory, which retails for around $6000 with the winch, is expected to help improve Holden’s pick-up sales.
“A lot of this is around how we meet our fleet requirements,” he said. “This winch bar is going to be a large play in that because it comes fitted and ready – something a fleet manager doesn’t need to worry about.
“One of the areas for improvement for us, into next year especially, is getting a bit more traction on the 4x2 range, and again, fleet has a large role to play in that.”
Also available as a bullbar, the new front-end protection accessories are made from high-strength steel, but being developed by Holden means extensive engineering was undertaken to ensure there was no compromise to safety systems.
As such, bonnet, bumper and front guard deformity remain for damage absorption, as well as airbag deployment, in the event of a crash, while features such as front parking sensors and foglights can also be integrated.
While it is offered as standard on the flagship $69,990 driveaway Z71 Xtreme, the new front accessory can be optioned on any Colorado pick-up or Trailblazer SUV variant that start with the $29,490 before on-roads LS single cab 4x2 manual and $47,990 LT automatic respectively.
The remaining Holden accessories – including revised front springs designed to take the extra weight of the winch bar, 2.5mm-thick front bash plate, all-terrain tyres, tubular side steps, light bar and rear steel step – can also be optioned on lesser Colorado variants, while most of these are also offered on the Trailblazer.
Year to date, Holden has sold 12,504 examples of its Colorado pick-up (1472 4x2, 11,032 4x4), placing it fourth in the competitive segment behind the market-leading Toyota HiLux (34,424), Ford Ranger (28,571) and Mitsubishi Triton (16,985), but slightly ahead of the Isuzu D-Max (11,900), Nissan Navara (10,607) and Mazda BT-50 (9381).
However, with aspirations to remain Holden’s best-selling model with 30 per cent of the brand’s overall share, Mr Scott said the Colorado would not be heavily discounted to boost sales.
“I think we get there (maintaining Holden sales leadership) by playing our game … I think the value for money play is a race to the bottom and I think our strength is in the quality and engineering and capability of that vehicle,” he said.
“A great example of where we’re not going to go, is going into the ‘workmate’ space and trying to challenge the sub-$30,000 range and cab chassis.
“For us, our vehicles are specced to a certain level, we’re not prepared to strip out a diesel and put in a petrol, take out the ride height, put in a low ride height and offer only 4x2 to try and hit that price point.”
Holden’s Colorado sales have slowed 9.6 per cent this year compared with the first eight months of 2017, but the model still accounts for the majority of the brand’s 40,897 year-to-date total.
With a drastic 54.8 per cent drop in Commodore sales after the changeover to an imported new-generation model, Holden’s share is a significant 26.4 per cent smaller than over the same eight-month period last year.
The Equinox mid-size SUV also landed with a thud late last year, amassing just 3363 new registrations this year in Australia’s largest segment.
Mr Scott said Holden would play to its strengths to maintain its Colorado market share despite new competition in the segment from emerging Chinese brands such as the LDV T60 and the forthcoming South Korean SsangYong Musso due by year’s end.
“We need to keep an eye on that (new cars entering the segment) and always be aware of our competition and what they’re doing, but I think as long as we play our game, we’ll do what we need to do,” he said.
