Sportwagon to spike Commodore sales

GM HOLDEN is confident the VE Sportwagon will enable the Commodore to regain its place as the best-selling car in Australia when it goes on sales next week.

The Commodore currently trails the Toyota Corolla in the 2008 sales race and faces losing its position as Australia’s favourite car – a spot it has held for the past 12 years.

VFACTS statistics released last week show that Toyota sold 24,415 Corollas in the first half of this year, more than 1000 units ahead of the Commodore on 23,323.

However, the Commodore figures do not take into account the fact that Holden ceased station wagon production late last year.

Asked if the new Sportwagon would help it regain the number-one spot by the end of the year, Holden sales and marketing director Alan Batey said: “Yes, we do believe it will.”

The advantages that flow from having Australia’s biggest-selling vehicle are immense, but Mr Batey insisted that the company would not get into a discounting battle to ensure Commodore stays at the top.

“When you have been the number-one car for 12 years it is something that you are very proud of, for your dealers and your organisation, but more importantly it is a business – so we wouldn’t do anything silly to be the number one car in Australia,” he said.



“We are about 1000 behind and previously the wagon sold about 1000 a month, so you would have to say that the outcome of that is that the Commodore would probably be the number-one car, but we would not sit down and try to get that mantle at any price.”

About 90 per cent of previous-model Commodore wagons went to fleets, which meant less profit for Holden. This time around, Holden is confident more private customers will be attracted to the Sportwagon.

While it hopes that many Sportwagon customers will trade in their SUVs to make the switch, there is some concern some customers will trade their Commodore sedans for the wagon variant.

“We think there will some substitution – it won’t be one to one, but there will be some,” said Mr Batey.

While Holden has a good chance of retaining top spot with a single car, Toyota is well ahead when it comes to overall sales.

So far this year Toyota has sold 127,440 sales, while Holden has shifted 67,123 cars, which is down from 76,119 during the same period last year. Mr Batey said Holden would improve its position in the next six months.

“Sportwagon will be a percentage share on its own and with all the other things we have got planned we should be able to be in for a reasonably strong second half of the year,” he said.

In the next few months, Holden will introduce the Rodeo-replacing Colorado utility, a facelifted Barina and a diesel-powered Epica sedan.

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