Balancing needs to keep Commodore on the boil

Holden's Commodore continues to defy the pundits. The Toyota Corolla occasionally outsells the large, rear-wheel drive car, but in the main, the Holden remains the country's most popular.

How does Holden do it, when there has been a steadfast sales trend away from large conventional cars to smaller cars or SUVs?

One way that Holden maintains buyer interest in the car is by continually tweaking it, but Holden's program for the VE Commodore is somewhat at odds with the way the manufacturer has developed and promoted its locally manufactured cars in the past.

Since the introduction of the current VE model in the second half of 2006, there has been a relentless series of new 'models' and upgrades.

"We're always looking to get [new models and upgrades] to market as soon as we deem them possible, so it's not a strategy as such, but more when we make these changes, we don't want to hold onto them," Kate Lonsdale, Holden's Product Communications Manager told the writer this week.

To some extent, that was apparent from the introduction of the VE Ute -- 12 months behind the sedan. Holden, possibly bogged down at the time with engineering work for the Pontiac G8, delayed the introduction of the VE Ute for a year. Similarly, the Commodore-based Sportwagon was delayed some months after its unveiling as a production model at the Melbourne International Motor Show earlier this year.

In between the Ute and Sportwagon, Holden upped passive safety with the introduction of side curtain airbags for the entire Commodore range, accompanying a general upgrade (more here), a move that effectively pre-empted Ford's FG Falcon. The Falcon presumably 'disappointed' Holden on two fronts -- firstly by not having the side curtain airbags as standard in the first place and then scoring five stars in ANCAP crash testing anyway.

On top of the new body styles and the upgraded safety, Holden has recently announced that Commodore-based V8 models with automatic transmission would be sold with Active Fuel Management (AFM) induction from January next year. Then, the company followed that with the word last week that the base V6 in the Omega and Berlina had been upgraded for better fuel economy and reduced CO2 emissions -- at the expense of peak power.

Lonsdale outlined in some detail what changes had been effected for the V6.

"Basically, we used to have on the V6 continuously variable camshaft phasing for inlet cams. And on the engine that we had for the SV6, it had variable camshaft phasing for inlet and exhaust cams, so we've upgraded [the base V6] to include the exhaust cams as well [and] some calibration changes which improve the fuel efficiency, but because it's still the single exhaust, it does cause a bit [more] back-pressure, which accounts for the 5kW in power reduction.

"Those [fuel efficiency] benefits far outweigh five kilowatts, so [it] was decided [it] was a worthwhile upgrade," Lonsdale opined.

Lonsdale admits that transferring the variable exhaust valve timing hardware to the base engine from the 195kW SV6 engine was a "simple" upgrade. That may be the case but it's an upgrade that has drawn some criticism for the fact that Holden had to reduce power and torque to achieve the fuel efficiency gains and, even with gains, the Holden still doesn't compare with Ford's Falcon for power, torque or economy in a similar specification.

It's a sign of the constraints placed upon Holden that the company hasn't dropped the Omega's four-speed auto for the five-speed unit fitted to the SV6. The five-speed would at least match the box in the Falcon for bragging rights and would put an end to the jibes aimed at the four-speeder. But it would bring with it added production cost and wouldn't necessarily achieve a significant reduction in fuel consumption. Plus, there's the risk that such a revised specification for the Omega could cannibalise sales of the more lucrative SV6 -- particularly in the case of special edition models based on the Omega with alloy wheels.

The four-speed transmission is a symptom of the conflicting needs hampering the Commodore in other ways too. For one, despite the safety enhancements from earlier this year, the Commodore doesn't conspicuously gazump the Falcon's five-star ANCAP rating.

On that subject, Lonsdale pointed out that, four-star rating or not, the Commodore still boasted an arsenal of five-star-standard safety gear -- including the side curtain airbags. (We might take this opportunity to point out the lack of the above hasn't prevented the FG Falcon from scoring five stars in ANCAP testing -- more here -- though nor has that five-star rating translated into tangible additional sales for the Ford).

We asked Lonsdale whether there were plans to resubmit the Commodore to ANCAP crash testing now that it is fitted as standard with the extra safety protection.

"That's something I can't comment on, I'm afraid," she said.

"We recently announced six airbags standard, across Commodore -- and the Sportwagon range -- so again, there are more improvements there, but as far as ANCAP is concerned, you'd have to ask ANCAP."

The word inside crash testing circles is that the VE model won't achieve a five-star score without some engineering changes, but Holden is sticking to its 'cover' story that the Commodore requires only a passenger seatbelt reminder to make the grade (more here). Nonetheless, Lonsdale hints that there's more to the Commodore pulling up short than just the passenger seatbelt reminder.

"There are a few things that you can't get five stars without... If that [passenger seatbelt reminder] doesn't come in, then I don't think you can get higher than a four-star [rating] at this stage."

In any case, with Commodore outselling its opposition without the ANCAP imprimatur, is five-star safety a priority for Holden?

ANCAP forms an increasingly important element in the buying process, but Holden appears to regard it as valuable principally for its promotional benefits rather than as an actual guide to a vehicle's real-world crash safety.

This leaves Holden in a quandary; ANCAP is a handy promotional tool if the company condescends to use it (as Holden has done for the Barina, more here) but in the case of the Commodore, the ANCAP rating actively favours Holden's principal competitor. On the other hand, Holden's own in-house safety data would be patently unsuitable as a promotional tool for the Commodore -- particularly without benchmarking against the Falcon to offset the market perception that the 'five-star' Falcon is safer.

"We've always been very confident with the safety of the Commodore," says Lonsdale.

"We believe it's a very safe car. Again, we never believe in standing still when it comes to safety, so we'll certainly look to ways to improve the car and always make sure we're offering our customers the best possible [product].

"It's part of our on-going commitment that we'll do that, but it's not to get one over on Ford or purely get an ANCAP result."

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