Holden defends slow Barina sales

Holden has played down depressing official sales data for its Barina on the same day it introduced a new sporting RS model and announced price cuts across its existing mini-car line-up.

According to official VFACTS sales figures Barina sales are off a massive 27.5 per cent year-on-year to the end of October.

However, Holden says the decline is in part an anomaly driven by last year’s run-out of the old T250-generation Barina over-lapping with the arrival of the current T300.

It estimates the true decline in Barina sales is more like three per cent, which is in line with the segment fall of 2.6 per cent and looks quite good compared to the sales declines of other light cars like the Toyota Yaris, which is off 20 per cent, the Ford Fiesta, which has declined 15 per cent and the Mazda2, which is down 10 per cent.

“The current Barina shape was introduced at the end of 2011 and we had a cross-over with the old car. We had several thousand older ones early last year and we were selling them down at a much lower price,” Holden Executive Director of Sales and Marketing Phil Brook told motoring.com.au.

“There were rental cars and all sorts of things. You look at the whole year of sales of the T300 year-on-year and sales are down three per cent which is in line with the segment.”

Cut-throat deals, ever-more competition and a buyer departure to small SUVs such as Holden’s own Barina-based Trax are driving the sales pattern, he said.

“It is a pretty tough and competitive segment. There is a lot of price activity in that area,” Brook said.

“There is also a big move to small SUVs. So maybe some of the older customers who might have moved down into a small sedan or hatch might instead buy an SUV.

“For $25,000 you can get yourself a Trax now and that segment is up about 20 per cent and that was on top of huge growth in 2012 as well.”

Since launching in August, the Trax has claimed 627 buyers and was number six in the segment in the month of October.

The RS comes as either a $20,990 six-speed manual or $23,190 six-speed automatic.

At the same time, Holden announced a lowering of the prices of the mainstream CDX (-$800 to $19,690) and CD models (-$1000 to $14,990 manual and -$800 auto to $17,190).

The RS is expected to appeal predominantly to 25 to 35-year-old buyers with a roughly 50/50 split between the sexes. Barina currently sells 60/40 with a female skew.

Holden is expecting the RS to provide incremental sales assistance to its mini-car range while providing a higher level of on-road performance for buyers.

The most powerful Barina ever offers 103kW and 200Nm from the same 1.4-litre iTi turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine offered in the larger, locally built Cruze.

The RS lines up very competitively against its most obvious competitor, the 100kW Suzuki Swift Sport, which kicks off at $23,990 as a manual. Other logical competitors Holden nominates for the RS include the Kia Rio SLS and the Ford Fiesta Sport, which is due on sale in December.

Holden claims it has an equipment advantage – if not price advantage -- against all these cars.

Barina RS features include unique local tuning of the electric power steering and local engineering input for the 10mm-lower sports suspension of the five-door hatch, which is sold in other markets around the world as the Chevrolet Sonic RS.

Exterior styling signatures include sports front and rear fascias, foglights and 17-inch alloy wheels encased in Continental ContiSportContact 205/50R17 rubber. Inside there are RS branded partly leather-clad, heated front seats, a leather-clad gearshifter and sports pedals.

The RS also picks up the MyLink infotainment system housed in a seven-inch colour touch-screen, which debuted in the Barina CDX.

The system allows the driver to connect a compatible smartphone or device to access embedded apps including Pandora, Stitcher, TuneIn Radio and navigation app BringGo.

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