Holden tempts buyers with employee discounts

The Australia-wide discount applies to all models in the Holden range as the company tries to clear stock of older models in the run up to Christmas and help lift its flagging sales.

Overall, sales of Holden vehicles are only down 788 units to the end of October compared with the same period last year according to the official VFacts figures but this slight reduction doesn't tell the full story. Holden's market share for the first 10 months of this year has dropped from 18.7 per cent to 17.9 per cent. Driving this has been a massive reduction in sales of its number one seller Commodore with only 57,048 finding new buyers so far this year compared to 65,831 sold to the end of October in 2004.

This reflects the overall trend away from large cars that has seen the market segment fall by 14.3 per cent as new car buyers opt for more fuel efficient and smaller cars and SUVs in lieu of the traditional big Aussie six cylinder sedans.

While the Holden numbers may not seem so bad, it must be remembered that this is against an overall market that continues at record levels with a total of 825,465 vehicles sold to October or 4.2 per cent more than last year.

With Holden's downturn has come an abundance of stock sitting in dealers around the country and it is this that new car buyers can get significant savings on.

Holden is not saying exactly what sort of discounts are available as they vary depending on the model and the deals are being done at a dealer level but suffice to say you should be looking at savings in the thousands of dollars. Likewise Holden isn't saying exactly how many cars are on offer with compliance plates dated before July but they are in the thousands with the majority of those being Commodores.

GM's experience of employee pricing sales in the US proved hugely successful but as soon as the discounts stopped, the customers stopped buying. It may be a short-term solution to clear old stock but for the longer term Holden is finally following the market trends having recently launched a range of cheaper Daewoo Korean-sourced small cars with SUVs to follow next year.