Holden's small-car future firms up

Holden has this week launched its Polish-built Astra in Australia, where the ‘sporty, premium’ five-door hatch will be sold alongside current Cruze until current stocks run out later this year.

GMH ceased Adelaide production of the Cruze last month and Holden’s executive director of sales, Peter Keley, told motoring.com.au he estimates current stock levels will be exhausted by mid-December.

That will leave Holden in the unusual predicament of being without a budget small car – hatch or sedan – until the Korean-sourced Cruze replacement arrives around March next year (2017).

Until then run-out stock of Cruze hatch and sedan variants are available from $19,890 plus on-road costs, and the new Astra range begins from $21,990 (plus ORCs).

It’s expected the new Cruze will be offered in both five-door hatch and sedan body styles. Meantime the Astra’s role is to form a premium three- and five-door small car range as part of the 24 new or upgraded models the brand plans to release here by 2020.

“We’re now writing another chapter in one of Australia’s most reputable brand names,” said Keley.

“2016 for Holden is definitely a year of transformation and transition; it’s a year where you’ll see tangible proof of what we’ve been working on for the past three to four years: a very strong and sustainable Holden is a post [local] manufacturing world.”

“This year we’re achieving around eight per cent market share, which is down on last year,” he admitted. “But we are seeing some signs of growth in some models. Our all-new Spark has achieved growth in a segment that is overall on the decline. We’ve seen Trax sales up 34 per cent this year, Captiva sales are up, and also sales of Colorado. So there are plenty of green shoots behind that headline number.”

That headline number includes less than successful sales of Holden’s Cruze small car. Year-to-date figures shows just 10,455 examples sold, well behind that of Hyundai i30 (32,396), Mazda 3 (30,089) and Toyota Corolla (34,158). It’s a scenario Keley hopes the well-known Astra nameplate will improve.

“As we move forward, one of the things we do know with the new products is that they will provide us with steady growth. New Colorado sales are exactly where we expected them to be, as is the excitement we’re already seeing around the new Astra,” he continued.

“Very early next year we’ll be launching all-new Trax and at the end of the year, all-new Equinox. So you can see why we are very enthusiastic about Holden’s future.”

The re-association of the Astra nameplate with the Holden brand follows an ill-judged attempt to launch the Opel brand in Australia and the decision to quit building the Cruze at Holden’s local manufacturing plant at Elizabeth in South Australia.

The Astra model line-up will be available in three trim levels – R, RS and RS-V – the range peaking at $33,190 (plus ORCs) for the flagship auto. Technology includes Automatic Emergency Braking, Forward Collision Alert, IntelliLux LED Matrix headlamps, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and a reversing camera.

New to Holden on the 2017 Astra is a forward-facing camera and radar technology known as Holden Eye, a technology expected to debut across future Holden models. It will be available as a $1000 option on base R variants from March, and is included on RS and RS-V models.

The technology also facilitates Adaptive Cruise Control, available as part of the $1990 Touring Pack (which also adds a sunroof) or $3990 Innovations Pack (that adds a sunroof and IntelliLux adaptive LED matrix headlights) on RS-V variants.

All model grades received six airbags and Bosch-sourced chassis controls, a reversing camera and rear acoustic parking sensors. Cruise control is also offered standard, as is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, digital (DAB+) radio reception, Siri Eyes Free technology and Bluetooth streaming and telephony as part of Holden’s MyLink infotainment package.

Mid-spec RS variants add passive entry and push-button ignition, a leather steering wheel and autonomous parking (which can parallel park in a gap just 1.1m longer than the car), front parking sensors, blind-spot monitoring and rain-sensing wipers, as well as the aforementioned Holden Eye technology.

For top-shelf RS-V models add remote start (auto. models only), LED tail-lights, an electric park brake, heated leather-appointed upholstery, a heated steering wheel, dual-zone climate-control, satellite-navigation and larger 8.0-inch MyLink enabled touch-screen (other grades have a 7.0-inch display).

Astra does not offer a driver’s knee airbag, head-up display (HUD) or 24-hour OnStar service offered in other markets. Astra RS and RS-V variants score a five-star ANCAP safety rating. The entry-grade Astra R is unrated.

Owing to a lack of demand, no turbo-diesel engines, including the flagship twin-turbo variant, will be offered Down Under, engine offerings including ECOTEC direct-injection turbo-petrol units of 1.4 and 1.6 litres’ displacement and offering 110kW/240Nm (5.8L/100km on 91 RON ULP) and 147kW/280Nm (300Nm on over-boost and 6.3L/100km on 95-98 RON PULP).

2017 Holden Astra pricing (plus ORCs):
Astra R 1.4T – $21,990 (man), $24,190 (auto)
Astra RS 1.6T – $26,490 (man), $28,690 (auto)
Astra RS-V 1.6T – $30,990 (man), $33,190 (auto)