Holden's small cars supply restrained

Despite dominant opposition from Toyota, Holden Executive Director Sales, Marketing and After Sales, Alan Batey, says the local hero brand could sell more small cars -- if they could get them.

In answering the Carsales Network's questioning on whether Holden could hope to peg back the Toyota juggernaut, the Lion brand's sales boss revealed it was struggling with supply issues on its (largely Korean sourced) light and small car ranges.

"Obviously, the market's changed a lot, they've [Toyota] got a lot of benefits right now. They've had very, very good availability, on small cars particularly, the very strong Aussie dollar has given them a trading position they haven't seen for many a year, so everything's pointing their way right now.

"I think we've been around long enough to know that things change... Things turn. We're actually very pleased with where we are -- we've got a lot of activity now in the second half of the year, so I think you're going to see us come back somewhat.

"We've also suffered from availability, particularly on small cars -- we just can't get enough to be honest with you. Barina's been doing about 1000 units a month, [but] we could really be doing 1300-1400. We just haven't been able to get the production requirements..."

Batey says the supply issue has hit all of Holden's Korean-sourced products, and Astra too has been affected, he says. He claims the perception that GM's ex-Daewoo based products have not been well accepted by the buying public is wrong.

"No, absolutely not... If you talk to any Holden dealer about Barina, he'll tell you 'I haven't got enough.' Availability is the issue... The [other] big challenge for us is our Astra product comes from Europe, so we've got a five-month lead time on it..."

Batey disputes Carsales Network's assertion that Viva sales had been particularly disappointing.

"We look at Astra and Viva together -- because the Viva plays the role in the value end of the segment, Astra plays the more aspirational. We're actually really pleased with it [Viva]. We do about 600 units a month -- it's very, very solid and the car plays a good role for us because we would never be able to get a European Astra down in to that sort of lower end of price bracket where we need to be. It works really well for us."

Batey contends that it is the next generation of GM-Daewoo sourced product that will see Holden better able to take the fight back up to Toyota. He says the Lion has bigger aims for next generation product, the first of which will debut in early 2009 in the shape of an all new car to replace Viva and Astra (more here).

"Yes, no question [we have bigger aims]. We've always been very honest to say that in buying GM Daewoo, the number one objective was to get the company back up, get the volumes [back up], so it was always planned that way.

"Now we're going into a phase where we're going to introduce GM [designed and engineered] platforms and new products. [The current] Captiva's the first example that's off a GM platform -- the first example of the sort of things you can expect us to do. Captiva's done a fantastic job for us," Batey opined.

At the pointy end of the Holden versus Toyota battle, the Holden sales and marketing boss is also confident Corolla's reign as top-selling car Down Under will be short-lived.

The arrival of the Sportwagon variant of the Commodore will deliver the impetus the large car range needs to catch and overtake Toyota's top-selling hatch/sedan combination, he says.

"If you look through the data through June, we're only a thousand units behind the Corolla [with Commodore]. So I expect with the introduction of this vehicle, the answer [to whether Commodore will be the top-selling car in 2008] will be yes."

To comment on this article click here