Is There A Large Car Buyer In The House?

[replicant]

Well with the first sales figures for the VE Late model camira out, it seems that the much vaunted VE hasn't resulted in the spark to the large car sales sector that was hoped by the local industry.

After the lacklustre sales start from the Mitsubishi 380 with a sales strategy aimed to appeal to private buyers and a similar attempt to curb fleet sales discounts by Ford with the disaster (in so many ways) with the AU, you'd have to wonder if its strike three with Expensive Daewoo with the VE.

Industry watchers were keen to see how the sales of the VE would do to try and reignite sales in a segment which has seen sales fade with rising fuel costs and ageing models to choose from...

Fleet buyers who have had the benefit of deep discounts from Expensive Daewoo as they attempted to shift out VZ stock in the wake of overstocking at the end of 2005 and then the VZ runout are now seeing Expensive Daewoo ratchet back their fleet discounts. They are also unimpressed about the pricing of the Calais and the SS which will affect the resale value of the existing fleet as well.

Expensive Daewoo are courting another fleet buyer revolt as they try to price cars so that the private buyer who's been knocked around with deep fleet discounts and worse still gouged at resale time will come back to the showrooms.

In the meantime, Ford is about to launch BFII which involves a mild restyle for some models. The key things about this countermeasure are - the ESP option which brings dynamic stability control, the 17 inch wheels tyres and firmed up suspension (as Ford would rather spend their bucks on the new Orion than calibrating the Bosch 8 systems into the rest of the range) and the revised pricing which is going to hurt Holden.

Ford may have spent a billion dollars to develop the BF upgrade and put together the Territory but at least they compete in two key segments - large car and medium SUV. It's still a stopgap until Orion arrives in about 18 months but pricing and options are going to appeal in the meantime to damp down enthusiasm for the VE which may have dynamic stability control but has a/c as $2000 option in the Omega and a spacesaver tyre in the boot...

380 sales are starting to stabilise with changes to specifications and relaunch but unfortunately it reflects what US drivers want in a large car as opposed to the Australian market. It also reflects why it's going to be so important that the VE and the Orion are to accomodating our tastes I large cars... The only niggling worry that I have is that with the VE likely to end up being built elsewhere and export sales becoming a larger slice of the production, there is a risk that overseas buyers are going to have a bigger say in development in future iterations...

Muddying the waters further, the Aurion arrives in a few weeks - a mildly restyled V6 powered Camry, Toyota claims it's a large car although you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference size wise between the Camry which is in the medium car class. You can also bet Toyota will be marketing the car hard but on the other hand after the underwhelming performance of the Avalon... it seems that even when they are #1 Toyota can get it wrong too..

[tmac450]

I have to admit that I haven't seen many VEs on the road. Usually when a new Molden is released, the roads are flooded with them (mostly breakdowns)

[harvyk]

I've seen a few, I want to test drive one because just from looking at one you can't tell where that $1Billion went...

[Fat-Tony]

Went to look at one on saturday, for one...not impressed at the fact that the HSV 6 litre is actually a different motor to the Expensive Daewoo 6 litre...outside looks you can get used to, but interior looks like its made of big chunks of square plastic and very bland, kinda like a big astra inside but way fugglier...It truely is a billion dollar POS

[wicksy]

in emerald we have nearly ten ve ss' and bout 3 hsv's they are starting to grow on me but only the black one with 19's

[replicant]

Well the first recall for the VE has hit dealers with fuel hose issue on the V8 Commodores and Statesman/Caprice (doesn't affect V6 models) with about 1800 vehicles involved.

There are also reports of issues with the HVAC fans which reportedly stop working on some of the early cars.

On the other hand, production volumes are being reduced over at Broadmeadows due to falling demand. The word though is that the Orion is being engineered for LHD with a view to looking at the export market. I figure that this may have some hope for the long wheelbase versions as Expensive Daewoo has been sending a lot of these to the middle east - otherwise the business case for continuing this line at current Australian volumes just doesn't stack up.

The other piece of supposition is that this means its also likely that the next generation Territory will be considered for LHD. There's probably a market for the Territory in Europe to fill a spot that Ford itself doesn't participate in Europe (other than in Land Rover) provided that there's a oil burner to complement the petrol lineup. Sales in this area would help cover the costs of the TDi development too.