The German Commodore is a more than competent well made and well engineered alternative to the Mondeo, Camry, Sonata , Optima, Mazda6 & such. But buyers weren' t given a reason to buy one. Have you seen the Skoda Superb Sportline for around $50k ?
The problem is that a german Commodore couldn't be marketed as Holdens image has always been based around it's Australian-ness.
There was also no halo car from HSV to give the current model a performance image. With the previous model the mainstream SV6 looked like the little brother of the SSV8.
Ford has a range of competent cars & a mixed bunch of SUV's but still only sells Mustangs in any volume. And that number is going down.
They have also had the Ranger to take on the Hilux very successfully.
Holden have had a sub-standard range of Daewoos and Chevs unsuccessfully trading on the rugged Holden image for decades now. Vehicles such as the Epica, Malibu and Acadia were answers to questions nobody was asking in the first place.
Its all well and good to say that the future is all SUV's and Light Trucks as thats where the action is but not enough people want or need the poor range of vehicles offered in this class by the Red lion.
What happens to the Corvette now after the Camaro has failed to open wallets with its exorbitant pricing compared to the Mustang ?
This is a nightmare for dealers , some of whom have been burnt not too many years ago by the sudden axing of the Opel range.
Merry Christmas
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