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What's Happening At Holden?
Bankrupt?
Closing Down?
Lost export orders?
Being sold off?
We’ve heard all the rumours and speculation from scaremongers following the parent company’s problems in the USA.
But how does it impact on Holden in Australia?
General Motors in the US has filed for bankruptcy protection, and the Obama administration (along with its Canadian counterpart) plan to take a controlling stake in the company prior to it emerging from bankruptcy protection in about three months.
A leaner, streamlined GM will re-appear after serious surgery.
Part of this cost-cutting programme is the proposed sell off of its European brands, Vauxhall in the UK and Opel in Germany.
They have also cancelled a big export order from Holden for Pontiac cars bound for the US.
But Holden are still very much upbeat!
Their managing director, Mark Reuss, has told the press that Holden is not for sale!
It has NOT been put on the market and they are not entertaining any offers for the company- at least in the near future.
In fact, Holden are currently gearing up to produce their most important small car in their history, the Holden Cruze.
Launched this month, the Cruze will initially be imported from GM’s manufacturing plant in Korea, but it is slated for local production in 2010 alongside the Commodore.
The pricing for the Cruze is extremely competitive and reflects Holden’s determination to make a mark for the car in Australia, and stay here for the long term.
Choice Denied In Petrol Pump Rip Off
The NSW Government has now legislated to rip off the motorist.
Private Fleet has already shown that E10 unleaded fuel costs more, not less, to run.
Even though E10 costs 3c a litre less at the pump it uses more fuel so that in the final outcome it costs more.
So how would you feel if you were told that your Government is going to ban the sale of unleaded fuel and make you pay more to run your car without ANY positive environmental benefit?
You’d be angry, wouldn’t you? But that’s exactly what’s happening to the hapless NSW motorist.
The Biofuel (Ethanol Content) Amendment Bill 2009 tabled by The Hon. Tony Kelly a few weeks ago states that it will phase out regular unleaded from July 2011.
Thankfully it’s the only State Government – so far, to discriminate against the motorist and deny them the opportunity to purchase the most economical fuel option – standard unleaded.
The NSW motorist (and motorists visiting from other States) can express his displeasure with the steering wheel and drive past the sites that don’t offer regular unleaded ( and they will become more commonplace), and insist in buying the most economical fuel.
Perhaps the refineries will see the trend and maybe even the NSW Government will realise this is a vote losing issue , and they are certainly looking for every vote they can get before the next election in 2011.
The Robots Are Coming
Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be a robot?
Well, if the NSW Roads Minister has his way you may get the chance.
A device that enforceably restricts the speed of your car to the local speed limits is to be tested in Wollongong NSW.
Forty of the Intelligent Speed Adaption (ISA) units will be trialled in Wollongong, and, if the trial is successful it could be a standard feature in all new cars soon.
The system works by sending and receiving satellite signals, which calculates the speed limit against the car’s actual speed. If the car is exceeding the speed limit then there will be an audible warning and, if ignored by the driver, the device will slow the car down to comply with the appropriate speed limit.
There will be an override facility that can turn off the device, but we still have concerns.
Whilst we are absolutely in favour of obeying the law, obeying the speed limits and reducing accidents and injuries on the road there are some real issues to think about here.
Firstly, if the device can be easily overridden, then the very people who want to speed will still do so, as the device can be made inoperative.
Then we have the situation where just occasionally you need to speed to get out of trouble, so if you depress the accelerator to avoid an accident then will it respond and de-activate itself quickly enough?
What about road works? If you become dependent on the device to ‘keep you legal’ will it recognise temporary speed limits at roadworks (which are enforceable) or innocently speed you past them at the risk of being fined from a faulty or out of date device?
We’ve all probably had experience or heard tales about sat/navs that drop out, pick up the wrong info, send you down cart tracks or give you the wrong speed limit feedback, so suspician about the efficacy of this experiment is natural.
However if it can be proved to work, slow down the speedsters and reduce accidents then it will have our support.
We’ll keep you posted on any developments.
Prices Announced For New Holden Cruze
The Cruze is Holden’s critical new small car that goes on sale in June and pricing has just been announced, with a very competitive entry price of $20,990 ( plus on road costs) for the Cruze CD 1.8L manual. Auto costs $2000 more.The diesel version costs $3,000 more.
The better equipped CDX petrol costs $23,990 for the manual and $2,000 extra for the automatic. (There is no diesel option for the CDX).
For a full review of this exciting and crucial new car from Holden visit
The Cruze will replace the well respected Holden Astra – almost.
For the time being there will be no hatch back, and there won’t be until local production kicks in next year.
So your only option for a small Holden Hatch is to latch on to of the the European built Astra run-out deals, and, of course, Private Fleet can help you with that.
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