http://www.autospeed.com.au/cms/A_2003/article.html


Fuel consumption being the biggest cross against its name..


The article also delves into how the Holden plant at Elizabeth operates..

 

what I don't under stand is why can Holden, such a small and insignificant (no offence) operation on the scale of GM proper, have so many resources to design such things as great interiors, RWD platforms (based on FWD no less!), 4WD systems, etc, etc, etc, and GM NA can't seem to afford to do almost anything??

is there a waste in the burocracy? do the employees drink too much free coffee? do the toilet seats cost a lot of money? maybe they pay their chermen too much...

my theory is GM has too many brands and is aimlessly squandering cash on them. they only need 3 domestic brands: GMC, Chevy, Caddy. THAT'S IT! we all know what markets those cover.

what does Saturn do? besides losing sales and bleeding cash, nothing good. Buick and Pontiac are set to compete directly with each other and the lower ranks of Cadillac. GM needs to be compeating with the world, not itself.

i realise there is a lot of nastalgia and "my granddaddy owned a pontiac, my daddy owned a pontiac, i own a pontiac and my son owns a pontiac" type of people. but so what? if pontiac can't keep up with the world market, those people aren't going to be to support GM by themselves. where on the other hand if GM makes better chevys, it will attract enough people to offset the "brand loyalists" defections and perhaps even more. and besides, where are they going to go? Ford? they would probably kill themselves before they went to Ford or an import.

the biggest roadblock is the dealers I think.

anyway, sorry for the rant. I like the 4WD system on that Holden wagon.

 

I can see what they mean by raging thirst for fuel! litres and km mean nothing to me but after some converting and calculation that thing gets 11.7mpg!