I have a somewhat different experience.
Around mid 2003, I decided to go and buy a new work Ute. I had always been a Holden man and only had 1 Ford (a '91 XF Falcon ute that was falling apart). I only bought the XF because I wasn't making much money at the time ('96) and the Falcon was about $6000 cheaper than a similar Commodore Ute. I never like the XF (poor build quality) but I drove it into the ground anyway.
I went out to look at a new ute. First stop- Ford Dealer. I don't remeber the marketing at the time, but I remember it had 182 Kw 6. I was intrigued. I went in, had a look, went for a drive (quite impressed) and sat down to negotiate a price. The dealer then asked for my details and said "I will call you tomorrow with the best price I can do. Thought Ok, sounds weird, but why not? He called back informing me that an XL SE was available and that my total discount was about $5000. (Se pack and fleet buyers).
Next, over to the Holden dealer. Saw the Ute i wanted on the lot, and enquired about. Dealers first question, "How much do you want to pay for it?" I offered $5000 less than his retail price. "No, no, can't do it for that." Anyway, took it for for a drive and thought, this handles very badly. Next day, Holden dealer rings, asks "How much you want to pay for it??" I say the same price i said before. This continues every day for a week. I get one courtesy call from the Ford dealer, just to inform me, that the SE's are going to be stopped soon. Thats all.
At the end of the week, I have had enough of the Holden dealer ringing every day, asking the same thing. I say to him, forget it, I am going to buy the Ford. He starts ranting about how Holden does not
need to compete with Ford, and how the inline 6 is prehistoric (His motor still had pushrods
). He then offers me the Holden for a further $1000 less than I originally offered him. I had enough, and went and bought the Ford.
Over the next 6 months it really grew on me. We then decided to go the Brisbane motor show. We saw a Holden Berlina wagon that we liked and asked how much? Came back at $52,000 on road for a V6. Any way, drove a new one away for $44,000 on road and got a good trade for our VT sedan.
Heres where it got interesting for me. I had a new Holden, and a new Ford side by side, and I was a dyed in the wool Holden man. The Holden was the biggest piece of rubbish I had ever owned. My 1979 HZ kingswood was a far superior car in handling, braking, drive, everything. When things started to go wrong with the cars, that was where I noticed the biggest difference.
Ford bent over backwards, to solve any problem (I only had a couple of minor issues). While Holden did the same 2 repairs for the one problem, and then declared there was nothing wrong it. We went to four different dealers, (even 1 interstate). First contact with each dealer resulted in, "yes there is a problem and we know how to fix it." 2 attempts later, and its "no, there is nothing wrong with it."
This supposed "luxury Wagon" was back at the dealers every 3 months. At the 2 week old mark, qoing into turn too quick, hard on the brakes, and the
ABS didn't even work. I locked up and kept going straight. The handing and bodyroll were appalling, the brakes felt like that they had permanent brake fade, and all this was supposed to be "normal" on a car retailling $52,000.
After getting through to Holden head office at the 3 yr mark, they sent an engineer to look at the the car. He too, declared there was nothing wrong it. Facing the end of my warranty period, I traded this bucket, on a 2004 XR8. I got $18,500 for the wagon with 40,200 klms on it. (it also had full leather trim and was in new car condition), We paid $31,500 for the XR with 65,000 klms. (It looks like its still holding its value well), and we actually enjoy owning the car. (Were even members of the XR6 and XR8 club of Queensland). I also traded the BA XL SE, on a BFII trayback, No more Holdens in this household.
Sorry for the essay, but this was a life changing experience for me.
Ned
24-03-2008, 10:09 AM
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