GM vice chairman Robert Lutz has been touring down-under and had nothing but praise for Holden, the Aussie arm of the GeeEmm empire. Lutz is reported as saying, “General Motors will leverage Holden every way it can and learn from its practices and processes.” He said Holden, the leader in Australian new car sales with a market share of more than 21 percent, was ahead of GM North America in all of the company’s goals, including running a lean, flexible, profitable business. “I’m not ashamed to say one of the reasons we’re in this business is to make money. And Holden is pointing the way there as well - the only General Motors entity in the world that is achieving the corporate target of a 5 percent net profit after tax,” he said.

Now a few weeks ago I mentioned the Aussie muscle car, the 300 kW Monaro GTS. These came from the Holden Special Vehicle (HSV) plant run by John Crennan, and are two door coupes with 300 kW Callaway tuned 5.7 litre V8 engines power. At the press release of these cars he said, “We’ve applied the very best we have to offer to this sensational new model - stunning, aggressive, low to the ground exterior appearance, superb ride and handling, spirited engine performance and a dynamic feature-packed interior.”

Apparently Lutz is sufficiently impressed with the GTS to consider importing up to 20,000 Monaros to the United States annually provided that the car can be adjusted at the right price to meet U.S. crash standards. Some sources state that the position of the fuel tank is the major hurdle, but I believe it is more likely the material from which it is made is the biggest problem. The rear wheel drive floor pan can accept the fuel tank in front of the rear axle quite easily. U.S. emissions standards would not pose an obstacle to the Monaro because it essentially already had an American engine. Fuelling the hope that Holden would supply Pontiac, Lutz said, while visiting Holden’s plants, “Needless to say, assuming affordability, there isn’t one guy in the United States who wouldn’t like to have it sooner rather than later.”

Holden is expected to be able to step up production to supply between 10,000 and 20,000 Monaros to the United States annually if the proposal gets the green light.

New vehicle sales rose in the four largest markets of Southeast Asia according to data compiled by Automotive Resources Asia Ltd., a marketing consultancy based in Bangkok. S.E. Asian sales rose 8 percent to 1,069,710 in 2001.

Vehicle sales going skywards

The biggest rise was in Malaysia (as it was in 2000 as well) going up 16 percent to 396,381 to account for more than one-third of the total. Proton, Malaysia’s tariff-protected national automaker, accounted for 64% of the sales while Perodua held a 29% market share.

Like last year, Indonesia was still dragging the chain, going down 0.3% to 299,607, which pundits claimed was dragged down by a 38 percent plunge in December because of severe flooding in several major cities. However, I am sure the political instability has not helped!

We did not appear too bad at all with a 13% rise, but the Philippines fell 9% to 76,670.

Market share was led by Toyota and Proton, with 19% each, followed by Mitsubishi and Isuzu on 11%, then Perodua at 10%, and then Nissan and Honda at 6%. Honda’s share is actually quite remarkable, as it does not have a pick-up in its range, while most of the others do, pick-ups still having market dominance in Thailand in particular.