Acura has the Stinger in it's sights......................

[Manaz]

The cars themselves aren't the issue - it's how small the Australian market is, and how it behaves.

You have to realise, we have only 1m new car sales a year here, and the vast majority of those aren't in market segments where niche brands compete. As an example, in the last full year that a real Commodore was available for sale in Australia (large RWD sedan/wagon segment), Holden only sold just over 23,000 of them, and of that number, you're going to find less than half were the sport/luxury versions (the SS and SS-V V8 were actually popular as part of the sales, but fleet sales of base model 3.0L would still be the bulk of sales I imagine.

So you have a market segment that sells, by the the time you add in all the existing players, maybe 50,000 cars a year, and then Hyundai/Genesis have to set up a dealership model and support itself on a tiny fraction of that (noting that, like the Stinger, the Australian market isn't rushing out to buy expensive cars from value brands).

We're a blip on the global Automotive radar down here...

 

[YEH]

It's a sub-brand of Honda - like Lexus for Toyota, or Infiniti for Nissan. Holden tried it with Opel, that backfired.

Opel is actually a separate brand/automaker, which is why GM was able to sell it to PSA.

If anything, Opel (Vauxhall) has always been the more fully self-sustaining brand/automaker (even compared to Holden in its heyday), even if several of their models have been rebadged as Buicks, etc.

We have Lexus and Infiniti in Australia. Lexus is fairly well entrenched, Infiniti is struggling. Hyundai are considering making Genesis a stand-alone brand in Australia as well, I don't think it will work any better than Infiniti has.

The Stinger handily outsells the IS (last month, 157 for the Stinger and 92 for the IS), so it's not implausible for the G70 to outsell the IS as well (and unlike for the IS, pretty much all Stinger sales are for the top engine).

The GS barely sells and most of Lexus sales are comprised of its FWD models, mostly crossovers.

Genesis launched as a separate brand last month.

What's going to differentiate Genesis from the Japanese is having RWD-based crossovers.

However, the thing that's going to hold back Genesis sales in Australia will be its sales/distribution model.

Basically a direct-from-manufacturer sales model w/ manufacturer built boutiques (to showcase the models).

Right now, there is only one showroom boutique in Sydney. so not actually conducive to garnering sales.

 

[Manaz]

Opel is actually a separate brand/automaker, which is why GM was able to sell it to PSA.

Yep, but Holden sold Opels for years - the Astra for instance. They tried to being Opel in as a premium brand, that backfired.

If anything, Opel (Vauxhall) has always been the more fully self-sustaining brand/automaker (even compared to Holden in its heyday), even if several of their models have been rebadged as Buicks, etc.

I am sure GM sold them to get cash, not because they were making a loss.

The Stinger handily outsells the IS (last month, 157 for the Stinger and 92 for the IS), so it's not implausible for the G70 to outsell the IS as well (and unlike for the IS, pretty much all Stinger sales are for the top engine).

The GS barely sells and most of Lexus sales are comprised of its FWD models, mostly crossovers.

Genesis launched as a separate brand last month.

What's going to differentiate Genesis from the Japanese is having RWD-based crossovers.

However, the thing that's going to hold back Genesis sales in Australia will be its sales/distribution model.

Basically a direct-from-manufacturer sales model w/ manufacturer built boutiques (to showcase the models).

Right now, there is only one showroom boutique in Sydney. so not actually conducive to garnering sales.

The problem, simply, is that it costs money to run a brand, and premium brands aren't doing well at present. I don't doubt they have good cars, but the market isn't doing well - last month, all brands in the top 10 sellers were down on previous month (and on last year). It isn't a good time to be launching a premium sub-brand in Australia IMHO.