Dealer outcry over Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme

Holden faces resistance from its own dealer network for outsourcing the final assembly of the upcoming Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme.

An industry insider has revealed to motoring.com.au that Holden dealers are dismayed that their service workshops have been tasked with the build process for the new Colorado variant, which will be available from October 1.

The Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme is enhanced with bolt-on dealer-fit accessories, which according to our source collectively require 35 hours to fit – potentially eating heartily into the dealers' profit margins for each vehicle.

According to our informant, that explains why Holden has not divulged how many examples of the limited-edition ute will be available. Instead there will be an open-ended production run while dealers subsidise the enhancement of the vehicles.

In reality, the vehicle shouldn't take that long to assemble, says Holden's newly appointed Senior Manager Product Communications, Daniel Cotterill.

He told motoring.com.au that the job should be 24 hours for each vehicle, which is “not an unreasonable amount of time,” given the amount of dealer-fit accessories bolted on.

Priced from $69,990 plus on-road costs, the auto-only Holden Colorado Z71 Xtreme Crew Cab Pickup is powered by a carryover 500Nm 2.8-litre Duramax turbo-diesel, but brings a claimed $19,000 worth of Genuine Holden Accessories over the standard Z71 (from $54,990).

These include a front winch bar with integrated winch, LED light bar, vehicle recovery kit, complete towing package, roof tray kit, rear steel step, front suspension kit, fender flares, black tubular side steps, black grille, bonnet bulge, soft tonneau cover, 265/60 R18 Goodyear Wrangler AT tyres, tailgate Colorado branding and Xtreme decals.

Asked for the rationale behind placing the task of fitting these accessories with Holden dealers, Cotterill replied: “In the end it was felt better to have a General Motors technician do it, rather than have it outsourced.”

And since Holden is no longer in the business of building cars in Australia – and the Colorado is produced in Thailand -- the only “valid option” was to hand the task off to the dealers.

From the dealers' perspective, there's clearly some disharmony and the Colorado Z71 Xtreme represents just another 'straw' to justify diverting resources into other brands, in a multi-franchise arrangement.

Holden has been reducing its dealer base since before the end of local production at Elizabeth in South Australia, and that state's dealers have been casting around for other brands to sell, even if they're not in imminent danger of having the rug pulled out from under them.

For some Holden dealers, the opportunity to sell Mitsubishi or Hyundai has been a God-send. Rural dealers in South Australia are all multi-franchise now, with most of them selling at least three brands.

There are only three dealers in Adelaide selling Holden exclusively. One of those reportedly has a "heads of agreement with Hyundai" to open a facility selling the Korean brand before the end of 2018. The other two Adelaide metro dealers are understood to be in talks with Kia.