The car companies that should be rebranded

When models matter more than makes

Ford was 'The Falcon Car Company', and Holden 'The Commodore Car Company'…

Now things are moving on, with both marques’ focus shifting… But what if literally car companies' best-selling products defined their names.

When a single model line is so successful that it outsells every other product in a car company’s range, why not drop the rest of the range and focus all your efforts on just the big-selling model?

That's consensus!

There are even real-life precedents for it: When the BMC Mini proved so popular, it dropped Austin and Morris badging in favour of its own brand – one British Leyland decision that actually worked!

And at home, Holden made the jump from model line to brand as well – the only difference being Holden became an umbrella brand for a diverse range of models – including the Commodore.

Now, that there is no longer a Falcon available for purchase in the local market, and Commodore looks like it's soon to be relegated to second-place or even lower in Holden’s sale charts, we thought it's time to revisit that model-as-brand idea.

Let's start from the very beginning

Working our way through the alphabet sees Alfa Romeo move down to 'G' for 'Giulia'. The Italian brand may be an iconic name, but with just 289 cars sold to date in 2018 – and 145 of those the large rear-wheel drive sedan – the Giulia is really shouldering the load.

For Fiat, all the cards are stacked in favour of 500, which has posted 203 sales of the 305 vehicles sold so far in 2018. That's two thirds (66.6 per cent) of Fiat sales – quite the 'Fiat Accompli'.

Jaguar's F-PACE SUV has posted an impressive figure of 209 sales for the year to date. The actual number is not so astonishing, but as a percentage of total Jaguar sales during the period (517), that figure for the F-PACE represents over 40 per cent. The mid-size SUV has clearly leapt to prominence in Jaguar's local range.

Another impressive tally is the 54.5 per cent of Jeep sales the Grand Cherokee has posted from January through to March this year. Nearly a thousand sales out of Jeep's total of 1832 says it all about the big Jeep.

Sticking with the SUV popularity theme, the NX accounts for 43.7 per cent of Lexus sales for 2018 so far. At 959 sales it's shortly to tick over into four figures, and to date, it's the only Lexus model to sell above 500 units this year.

Peugeot has sold just 591 cars in 2018, but 338 of them have been the 3008. Peugeot's previously unloved mini people mover has earned itself star power as a new SUV and that shows up in its percentage of the brand's sales – 57.2%.

Porsche, that bastion of German sports-car cachet, can lay claim to being very much an SUV company these days, with the Macan (52.2% of sales) finding 700 new buyers in 2018. Nothing else in the range – not even the larger Cayenne – comes close.

Suzuki's Swift has achieved sales of 2153 this year – 43.9% of the importer's total (4907). And Volvo must be pleased to have its new XC60 on sale. The SUV has racked up 607 sales out of the brand's total of 1306. That's 46.5% of all Volvo sales.

Ranger standing alone, Commodore torpedoed

Lastly, two of our former manufacturers – the Falcon and Commodore car companies...

If around 60 per cent of a niche-selling brand like Fiat from a single model line seems like a lot, consider Ford – a much larger selling operation.

Nearly 60 per cent (59.1%) of the blue-oval brand's sales for the first quarter of 2018 have been posted by the Ranger LCV, including 4x2 variants. Ford has sold 18,391 vehicles of all types, but nearly 11,000 (10,868) have been the Ranger alone.

Not only does the LCV account for a significant majority of sales, it's also the only model in the Ford line-up that has sold more than 2000 vehicles for 2018 to date. The margin back to the next-best seller (Mustang) is over 9000 sales.

Holden is re-diversifying its product portfolio, with the Acadia SUV on the way, the Equinox replacing the five-seat Captiva and the Opel-built Commodore delivering a markedly different mix of variants from what we've known in the past.

One of the longer-serving models to carry on into this new, post-manufacturing reality is the Colorado – the brand's best-selling model so far, in 2018. It's not as popular as Ford's Ranger, but with 3916 sales to date, it's Holden's sales champ, snaring 25.2 per cent of all sales. Meanwhile the once strong-selling Commodore is now all at sea, over 1300 sales south of Colorado.

There's a problem presenting itself here though: There's already a 'Colorado' brand of clothing. To heck with it, let's just call the brand 'Chevrolet'.