Holden's MY changes

Lrotop55 on 17/12/2020 - 20:25
Last edited 17/12/2020 - 23:56

Bought a new car today: Holden Equinox LT MY20
I had test driven an LT and went through several reviews and was quite happy with this model. I saw that dealers are now selling them for a lot less than previously advertised, which I assume has a lot to do with Holden no longer being a brand in 2021.

I signed the contract a few days ago, picked the car up today. I was a bit surprised as the car looked different interiorly than the LT I had driven earlier (at a different dealer). While driving home I noticed many of the options I expected were not available on this car (17inch vs 18inch alloy, 7inch ancient screen vs updated 8inch screen, aircon instead of climate control, rear camera vs 360deg camera's and many more)
In short, the car has the spec of the LS plus MY18

Immediately went back to the dealer who explained Holden changed the names of the cars and now the LT was the basic model and, according to Redbook as well, my car has all the options of the MY20 LT (which is a very different list from the MY18 LT).
Totally disappointed as this is a very misleading tactic, but I only have myself to blame I'm afraid as I didn't check the car before signing the contract. I assumed an LT is an LT.

However, when I tried to insure my car tonight (TPL), the RACQ database tells me my car is officially an LSplus, and not an LT!
Reality is, they just rebranded the LS+'s that they couldn't sell because nobody accepts the decade old technology in those cars, and sells them as LT's.

I hope to achieve 2 goals with this post:

  • Make people aware that those few MY20 Holdens that are still out there have different spec from what can generally be found online.
  • Find out if there is anything I can do, to get some money back, or even better, cancel the contract. I never would have bought this car with the current spec.
Automotive Holden

Comments

  • MS Paint on 17/12/2020 - 20:33
    +1

    Dang son. Sorry to hear your story.

  • bdl on 17/12/2020 - 20:36
    +2

    Holdenpunk MY77

    • Screamingeagle on 17/12/2020 - 20:54
      +2

      Hopefully no crashes though.

  • AndyC1 on 17/12/2020 - 20:39

    Check contract that you signed for any clauses you can use to do anything about it.

  • WreckTangle on 17/12/2020 - 20:39

    Just took a look at Holden vehicles online…why are they so crazy expensive! They're meant to be closing down.

    • rotop55 on 17/12/2020 - 22:33
      +1

      They happily take thousands more off as they need to get rid of them before 31 dec. The GM compensation for dealerships that they agreed on after GM pulled out of the Aussie market, ends on that day.

      That contract is worth approximately 10.000$ on a car with an RRP of 31.990.

  • SF3 on 17/12/2020 - 20:42

    Did you get the dealer to go through what you were supposed to be getting (standard process) than make a “intuitive” assumption of what you think it ought be? 🤔

    • rotop55 on 17/12/2020 - 20:58

      After (!) signing the contract we went to inspect the car and he showed me around all the options (was a quick round :D), I then started to think something wasn't right. I drove 5 mins, parked the car somewhere and compared what I could find on internet with what I saw in front of me as I wasn't 100% sure yet. Naive, I know.
      Then went back to the dealer who said this is common practice for all car brands so you have to know which MY you're getting because cars get less options each year. That to me sounds like total BS.

      • SF3 on 17/12/2020 - 21:09

        Sounds topsy turvy in the sequence of purchase… was it an impulse buy? I’m just surprised you didn’t get to check before buying (eg see post from, a guy, buys a rug from Freedom furniture) or offered to check first :(

        • rotop55 on 17/12/2020 - 22:38

          Not really impulse but did my research online more than IRL… Stupid, should have just insisted on taking this specific car for a test drive before signing, I would have noticed in a few minutes.

      • SF3 on 17/12/2020 - 21:19

        As there has been a few post of buyer remorse posts lately.

        Maybe a business opportunity to hire a fellow OzBargain to chaperone anyone wanting to buy a car.

        Post in Classified [Wanted] chaperone for car purchase, payment a OzB fast food lunch (eg KFC, McD, Dominos).

        Where is pegaxs? Look like he is out of plenty box from EV CO2…

  • bloom on 17/12/2020 - 21:08
    +3

    I prefer to buy cars interstate and hope for the best :)

  • brendanm on 17/12/2020 - 21:11
    -1

    Did you give the salesman a tip as well?

  • bazingaa on 17/12/2020 - 21:16

    The best way to check is to decode the VIN (not sure about the Holden though). example. It will give all information about the specific car.

  • Peter Enis on 17/12/2020 - 21:36
    +2

    All the specs I can find online show the 2020 LT as having 17" wheels, and standard aircon. LT appears to be the base model.
    Are you sure you didn't test drive an LTZ?
    Don't think this is the dealers fault, seems like they agreed to sell you a 2020 LT and that's what you got.

    • bloom on 17/12/2020 - 22:10

      What engine did you think you’ll get?
      LT is 1.5L Regular Unleaded Petrol 6 speed automatic
      LTZ 2.0L Premium Unleaded Petrol 9 speed automatic

    • rotop55 on 17/12/2020 - 22:31

      No I test drove a MY18 LT. Which is a very different car from the MY20 LT, which is really a MY18 LS+.
      If you compare those 3 cars you'll see what I mean.
      I'm not really blaming the car dealer, as they indeed sold me what Holden now refers to as an LT. But Holden sneakily sells MY18 LS+'s as MY20 LT' s. And all the info you read in car reviews etc is based on the MY18 line up.

      • OpayuOnam on 18/12/2020 - 12:25

        How did you even find MY18 LT to test drive unless you test drove a second hand one? In which case I'd suggest to always test drive what you're buying, i.e. buying brand new? gets drive brand new, buying secondhand test drive at least 2-3 second hand of the same model generation to get a feel of discrepancy and variation based on how it was driven.
        Remember unless a you know that specific model of the car you're buying whatever you test drive is going to feel different to what you already drive and it's very hard to objectively gauge that car unless you have a baseline if that model generation.
        I'd be more sad about the engine difference than the little cosmetic stuff as it looks like the LT and LTZ have completely different drivetrains.

  • pharkurnell on 17/12/2020 - 21:53

    People spend that much money and dont look at it well before driving off and making it their own problem?

    • rotop55 on 17/12/2020 - 22:39

      To be fair, it's only ₿0.76

      • netjock on 17/12/2020 - 23:16
        +1

        Then you don't need your money back. Bitcoins are churning out money like confetti.

  • M8y on 17/12/2020 - 21:58

    What is Holden?

    • bloom on 17/12/2020 - 22:04
      +2

      Well, I could be wrong, but I believe Holden is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.

  • jaejae69 on 17/12/2020 - 22:02

    Just curious how much you got the LT for? I bought a LTZ-V during the sales in May and have been very happy with it. Great car for the price (got mine for about 38k).

    • rotop55 on 17/12/2020 - 22:23
      +1

      I paid $23.000 drive away, 1 year reg etc, for my LT LS+, which is still a good price for a new car.

      But that doesn't matter, I wouldn't have bought it for 10.000 without climate control and a decent infotainment system. Well, I did though 😂

      Anyway, I'll just accept it. Mostly the car is quite similar to use, bar the aircon. The infotainment system has Android so I don't have to use the clunky software much.
      The essence of the car I quite like (for the price); the ride, the engine, the space/seats.

      The other options would have been nice but not a deal breaker for the intended use.

      • netjock on 17/12/2020 - 23:17

        I paid $23.000 drive away

        When a deal is too good to be true, it probably is. Go in with both eyes open. I assume you were distracted.

        • spackbace on 18/12/2020 - 20:14
          +1

          I assume you were distracted

          Nope, OP shopped around till they hit the price of "too good to be true"

          I was a bit surprised as the car looked different interiorly than the LT I had driven earlier (at a different dealer).

          Drive car from dealer A, then get pricing from dealers B, C & D via email/phone, then get the one who gives you the best price, without double checking the particulars

          I bet dealer A would find his hilarious ;)

          • rotop55 on 18/12/2020 - 21:15

            @spackbace: 😂The only thing hilarious in this comment is someone stating nonsense as facts. The car I drove earlier had already sold as it was a while ago. Hence the difference in MY18 and MY20 (which interestingly has the same production year) they just renamed the LS+ they already had in stock to LT and I wasn't aware of that. But correct, when I saw an LT for a price that was a bit better than the LT I sat in before, I reckoned this was now a pretty good deal.

            Not many 'shopping around' to do though as there are only a couple new Holden's left in the whole country.

  • vchoy on 17/12/2020 - 23:09

    don't worry it's not a forever car, and can always upgrade later on

  • Huzz on 18/12/2020 - 09:42

    @rotop55: specs of all cars change over Model Years - it is common practice of all manufacturers to do this according to market demands/volumes/costs/etc. The Equinox LT did have a change of features from MY18-MY19, including change of the base powertrain from the excellent 2.0L Turbo with 9 speed auto to the 1.5L Turbo with 6 speed auto. The lesson is to check exactly what you are buying and how it compares to what you tested. Certainly if the dealer mislead you to believe you were buying what you tested, you may have a case for compensation - but good luck negotiating anything with what remains of Holden now. You should always check the specs of cars when buying - a good way is usually their website which should have a brochure or a spec sheet with all options listed. Holden had good brochures which included a good comparison of features across the model range. The brochures are no longer on the Holden website, but I did find this site which seems to still have them. Download them while you can for your records. http://test.holden.com.au/forms/view-brochures

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