Holden's seven millionth vehicle rolled off the production line today, creating a record manufacturing achievement in Australia's automotive history. The milestone vehicle was built at Holden’s Elizabeth plant in South Australia – one of the most flexible plants in General Motors' worldwide operations with 43 models based on six variants of the Commodore manufactured at the site.

Holden may be $6 million in the red for 2007, but the positive attitude surrounding the result reveals how much worse it could have been. In 2006 the carmaker found itself $146 million behind, so coming out just $6 million down in the face of strong countervailing market forces and expenses related to revamping its core product line is a somewhat better-than-expected result.

HSV’s most powerful and expensive model ever offered for sale has already sold out for the year, with all 90 vehicles planned for 2008 pre-ordered.

The new model is the W427, which was first revealed in concept form at February’s Melbourne Motor Show and today went on sale priced at a staggering $155,500.

The Holden Sportwagon has been a fleet favourite for years, and will likely continue to be, but the newest iteration of the car is also being marketed more heavily toward the private buyer. With high-performance V, SS and SS V markings and big eight-pot mills, luxury appointments and leather interiors, Holden is trying to offer something for both performance and luxury buyers as well as tradies. The newly announced pricing continues the company’s practice of offering value for money across the entire range, though it’s a risky move with the simultaneous repositioning towards more retail sales, which kick off in the middle of this month.

The annual NRMA car theft ratings have been announced for 2008 and have been compiled using a host of different statistics including real-world theft figures and the number of anti-theft devices, break-in resistance features and vehicle identity systems installed. An important finding was that by simply adding a $2 self-voiding identification label, car manufacturers could greatly improve theft deterrence.